Ship Simulator
English forum => Small talk => Topic started by: TerryRussell on May 31, 2008, 11:12:41
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Interesting how it changes by country.... This could be fun to find out! You guys curious about any expressions over here?
This thread is for RMS Gigantic to let us Brits (and Ozzies and Kiwis and others) know what US equivalents exist for various expressions commonly used here.
First few:
- In one ear and out the other
- You've made a right dog's dinner of that one
- I'm off down the rubba to sink a few
- Well, Bob's your uncle, then
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This thread is for RMS Gigantic to let us Brits (and Ozzies and Kiwis and others) know what US equivalents exist for various expressions commonly used here.
First few:
- In one ear and out the other
- You've made a right dog's dinner of that one
- I'm off down the rubba to sink a few
- Well, Bob's your uncle, then
The first expression is the same in the US. I do not know what the others refer to, though....
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I'm British and i've never heard anyone say "I'm off down the rubba to sink a few"... perhaps its a regional saying.
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I'm British and i've never heard anyone say "I'm off down the rubba to sink a few"... perhaps its a regional saying.
I'll confess to having a head start. My wife is from Edison, New Jersey (we met in New York).
Off down the rubba...
Ruba-dub-dub, three men in a tub = Cockney for "pub".
Sink a few = "drink a few" as in pints of beer.
All best London expressions, common right down to the depths of Walton-on-Thames. If you haven't heard that one, you're either too young or you need to get out more ;D
"Bob's your uncle" = It's completed correctly.
"A right dog's dinner" = made a compete mess of that.
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Sink a few = "drink a few" as in pints of beer.
Hi Terry,
I'm from Portsmouth and I have certainly said and done that. ;D
"A right dog's dinner" = made a complete mess of that.
"A pigs ear" has the same meaning.
Regards, Dave
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"A right dog's dinner" = made a complete mess of that.
"A pigs ear" has the same meaning.
I tend to say say: you've c***ed that up big time ::)
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not sure if any of those others have US counterparts.... I know a mess is sometimes reffer to as a pig stigh, but that's about it.
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I tend to say say: you've c***ed that up big time ::)
Oh, yeah! Similarly in the US, we say "messed up" or "screwed up", or the swearers might say "****ed up", or things along those lines.
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Do you call someone who is a bit Mad (not in an institutional way) a "loose cannon"?
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Do you call someone who is a bit Mad (not in an institutional way) a "loose cannon"?
yep.
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"A pigs ear" has the same meaning.
Regards, Dave
I think this comes from the saying that, 'you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear', meaning that you can't make something from nothing. I could be wrong but we do tend to take a part of an adage, (or old saw?), (the sows ear bit), and make something else out of it.
The only reference I could find was here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Byron , which is from the USA.
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Do you call someone who is a bit Mad (not in an institutional way) a "loose cannon"?
Around here, we call them "Fred" ;D.
But really, a loose cannon would be somone whose reactions won't neccessarily be those required by the "higher ups" (Bosses and so on). They would tend to do something different to what their company (or Platoon Leader, etc) might want.
The expression comes from the days of Naval Warfare. Imagine: You have loaded your cannon to fire at the French/French/Spanish/French/Dutch/French/French etc. It takes a few seconds for the fuse to burn down to the gunpowder. Your cannon is not properly secured and the ship rolls on the waves (of course). A loose cannon would roll backwards and forwards and when it fires, that cannonball could go anywhere.
Hence the term "loose cannon".
Some other expressions used in the UK for "mad" are:
Loopy
Crazy
A bit of a loon
More expressions:
Dead Chuffed
Top notch
U/S
Bodge Job
Any of those familiar in the USA?
In the USA would you call the doctor who analyses a mad person a "Trick Cyclist"?
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not sure if any of those others have US counterparts.... I know a mess is sometimes reffer to as a pig stigh, but that's about it.
Here a "pigsty" would be somewhere that is very untidy. Not quite the same as "dog's dinner", which is about doing something incorrectly. "Screwed it up" would be similar to "made a dog's dinner of it".
Hi Terry,
I'm from Portsmouth and I have certainly said and done that. ;D"A pigs ear" has the same meaning.
Regards, Dave
Round the corner from you, here in Selsey every 3rd house is pub.
In the UK, I think we have more slang expressions for "drunk" than anywere else in the world. I won't list them all here, since some might be classed as swearing, but here are some:
pickled
soused
cranberried
... as a newt (first word is often implied rather than stated)
Brahms and List
a bit Brahms (see above)
rat bottomed (cleaned that one up!)
and on it goes.
Any US equivalents?
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Terms for drunk here includes things like "wasted", "blitzed", "tipsy", "hammered", "smashed", etc.
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Yep, we have all of those as well. "Tipsy" being only slightly drunk, and hardly qualifying for us, as Brits.
Not forgetting the ever-popular "pie-eyed".
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Yep, we have all of those as well. "Tipsy" being only slightly drunk, and hardly qualifying for us, as Brits.
Not forgetting the ever-popular "pie-eyed".
wow... I never knew you guys actually refered to yourselves as "Brits"....
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wow... I never knew you guys actually refered to yourselves as "Brits"....
Don't forget, I have a wife who I imported from Edison, New Jersey. That may seriously affect my outlook on life...
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ahh....
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Around here, we call them "Fred" ;D.
::)
Heh heh
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More expressions:
Dead Chuffed
Top notch
U/S
Bodge Job
Any of those familiar in the USA?
Top Notch is the others I haven't heard of.
BTW it is funny you call of "America" when really we refer to it as the United States (and don't really care about the "of america" part)
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BTW it is funny you call of "America" when really we refer to it as the United States (and don't really care about the "of america" part)
I hear and see plenty of United Staters call it America though. I guess it's like with our country.. Some might prefer to call it the Netherlands, others prefer to call it Holland. Personaly preference in most cases perhaps. ;D
Fred
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I hear and see plenty of United Staters call it America though. I guess it's like with our country.. Some might prefer to call it the Netherlands, others prefer to call it Holland. Personaly preference in most cases perhaps. ;D
Fred
Well in this "region" I never hear "america" :p
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;D
Well yep, I do agree that most of the time I hear/see people call it the United States. But yeah, it's not uncommon for it to be called America by Americans in my experience.
Oh well, not that it matters of course.. We all know what country is meant, no matter which one is used. ;D
Fred
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To continue the small talk, at least in French, US citizens are called "Américains", which is also a valid definition for all Americans, and that is also why "America" is often used instead of "USA". Some people begin to use "les Etats-Uniens", as a variation with a slightly different meaning.
Somewhat like inhabitants of the "Pays-Bas (NederLand)", for which there is no related name (les Pays-bassais, Pays-bassiens, Pays-bassistes, ...), so that they are called "Hollandais" although everyone knows (or ought to know) that Holland is a region of the Netherlands (I think :D ).
How do citizens of the USA, or elsewhere, call the people of the EU? European Unionists?
8)
Luc
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Here we might call the USA "America", but when you add countires such as Brazil and Mexico etc, collectively we would often call them "The Americas".
But confusingly, we would only call people from USA "Americans". Someone from Brazil would be "Brazilian".
But obviously, all Americans are "Yanks", whether from the northern or southern states.
That terms comes from the friendly insult made by the Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania to the surrounding British. The Brits called themselves "John Bulldog" (meaning hard as nails). The Dutuch called them "John Cheese" (meaning soft as cheese).
To a British ear the Dutch sound was like "Yankees". Fred may be able to say Jan Cheese for you to hear if you listen loudly enough... Eventually, the British "back home" in Blighty called their counterparts in teh Americas "Yankees", now "Yanks".
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But obviously, all Americans are "Yanks", whether from the northern or southern states.
:o You did NOT just call me a yank did you. :o
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Yep.
Any my Wife and two sisters-in-law and my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. To us Brits, all Yanks are Yanks. ;D
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Yep.
Any my Wife and two sisters-in-law and my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. To us Brits, all Yanks are Yanks. ;D
:-X :o
Bad boy! :P
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That terms comes from the friendly insult made by the Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania to the surrounding British. The Brits called themselves "John Bulldog" (meaning hard as nails). The Dutuch called them "John Cheese" (meaning soft as cheese).
To a British ear the Dutch sound was like "Yankees". Fred may be able to say Jan Cheese for you to hear if you listen loudly enough... Eventually, the British "back home" in Blighty called their counterparts in teh Americas "Yankees", now "Yanks".
Actually Terry, I was always told/taught it's the other way around.. Yankee(s) was the name that the British called the Dutch settlers.
The OED suggests the most plausible origin to be that it is derived from the Dutch first names "Jan" and "Kees".
Those were and still are common Dutch first names, and also common Dutch given names or nicknames. In many instances both names (Jan-Kees) are also used as a single first name in the Netherlands.
The word Yankee in this sense would be used as a form of contempt, applied first to the Dutch and later also to the English settlers in the New England states.
Another speculation suggests the Dutch form was Jan Kaas, "John Cheese", from the prevalence of dairy-farming among the Dutch settlers. Although this is not a popular theory.
Another theory says the term refers to the Dutch nickname and surname Janke, anglicized to Yanke and "used as a nickname for a Dutch-speaking American in colonial times". By extension, according to the theory, the term grew to include non-Dutch American colonists as well.
The term Yankee now means residents of New England, of English ancestry, although that was not the original definition.
I never heard the John Bulldog vs. John Cheese theory before. Isn't that just a cover up to hide the fact that you called us names back then? ;D ;D (Yes I know.. everyone called everyone names back then.. oh wait... and still does today)
Regards,
Fred
(source: my history lessons at school, backed up by wiki to refresh my memory..) ;D
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Fred
I would suggest that your explanation is nearer the truth than Terry's!!
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Fred
I would suggest that your explanation is nearer the truth than Terry's!!
What proof do you have?
I was given that nugget of information by two professors at Princeton, New Jersey who had spent around 30 years of research time between them studying the phonology and morpology of such sayings.
And your source is what, exactly? ???
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I'm not sure about his proof Terry, but my explaination comes from the history professors back when I still had potential.. Well.. in a manner of speaking.. But I wasn't cut out to be a scholar, really... ;D
Plus the EOD, wiki, and a large number of "origin of words/sayings" websites. On which I never encountered the Bulldog vs. Cheese theory to be honest. ;D
All the most popular theories, apart from it being a native american word for 'coward'. (Aenke, IIRC) speak of the Dutch being called that, not the English.
And I of course don't want to insult those professors you speak of, au contraire, but the people who presented us with those popular and much heard/read theories are of course also life long experts on the subject, obviously.
Furthermore, the term "John Bull" as in Johnny Bulldog, is not as old as the term "Yankee"
"John Bull is a national personification of the Kingdom of Great Britain and England, originating in the creation of Dr. John Arbuthnot in 1712, and popularised first by British print makers and then overseas by illustrators and writers such as American cartoonist Thomas Nast and Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, author of John Bull's Other Island."
But the term Yankee is older.
"The use as a nickname for a person is attested to from the 1680s. The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, an archive of British government documents, has this from 1683:
They sailed from Bonaco..; chief commanders, Vanhorn, Laurens, and Yankey Duch."
(translated back from english those would be Van Hoorn, Laurens and Janke, who's nickname was Yankey Duch)
"And from 1684:
A sloop...unlawfully seized by Captain Yankey. "
(Janke, the same guy as above, who was a pirate, and in this case, obviously seized a British sloop.)
So Yankee, although in an earlier form, is refered to well before John Bull even exsists.
I've gotten this info from various websites about the origins of words, wiki, the EOD and online dictionaries, and although no one is 100% sure, I can find no mentioning of the bull/cheese theory on any of them.
So sorry but I am sticking with my explaination, mate. ;D
Regards,
Fred
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Hi Fred.
I wasn't doubting you, my friend.
Your posts are always reliable! Even when made whilst eating Marmite while riding a unicycle.
As to which set of learned professors is right, who can tell? As with all academic postulations, they are based on research which can never be conclusive, and the conclusions reached can only be based on opinions.
To be honest, I don't actually care which set are correct and we can never know.
It just irritates me when some random person comes along and implies that I'm a fool. You of course, have never done such a thing!
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Terry
I was not implying that you were a fool at all, Lord forbid. I was simply saying that I thought that Fred's explanation was more likely, especially as Jan Kees (Cees) are Dutch forenames. I suspect that there is no one in the world who can give an absolutely correct definition and thus anything else is speculation.
Sorry if I offended you, why would I do that to some one else from the South of England?
Regards
Mike
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Hi Fred.
I think you may be agreeing with the "Princeton Two". The point in my post was that the Dutch in Pennsylvania started calling the English what sounded like "Yankee". Most likely that came from an older usage of the term. Perhaps the "John Cheese" was a clever bi-lingual joke. Rather good if it was, and hope that is so.
Eventually, as some settlers and "higher ups" returned to England, the British started calling anyone in America "Yankee". So your information doesn't contradict what I was told. In fact it rather supports it. No doubt the Princeton Profs knew all of this information and a lot more, in great detail.
The sequence works.
As to whether it happened that way or not, who can tell?
But without John Cheese, there would be no Monty Python as we know it.