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

fag also means a lacky in a boys boarding school. As in "FAG! warm my toilet seat"

Old git

Does w*nker get used at all in the US? As in: "one who engages in the act of onenism?"

On the subject of swearing
Two fingers up (middle and fore) is a mild form of swearing - closer to "p*ss off", while the middle finger is regarded more as "f**k off".
In South Africa making a fist and putting your thumb in the gap between your middle and fore-fingers is the equivalent to f**k off.

Liam.

*Observes Captain_SpankMunki rolling around on the floor while under the name of Liam and looking like he's thoroughly enjoying himself.*

Ahem... yes, but you haven't actually said what Sad Old Git means...




(congratulations on your boy!)

Sad usually means someone who is unpopular
git is someone you don't like very much.

So if your pensioner neighbour decides to complain about the state of your back garden you can call him a sald old git.

>congratulations on your boy



Liam.

Congratulations, Liam

We've been mentioned the W word (to rhyme with bank) in the Atelier as I found it written on the condensation on my (new) car window the other morning

It is not viewed as a word to cause punch-ups in pubs in the US I was informed. The implication here being that a person (usually) male is so deficient in the tackle department that he can only satisfy himself.

Chunder used to mean to drone on and on, but in OZ to throw up. Since the advent of Neighbours, Home and Away and other such antipodean tv imports, the latter usage is growing.

Hand gestures? Fists with various fingers
inserted various places?

I thought we were only comparing verbal expressions?

Anyway, to get back to pants/trousers: People in my
neck of the woods have been calling them pants for as
long as I can remember. Slacks were wearable by either
males or females, though I recall that back in the
1950s and 1960s, slacks were usually a reference to
pants that women wore.

As for knickers, those are completely foreign.
If you go back a couple hundred years, maybe the
expression was used in the New York region or elsewhere.
Washington Irving wrote about knickerbockers, whatever
they are. In the process of doing so, he is supposed
to mentioned Santa Claus for the first time ever.

>I thought we were only comparing verbal expressions?

Introducing TOPIC DRIFT! For all your off-topic needs

Liam.

(It's snowing in Boston right now. )

only in New England would you get snow beforre
the first frost.

Yeah! Snow for Paul!

I think knickerbockers were pants that came to just below the knee worn by adolescent boys. But I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

We look under the hood of a car rather than under the bonnet and stash things in the trunk rather than the boot. And we buy gasoline, not petrol.

A vest is an outer garment that is usually part of a three piece suit. I think in the UK a vest is an undershirt.

Is an anorak a raincoat or a jacket?

Don't mention snow! Two inches here will cause a standstill on Britain's rail and road networks.

When you say English, or England you almost certainly mean British or Britain.

Yup, a vest goes under one's shirt. What you call a vest well call a waistcoat.

An anorak is a waterproof jacket.

I think we have welly boots (As in the Duke of Wellington) and you have gum boots.

Thinking of waterproof apparel... We have sou'westers which is the waterproof (I saw waterproof but the rain and waves will get in anyway) garb that fishermen wear. It's called sou'wester because in the South West of England, where we meet the Atlantic it's pretty sh*tty out there.

Hmm other phrases used in the UK. How about 'bloody hell'? An equivalent to damn.

Should I mention fanny packs?

Liam.

Liam.

Ok, so Wellingtons are galoshes (rubber boots). I thought from the context in novels that they probably were.

I love the Martha Grimes mysteries. In them Aunt Agatha is always eating fairy cakes. Are they cup cakes or petit fours? And are crumpets what we call English muffins?

*googles petit fours*

They're cup-cakes.

English muffins are what we call muffins here, unless you live in the north where there are also oven bottom muffins which are much more breadlike.

Crumpets are like thick drop scones (pancake batter dropped on a griddle) - about an inch thick - and the bubble up so viewed cross-section there are little tubes running top to bottom. Served toasted with butter.

Liam.

I always smile when an American buys gas but gets a liquid...

Sowfafrican English is a rather unique blend of English, Afrikaans and a smattering of indigenous African languages. I can tell a SA accent in two sentences of a conversation. There are just those unique elements that give it away.
"Shame" means "cute" (as in "Ag shame!")
"Ja" (pronounced "yar") meaning yes, ok, agreed etc.
"Brew" (actually "bru" an abbreviation of "Broer" being Afrikaans for brother) - hip-hop Africans say "Bra" and mean the same thing.
"Scants" are underpants, whether scants, hipsters, y-fronts, tangas...
G-strings are "b*m-floss"
"Pants" are trousers and vice versa
"Chicks" wear pants or slacks for you and your "mate" (friend) to check out (ogle)
A "goggo" is any unidentified insect and a "songolollo" is a tropical millipede.
SA cars have bonnets and boots and cubbyholes and "zorstparps" (exhaust pipes) and "tackies" (tyres) and run on petrol, as do our "barks" (motorcycles).
Any questions??

Sounds yummy. What we call muffins are more like cupcakes except more moist and heavier.

I've heard the expression to get buggered. I think it must have a different meaning in Britain. Here it would refer to anal sex. And Americans don't use the word bloody much. We would probably say damn instead. I've heard sod off, but only from folks who watch a lot of British comedies. I asssume that sod replaces the f word. And I've heard people say television play, which I guess is the same as a show.

Ah, a SAian. Howzzit brew? It'll get modded but I'll let you in on my favourite Afrikaans phrase "gann kak in die mielies"

Liam.

To bugger means the same thing here. But I would use the phrase bugger off in front of my mother, sod off is along similar lines. Sod can also be used as a noun and is similar to git, or at least on the same level.

Liam.

Fanny, in the UK refers to the female anatomy below the waist so a fanny pack invariable causes amongst school girls.

Then there is Uk jelly is US jello, US jelly is UK jam.

I am soooo envious of the snow and this time last year + week I was in Boston.

Howzit CSM! Lekka to hear from an oke who can catch my drift, hey?

(Moderators=good to hear from a chap who can understand my meaning, wot?)

For God's sake don't translate my post!

Jam/jelly. We also have jelly - as in quince, mint and a variety of other edibles. If I'm not mistaken amerkins also have jam.

Liam.

I use jam and jelly interchangeably.

I'd send some of today's snow to anyone that
wanted it, but the bloody stuff has gone
and melted.