UK/US Terminology Differences?

10 comments

• Book Guy

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  15 years ago

  The following are, as far as I know, all different on either side of the Atlantic: "incall" and "outcall" and "private house" and "brothel" and "club" and "swing" and "pissed" and ... the most deceptive of the lot ...
  
  "fanny."
  
• londonguy

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  15 years ago

  Chandler/Book Guy, will be glad to enlighten you. Knickers is the same as panties and to be pissed is to be drunk and loo is toilet, we never ask for the 'restrooms'. Fanny does mean the same as pussy though it is considered an old term for it now, most say pussy, twat or cunt. The attendant is just that, no fancy words for him. We don't say private house in UK, that is mainly a mainland european term. We don't have a name for the tip rail, high mileage is just called extras, full service is the same. On a non sexual note, we say pavement for sidewalk and petrol or diesel for gas. We don't say cops, we say police.
  
  We don't all talk like English portrayed in Hollywood movies either, we have a lot of regional accents.
  
  Any others? please ask.
• minnow

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  15 years ago

  Thanks for enlightening us, lg.
  
  On a more mechanical note, a US "valve" would be an English "cock". So, the manuals will say "open/close the cock" instead of the valve.
• londonguy

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  15 years ago

  minnow, we use both terms. Industry tends to use the term valve more than in the domestic sense. 'cock' is an old term really, people say 'stopcock' mainly when they are talking about isolating a water supply to domestic premises.
• Clubber

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  15 years ago

  londonguy,
  
  Some years ago I was in Ohio on business. As few of us went out at night for some drinks. One fellow from England, via Canada, asked, and I quote, "Where can a chap get a fag in here?" Needless to say, he were laughing the about that the rest of our stay.
• shadowcat

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  15 years ago

  The one I love the most is "knocked up". In the US it means pregnant. In the UK it means to telephone some one.
• londonguy

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  15 years ago

  Clubber, that did make me laugh, I bet he wanted the earth to open up. Shadowcat, you are mistaken with that one as it means the same over here. I once worked for a U.S. One of your terms that makes me smile is 'pantyhose', like where did that come from? 'Diaper' is another one that is unique to the U.S.
  
  Do you have expressions for saying someone isn't what they should be, i.e. a bit strange? Over here we say someone is 'two cans short of a six pack' or 'isn't the sharpest tool in the box'.
• Notsosly

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  15 years ago

  We say those, and there are innumerable possibilities...
  
  Just a few I hear often:
  --a few sandwiches short of a picnic
  --his elevator doesn't go to the top floor
  --not the brightest bulb in the chandelier
  --not playing with a full deck (as in playing cards)
  
  And a recent favorite to describe a homosexual man: "he's got some sugar in his gas tank" ...that one makes me laugh everytime.
• shadowcat

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  15 years ago

  LG, I knew that I had heard this before. From a Yahoo search. #26.knock up,
  a.Slang. to make pregnant.
  b.to exhaust; weary; tire.
  c.to damage; mar: The children knocked up the new table.
  d.to injure; wound: He was afraid to come home from school all knocked up again.
  e.British. to wake up; rouse; call: He knocked us up before dawn.
  
  Slang is always changing. I read an article a few years ago that American English was invading the UK. A lorry is now more commonly called a truck. etc.
  
• londonguy

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  15 years ago

  tuscl brother, nobody says willy instead of cock. Shadowcat, you are mistaken again, don't know where you are getting the info from but it's incorrect or outdated.