Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

[ursus arctos]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Interesting.

On "pissed" "we" use both meanings, but the anger one is definitely more common.

If you have US interns who think "ass" is vulgar than you must be recruiting from Brigham Young. Alternatively, they may be thinking of the sexual meaning (see, e.g., "a piece of") as opposed to the synonym for jerk, etc.

Adding the "on" to "beat up" simply indicates a more sustained and serious beating (see also "beat down", "put a beating on", etc.)

[Amor de Cosmos]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

"Food, glorious food!
Hot sausage and mustard!
While we're in the mood --
Cold jelly and custard!
Peas pudding and saveloys!
What next is the question?
Rich gentlemen have it, boys --
indigestion!"

When I was a kid quite a few of my friends would get saveloys from the chippie. Most of them were from London, so maybe they were a local delicacy. The lyrics above might suggest that too.

[Patrick Thistle]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

ursus arctos wrote:

If you have US interns who think "ass" is vulgar than you must be recruiting from Brigham Young. Alternatively, they may be thinking of the sexual meaning (see, e.g., "a piece of") as opposed to the synonym for jerk, etc.

They tend to be from the South / Texas and are super conservative religious.

So, it's quite funny when they start calling people bastards and don't realise that's quite offensive.

[Jah Womble]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

On "pissed" "we" use both meanings, but the anger one is definitely more common.

Whereas in the UK, of course, the addition of 'off' creates the bad mood variant. (It's more 'fed up' than 'angry', however.)

[treibeis]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Amor de Cosmos wrote: When I was a kid quite a few of my friends would get saveloys from the chippie. Most of them were from London, so maybe they were a local delicacy. The lyrics above might suggest that too.

When I was a kid, it was the girls who, if they didn't order fish or fishcakes, ordered saveloys.

They were obviously considered a more feminine choice than battered sausages or steak & kidney pie (the saveloys, not the girls ordering them), a kids-in-a-not-London-chip-shop equivalent of a Babycham or half a bitter shandy.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

oh no, I now have a mind-worm of that awful 1980s TV ad campaign with the "hey, I'd love a Babycham" line.

[WOM]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Renart wrote:

Never heard it called a corny dog. Just corn dog or pronto pup. I think Pronto Pup is the brand name of the kind at the Minnesota State fair.

There are competing claims on its origin. The Fletcher's stand at the Texas State Fair claims they invented it, and they sell them as "corny dogs," and since my family is from Texas that's what we've always called them. "Corn dog" is the most common term around the country, though, I think.

Had a hand-dipped corn dog yesterday. A thing of wood-mounted beauty.

[Renart]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Yeah, they're pretty great. So as to keep my svelte figure, however, I only eat them once a year at the State Fair, where I have two, slathered with mustard, with a Shiner Bock (or two). Sublime junk food.

[anton pulisov]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Jah Womble wrote: Sloppy Joe: that was the foodstuff we seemed to be force fed when I was at school in Wyoming. Few UK residents know what one is, however - basically a mince sandwich in a bun. The name is therefore self-explanatory.

That's the nicest looking one I've ever seen.

[Jah Womble]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

You think so? To me it looks as though the bun itself is upchucking.

They were obviously considered a more feminine choice than battered sausages or steak & kidney pie (the saveloys, not the girls ordering them), a kids-in-a-not-London-chip-shop equivalent of a Babycham or half a bitter shandy.

A saveloy was considered 'feminine' where you lived? Blimey. From what I remember of chip-shop visits, the females were more inclined toward the fishcake.

Personally, I couldn't see the point of going for fish & chips unless one was going to have fish & chips.

[treibeis]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

A saveloy was considered 'feminine' where you lived? Blimey. From what I remember of chip-shop visits, the females were more inclined toward the fishcake.

I think it was because saveloys were considered to be the healthy choice, probably due to the lack of batter.

Having said that, if they'd really wanted to do 'chip-shop healthy', they'd have gone for the 'pickled eggs and/or pickled onions' option, I suppose. Or just bought a carrier bag or some chip forks or something.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Jah Womble wrote: Personally, I couldn't see the point of going for fish & chips unless one was going to have fish & chips.

Nah. If you have that mindset, you're denying yourself the delights of pies. And chips'n'gravy.

[treibeis]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Stumpy Pepys wrote: And chips'n'gravy.

'Chips 'n' gravy' is either a northern thing or a non-south-west-England thing, at least as far as the 1970s and 1980s are concerned.

Like 'Bovril at football matches', it's one of those things that make me wonder whether I was in a coma for a large part of my youth and simply missed it.

I've spoken to people the same age as me who grew up in the same place. They claim to have drunk beef extract at local football games and also eaten gravy-smothered chips bought from local chip shops.

I put these people in the same category as those who claim to have seen the Sex Pistols or Joy Division live, even though they'd have been about six at the time.

Between the ages of five and fifteen, I reckon I attended over 200 professional football games in Bristol. I never once saw Bovril on sale. In the same period, I went to chip shops quite often and can't recall ever seeing chips 'n' gravy. If I had, I'd have ordered them.

(Almost) the same applies to chips with mushy peas. They were available in local chip shops, but only from about the mid 1980s onwards.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Oh, it was definitely a northern thing. I remember moving from Bolton to Birmingham to go to university, only to find that there wasn't a millilitre of gravy to be found.

[treibeis]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Oh, it was definitely a northern thing.

When I was a kid, any impersonation of a Liverpudlian consisted, usually in its entirety, of the question, "Where's me soddin' gravy, mam?"

I've no idea where it came from. The only regualar exposure we'd had to Liverpool was The Liver Birds and Ken Dodd on television, so maybe it was Lucien or one of the Diddy Men.

My guess is that it's a quote from Ian Callaghan, probably when he was being presented with hs MBE.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Jongudmund wrote:

If you have US interns who think "ass" is vulgar than you must be recruiting from Brigham Young. Alternatively, they may be thinking of the sexual meaning (see, e.g., "a piece of") as opposed to the synonym for jerk, etc.

They tend to be from the South / Texas and are super conservative religious.

So, it's quite funny when they start calling people bastards and don't realise that's quite offensive.

I don't think "bastard" is considered that offensive in Britain, at least in an informal context.

[San Bernardhinault]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

One of the ones, for me, that used to get me totally confused was

"The projects"

As a kid in Britain, a "project" was something you did at school that spread over more than a day.

Or a project might have been a friend's uncle trying to make the Cutty Sark out of matchsticks.

So it seemed very strange that the rough kids came from the projects. It made no sense. Whose project? And why?

Eventually I think I finally understood it, through repetition and context, but even then I don't really know what a "project" is as opposed to a run down inner city council estate, or it's called that.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Project=council estate.