Slate, the online magazine, asked me to write a piece about my experience doing Not One-Off Britishisms. I had been thinking I should really weigh in on What It All Means, so this gave me the opportunity to cogitate on the matter. It was a bit challenging, since in this and most cases, I’m a lot more interested in observing that and how than in speculating about why or (even worse) weighing in on whether the phenomenon is good, bad or somewhere in between.
But I wrote the piece and you can read it here.
Just a couple of things to add. First, while the headline (“The Britishism Invasion”) is spot-on, I did not write an am not pleased with the subtitle, “Language corruption is a two-way street.” “Corruption” is such a harsh word.
Second, the comments–342 at last count–are a trip. A few are dopey, but most are right in the spirit of this enterprise, adding interesting comments and suggestions for future entries. (Shag seemed to keep coming up.) Also, not a few pointed out that I made an embarrassing mistake–I had the plural of corpus as corpi, which apparently is not a word, rather than corpora. Hey, I don’t know Latin and I’m not a linguist. I don’t even play one on TV.
I heard directly from quite a few people with interesting things to say. One of them was Helen Kennedy, the first journo, according to my unscientific investigation, to use go missing to refer to Chandra Levy’s disappearance. Her e-mail had the subject line “You made my day!” and began:
I always knew I would amount to something, and having some small part in the downfall of American English – well, could one be more subversive? No, one could not.
I’m half-American and half Irish, raised in England and Italy. I am CONSTANTLY having to turn to my colleagues to ask if “advertizing” has a Z here, etc… I genuinely had no idea that “gone missing” was not regular Ammurican.
So “go missing” was (arguably) blown to these shores, like some exotic seed, by someone who learned it in the U.K. As has been observed before, the Internet sure is something.
Great article. I found about it through metafilter.
So…how about “remit”? ‘Fraid to say my wife will use it when we’re feeling a bit poncey.
And since my entire family enjoys MasterChef UK, we will occasionally or regularly say pudding (“That’s a good pud”), aubergine, courgette, minced beef, fillet (rhymes with grill it) of beef, spring onions…I’m sure there are other bits and bobs.
What is “remit”?
From the OED:
noun (chiefly British): the task or area of activity officially assigned to an individual or organization:
“the committee was becoming caught up in issues that did not fall within its remit”
Heard a lot on Spooks or other British dramas with govt as part of the plotline.
For many uses of remit, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/services/channels_radio.shtml
For the record, I spent quite a bit of time puzzling over the meaning of NOOBS until it finally dawned on me that it’s short for Not One-Off Britishisms. And no, that doesn’t make me a dolt (though I suppose it does make me a NOOB, at least around here) because NOOB has a long established history in Internet slang as a shortened, deliberately corrupted form of Newbie, which in turn is short for anyone who’s new to a website or forum or otherwise laughably clueless about some feature of the Internet or its culture or of a software program. Anyway, the cognitive dissonance I experience when seeing “ABOUT NOOBS” in your header menu — not to mention Faux NOOBs in your right nav — is quite vexing. I’m guessing you’d never have adopted this misleading acronym if you hadn’t been an Internet NOOB yourself.
Ben,
Has ‘dick about’ or ‘dicking about’ not on your radar yet?
Essentially means messing about instead of doing a job properly.
Des: “dicking around” — with the same meaning you’ve assigned to “dicking about” is definitely a familiar term in the US — though it may well be antiquated. Commonly used 40 years ago, less so now. What *has* come on strong is the use of “dick” as an insult equivalent to “jerk” or “asshole” … a sorrowful development for me, because my given name, Richard, once lent itself quite nicely to the nickname Dick — as it did for my father. I like to think of Dick as a nickname that’s still in fond (or at least nonpejorative) use in the UK … is it?
not since richard milhous
The use of the word “about” instead of “around” sounds more British to me than the words “dick” or “dicking,” the meanings of which can vary. I might say, “Stop dicking with that,” if someone was handling an object irresponsibly, and I might say “Quit dicking around,” if someone were being lazy, but the choice of adverb is what strilkes me. An American who says, “Why is he hanging about,” instead of “Why is he hanging around” would almost certainly be putting on airs. I may ask what you’re talking “about,” while we’re hanging “around,” but I will never ask what you’re “on about” because that is “about” the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.
I’ve heard it more as “faff about”, or “fanny about” when I lived in the UK recently…
I never heard anyone using the term “dick about” growing up in the UK or any of my family in the Northeast, perhaps it was a southern thing. I agree with Mike, most of the time we used the term “faffing about”.
It might be more of a sothern thing as ‘He is just dicking about’ was around a bit when I was growing up but must admit I cant remember hearing it for a few years now.
Not a southern thing as far as I’m concerned, its not something I’m familiar with either.
I don’t see an entry for “ahead of,” which I suspect is a Britishism, taking over for our American “before,” as in this, from Huffington Post, today: “Ahead of the first presidential debate this Wednesday, the Obama campaign has rejected the idea that the president will be hurling any ‘zingers’ at opponent Mitt Romney.”
“Ahead of” is journo-speak, I’ve heard it a lot on the BBC. I guess they think it sounds less prosaic than “before”
Can I put in a good word for “twat”?. The Wiki entry reveals an interesting history, relating in particular to the poet Robert Browning. What it doesn’t mention is that not only Disraeli found it funny, but so did Gladstone-hardly a man to break into a smile!
I believe the word is not used at all “over there”.
haaark: I don’t have access at the moment to my compact OED, but based on your good word for “twat” I have to believe it *must* have a radically different meaning in the UK from the one it has over here, where it is considered a vulgar term for describing a woman’s vulva. Am I missing something?
“Twat” as a term of abuse for a fool in Britain does literally mean “vagina”, as does “berk” (though this is Cockney rhyming slang). The ubiquitous “prat”, on the other hand – which serves the same function – literally means “arse” (which in itself can also have the meaning of “fool” over here, an “ass” – meaning “donkey” – being a much milder term).
It seems to be a recent change in usage I remember when I was a kid that “twat” simply meant an idiot, a numpty, in recent years it seems to have acquired a vulgar meaning. But thats definately in the last 15-20 years by my reckoning.
Well, if in the UK “twat” has become the functional equivalent of “prat” — a word I’ve noticed used repeatedly in the Harry Potter novels, mostly by Ron Weasley — I can safely say it’s not used in the US in remotely the same way. Indeed, I rarely hear anyone use the word “twat” in any context. Those inclined to misogyny are far more likely to use the word “cunt”, which in my book is equally vulgar.
The final word you mention is the most obscene one possible in the UK – the others are really euphemisms for it (as is “fanny”, though in a chiefly physiological sense). I don’t think there is any misogyny involved – “prick”, “dick”, “knob”, etc. are similarly used.
I’ve used the word twat usually for when I’m describing a person I’m really, really not happy with , as in “that twat over there” or “you twat”. In this context if you really put emphasis on the word, it sounds and is meant to be, vicious. As an aside to this there was an apologetic, embarrassed explanation for the word (probably from television), usually used when heard by a female nearby – twat is a pregnant trout madam.
If nothing else these unhappy exchanges about “twat” and its brethren strongly suggest Ben Yagoda won’t be blogging about them any time soon on this site. There’s clearly a chasm between informal abusive language in the UK and the US — and it’s entirely possible American English is impoverished in this respect. “Twat”, “git”, and “prat” are unknown here, and if “twit” gets some play it’s likely institutional memory sustained by Monty Python’s memorable “Upper Class Twit of the Year” sketch. I’m uncertain what we in the US use in place of these assaults; the best I can do on short notice is “douchebag”, “dick”, and “asshole”, though even these aren’t interchangeable (e.g., only a particularly flagrant dick qualifies as an asshole). If Great Britain and the United States are two countries separated by a common language, nothing illustrates the separation better than how we word our insults.
Not so much unhappy as fascinating. As you suggest, “twat” is probably a little rich for Ben’s blog, but it would be brilliant if he picked up “plonker” on his radar.
“Back-endish”. A topical Yorkshire word describing the garden just now. A dank misty chill in the air, damp leaves all over the place. The remains of the bedding plants still trying to produce flowers.
“T’back end” is an expression I used to hear all the time – and a valuable one for the lapse of the year – but here in Norfolk it’s rare. Nothing, of course, to do with the “back ends” mentioned above.
rfhartzell- regarding the word “cunt,” I worked ina pub in Chicago where everyone but myself was pretty much right off the boat from Dublin, or Limerick, or Cork, and they threw that word around at eachjother a lot. I explained to them that in America, it is about the most offensive thing you can say whether you are referring to the female genitalia literally or using it as an insult. It’s something you call a woman that you really HATE. When I asked one of them sit sit their “fanny” down and chat with me, however, I got a real roast, I can tell you, which needed an explanation!
Just watched a documentary called “A wolf called Storm” in which the Canadian(?) writer and narrator Jeff Turner uses the term “to leg it”, ie the wolves were legging it after a buffalo. I’m sure this must be a Britishism – certainly one I’ve used since my teenage years. It sounded really out of place in his piece. You would “leg it” after a bus or away from someone about to do you harm, but I’d never leg it after a buffalo!
The OED has “leg it” as “Scottish and dialect”, and gives the first citation as 1601. I guess there are plenty of people with Scots heritage in Canada, but I’m with you in finding this usage something of an understatement. Presumably he was talking abut the American bison – buffaloes tend to be slow moving creatures.
What’s different about genital insults in British English is that whether they’re describing male or female bits, they’re almost universally directed at men, which might be why they’re seen in blighty (rightly or wrongly) as less misogynistic.
Twat.
Also a *verb* as in “to twat someone” – to hit. Certainly in London, and Birmingham.