British Expatriate Network - Britnet

Bunty and Judy Wrote:Sprogs and nippers are cute words for kids that you never hear here. Where on earth did sprogs come from?

Don't know, but I like rug rats

Thought of a few more: bloke, bird, wanker, lolly (money)

Bunty and Judy Wrote:Thought of a few more: bloke, bird, wanker, lolly (money)

Left out the kinda rude discriptive ones

like paddy , mick . jock . taffy . wog, raghead

JohnA Wrote:Left out the kinda rude discriptive ones like paddy , mick . jock . taffy . wog, raghead

Better if you had left them out.

ukmocha Wrote:A few Bristolian ones: -

gert lush - really nice
gert macky - very large
jammy - lucky
Ark at 'ee - Listen to Him/Her
drive - driver (bus)
air-re-all - area
Bristle - Bristol
Daps - plimsolls / gym shoes

We said "Gert" a lot too. My husband laughs when I tell him some British birds (feathered kind) are called Tits.

New here, forgive the intrusion

My mother probably used them all and invented a few. Some of my favourites were

"And who is SHE? The cat's mother?

"How do ya like those apples?"

"drunk as a lord"

"cor blimey you'll be the death of me yet"

"going to spend a penny" (go to the loo)

"its all gone down the swalley"

"and Bob's yer uncle!" (which prompted me to go up to and hug a friend of my father's introduced as Bob, when I was aged 4. When asked why, I stated that he was my Uncle!)

"oh she is being a right cow!"

Now, my teenaged children have their own sayings and words, ofcourse. Posh, flash, fit, etc. I wondered why they kept saying certain boys were fit, of course, I found out. Therefore I gave them a giggle when we were watching rugby and called them "fits in kits"!

My parents always used to say "If tom tit were pudding, there'd be no famine."

I always liked, 'bend over touch your toes, look out, up it goes'.

I don't know if this would count but it always made me laugh. My father used to say "Yer mum would 'ave done a fine job with you kids if it weren't that I was yer father". It was funny because he'd give us a wink and we knew he didn't mean it since he was truly the greatest father ever

It's funny how to this day I really have to watch what I say in the states. What is matter of course in England gets a lot of raised brows here, particularly the way I sometimes speak to my kids. And I don't really understand it because some of the things I hear in shops here that (especially young mothers with babies and toddlers) could be considered abusive.

I remember swatting my first born's bottom whilst coming out of the grocery (he was about aged 6 at the time) for being a little rotter in the shop and a pensioner walked up to me saying "I raised 5 kids and never laid a hand on them" - well! It took all my constraint, as I was young, to not tell her to sod off. Instead I smiled, muttered something about Mother of the century award and strolled away.

I'm probably in the wrong forum for this diatribe, however, with all the so-called "political correctness" of this country (and we all know that being pc doesn't amount to a "hill of beans" in the UK, we say what we mean in a very polite way, after all) I can't believe the rudeness that I encounter on a daily basis. You'd think after all this time I'd be used to it. Goes to show how ingrained our formative years were!

Moggie is a funny British word for a cat.

DaveSJ Wrote:

Bunty and Judy Wrote:He's as daft as a brush!

I thought my mother was the only person to say "as daft as a brush".
She also had some odd expressions, a mix of Brit and Australian,
including the phrase "I was running round like a cut snake" - meaning
pretty frantic.

I've heard the expression "they were going on like a pair of pork chops",
mainly in Australia, but usually by people of Brit descent. It appears to
mean babbling, or arguing.

I'm amused by "sod it", some Canadians understand it, but most do not.
It's useful for sort of swearing without being detected. There's
a sod farm (ahem, turf farm) with the URL http://justsodit.com/
just outside of town.

Is anyone else familar with the expression "to give a croggy", or was
it scroggy - meaning you rode your bike with someone sitting on
the cross-bar.

Another expression, that I though was just East Midlands, but which
aparrently is more widespread, is the negative attitute "mardy",
meaning grumpy, irritable and uncooperative.

Dave.

I think it should be 'give a crossey' meaning riding on the cross bar of the bike frame. We used to say that when I was a kid.