h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Kaeori,
It is a little known fact that, in Victorian thieves' slang, the phrase "Cheese it!" meant "Stop it!". Possibly derived from "Cease". So - and this is just my own unsubstantiated guess - cheesed off could have arisen from the depression which arose when the miscreants were obliged to desist from their occupation because of the proximity of the bobbies, peelers or rozzers.

Well, it might be.

sucks is a good example of orwells newspeak theory if you can control and reduce vocabulary you can control thought process.some use sucks to express the whole spectrum of negativety 24/7

I'd like to refute the idea that the english have a problem with sucks
It's well used in my part of the world
Annoys me tho

From the Simpsons:

I know it's physically impossible, but this both sucks and blows.

3

JOTD: If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.

Cheesed on? What is that supposed to mean?!

I thought Brassed Off was excellent, it was really touching and I loved it. Whether it is cliched or realistic, I don't know. Being a southaner I don't know much about life 'oop north' but I have friends from that sort of background. It was definately much more realistic than The Full Monty. It is a shame The Full Monty was such a big hit in the states, in a way, because I guess they think we all live like that in Britain!! But it is good a Brit movie did well so I shouldn't complain.

It seems that the general sentiment here is anti-suck.

Can we have a vote, then, and ban it from the British English vocabulary?

Going back to 'ticked off', the more general meaning is 'told off, rebuked' (I took it in the sense of being annoyed, which is maybe an American idea), and that would seem to be something to do with school, or maybe the army.

Perhaps we could have a British English army, and they could go around ticking off people who ticked them off by using 'sucks'.

Hmm... You can't tick someone off "with sucks", you could tick someone off that sucks though! I think it could be to do with the Army, I could always ask my grandad. He'd know. It is probubly to do with the list of soldiers and I expect the got 'ticked off' the list when they died or somthing!!!

Sorry to lower the tone, but I noticed in 'Billy Elliot' and in the trailer for 'Purely Belter', that north-easterners like using the word fanny, which I always understood means your backside, but clearly in the NE does not!

Nowhere in Britain does "Fanny" mean bottom...always 'that which a woman has and a man does not'.

very tactfully put
I applaud you

I'm very tempted to suggest all sorts of attributes and qualities that I'm sure you didn't mean - but I won't.

The US version of fanny caused great mirth to me when I visited the states as a child.

Sorry, V&A, sticky fingers. That should have read 'for using' not 'by using'.

This reminds me of a story told me by a business man from S.Carolina. He and his wife arrived at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate - which is as posh as Yorkshire gets - after a long drive. As they entered the lobby his wife announced in a loud voice "Hey Bud, my fanny really aches."

where did the word "twit"come from?and what makes one silly?

From nitwit - one who has the wit of a nit?

I also preferred Brassed Off to The Full Monty - I didn't find either of them funny, but cried at both. Having three sons I really can't get get excited about men's bare anything, and I just feel embarrassed when such a fuss is made about that sort of thing. Ewan McGregor brought Brassed Off up several notches, althought Robert Carlile is also very very brilliant.

And as for sucks. It is so obvious. Or am I the only one who can't not think of oral sex when I hear it, plus which it rhymes with f*** which makes it doubly risque and not for genteel company.

ni! was just wondering what the first reactions were to m.r.adams walk on...er walk off inthe vidio version HHGTTG theENDoftheWORLDisNIGH

Interestingly ( or not )
Twit is the term for a pregnant goldfish !!!

Oh no it isn't!
Twit = blemish or entanglement in thread which hinders spinning or weaving; or reproach or tease. (possibly leading to what I was once told was a regional [don't recall where] word for a simpleton i.e. someone easy to tease ... perhaps)