British Phrases That Baffle The Rest Of The World

[Joey D]

I remember when I was in the UK in 07, I stayed with some long lost family members in Maidenhead for a couple of days. They told me I didn't need to bring a counterpane and I was super confused. Apparently it means bed sheets.

Many other things confused me as well, but I got pretty used to it since I grew up around Canadian grandparents and they often used weird UK English slang words.

 

[Lizard]

I didn't know this before hand but looking it up out of curiosity I read that middle English fagge means flap or remnant. Fag end is the end or butt of a cigarette so it must come from that.

On the note of fags, fancy 2s?

Although pre 1500s English isn't even remotely understandable now, it was mostly Germanic tribal language mixed with French and a little Norse iirc. If anyone tries to read the original script of Beowolf you will have a hard job making anything out of it.

 

[rono_thomas]

Classis welsh one:

Cwtch.

The missus is constantly telling me she loves cwtches.

 

[TheCracker]

I remember when I was in the UK in 07, I stayed with some long lost family members in Maidenhead for a couple of days. They told me I didn't need to bring a counterpane and I was super confused. Apparently it means bed sheets.

That would confuse me too. I've never heard a bed sheet being called a 'counterpane' either.

Is it really 10 years since you came to the UK? Wow, time flies.

 

[Danoff]

Ok, so Brits use "binning" to mean wrecking or trashing something right? As in, rendering it in a condition that is conducive to the dustbin. How do you refer to the mathematical operation of lumping together nearby tallies. For example, bar chart bins:

Or do you just use "binning" for both and not get confused?

 

[DG_Silva]

Ok, so Brits use "binning" to mean wrecking or trashing something right? As in, rendering it in a condition that is conducive to the dustbin. How do you refer to the mathematical operation of lumping together nearby tallies. For example, bar chart bins:

Or do you just use "binning" for both and not get confused?

Very rarely will you hear binning in a mathematic sense used in everyday language, so if we mention 'binning' or 'binned', it's usually the throwing away of something in the rubbish bin. Lumping ranges in a bar chart is more likely to be called grouping.

 

[Robin]

One that's pretty common at the moment is 'Bae', but I think that might also be used across the pond.

As if fit needed a different word!

 

[adamp93]

I've read a few "phrases you'll only know if you're from..." articles but the one that sticks out the most is calling a soft drink "pop" is apparently just a Birmingham/West Midlands thing. That can't be true can it?

A few more I know are local:
Babby = baby
Bostin' = good (more Black Country than Birmingham)
Blarting = crying
A roundabout is an "island"
Taking a long time to make your point is "Going round the Wrekin"
We call a bread roll a cob.

 

[TheAdmiester]

I've read a few "phrases you'll only know if you're from..." articles but the one that sticks out the most is calling a soft drink "pop" is apparently just a Birmingham/West Midlands thing. That can't be true can it?

Here in the North East we call it pop too.

Also, people around here who like to speak extremely slang use the word "ket" for sweets, which can be confusing for people who aren't from here

 

[Famine]

Also, people around here who like to speak extremely slang use the word "ket" for sweets, which can be confusing for people who aren't from here

*sigh* Mackems.

Where I'm from it's 'spice'. My favourite - and most geographically limiting - one though is 'bobbah' (sometimes spelled 'bobbar').

 

[polysmut]

Ket & spice are both terrible drugs too.

 

[Joey D]

I've read a few "phrases you'll only know if you're from..." articles but the one that sticks out the most is calling a soft drink "pop" is apparently just a Birmingham/West Midlands thing. That can't be true can it?

It's big in parts of the US. When I lived in Michigan if you called it anything other than pop you got funny looks. And if you ordered soda, you got soda water.

 

[Roo]

We call a bread roll a cob.

In Newark on one of the UKGTP events, I had to go and ask what a "chip cob" was. I've never felt so southern.

 

[W3H5]

I’ve always called it pop.

 

[Famine]

I’ve always called it pop.

You must get very disappointed in chippies then.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Soda? Pop? Nah, it's always just simply been "Fizz" for me when it comes to describing Carbonated Drinks. That or I just call it by it's brand name, you can't really cause issues if you ask for a "Fanta" rather than an "Orange Soda".

 

[PocketZeven]

Don’t like to shag birds here in holland. And bob is not my uncle!

 

[daan]

Soda? Pop? Nah, it's always just simply been "Fizz" for me when it comes to describing Carbonated Drinks. That or I just call it by it's brand name, you can't really cause issues if you ask for a "Fanta" rather than an "Orange Soda".

You're all wrong. It's ginger.

 

[VXR]

What seems fairly unique is these slang words have transferred around the country pretty well. I like to call people a fannybaws and I've only been to Scotland once.

 

[kikie]

Is this thread about the same thing but different?

Just asking, not pointing out that there is already a similar thread because these threads aren't the same.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Or do you just use "binning" for both and not get confused?

Binning would mean putting it in the bin usually. It can also figuratively mean ditching an idea/project/activity or even crashing a car.

That would confuse me too. I've never heard a bed sheet being called a 'counterpane' either.

That's very southern!

lthough pre 1500s English isn't even remotely understandable now, it was mostly Germanic tribal language mixed with French and a little Norse iirc.

Depends on where you are. On the north-east coast children are still barns, bairns and there are many other words directly related to old Norse from the great settlement of the late 800s (kirk, gan or gang for 'walk', tak or ta for thank you). You find more "modern" norse words from the 1066 invasion around the south-east coast but they're of a more evolved Frankish root given that the norsmen had had a couple of hundred years being Franks beforehand.

 

[Lizard]

The amount we use the word bloody. It stopped being a swear word and became a symbol of our national identity.

 

[Sprite]

*sigh* Mackems.

Where I'm from it's 'spice'. My favourite - and most geographically limiting - one though is 'bobbah' (sometimes spelled 'bobbar').

I knew sweets as Spice too, we also took on the term Spogs.

Once on my favourite terms is Pancrack for benefits / welfare / social, I believe it comes from an old term for begging by hitting a coin around in a metal begging tin.

 

[kikie]

Not a British Phrases That Baffle The Rest Of The World but I find it always funny when Brits say: "Oh my word".

 

[TheCracker]

Not a British Phrases That Baffle The Rest Of The World but I find it always funny when Brits say: "Oh my word".

To quote from Quora:

"The phrase probably has its origins in John 1:1 of the Bible.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In order to avoid saying "God "which is considered blasphemous, particularly by Christians, people used alternative phrases like oh my goodness and oh my word. "

You'd probably be in your 60's or 70's now to have ever uttered that phrase.

 

[daan]

Last time I said it was when I dropped one of my office applications out of the window.

 

[VBR]

Gertcha.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Is this thread about the same thing but different?

Just asking, not pointing out that there is already a similar thread because these threads aren't the same.

Americanisms is a thread explaining why American words are weird, this thread is why British words are weird.

We could try to do the same thing with Australianisms, but I feel every entry would violate the AUP.

 

[lancia delta hf]

Not a British Phrases That Baffle The Rest Of The World but I find it always funny when Brits say: "Oh my word".

Brits don't say this. Only Ray Wilkinson does, a lot.

Also apparent "gone walk abouts" has Now Rogan baffled.

 

[kikie]

Ed China from Whealer Dealers and Tim Shaw from Car SOS used this Oh my word, specially Ed China. It seems that it is more common than people think.
There is another Brit that says these words on television but can't seem to recall who this person is.