Tagged Questions
2
votes
3answers
125 views
Meanings of word “nick” in British English
Word nick seems to be used to describe many things. According to the dictionary, the main meanings are:
a small notch, groove, chip, or the like, cut into or existing in something.
a hollow place ...
13
votes
2answers
741 views
“I'm on the brew”
A conversation between two Scots:
— What do you do for a living?
— I'm on the brew.
Assuming that I have the phrase right, what exactly does "on the brew" mean here? Based on the context, I ...
4
votes
2answers
276 views
What is the origin of “oh noodles!”
Noodles are tasty. I like them, but why are they also used as an exclamation of dismay in the following?
Oh Noodles!
5
votes
4answers
674 views
Police in general as “feds”
There are many slang terms for the police, and one which has recently been in the news in the UK is "the feds", as in
if you see a brother... SALUT! if you see a fed... SHOOT!
Cassell's ...
2
votes
3answers
364 views
London dialect usage
I found the following sentence in this article and was trying to understand it. I could get the meaning from the context, but I cannot deconstruct the sentence at all.
They introduced pugnacity, ...
12
votes
7answers
3k views
How do I spell the truncation 'Cas', as in 'Sports Casual/Sports Cas'?
How do I spell the truncation 'Cas', as in 'Sports Casual/Sports Cas'? It may be UK only, and may have been spawned by Alan Partridge. Cash/Cas are not right.
*As in a slang term, "he was acting all ...
4
votes
1answer
318 views
What's a “right old roarer” in British English?
I was reading an Amazon review just now, and came across someone (Tchaikovsky) being described as a right old roarer. I'm guessing this is familiar slang to Brits, but I'm not getting good search ...
9
votes
2answers
681 views
'Ours' meaning 'our home' - where is it used outside the UK, if anywhere?
In expressions like:
Let's go back to ours and have some food.
There's a party at ours on Friday.
There's a bottle of brandy at yours, isn't there?
'ours' and 'yours' are synonyms for ...
10
votes
4answers
375 views
Are Pounds Sterling referred to as squid (in addition to quid)
Commonly pounds are called quid,
but I've come across references to pounds as
squid
Is that a typo or actually a common usage?
Example from Football forums:
It is believed they have ...
2
votes
1answer
961 views
In the UK - what does “cheeky half” mean?
And what is the expression's origin?
(I believe it's related to beer)
10
votes
7answers
10k views
Is it true that “tuppence” refers to a woman's vagina in British English slang? If so, why?
I was looking up a definition online, as I often do, in this case the British slang word tuppence; I got the standard "a slang reference to a coin denomination" definition from Wikipedia, but stumbled ...
10
votes
3answers
288 views
Connotations of using “boy” by upper-class liberal Britons in beginning of 20th century
Could someone provide (ideally documented) evidence for the following details of the possible meanings/connotations of the word "boy" as used by a start-of-20th-century upper-class British person of ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
“Kebabs, fruit machines, and brasses” — what do these slang words mean?
More from the British movie The Football Factory. In the following dialogue, the main character, a Cockney English speaker played by actor Danny Dyer, waxes philosophical about why he enjoys being a ...
1
vote
4answers
1k views
“How be you” or “How are you”?
I have never heard the phrase "How be you?" until yesterday, and started arguing that this was incorrect and that the correct phrase is "How are you?". My friend's reply was "This is how it's taught ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views
What is a plausible etymology of “dosh”, a British slang word for money?
Neither Wikitionary nor The Online Etymology Dictionary seem to know anything.
6
votes
5answers
6k views
How serious an insult is “wanker” in British English? [NSFW]
In the spirit of this question, "How profane is it to call someone a
'slag' in British English", how insulting is "wanker" in British English on the spectrum of profanities and vulgarities? What's ...
8
votes
9answers
7k views
What exactly does it mean to “mug somebody off” in British English?
I tried looking this up at the Urban Dictionary, but it gave only one net-upvoted definition, and that definition wasn't even clear. The background for my question is coming my watching from a movie ...
7
votes
3answers
31k views
How offensive is it to call someone a “slag” in British English? (NSFW)
One more colorful slang term I gleaned from the British movie I recently watched is slag. In the movie, it was used in curses like, "Fuck-ing dogs! Slags." "Right slag, that one."
Now I know via ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
In what contexts would one use the slang word “minging” in British English?
I was watching a Youtube video on English accents, and in the middle of a Yorkshire one, I think, the author of the video used the word "minging", in what seemed to be an insult. So I have two ...
16
votes
5answers
2k views
“Knocked up” to mean “woken up”
I'm reading some Sherlock Holmes stories (don't judge - it's good vacation reading) and Conan Doyle has Holmes saying things like "Sorry to knock you up, Watson..." which I'm finding very... odd. ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
Why is “bloody” considered obscene in the UK but not in the US?
Why is the word bloody considered obscene in the UK but not so in the US?
12
votes
4answers
781 views
Do Brits understand rhyming slang or are they sometimes puzzled by it too?
Most people know that rhyming slang is a colorful addition to British English, where someone says something that is not the intended word but rhymes with it. For example, "He was brown bread," might ...
