Favorite British colloquialisms

[Paul]

No doubt about it, my all-time, number one, nonpareil, top of the heap, the ultimate, the ne plus ultra....

Gobsmacked.

I've been aching for the perfect opportunity to slip it into my everyday parlance, but alas, my life seems sorely lacking in the element of surprise.

[JamesSavik]

whatdoesitmean?

[Paul]

whatdoesitmean?

Taken by surprise; uttlerly astounded.

"When I finally came out to Clive, my best friend since kindergarten, he told me he'd known for years and had been wondering when I was finally going to get around to it.

I was gobsmacked."

[blue]

Gobsmack is a great word, but somehow I didn't know it until a few years ago. I had to ask what it meant too, to be sure. It's used in Australia too.

[DesDownunder]

whatdoesitmean?

As blue says gobsmacked is used in Australia too.

I thought it was Australian?

"Gob" is a slang expression for mouth, hence to be gobsmacked is to be smacked in the mouth.

As this is usually an unexpected occurrence in life not to mention, in polite social circles it somewhat surprises the recipient.

By extension the expression has come to be used to describe a state of being surprised or dumbfounded by some circumstance or news.

Another term would be to say that a person was "bowled over" by a situation.

A more recent marvellous exclamation that expresses being "gobsmacked", is often used by the young with emphasis on the "up" is

"Shut UP!"

Which in its more usual context is what I will now do. :roll:

[Paul]

Here's an interesting link on the possible derivation of "gobsmacked."

[DesDownunder]

Here's an interesting link on the possible derivation of "gobsmacked."

Thanks Paul. Interesting to see the Scottish connection.

Also fascinating to see the derivation with "gab' as in "gift of the gab."

However in 1950's my mum would threaten me with a "smack in the gob" if I didn't keep quiet. So the connection to "gobsmacked" was certainly around then.

[blue]

Other forms for gob- have to do with the mouth, eating, or talking: to gobble, gobbler, to gab;

My printed dictionary omits "gobsmacked," but has several other gob- words. A gob, in those words, can also have the meaning, "something chewed or spit."

OK, that was way more than you wanted to know.

I bet you're gobsmacked!

[DesDownunder]

... "something chewed or spit."

OK, that was way more than you wanted to know.

I bet you're gobsmacked!

Fellatio will never be the same!

[Tanuki Racoon]

 

Fellatio will never be the same!

Yuck :)

Bollocks to you.

[Paul]

Other forms for gob- have to do with the mouth, eating, or talking: to gobble, gobbler, to gab;

My printed dictionary omits "gobsmacked," but has several other gob- words. A gob, in those words, can also have the meaning, "something chewed or spit."

OK, that was way more than you wanted to know.

I bet you're gobsmacked!

Initially, I had divined my own (and as it turned out, correct) sense of the term from the context in which I found it, but until I checked up on the derivations (gob=face), that's exactly what I had imagined; someone hocking up a good one and spitting it right in your kisser.

Funny the memories that stay with you long-term. I wasn't exactly gobsmacked that day, nearly 55 years ago, as all us little tykes were lined up on the stairs waiting to file back into kindergarten after recess. Suddenly I felt a cool, slimy sensation on the back of my neck. Some little shithead behind me had smacked his gob on me. Unlike a lot of childhood memories, which tend to be hazy mood-pictures, with this one I have a definite sense of location and circumstance. Maybe it's because it might have been the first experience I'd had of another kid my age deliberately being mean to me. Funny, though, I don't remember who it was. Maybe I blocked that out.

[Camy]

Gob Shite is also good (meaning a mouthy bastard or someone who talks crap) - 'That's a load of old gob shite' or you could mix and match - 'Fuck you you little gob shite twat or I'll smack you in the gob'. or 'that's a load of old gob shite.'

Gobbing means spitting with lots of phlegm, though you have to 'hawk' the phlegm up first... yelch.

'Mush' is also good - it means mouth 'shut your big fat mush' or alternatively a person can be a mush as in 'how are you doing mush?' or 'Oi! Mush!'

Then there is Cockney rhyming slang... Plates of meat = feat as in 'my plates are barking' or Apples and pears = stairs etc etc etc.

[Tanuki Racoon]

Besides Bollocks, Gobsmacked, various forms of Ass/Shite, there's always 'cor -- rather simple and quite useful. I like Oi! too -- I should probably use it in one of my chapters.

[Camy]

heh. Often used as 'Cor blimey!'

It's a wonderfully rich language we all have the pleasure of using... I really wish I could speak French or Spanish or any other language, but sadly languages are not my thing.

[JamesSavik]

I have my favorite British slang- they do have a way with words.

Git is my favorite. I heard Pete Townsend use it in a very good one liner on my car radio and I had to pull over. It's one of those words that needs no explanation.

Wanker is another such word that needs no explaination. You simply know a wanker when you see one.

Bollocks is a word that I had to look up as it confused me. There is a used car dealership and garage named Bollocks Motors in my town. After looking up what bollocks actually means, it seems quite appropriate.

Pissed is confusing as well. On the US side of the Atlantic, no one wants to get pissed (angry). On the Irish side of the Atlantic, everybody wants to get pissed (drunk).

Twee, or nauseatingly cute to the Brits, has no US analog that I can think of. I think we really should. That new boy-ban is so twee, I think I'm going to hurl.

Cheers!

:geek:

[Tanuki Racoon]

Git Wow. I didn't even know that was a britishism.

Wanker Listen, you just leave my hobby out of this.

Pissed It doesn't confuse me unless it's written. If it's spoken the accent will dictate meaning.

Twee I've never ever heard this.

[Paul]

'ello, 'ello, 'ello! What's all this then?

Git I 've been familiar with for ages, thanks to Monty Python.

Gor Blimey, for USA ears, was for years the quintessential stereotypical British exclamation. Movies depicting ordinary British blokes had them spouting it right and left. Apparently it's a corruption of God blind me. I hadn't come across the Cor vartiation, though.

Another one that's subject to misunderstanding these days is blow me, in the sense of "I'll be damned," or more directly, "Well blow me down." If you read P.G. Wodehouse, you'll often hear Bertie Wooster exclaiming, "I'll be blowed."

Bollix seems to derivation of bollocks. Here in the USA, you can say of someone who messed up some project, "He really bollixed that up," and few, if any, will realize the original reference.

You lot is one of my favorite Britishisms, in particular when spoken in an affectionate, mock-derisive sense, as when Mum calls out to the family, "You lot get cleaned up now, tea's about on."

[Tanuki Racoon]

This thread could get really long. Another Britishism I rather like is "kit" -- like when you're getting ready to play a team sport and you need to put on your kit.

[Tanuki Racoon]

You lot is one of my favorite Britishisms, in particular when spoken in an affectionate, mock-derisive sense, as when Mum calls out to the family, "You lot get cleaned up now, tea's about on."

Oddly, "YOU LOT" remains a current Britishism, but it actually was used many years ago here. I guess it came over from England and then as we stopped speaking proper English here, it faded away.

My two pence.

[DesDownunder]

I do not share a love for "You lot" as my experience has been with management using it when addressing staff to belittle and degrade them.

When used in this way it is usually spoken contemptuously in an attempt to assert authority.

Obviously Paul has a different association with the phrase. :)

[Tanuki Racoon]

When used in this way it is usually spoken contemptuously in an attempt to assert authority.

My Canadian relatives have used it at family gatherings as in "You lot get cleaned up, we'll be eating in 10...."

[Trab]

We Canajuns use pissed both ways, as in "My mum was pissed that I was pissed."

Without looking anything up as to derivations, I suspect that bollock or bollix may have something to do with bullock, which is related to bulls and balls and castration. Something in the line of "Don't ball it up" meaning "Don't do it incorrectly". This is used in Canada, eh.

I just remembered one of my favorites, "Brilliant".

I'd never heard of twee either. Should I even mention pronunciation? (eeether or iiiither)