Anyway, for my first post-England post, I thought I'd supply you loyal readers with an introductory course in British slang. Thanks to Ammon, Adam, and Lee at Fresh Egg, I now have a mastery of British terms that sound suspiciously like Fraggle Rock characters.
1. muppet [mup-pet]Thanks again to Fresh Egg for being my home away from home. I'll write up an in-depth article of my internship abroad and will hopefully have it up after Thanksgiving. Until then, look out for Jeff and Jane's coverage of PubCon coming soon.
As Ammon put it, a muppet is someone who "commits web design atrocities."
Ex. "Not only does that muppet's site only work with IE, it has a splash page and requires frames."
2. numpty [nump-tee]
Someone who, even after being shown all the evidence to fix something, still insists on doing it the wrong way.
Ex. "Michael Martinez is such a numpty." (Haha, just joking MM)
3. plonker [plonk-er]
A more socially accepted version of "d--k head"
Ex. "Those plonkers at Yahoo! wouldn't let me into their party!"
4. gobshite [gob-shy-tuh]
Someone who talks too much
Ex. "Rand, you gobshite! Stop sharing link building tactics on your blog!"
5. codswallop [cod-swall-up]
A load of bull
Ex. "Google's Page Rank is a load of codswallop."
6. naff [nah-f]
Dodgy, sketchy
Ex. "That was pretty naff of Matt Cutts to bring up politics at PubCon."
7. chav [chav]
Trailer trash
Ex. "Did you see that chav's MySpace profile?"
Heh, nice. But btw, Naff is more of just another word for "crap" really to be honest. We wouldn't use it for dodgy or sketchy. Or at least, not from round here.
But there from round here everyone uses stupid words like bare, to mean many, or missions (to mean far, a mission, and other stuff)...
Agree with deadmoon about "naff", it's more like lame or cheap tat IMO.
As a true (South) Yorkshire man I feel I should offer the following:
Mardy - As made famous by the Arctic Monkeys. Someone who's sulking
Chuff - Has several meanings and uses. Basically a polite version of the "F" word. "He's a right chuff" "Chuff off" "Chuffing Hell!"
I expect to see these peppered throughout SEOmoz from now on.
Little Britain is one of my favourites.
Here's my post about English slang from after my first trip last October. When I first met my husband I would be laughing for days about some of the words he used. Like ghastly. And blimey.
You can also add to the list "innit," "mate," "cheers," "bollocks," and "brilliant" - the five most overused words in England.
I wanted to go with terms I'd never heard before; hence all of your terms aren't usable.
Right, those are common innit? Alright mate. Cheers then.
that's so funny Rebecca.
I remember my first few months in England was very confusing as my English was good but they never teach you the slang at school. Man did I misunderstand a few things or two.
Like for example slang for a woman is "bird", I was really confused when these blokes were referring to the "very fit bird in the bar", I was looking very puzzled up at the ceiling for an actual bird!! Oh dear...
The word "chav" is used quiet alot here in the UK now, has anyone every seen a tv programme called "Little Britain"? It's pure class English comedy. One of the characters in the series is the perfect example of a chav - Vicky Pollard
Blimey! Rebecca said "gobshite"!
Haha nice post Rebecca!
In my first day here at Fresh Egg I already heard 3 of the 8 on your list. I am sure to be hearing them all very soon.
Except you forgot number 3 [free]! I had to ask Lee three times this morning what the password was to login into the interns computer.
Nice catch, BJ - I've got that fixed up now :) Next week, we send Rebecca to Siberia so she can learn how to count...
Is that where The Count is from? "One, one linkbuilding tactic, ah ah ah!"
I'll stand to be corrected, but I think that gobshite might have its colloquial origins in Ireland. Must look into it.
God knows we use it enough here :)
And I think Burberry is probably 'soooo last season' by now.
It is indeed from Ireland. And I'd say it's more someone who lets their mouth run away from them, rather than just talking.
LOL... funny post Rebecca... Glad you seemed to like it over here in the UK! Look forward to reading your write on the internship.
FYI... CHAV is supposed to be an acronym for 'Council Housed And Violant' and Burberry was their adopted brand of clothing!!
CHAV = Council House Adult Vermin ...
Nice one Rebecca!
I think we need a clarificaation on what a chav is, as an American whitetrash isnt quite a UK chav. If memory serves me right, the over use of burberry patterned clothing on women is a sign of a chav?
What say you UK readers?
I was told something along the lines of it's trailer trash that tries to dress stylish but overdoes it.
Yeh, close. Chavs: people who wear lots of burberry, white tracksuits for guys and girls, pink tracksuits for some girls, LOTS of fake gold jewelry, who say somethink instead of something. Also people who try and modify their cars, except that they're pathetic little shopping cart cars, so they look crap and sound like the exhaust is gonna fall off. And finally, the kind of person who'd call their child Bianca, Tiffany or Sharon if a girl, or Liam, Bradley or Ashton.
lets not forget ChavScum's "How To Spot A Chav" guide :p
This is hilarious, i actually lived in England for 3 months back in 2001 and didn't hear this one too much..I'd heard Pikey before which is white trash...
However after further clarification by Peter I would equate Chav here in the states as "Hood Rich" "Ghetto Fab" or "Redneck Rich" "Wiggers" "Wigger Bitches"
I once tried to explain to a friend what "common" meant in Brit-speak. The best I could do was to place it somewhere in the region of white trash... think of a girl named Sharon (whose friends call her Shaz), with stringy bangs (they call it a fringe) large hoop earrings, chewing gum, and a mini skirt. She says "me" instead of "my", can't pronounce the sound of the letter "h" and "nicks" things from grocery stores.