Bob

Minger was rather funny, mate got caught say that about some chick, she turned out to be american and wanted to know what he meant, so he lied, said oh, nice chick, that sort of stuff....so probably being spread around the states with the wrong meaning *l*

CaliforniaBride

Ha! Reminds me of when I had been on holiday to Jamaica and someone asked me if everyone there lived in mud huts, I replied that only in so much as she did; bricks being mud. When she asked me if it was warm (further into the inane conversation) I said no, it had snowed (well I did go in December). She was amazed at the fact that it snowed in Jamaica, said she had never realised that. Really convinced her. Now I often smile at the thought of her trying to convince someone else in conversation. "No really, it does snow in Jamaica, I knew someone who'd been there..."

RedCoat999

This is a good site to give to your American friends/co-workers so they can understand you:


http://www.effingpot.com/

fatman

Mate is another word, Americans don't understand, I got baffled looks when I said "wicked, Mate" to shop steward, I think she might have thought I meant something else...

Bob

Fantastic...some people are really too stupid, the missus has loads of tales, but I can't say...

Bob

Hehe...aye, it's a funny ole country...nice link btw

fubar

at the other end of the spectrum...
put my foot in it at a bbq last year stating 'Rose (the wife) gets the hump when I'm late to bed'...she apologised on my behalf to a shocked couple who'd never met us before...

franc11s

What ? Bollocks ?

franc11s

Some might be used here but I haven't heard them used except around our friends.

Ding Bat
Cods Wallop
Rat Arsed
Diddly Squat
Kybosh (sp)

Thydney

They use it in 'Rescue Me' pronounced twot but comes up on captions as twat.

nai_in_av

I saw one on the way to work this morning on a truck "C Butt Ltd" which gave my inner child a little smile!

On the subject of bollocks, can anyone elses US other half (assuming you have a US other half) actually pronounce it? my wife says it "boh licks" which never fails to amuse me, especially when she is trying to be serious.

paddingtongreen

The two fingers of scorn originally had nothing to do with sex. I don't know whether it has any specific sexual meaning now. I suspect that the connection is vague. It originated with the French cutting the two fingers off the British longbowmen, if they caught them, so they couldn't shoot the bow again. The archers who still had them, showed them to the French in a gesture of scorn, before they shot their arrows at them.

dbj1000

I'm afraid not...

Pluck Yew Myth

paddingtongreen

Did you read it? it refers to the "middle finger salute", the one used here in the States. I agree that that makes no sense. I was refering to the British "two finger salute, these are the fingers used to draw the bow.

The article ends:
"Last but certainly not least, wouldn't these insolent archers have been bragging about plucking the bow's string, and not the wood of the bow itself?"

It could be that it is just a legend but there is no reason to suppose that the words were applied when the gesture developed. The article may be correct but not for the argument it makes. That applies to the single finger that, per the article, goes back to Roman times.

I don't buy the arguments that the knights wouldn't do that, the French army had yoemen as well as knights, plus the knights were frustrated because the archers decimated their ranks before they could get to fight properly.

TouristTrap

Use it all the time here in lilac-hair land....