What is your favourite American-ism?

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  • MistyMtnMan
    MistyMtnMan Posts: 527 Member
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    I luv this thread being from the Caribbean we tend to use some British and some UK words and then of course we have words of our own...

    Let's hear some, I love hearing new things haha.
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
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    "Knackered" = sounds filthy, but isn't.
    Actually I was told knackered means sexually exhausted!!
    I was never allowed to say it as a child as it was a "grown up" word


    I'm from north ish England and we have deep fried/battered mars bars. They're amazing! Not that I've had one in a very long time!
    In Scotland they deep fry pepperoni pizza :)
  • MistyMtnMan
    MistyMtnMan Posts: 527 Member
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    I freakin love this thread. I don't know what is is about British words that just sound more awesome. Probably because I'm not used to them but they're great non the less. Not to mention your guys sense of humor. Top notch in my book. I grew up on Monty Python and all that so there's a special place in my heart for the Brits.
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
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    It's because us Brits are awesome ;P
  • catfish9
    catfish9 Posts: 138
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    Awesome, awesome, awesome threaddd!

    I was super disapointed that someone already said lift = elevator. I spent a week in London, and a woman got stuck in the elevator in our hotel at around 5am. She was pounding on the walls shrieking "Help, help, I'm stuck in the lift!" I'm sure she was terrified, but it sounded incredibly overdramatic and I giggled.

    And that was a school-sponsored trip, so all of our meals and eating places were pre-selected. They wanted us to get a literal "taste of England." Sorry, England, but I think you taste kind of bad. :P
  • MistyMtnMan
    MistyMtnMan Posts: 527 Member
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    It's because us Brits are awesome ;P

    I couldn't agree more!
  • kwardklinck
    kwardklinck Posts: 1,601
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    My friend from Liverpool used to always say he was pissed. I told him he didn't sound very angry to me. Took a few times for me to realize he was talking about drinking.
  • MistyMtnMan
    MistyMtnMan Posts: 527 Member
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    I actually have a funny related story. When I worked at Starbucks, my boss at the time was from England. Me and another co-worker were talking about taking her car to the "body shop" to get fixed and he was like "what's that, like a gym or something". We told him it was a name for a car repair place and he said "we just call it the garage". It was a funny bit of misunderstanding.
    So to add to the list:

    body shop = garage
  • FearAnLoathing
    FearAnLoathing Posts: 4,852 Member
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    I've never heard of a deep fried Mars bar lol...eww. Actually I've never really heard of anyone deep frying chocolate bars in general.

    Deep fried turkeys have become somewhat trendy over the last few years. I've never had one so I can't say if it's any good. Another trendy Americanism lately is the "Turduckin" lol. Basically it's a chicken stuffed into a duck which is then stuffed into a Turkey. I've never tried it but it's supposed to be interesting. I prefer just a regular old brined and roasted turkey myself. .

    Here in the Mid west and in Colorado they have pig roasts with the pig filled with turkeys or chickens. The jucies from the pig make the birds moist. It's quite tasty. And about that deep fried stuff... It's mostly in the south and Texas. The Texas State fair is known for deep dring about anything. The most recent rage is deep fried butter!



    I was at the texas state fair and saw deep fried twinkies and cheese
  • Fesse
    Fesse Posts: 611
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    *giggles* I'm from Canada and we use a lot of these terms as well.... Great thread!!
  • InstantSunshine
    InstantSunshine Posts: 355 Member
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    Wow, you're not the only n00bler, I didn't know that either.

    I had an English roommate for a while that used to call his rolling suitcase a "trolley". Also, I just learned what lergy means, similar to cooties... lol

    Yes lergy's is a bit of a weird phrase! I have no idea where it came from!!

    I can tell you... Lurgi is a made up word from an old radio show called the Goon Show: Spike Milliagan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. They made up loads of words, and The Dreaded Lurgi was a myserious illness that invaded Britain. So now, lurgi just means any kind of illness (especially one that causes you to skive work!)
  • laughingdani
    laughingdani Posts: 2,275 Member
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    One of my favorites is "taking the piss" (making fun of). Where the heck did that come from?? LOL

    This is one of my favorites as well! One of my English friends used that prase for the first time and then had to explain it to me after he realized I didn't know what the hell he was talking about!! :laugh:

    I also love the fact that some UK'ers use the word "reckon". That is used a lot here in the southern States.

    Another thing, I was once told that Americans put emphasis on the end of their sentences to where they sometimes sound like they are asking a question when they are not. I was told this by more than one person. Is this true? Do we sound like that?
    I'm intrigued.
  • curleesam
    curleesam Posts: 462 Member
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    I've never heard of a deep fried Mars bar lol...eww. Actually I've never really heard of anyone deep frying chocolate bars in general.

    Deep fried turkeys have become somewhat trendy over the last few years. I've never had one so I can't say if it's any good. Another trendy Americanism lately is the "Turduckin" lol. Basically it's a chicken stuffed into a duck which is then stuffed into a Turkey. I've never tried it but it's supposed to be interesting. I prefer just a regular old brined and roasted turkey myself. .

    Here in the Mid west and in Colorado they have pig roasts with the pig filled with turkeys or chickens. The jucies from the pig make the birds moist. It's quite tasty. And about that deep fried stuff... It's mostly in the south and Texas. The Texas State fair is known for deep dring about anything. The most recent rage is deep fried butter!

    Deep fried butter?! Yikes!!

    I also like how Americans always say "Apartment", it sounds soooo much more glamourous than "flat"
  • curleesam
    curleesam Posts: 462 Member
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    One of my favorites is "taking the piss" (making fun of). Where the heck did that come from?? LOL

    This is one of my favorites as well! One of my English friends used that prase for the first time and then had to explain it to me after he realized I didn't know what the hell he was talking about!! :laugh:

    I also love the fact that some UK'ers use the word "reckon". That is used a lot here in the southern States.

    Another thing, I was once told that Americans put emphasis on the end of their sentences to where they sometimes sound like they are asking a question when they are not. I was told this by more than one person. Is this true? Do we sound like that?
    I'm intrigued.

    yes yes yes sooooooo true!! One of my friends is from Boston and EVERYTHING she says is a question!
  • laughingdani
    laughingdani Posts: 2,275 Member
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    One of my favorites is "taking the piss" (making fun of). Where the heck did that come from?? LOL

    This is one of my favorites as well! One of my English friends used that prase for the first time and then had to explain it to me after he realized I didn't know what the hell he was talking about!! :laugh:

    I also love the fact that some UK'ers use the word "reckon". That is used a lot here in the southern States.

    Another thing, I was once told that Americans put emphasis on the end of their sentences to where they sometimes sound like they are asking a question when they are not. I was told this by more than one person. Is this true? Do we sound like that?
    I'm intrigued.

    yes yes yes sooooooo true!! One of my friends is from Boston and EVERYTHING she says is a question!

    That is so funny to me!!! Thanks!
  • InstantSunshine
    InstantSunshine Posts: 355 Member
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    So I have some questions for the Brits about slang. I'm pulling these from the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrrels:

    "It's no good standing out there like one o'clock half-struck" = what? What is like one o'clock half struck?

    "His iron's rusted" = what?

    "Gone to the local battle-cruiser" = ?

    "Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub" = ?

    Are any of these common?

    I think someone's already done this, but I'll have a go at the Aristotle one. Aristotle is a deliberately over-complicated rhyming slang for "*kitten*", as in Aristotle - bottle - bottle and glass - *kitten*. So I think that sentence goes "Aristotle (*kitten*, or maybe arsehole) of the most ping pong (strong) tiddly (tiddly wink - stink) in the nuclear sub (pub)". He's basically calling soneone an arsehole - but I don't think anyone really says that, it's an exaggeration for the film.

    And now I can't remember if the other lady translated any more... but battle cruser is boozer - pub (we like pubs), and one o'clock half struck is silence. The clock will "bong!" once for one o'clock, so if it's half that, it's nothing, no sound. So he's saying "say something, then, don't just stand there in silence". I think!

    :happy:
  • RENAEJAE
    RENAEJAE Posts: 1,136 Member
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    LOL - this is a fun post to enjoy over morning coffee. I spent time in England back in the 80's and remember being very confused when asked if I wanted to meet at the 'chip shop'. I thought it was where the brits took their 'tea' cups to be repaired.

    Thanks for the laughs all!

    ps - we have 'trash can turkey' on Thanksgiving up in Maine (yes - Maine is a state)
  • mikeyml
    mikeyml Posts: 568 Member
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    I think someone's already done this, but I'll have a go at the Aristotle one. Aristotle is a deliberately over-complicated rhyming slang for "*kitten*", as in Aristotle - bottle - bottle and glass - *kitten*. So I think that sentence goes "Aristotle (*kitten*, or maybe arsehole) of the most ping pong (strong) tiddly (tiddly wink - stink) in the nuclear sub (pub)". He's basically calling soneone an arsehole - but I don't think anyone really says that, it's an exaggeration for the film.

    And now I can't remember if the other lady translated any more... but battle cruser is boozer - pub (we like pubs), and one o'clock half struck is silence. The clock will "bong!" once for one o'clock, so if it's half that, it's nothing, no sound. So he's saying "say something, then, don't just stand there in silence". I think!

    :happy:

    Thank you! That all makes so much sense. Someone else did explain the one o'clock half struck and I pretty much understood but this helps too. I was over thinking it I think lol. That's my favorite term so far. :smile: the rhyming slang would take me a long time to get used to. It's like a foreign language or secret code of some sort lol.
  • MistyMtnMan
    MistyMtnMan Posts: 527 Member
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    I think someone's already done this, but I'll have a go at the Aristotle one. Aristotle is a deliberately over-complicated rhyming slang for "*kitten*", as in Aristotle - bottle - bottle and glass - *kitten*. So I think that sentence goes "Aristotle (*kitten*, or maybe arsehole) of the most ping pong (strong) tiddly (tiddly wink - stink) in the nuclear sub (pub)". He's basically calling soneone an arsehole - but I don't think anyone really says that, it's an exaggeration for the film.

    And now I can't remember if the other lady translated any more... but battle cruser is boozer - pub (we like pubs), and one o'clock half struck is silence. The clock will "bong!" once for one o'clock, so if it's half that, it's nothing, no sound. So he's saying "say something, then, don't just stand there in silence". I think!

    :happy:

    Thank you! That all makes so much sense. Someone else did explain the one o'clock half struck and I pretty much understood but this helps too. I was over thinking it I think lol. That's my favorite term so far. :smile: the rhyming slang would take me a long time to get used to. It's like a foreign language or secret code of some sort lol.

    I want to mention this also because the version of the film I have, it actually has a Cockney Slang tutorial. It teaches you how it works and how to decode it a bit. As far as the "Ordered an Aristotle...." line in the movie, he's basically saying he "Ordered the strongest drink in the pub". Because in that scene he dumps the drink on the guy and lights him on fire with it because of high alcohol content. Sorry, I'm a huge Guy Ritchie fan :) and Lock, Stock is one of my favorite movies.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    I think someone's already done this, but I'll have a go at the Aristotle one. Aristotle is a deliberately over-complicated rhyming slang for "*kitten*", as in Aristotle - bottle - bottle and glass - *kitten*. So I think that sentence goes "Aristotle (*kitten*, or maybe arsehole) of the most ping pong (strong) tiddly (tiddly wink - stink) in the nuclear sub (pub)". He's basically calling soneone an arsehole - but I don't think anyone really says that, it's an exaggeration for the film.

    :happy:
    It was me! It's not as complicated as that!

    Aristotle = bottle
    Ping-pong = strong
    Tiiddly (tiddlywink) = drink
    Nuclear sub = pub!

    So when you next think you're calling a Cockney an *kitten*, you might end up with a bottle of strong drink!

    I'm a Londoner and my granddad was a proper Cockney born and bred within the sound of Bow Bells :)

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