So when I wrote Hot Mess Asks About Slang In England, I never dreamt of all the additional slang in the U.K. I was still not privy to. It came about by accident when messaging a question to Suzi from Suzie Speaks and Em from Em Linthorpe. If you haven’t checked out their blogs, I highly recommend both! It turns out that both are British and opened my eyes to a whole other realm of slang. I printed off our conversation, I am gonna type it up and we can all learn together!
Fortnight- Thanks to the gals, I now know that it means 2 weeks. I thought it either meant last night or the next night, so did my husband and son. Apparently it means 2 weeks. I told them the last time I heard this term was probably when we were studying Shakespeare in high school.
Name Calling
Wanker: I thought this meant to jack off because it’s used a few times in my book from an English author. I think he used it like, “go ahead and have a wank.” But I guess wanker is an offensive way to call someone an idiot.
Knobhead: I thought it meant someone stupid. Apparently it means idiot.
Bellend: According to Suzie, it’s another offensive term for an idiot. To me, it just sounds like a town.
Bugger Off: Go away. I usually just say, “go away.”
Food and Drink
Butty: Suzie put it in an example for me, “I want a bacon butty”. That’s a sandwich! It reminds me of the word buddy. I would love to have a bacon buddy. I love bacon and I love buddies. I think they should change it to bacon buddies. Ladies, can you please take that up with your queen and possibly change it to bacon buddies?
Chips = fries. Now this is getting personal. Nobody messes with my French fries. So when you go to McDonalds, do you ask for chips or do you ask for fries? Again, I need to know this before I someday visit England.
Crisps: potato chips. So if I go to a Mexican restaurant do I ask for tortilla crisps instead of tortilla chips? I’m sure we would figure it out but still.
Aubergine: eggplant. Why? Do you still call it eggplant sometimes?
Pop: I was over the moon to learn pop in England means soda. I am happy about this because there is always a debate on if you should say pop or soda. Being in the midwest, I say pop and I’m proud of that. At least I could order a coke in England and not be shot glares if I call it pop!
Off-license: This to me sounds like the black market in obtaining your drivers license. It means liquor store.
Going Somewhere?
Nippin: Now I’ve heard of taking a nip of an alcoholic beverage but I’ve never heard of it used this way. Nippin means going somewhere for a short amount of time. Here is Suzie’s example: ” I’m just nippin to the shop.” My ADD is kicking in and I have to call out how funny it is when an American Southerner announces they are “Fixin’ to go somewhere”. It just means they are preparing to go somewhere. All people from England, you are welcome for that English lesson. I’m sure you wonder how we are civilized after all of these decades.
Popping: Em offered this one up. It too means a quick trip. My son currently uses “poppin” to describe anything he thinks is cool. Did popping come from Mary Poppins? Don’t judge me based on that question. It could have. Didn’t she just “pop” into places by flying around?
Miscellaneous
Fanny: This one is the most shocking and brought up in the last post in the comments. It’s not referring to a hipsack or your ass. It’s referring to a vagina! Yes, a vagina! So I posed the question in the comments, if I occasionally nickname vagina, vajaja, does this mean in England they nickname it a fanaynay? Just asking as I need to know this stuff.
Bog roll: Toilet paper! How in the hell do you get toilet paper out of bog roll? Yes, my American readers, bog roll actually means TP!! Can you believe that? So is the toilet the bog? I have to use the bog? Is that what you say? I want to know where bog came from.
Chinwag: To me this sounds like shaking your head no but apparently it means chat. So when my kids are in trouble I can say to them, “Let’s go have a little chinwag”.
Thank you to these lovely ladies that gave me a whole new set of terms to use. I have a feeling that there are a lot more out there I have to learn. Perhaps we could make another post!
So knobheads (did I use the word right?), what are some other terms that we didn’t go over? What makes these posts awesome is all the feedback of other terms!
Cheers!!
Hahaha. I absolutely LOVE this. You used knobheads perfectly. It can often be used as a weird term of endearment towards friends. Well I do anyway. Wanker is one of my favourite words. When someone has made me really cross, calling them a wanker (always behind their back) is very satisfying. I am stunned however that ‘fortnight’ isn’t used in American English. Oh and I always love shocking Americans with the British meaning of the word fanny. Hey, you know what “trump” means over here too, right? I think you’ll like it…
So glad you loved this! And you used cross! We never use cross! Lol!! I love the word wanker! I will have to find ways to incorporate it into my daily talk! Fanny is shocking! It’s such a nerdy way to say butt over here! And what does Trump mean over there?
Haha I realised as soon as I posted my comment how British I sounded saying “cross”. So trump means fart. Actually, do you say “fart” in America? I can’t remember, so anyway he’s President Fart to us x
Lol! We say fart for sure! Or cut the cheese. That’s hilarious!!
Haha “cut the cheese”. I’ll remember that!
You guys don’t use that? We also say toot but that’s more when a little kid farts. Let’s see, there is also break wind and pass gass. You can also say you let a SBD (silent but deadly).
We say pass wind & SBD, but none of the others. We also say “let rip” (charming) or “let one off”. Also, “parped” is a very polite way of saying you’ve let rip.
Well you have a ton if new terminology! Again, haven’t heard parped. We occasionally say “well you let one rip…” My blog is oozing class right now. I mean look how much we’ve discussed farts! I love it!
Haha I was thinking this. This has possibly been one of my favourite conversations that I’ve had within someone’s blog. I’m not sure what that says about me!
Yeah!!! And it was on my blog!! Should we do a part 3? Is there enough slang for a 3rd post? Another term I forgot to mention that I’ve noticed is in America we say something tastes really good. In my book they are always saying it tastes really nice. Your thoughts?
There’s DEFINITELY enough slang for a part 3. Hmmm, I’d say either are acceptable, but maybe “nice” would be used more than “good”.
I agree. Ok, I’m going to keep listening to my book and when I think I have enough, I’ll do a Part Trois! I really need to come to England!!!
You must! And give me a shout if you want any help more suggestions for your next post x
I liked the first post and I love this one! I read a lot of Jane Austen so have some of the older British words safely saved in my brain for use if I ever meet a nineteenth century gentleman or lady. (Which would be pretty weird.) But, I love being “in the know” for all the current British slang. I do use “bloody hell” occasionally, just for fun. And I think, along with finding a way to say “tosspot” in general conversations, I’d also like to start working in “cross.” I’m pretty sure saying “This new report is making me cross.” Everyone will look at me and say, “Cross what? The street? Your eyes? I don’t get it. . .”
So how often do people use the word cross compared to mad? We always say mad or pissed. I like when I hear bloody hell, even when it’s supposed to be offensive, I think it’s funny!
We say “pissed off” instead of pissed. Pissed means very drunk here in the UK Haha. So you could get yourself in trouble with that one.
Omg! We say both but they mean the same here. Noted!
Haha tosspot or indeed tosser are equally brilliant & effective words. Bloody hell.
OOOH Tosser. I will use that today. I don’t know how, but I will.
It’s a very satisfying word. Used in much the same way as you would “wanker”.
Right?!?!
Wait a minute…tosser? That’s new!
Omg Bellend is one of my favourite bad words! I first heard it whilst watching “Bluestone 42” and have loved it every since.
Will there be a Part Trois?!
Bellend sounds like a town. 5 miles till Bellend! At this point, there may be a part trois!
Haha I think the show describes it as the end of a bell, “the tip”, aka a dick? Idk haha
If you really want to delve into it butty changes depending where you are in the UK.
Aye (pronunced eye) means yes
I’m gonna need a map to navigate the changes of the butty I think! I can’t believe the differences!!
I’ve been using “sod off” lately. I’m not totally sure what it means or if I’m using it right, but it cuts down on the amount of times I tell people at work to ‘fuck off”
Apparently Jeremy that is what it means! Since we live in America, we can tell as many people we want to “fuck off” and they don’t even know it! Cheers!!
I love this. <3
I really think you need to visit the UK!
One of the phrases Fella would say that made me giggle early on in our relationship is whenever he was hungry, he would say he was peckish. Reminded me of a chicken…
Also, I told him once that I had a hankerin’ for biscuits and gravy and he slightly freaked out. Biscuits for the English are hard cookies. Their cookie is a soft cookie. But there is also a difference between biscuits and scones.
OMG! No grown man should ever say peckish! I have heard that though. That’s hilarious!