Swisskloten From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 905 times:
British a.netters (Kirkie too!), wonder if you know about the origins of cliches and sayings that are prevalent in the UK. How did they come about?
What does bloody refer to? (Move that bloody plane or I'll shoot it up!)
Wanker? (I think you know how it's used!)
Blimey
Tosser
Rubbish
Bloody hell (sounds overdone, if yer in hell, it's gonna be bloody awful! )
Bugger: I've heard Australians say "I've got bugger-all to do." I've never heard a Briton say that. They always use the word alone. Is this what Oz lovingly refers to as Strine?
One last thing, I've heard a lot of Germans on a.net using British words every so often. Is this prevalent in Germany? I was surprised how many German posts or replies have the words bloody or something else. There are too many examples to list here.
GoAround From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2003, 616 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 875 times:
The British say bugger all, fuck all, sod all to do, too! Interesting question. Bloody is used to diminish something, eg 'the bloody window smashed'. Or, you could use sodding/fucking, or quite commonly nowadays people insert their own word eg 'horsing' or 'twatting'.
Rubbish is the same as trash, refers to waste. If something's rubbish, it's no good. eg 'It's rubbish', no other real use for it.
Tosser = the same as wanker, to toss off/masturbate. Fucker is similar :P And so is sod.
Not sure about the others really - especially not the origin!
Oly720man From United Kingdom, joined May 2004, 6225 posts, RR: 11 Reply 3, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 862 times:
(Cor) Blimey is shorthand for "God blind me", AFAIK.
Quite a few terms like this derived from expressions with religious content but disguised/distorted so as not to offend the more religious. Some go back centuries. Basically it was a way of bringing God into swearing, and adding impact, without actually saying the word straight out.
Banco From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 14752 posts, RR: 55 Reply 4, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 863 times:
I've heard several possible derivations of "bloody", including it being a corruption of "by your lady". It's a pretty mild term.
"Blimey" is a shortening of "God blind me" in the same way that the Australian "Strewth" is an abbreviation of "God's truth".
Quoting Swisskloten (Thread starter): One last thing, I've heard a lot of Germans on a.net using British words every so often. Is this prevalent in Germany? I was surprised how many German posts or replies have the words bloody or something else. There are too many examples to list here.
They use American terms too. You just don't notice because you see them all the time and don't notice it. Non-native (but fluent) speakers are likely to use all sorts of different countries' dialect words.
One of the amazing things is how many terms which are thought of as modern are really not. For example, calling someone a "waster" is often viewed as a modern term, but it isn't. In the Royal Navy (and presumably the US Navy too) of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the able hands would be fore and aft, and the landsmen in the waist - or middle of the deck. They were known as "waisters" and were viewed as incompetent. The term continues, just with a spelling change due to a misunderstanding of the origin. There are loads of examples of things like that.
She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.
WhiteHatter From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 856 times:
Quoting Swisskloten (Thread starter): One last thing, I've heard a lot of Germans on a.net using British words every so often. Is this prevalent in Germany?
Not that I know of.
I've noticed a lot of Americans using arse instead of ass as well lately. The British also use 'twat' quite a lot, but in different contexts. For instance:
"Kirky is a twat"
"I twatted Kirky over the head with a brick"
Australians tend to use much the same sort of words us British lot do as well. Bugger is extremely common in British usage. Although if you want an object lesson in the foul mouthed colloquialisms of the British you need do no more than read anything Kirky has posted in the last 12 months.
Banco From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 14752 posts, RR: 55 Reply 6, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 854 times:
The other thing to remember is that a great many of these terms are so ancient that they will have crossed the Atlantic with the English settlers. It's just that some died out of useage and others didn't. Language developed on both sides and some words were cast off and others weren't.
Examples? "Garbage" is good old English word, but virtually became extinct here and continued in the US. "Gotten" likewise.
She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.
Aloges From Germany, joined Jan 2006, 8394 posts, RR: 47 Reply 9, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 834 times:
Quoting Swisskloten (Thread starter): One last thing, I've heard a lot of Germans on a.net using British words every so often. Is this prevalent in Germany?
We're taught bloody British English in school. The colourful expressions however, even those of British origin, are all-American a.k.a. "home skooled".
Walk together, talk together all ye peoples of the earth. Then, and only then, shall ye have peace.
Jush From Germany, joined Apr 2005, 1636 posts, RR: 4 Reply 13, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 805 times:
Quoting Swisskloten (Thread starter): One last thing, I've heard a lot of Germans on a.net using British words every so often. Is this prevalent in Germany? I was surprised how many German posts or replies have the words bloody or something else. There are too many examples to list here.
For me it is good old school in Somerset. Even if you're a german. After you lived there half a year you can't deny the influence you had there.
Learned all the words which we weren't taught in school
Regards
jush
There is one problem with airbus. Though their products are engineering marvels they lack passion, completely.
Geoffm From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 2111 posts, RR: 7 Reply 14, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 777 times:
Quoting Swisskloten (Thread starter): Bugger: I've heard Australians say "I've got bugger-all to do." I've never heard a Briton say that. They always use the word alone.
Far from it - we use bugger all a lot. Bugger, I've burnt the toast. Bugger, I've got bugger all bread left to make any more toast.
BristolFlyer From United Kingdom, joined May 2004, 2143 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 737 times:
Quoting Geoffm (Reply 14): Far from it - we use bugger all a lot
And I seem to remember it's used in Four Weddings & a Funeral quite a bit. It's actually quite a posh term mainly used by the upper classes.
Oh, and just for the record, the meaning of 'posh' derives from an acronym Port Out, Starboard Home, a reference to the more upper class side of the QE2 liner on trips across the Atlantic. Having a cabin on the port side going west and on the starboard side going east was more expensive as you got the sun on your balcony going in both directions.
How about that for a snippet of useless information?!
Runway23 From US Minor Outlying Islands, joined Jan 2005, 2043 posts, RR: 39 Reply 23, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 700 times:
Britain has recently been accustomed to saying "rhaa". To the point that Oxford dictionary is soon to include the word.
Swisskloten From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (7 years 8 months 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 700 times:
Quoting Geoffm (Reply 14): Far from it - we use bugger all a lot. Bugger, I've burnt the toast. Bugger, I've got bugger all bread left to make any more toast.
Geoffm, I may have typed that wrong. It's the word "all" that I've never heard the British use with the word "bugger." They say something like "Bugger!" or "Bugger that!" in London. I've heard people from Western Australia add the word "all." They would say "Can't stand that lazy bloke 'cause he has bugger-all to do" or someone would say "Got anything new?" and his/her mate would say "got bugger-all."
25 LTBEWR: I know that the term bloody is rather profane, or was, in the UK and other UK conneced countries and territories. Perhaps it is a reference to woman's
26 Geoffm: Er... see highlighted section of quote - we use it a lot! (Reference means "I haven't got any bread") Actually, it supposedly derives from the ships
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