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British idioms

HarryCHHarryCH Shipmate
in Heaven
This thread is intended for Americans to ask about idioms in British English: meanings and etymologies. For Cockney rhyming slang, give us the whole rhyme.

To start with:
--- Bob's your uncle
--- toad in the hole
--- spotted dick
--- bubble and squeak

Comments

  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    Are you asking about those, or leaving them as examples? Without knowing which side of the pond you are on, I don't know how I should respond!
  • CaissaCaissa Shipmate
    The first three are fairly common in Canada. The second and third if you ever eat British "cuisine".

    I work with an Aussie so I often learn Australian idioms, as well. Most of the British idioms I have learned are from classic murder mysteries.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    I don't think any of that list count as 'rhyming slang', but here are their generally accepted meanings:

    1. It's OK, or all right.
    2. Sausages in batter pudding :yum:
    3. Suet pudding with lots of currants and raisins :yum:
    4. Cooked cabbage fried with potatoes, and (occasionally) meat :yum:

    Take a butcher's (butcher's hook = look) at Google for definitions, me old china (China plate = mate)!
    :wink:
  • quetzalcoatlquetzalcoatl Shipmate
    Wot a load of old cobblers, = cobblers' awls = balls.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited October 24
    Git yer ol' Khyber (Khyber pass = arse) dahn on the uncle (Uncle Ned = bed) at the top of the apples (Apples and Pears = stairs).
  • Robertus LRobertus L Shipmate
    HarryCH wrote: »
    This thread is intended for Americans to ask about idioms in British English: meanings and etymologies. For Cockney rhyming slang, give us the whole rhyme.

    To start with:
    --- Bob's your uncle
    --- toad in the hole
    --- spotted dick
    --- bubble and squeak

    Well, the first idiom derives from a time when a young and inexperienced man was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ( evivalent to governor/ viceroy). Turns out he was appointed by the then prime minister Lord Salisbury aka Robert Gascoyne Cecil, who was the young man's uncle. ' Bob's your uncle' is often joined with ' and Fanny's your aunt's, though I don't know why

    Spotted dick was originally spotted dough. Given the many ways - ough can be pronounced in English, in some areas dough was pronounced closer to 'dock' as in the Irish 'lough' pronounced loch - a body of water. For some reason the spelling was changed not the pronunciation.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    There is also the possibility that a Spotted Dick pudding (which My Old Mum used to serve with Treacle, as none of us liked Custard) bears a vague resemblance to
    a certain portion of the male anatomy suffering from a fell disease.
  • Robertus LRobertus L Shipmate
    Similar suet based pudding is jam rolly polly ( not pronounced like the name but to rhyme with rolly). It was popular as a dessert in schools because it was cheap and filling

    Baked/ steamed in a long cylindrical shape in a cotton cloth or on the sleeve of an old gentleman's shirts. The jam would often ooze out, and was known as dead man's arm or revered mother's leg
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    To spend a penny? Or is that too dated?
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Priscilla wrote: »
    To spend a penny? Or is that too dated?
    It was indeed discussed in the “phrases that date you” thread.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Robertus L wrote: »
    Similar suet based pudding is jam rolly polly ( not pronounced like the name but to rhyme with rolly). It was popular as a dessert in schools because it was cheap and filling

    Baked/ steamed in a long cylindrical shape in a cotton cloth or on the sleeve of an old gentleman's shirts. The jam would often ooze out, and was known as dead man's arm or revered mother's leg

    O! Jam Roly-Poly! A favourite Sunday dessert at a certain Tennis (IIRC) Club in Sheffield, some decades ago...my in-laws used to take Mrs BF and I there for lunch now and then...
    Priscilla wrote: »
    To spend a penny? Or is that too dated?

    Possibly, but I can remember when a Penny was all one needed to gain access to the cubicle, which would often be all got up regardless with Tiles, Lead Pipes, a Chain, Brass, Shiny Paper, no expense spared...
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited October 24
    ETA:

    Us gents didn't have to spend a penny if we just needed a Jimmy (Jimmy Riddle = piddle). The facility was free...
  • quetzalcoatlquetzalcoatl Shipmate
    Bobs your uncle, and if he didn't have balls, he'd be your auntie. Doesn't rhyme.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    That's because it isn't rhyming slang:

    https://theslangpodcast.com/what-does-bobs-your-uncle-and-fannys-your-aunt-mean-in-british-slang/

    Garn 'ome, an' git frimed!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Usual SE English hegemony. What about numpty, hallion, scunner, dwam, craic, stooshie, wheen, clanjamfrie?
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    Usual SE English hegemony. What about numpty, hallion, scunner, dwam, craic, stooshie, wheen, clanjamfrie?

    Gallus?
  • Celtic KnotweedCeltic Knotweed Shipmate
    Sandemaniac wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    Usual SE English hegemony. What about numpty, hallion, scunner, dwam, craic, stooshie, wheen, clanjamfrie?

    Gallus?

    Glaikit; dreich; sleischter. That last has been spelt phonetically and IIRC was heard by my parents (Aberdeen & Peterhead) from an Edinburgh proff they were working under in Aberdeen...
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Sandemaniac wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    Usual SE English hegemony. What about numpty, hallion, scunner, dwam, craic, stooshie, wheen, clanjamfrie?

    Gallus?

    Or come to that, galluses.
  • AmosAmos Shipmate
    I wonder how much Cockney rhyming slang is still used; hearing more MLE (Multicultural London English) from the under-fifties.
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    In the Antipodes, yes.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    By "Antipodes", do you mean "Sarf of the River"?
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    Oh come on BT, even you know I’m referring to Oz🙄
  • SighthoundSighthound Shipmate
    The full explanation of 'berk' (a foolish or unpleasant person) is better not set out in a polite forum like this.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    Sojourner wrote: »
    Oh come on BT, even you know I’m referring to Oz🙄

    Of course I do - I was Being Naughty!
  • Jane RJane R Shipmate
    Surely Bjorn Stronginthearm is your uncle?

    But seriously...

    Shoogly, haar, peelie-wallie (Scots, not sure I spelt the last one right)

    Petrichor*, snickelway, gate** (Yorkshire)

    *has been borrowed into standard English but was originally a dialect word
    ** means 'street' in York
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited October 25
    Narrow lanes in Norfolk are Pightles or Lokes.

    High streets in Suffolk are often Thoroughfares.

    My Scottish wife-to-be got annoyed with me when I didn't understand what she meant by "snibbing" (= bolting) the door.
  • mark_in_manchestermark_in_manchester Shipmate
    Baptist Trainfan wrote: »
    Narrow lanes in Norfolk are Pightles or Lokes.

    High streets in Suffolk are often Thoroughfares.

    When I came up here from Essex, I learned that 'alleyways' were 'ginnels'. And the whole thing of placename-new(or old)-road was something new for me. But I guess this is dialect and not idiom.

    Regarding rhyming slang - the only people using it when I was a 1980s teenager were slightly-posh-Essex-people-trying-to-look-like-they'd-done-more-than-pass-through-Stepney-East-on-the-train. Looking at you, Ian Dury. But yes, the 'innit bruv' thing has rolled over the 'awigh' ma'e' sound (sorry, saahnd) of my youth in a way I could never have seen coming. People spoke like me and my mates for tens and tens of miles around. The regional variety (Manchester-Bolton-Chorley or Manchester-Salford-Wigan(!)-Liverpool(!!)) up here was a big surprise.
  • RockyRogerRockyRoger Shipmate
    Can I offer twittens and snickerts?
    Oh, and, 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    There's a Gervase Phinn school inspector story about that.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Phinn? Or Fen?
  • Stercus TauriStercus Tauri Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    Usual SE English hegemony. What about numpty, hallion, scunner, dwam, craic, stooshie, wheen, clanjamfrie?

    There's 'thrawn'. I'm not sure if I can define it precisely but I know exactly what it means. Perhaps 'miseryguts' comes close, but possibly both broader and more intense; beyond one's desire to reach. I'm thinking of a landlady in Edinburgh, yea these many years past.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    edited 8:27AM
    Firenze wrote: »
    Usual SE English hegemony. What about numpty, hallion, scunner, dwam, craic, stooshie, wheen, clanjamfrie?

    Sleekit, dreich, bùrach (and my favourite derivative 'cluster bùrach').
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    Phinn? Or Fen?

    Phinn.
  • Alan29Alan29 Shipmate
    Bizzies is local slang for police. Ginnel for a back alley.
    I rather like the local habit of prefixing the names of supermarkets with "the," as in "I'm going the Asda."
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    Here in Cardiff, people alighting from the bus say, "Thank you, drive".
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Let me see if I can remember this right:

    An English friend asked me if I could explain what a hootenanny was
    I explained it was like a shindig
    but more like a hoedown.
    That's when his face went cattywampus.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Caissa wrote: »
    The first three are fairly common in Canada. The second and third if you ever eat British "cuisine".

    I work with an Aussie so I often learn Australian idioms, as well. Most of the British idioms I have learned are from classic murder mysteries.

    Could I ask why you felt the need to put "cuisine" in inverted commas there?
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Let me see if I can remember this right:

    An English friend asked me if I could explain what a hootenanny was
    I explained it was like a shindig
    but more like a hoedown.
    That's when his face went cattywampus.

    Whereas clearly it was a ceilidh.

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