Talk:British slang

Word Suggestions

3 Words I know you don't have:

• Daft- Stupid, simple, or dumb

• Chuffed- Delighted.

• Tosh- Rubbish.

• Gormless- Dumb.

Some others just in case:

• Bevvy is beverage.

• Kip is a nap

• Dekko is a look/ peek

• Banger is a sausage.

98.124.14.83 (talk) 00:46, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Deletion Tag

• I have nominated this article for deletion. The deletion discussion page can be found here. bwmcmaste (talk) 23:47, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe this article should stay on a deletion tag status, unless someone can argue otherwise on here. The list is untidy, obviously and forever incomplete, and could easily be a link to a website as a footnote on British English or American English. Jmlk17 07:53, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

It should be deleted, not least because at least a fair portion of that list is not strictly 'English slang' but rather some local clique's own 'slang'. Either the list should be removed, it should be cut down to the more classic examples, or the page should be deleted. Right now it's a mess. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.14.149.140 (talk) 14:35, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I do not support deletion. Instead I propose merging this article (which has useful material, albeit without citations) with English slang Testbed 14:58, 12 May 2007 (UTC)Testbed

The article should be fixed, not deleted. This is an important topic. Furthermore, anybody can challenge a prod deletion by removing the tag, therefore this edit means the page was incorrectly deleted. I quote: "You may remove this message.... if you otherwise object to deletion of the article for any reason.... If this template is removed, it should not be replaced." (emphasis added)

Furthermore, any admin can reverse a prod simply by restoring the page, which I have done.

I would urge editors to remove any non-encyclopedic crap from this article, rather than deleting it. I'm quite certain it's a valid topic. --kingboyk 13:00, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

"spelling" section

I'm seeing a couple issues here, but I'm too tired at the moment to fix them:

1. The phrasing with 'British'/'others' doesn't really work for me... If by 'others' you mean 'Americans', then say that. And as a rule, avoid implying that ~all~ Americans/others can't understand it. I understand it just fine. Also, in general I don't really think it's appropriate to focus solely on differences with American slang/spelling... if that's your focus, change the section header.
2. Format your tabular data as a table.

--Alynna 07:12, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Barney

A Barney is an argument, often with minor physical aggression but not actual assault. It certainly predates 'the flintstones'. Brunnian (talk) 13:50, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Nowt,Owt

These are dialect, rather than slang. Brunnian (talk) 05:04, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Snog

Added Snog to words with no equivalent. I figured that Make out was two words and didnt count as an equivalent. Im surprised this wasnt already on here. 71.176.134.94 (talk) 17:43, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

'Snog' is currently equated only to 'french kiss', which I think is nonsense. I've always understood that 'snogging' was any act of clothed intimacy, involving kissing, cuddling and carressing. Brunnian (talk) 13:48, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Scally

I don't thik that 'Scally' is a synonym for 'chav'. A Chav is a pretentious fashion victim from the underclass, whereas a Scally is someone who tends to take a casual attitude to law, particularly the law of private property. Chavs are a Thames Estuary phenomenon, Scallies seem to mainly be from the banks of the Mersey.Brunnian (talk) 10:10, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Just like to point out:

Some of the "American equivalents" are words used in practiacally every English-speaking country in the world, including the UK. Therfore this article is inaccurate. Please do something to change this. AlmightyClam 11:48, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

• I agree. The slang terms ought to be translated into plain English not American English otherwise it needs to be nominated for deletion...--Camaeron (t/c) 16:32, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Let's have a bit fairness!!

I notice that much is made about the validity of an article on British Slang and whether it should be deleted. Which I hasten to add is fair enough, as I think most of it's not encyclopedic really.

But my gripe is about level playing fields...you see last year some american reviewers deleted the whole article on scrotes. An english perjorative that is regularly used to describe thuggish types bent on trouble. It irked me that in the discussion for deletion. One editor remarked that the article on scrotes was just a piece of trash writing masquerading as fact. Yet there are dozens, if not hundreds of similiar articles written about american slang, racial perjoratives and the like.

Take for example propably one of the most controversial and provactive nouns in the English language - the word nigger. There is a huge (some might say ridiculous) wikipedia article about this noun.

When I suggested that this article should be deleted. Instead to be replaced by a simple dictionary note I was told by an american editor that Wikipedia does not make moral judgements only 'factual' ones.

Therefore it seems that if it's deemed by the majority to a minority issue - the majority wins!! Apparently it would therefore be right to summarise that american slang and racial perjoratives remain on Wikipedia due to their high use in the county of origin. As opposed to British ones that are only used in the UK or Ireland!!

If British slang is to be deleted or even discussed about deletion then all similiar english language articles on slang/perjoratives/venacular should also be included.

American Slang

Why do we have to have it being compared to American slang? The world doesn't revolve around your bloody country, you know! Can't we have one column for slag and another for the Queen's English? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.2.121.15 (talk) 13:49, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

I edited the page. Don't revert it unless you can give a VERY good reason. I also removed the word faggot because that's more of an American word anyway.

Definition of "slang"

Hey all, Im going to make an objection against some of the words listed as British slang, as slang by definition is a synonym used by a minority, whereas I agree with most of the words given as slang terms, I do have to object to the following:

pips pram queue rubbish

My basis for objection is that these terms are said/written/accepted by the majority (if not all) of British people, and the American equivlents are not accepted as correct as per the Chambers English Dictionary, so by definition the terms are not slang, there just correct English vs American English (which is based on British English rather than vice versa).

So technically trash and stroller are slang terms, and line and seeds are not accepted as correct English in the context given in the article.

NB this isnt meant as a jive at Americans. Sorry to rant, but I think the definition of slang needs a rethink DannyM (talk) 23:34, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

WP:V

It would be great to see some references on this. Anything unreferenced can be removed. I intend to do so in a while if no improvement is forthcoming. --John (talk) 01:35, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I would hazard that every one of these entries can be found in a standard dictionary and also in Rogers' Profanosaurus, to which I have added a link. Brunnian (talk) 21:14, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

English or British

The page is called British slang, but I can see no words from Wales or Scotland Brunnian (talk) 12:22, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I imagine this list is slang commonly used and understood throughout the UK, not dialect words.Gymnophoria (talk) 14:12, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Does anybody care?

This article is a mess, lots of common slang terms are missing, and some of the definitions given are inaccurate. Does anybody care enough to do something about it?--Ykraps (talk) 22:22, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland

There are scant few instances of specific words outside of England in this list. Whilst I am sure the members of the celtic home nations would understand and recognise these list, I think they are a lot less prone to actually using them than, say, someone from Macclesfield. I am adding a line to indicate this, but it's going to be a bit clumsy. 189.216.249.195 (talk) 04:37, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Remove the list of words from this?

This came up a few times during the delete discussion - does anyone actually object to moving the list of words here to a new List of British slang words or deleting it? It is terribly incomplete, and in some places mistaken. --Pugwash (talk) 21:46, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I would be against deleting completely. The reason this article is incomplete is because some editors routinely delete additions to it because they are uncited or 'not just British', although I don't understand the relevance of that reason. I myself had 'crap' deleted as soon as I added it, the reason given was that it was more of an Americanism. As the word crap, in the English language, predates the discovery of America by some 200 years this is of course bollocks but I'm not prepared to get into an edit war over it.--Ykraps (talk) 10:17, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

To take your example of "crap", the edit summary in its removal was "not slang, not just British". Nothing was said about it being an Americanism, which it is not. If you misrepresent the plainly visible edit history of this article in such a way, no wonder the verifiability of your edits is questionable. The term "crap" is vulgar in reference to excrement but it is not slang, although you could call it slang when implying something is of poor quality. However it is also in widespread use throughout the entirety of the English speaking word so what would be the point of listing it in an article specifically on British slang? If you don't understand the necessity for citing information, this is fundamental so please familiarise yourself with WP:V. Mutt Lunker (talk) 11:20, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Apologies, you're quite right, I didn't bother to read the edit history before making that comment but the argument is still the same: Just because a British slang term is used outside the British Isles, it doesn't mean it's not British slang. Bloke is as widely used in Australia as it is in Britain but it is still British slang and thus belongs in article about British Slang. I appreciate your argument regarding crap not being a slang word when used to mean excrement or faecal matter, but it certainly has a slang sense when used to describe something as worthless or nonsense and so also belongs in the article. I can't recall whether I referenced it or not but it could easily have been referenced by anyone within arms length of dictionary which would have been the more constructive thing to do. Out of the 5 referenced words in the article you will note that I referenced 3 of them so I think your comments on that score are a bit harsh particularly in light of my other contributions. The only reason I edited this article was to drum up some interest in it as noted on the talk page and it was never my intention to make a serious contribution to it. By all means add appropriate tags to the article but I think wholesale deletion is unnecessary and discourages others from contributing. Sorry if I said anything to inflame you, that was not my intention and I hadn't even remembered who the editor was when I made those remarks. Regards--Ykraps (talk) 17:41, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for replying. Several points:

Your examples of "crap" and "bloke" are useful illustrations. I think it unlikely that there are any varieties at all of English that do not commonly use the word "crap", so it is in effect universal slang and pointless putting in an article dealing with specifically British slang. Anyone viewing will think "what's British about that?". On the other hand, with "bloke", the usage is not exclusively British but is considerably more restricted in its usage. As far as I'm aware it's not used at all in e.g. North America or in Indian English, so there would be a case for its inclusion here. I removed "crap" as it is not a suitable example, being universal, rather than British, slang, not that it was uncited. I'm not going to reach for my dictionary to cite something I think should not even be there.

I'm not referring to your edits but like certain other types of article this has been a repository for edits which are unknowledgeable, downright wrong, dubious and obscure examples, examples which are not slang, not notably British, slang notably from somewhere other than or which actually has a different meaning in Britain, highly regionalised terms, original research, prevalent but incorrect folk etymologies, back etymologyies, misc. puerile edits and poor and non-illustrative examples of usage. Most of the worst has been cleared out but it, if not careful, it is a constant magnet for crap, in the slang sense. The list requires a bit of work now but in the past, much of it was absolutely dreadful.

Regarding citations, I have just had a look at some more of your edits and want to take the example of your derivation for "tart" as coming from "sweetheart". That sounds plausible and interesting - and worth adding back in if you can cite it. It could however be a popular folk etymology with no basis in fact and if it is in this work of reference, as a user I want to be confident it is the former. If I stuck a a fact tag on that, don't take it as an indication I think it's wrong, it's that I think it's interesting but want to know if it's true. Mutt Lunker (talk) 19:39, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying your position. I can see how this article might attract immature editors keen to show off their extensive vocabulary. Collins English Dictionary (third edition) makes reference to tart being a shortened version of sweetheart so I'll probably put that back. I'm still not convinced that slang used in other countries should be excluded, particularly if its origin is British but I have no wish to get into an argument about it, not having particularly strong feelings. This is not a favourite article of mine by a long chalk but I may drop by from time to time if I think of anything to improve it. Incidentally, Michael Quinion's book, 'Why is Q always followed by a U?', claims that 'bloke' was common in the U.S. up until the late 19th century but that it is now almost unknown. Best--Ykraps (talk) 08:19, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Useful edits this morning and one thing that occurred to me, purely from the changed appearance, is that the increased number of superscripted citation numbers makes that section look more credible and, who knows, it might make some of the drive-by bollx merchants think twice before supplementing it with nonsense. Yeah, who knows...

It's not my view that "slang used in other countries should be excluded". It's not that simple and differs to an extent from case to case, partly on how widespread its use is outside the UK, the origin of the term etc. If it is used everywhere else it is unlikely to be worthy of inclusion, unless, say, the wider use is recent or , say, if the article was more in depth and dealt with the historical spread of words as well. Re "crap", that is of sufficiently early origin that English wasn't spoken outside of Britain so all slang then was also by default British slang. Mutt Lunker (talk) 14:45, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

.......Or it might encourage other editors to improve it. I'll carry on adding citations as and when I can.--Ykraps (talk) 07:35, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Indeed it might. Mutt Lunker (talk) 09:58, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Brown-nose

I grew up in the UK, and left for the U.S. in 1966. I quickly encountered this wonderful term, which I guarantee wasn't known in the UK back then. So much American speech has made its way into Britain in the last 40-some years, and resident Brits, even of my generation, don't recognise it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.148.133.240 (talk) 15:55, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

The citation is from Collins but, not having the print edition to see if it denotes origin or usage, I checked the online version but it doesn't list the term at all. Chambers reckons it "especially US". Mutt Lunker (talk) 17:23, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Initially I took the term from an online dictionary of "..English Slang and Colloquialisms Used in the United Kingdom". As I didn't consider this a reliable source, I cross referenced with Collins which on a second look, doesn't give an origin. Quinion is of no help as he doesn't even list it. I am therefore removing it pending further investigation.--Ykraps (talk) 09:10, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

According to The Cassel Dictionary of Slang (Green, 1999.), brown-nose is 1930s US military jargon. I am still undecided as to whether it should go in the article or not. The lead clearly states, "British slang is slang used in Britain...."; which brown-nose is. The British equivalent from around the same time is 'brown-tongue' so perhaps I'll insert that instead (excuse the innuendo).--Ykraps (talk) 08:47, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

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All wind and piss

• Is there any proof that "all wind and piss" originally referred to false pregnancy? Here the "piss" is an accumulation of liquid which had built up inside the uterus and comes out (along with gas) at the pseudo-labour. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 21:34, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

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Arse

Arse is not a slang word, it's Old English, from aers. If anything the American ass is slang, since it's a corruption of the original English word.Gymnophoria (talk) 14:13, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

You are quite correct that arse is not slang but ass is not American in origin. It was used in England to mean backside, from at least the 16th century (long before America was populated by English speaking Americans). There is a pun in 'A Midsummer's Night Dream' where a weaver named Bottom is transformed into a donkey (ass). If you think this article is a mess, perhaps you ought to visit London Slang where several mainstream English words are being passed off as slang.--Ykraps (talk) 20:55, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Arse and ass are the same word. The different spellings just denote pronunciation differences in different English dialects. --Ef80 (talk) 18:32, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Drug references

The vast majority of slang drug terms in this article are unreferenced and certainly not in general use. Some serious pruning is called for. Ef80 (talk) 18:27, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Ass cheeks do it

Mitch 24.32.65.121 (talk) 05:57, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

Not listed at wikt:mitch. Don't you mean arse? Martinevans123 (talk) 11:38, 2 June 2024 (UTC)