Multicultural Slang (in English) and Meanings

[Lifestyle66]

I (American from rural Pennsylvania, and yes, the particular portion of the U.S. matters) have had a fascinating discussion with someone in London (Kumquatqueen).

In the U.S., we say "I'm on the prowl" when indicating a guy going out for the night looking for a (U.S. parlance) "hook-up" or a "one-night-stand" or "I'm looking to get laid." Basically: the guy is wanting to find a girl to fuck. In the U.K., they use the term "pull" as in possibly meaning "pulling the short straw" and being the one to provide sex? (I need to do more research on the etymology of the slang.)

For example: In my experience in the past (American soldiers dealing with Brit soldiers), they say "fag" meaning a cigarette, while to us U.S. yanks, that implied a gay male!

Kumquatqueen wondered whether a beta-reader was correct when saying pumpkin pie has no relationship with Halloween in the U.S., even though Halloween includes decorating pumpkins! (No. Pumpkin pies are a Thanksgiving dessert almost a month later.)

Now, let's hold a civil discussion of what we've learned with international or inter-cultural references to enhance our writing next stories.

Give an example of a slang term with a different meaning to others, or an anecdote of a misunderstanding we can all use to improve our understanding each other.

 

[Voboy]

One word, two VERY different transatlantic meanings: "fanny."

 

[Lifestyle66]

One word, two VERY different transatlantic meanings: "fanny."

Let's communicate. Tell me what YOU saw as the difference or miscommunication.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Use this as a guide:

In the U.S., pumpkins are decorated for Halloween before Oct 31. But pumpkin pies are a traditional dessert for Thanksgiving holiday almost a month later! Pumpkin pies have NO relationship with Halloween.

Or...

In the U.K., I heard "fag" meaning a cigarette, but in the U.S. it meant a gay male!

But, don't take any offense. This is intended to be an academic exercise!

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I used to work in a hospital and a lady came over from England to work for the summer. She noticed one woman had a big red rooster on her t-shirt and said, "Oh, my what a lovely big cock!" Ahead of us in the cafeteria line, two gay guys' heads spun around trying to see where the cock was.
She smoked too, and knew there was no smoking allowed in the building. Right after she'd that, she blurted, "Oh, I'd kill for a fag right now!" The two gay guys looked at her and smiled coyly, and she asked me why they were looking at her funny. I explained it all to her while we had lunch. A girl we worked with was also called Fanny, and she told her that her name in England meant pussy, which was a pretty big shock to Fanny.
We had a lot of laughs with my English helper that summer, while she kept saying things that had us in stitches.

 

[Voboy]

Let's communicate. Tell me what YOU saw as the difference or miscommunication.

Oh. Sorry. I assumed everyone knew this.

In the States, fanny is a rather innocuous term for butt. In the UK, it most definitely means pussy.

 

[ElectricBlue]

As an Australian writer this pops up all the time. The way I look at it is this - I know most of the American usages (that come up in these threads, at least) through reading, movies, Google (so I don't need translation); so I don' t bother thinking it's my job to explain - it's your job to understand. I don't Americanise my word usage, and never will.

Add Strine to your word mix, and the examples are far to numerous to elucidate.

As an aside, fag has been pejorative for gay male probably since the sixties (fifties even?), although both slangs (cigarette and sexual) have tracked alongside each other for decades.

 

[XerXesXu]

In the U.K., they use the term "pull" as in possibly meaning "pulling the short straw" and being the one to provide sex? (I need to do more research on the etymology of the slang.)

'pull a bird' = score,

Possibly from the practice of grabbing the girl of your choice by the arm and dragging her off the dance floor saying, 'Get your coat, you're pulled.'

'have a pull' = wank.

Possibly from 'pulling your plonker'.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Last time I was in England, only a few years ago a kid asked if he could pinch a fag. Knowing what he meant, and that he wasn't asking if he could pinch someone's butt, I told him I didn't smoke. Sounds like fag is still used for cigarettes there and possibly also for weed.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Yes, a fag is still the standard term for cigarette in the UK (tabs or smokes are regional terms), and 'to bum something' is a standard phrase meaning to cadge or try to get for free. My boss was once at an event in a foreign country with an American who knew the local language, and asked the American, "Can you help me bum a fag?" ...



Would Americans say "he scored", meaning "last night he went to a bar with the intent of finding someone wiling to have sex with him, and he succeeded in this objective"? I start second-guessing every slang word after a while, but this one always reminds me of football (ie soccer) commentators going "He shoots! He scores!" But if you go somewhere 'to score', that means acquiring drugs. Subtle distinction.



Generally I'm used to understanding American - even without seeing my family each year I grew up watching Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo and the Flintstones, Sesame Street, Dynasty and Dallas - but I struggle to go five minutes talking to my cousins without them going "wait, what?" Lack of exposure plus lack of culture where wordplay is expected.



Still get the odd surprise - when I first heard the word fanny pack I thought it might be a euphemism for a tampon, then remembered where American fannies are, and gave up. (in Scots or NI, a fanny is roughly the same as a loser, but Brits can also fanny about, ie faff or arse around).



Or the time I got back to the family gathering in 38 degree noon heat (about 100F) and went "God, I need a drink!" and a couple guys looked at me funny before one said "A bit early for alcohol, isn't it?"

"Who said anything about alcohol? Not in this weather - where's one of those ice machines?" Transpired they actually say the word beverage for non-alcoholic drinks, which I'd only ever see in legalistic writing (including alcoholic drinks), though having a few bevvies probably means pints of beer.



Britain does seem to have a better range of insults - prat, plonker, tosser, git, wuss, toerag, wanker, barsteward, fuckwit - off the top of my head. I've read a lot of American novels where there's lots of asshole and motherfucker or just you fuck, and felt a distinct lack of imagination involved (stuff like Jack Reacher, Cornwell, Sidney Sheldon) - and the 80s sonofabitch seems to have gone out of fashion.



It really scuppers your ability to insult family, having to explain what you just called them. And fine-tuning is a nightmare. Is a jerk more or less of an a-hole than a tosser or wanker? Is a wuss more derogatory than a wimp? And I know enough never to call anyone a cunt in America...

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Two countries separated by a common language. - GB Shaw

 

[Smuttyandfun]

True, the C word is the ultimate insult, aimed at a either sex. Usually only used in heated arguments, like in traffic when someone does something really stupid.

My other half and I lived in Asia for a number of years. Whenever we were invited to dinner parties, I'd be fascinated by all the different names for things, depending on where the other people were from, although we were all speaking English. Being from places like Hong Kong, Britain, the U.S., Canada, Australia or South Africa, we all had different names for the same things.

Someone mentioned a new dual carriage way was going in, and I pictured a carriage- like the Queen's- of course, lead by a team of horses. But quickly realized that they were saying a new highway was going in.

Same for a foot path. In North America I would think of a well-worn path, maybe out in the countryside. I discovered it was what we would call in North America, a sidewalk.

Someone mentioned getting a push cart for their new baby, and I thought back to what dad talked about as a kid. These contraptions little boys would build to play with on the street, with reclaimed wheels and whatever they could find to sit on. And the carts were always pushed by a stick at the back to get them going. (Which I doubted she wasn't going to use for her new baby, or at least hoped not). I asked, "Do you mean a stroller?" as we'd call them here. Someone else said, "No, that's what old people use to help them walk." I said, 'We call that a walker." A British lady said, "In the UK, they're called Zimmer frames." And I was told a cane is called a walking stick. In England a baby's stroller, is called a pram. Which I remember as an old term, for a high end perambulator or fancy baby carriage that you rarely see anymore.
We never did figure out exactly what the lady was buying for her baby. But we had fun realizing how differently we actually speak.

In Hong Kong, a friend of ours was moving back to Australia, and she had three children to get ready and was running out of time. I offered to help put out their clothes to get dressed, after their mother had bathed them. It was cool out, so I asked their seven year old daughter if she wanted to wear an undershirt. I had to explain what that meant, and she said, "Oh, you mean a singlet." Then I asked if she wanted to wear a sweater, and she didn't know what that meant, so I showed her one that her mother had packed. She rolled her eyes and said, "That's a jumper. Don't you know anything?" I tried to think of other names for the rest of her clothes, likes leggings or pants or jeans or whatever, and finally she gave up on me, called down and told her mother that I didn't know anything, so I really wasn't helping.

Talking about drinks. In Canada it's pop, in the U.S. it's soda, and other places it's called a soft drink. In Britain and in Hong Kong they refer to Sprite or 7up as lemonade, but we think of a drink made from fresh lemons, water and sugar as lemonade, or limeade, if it's made with limes. Apparently, even getting something to quench your thirst can be tricky, if you're saying it wrong!


Funny how we all speak English, but almost need a dictionary from each country, to know what we're trying to say to each other.

 

[Voboy]

I've never thought American English does insults well. We also lack "taking the piss [out of]," and we have no real analogue that conveys the same sense. That's a linguistic tragedy.

Hemingway, I think it was, once described Spanish as "a language rich in insults." It's a phrase that has always stuck with me. It's one of the reasons I'd love to be bilingual: I want to know what it's like to think about insults in other ways. I started thinking about this in high school German class, when my teacher tried to convey how insulting "fressen" was when applied to human. "Since it's a verb used only to refer to animals." The human equivalent is "essen," and I remember marveling that just two extra words could turn a mundane verb into a towering insult.

 

[PennameWombat]

Yes, a fag is still the standard term for cigarette in the UK (tabs or smokes are regional terms), and 'to bum something' is a standard phrase meaning to cadge or try to get for free. My boss was once at an event in a foreign country with an American who knew the local language, and asked the American, "Can you help me bum a fag?" ...

Bumming something, to mean asking for it with the implication it wouldn't be paid for, used to be more common in American English. At least it was when I grew up (1960s, 1970s). It was used occasionally by a few of my older relatives, but almost exclusively older males.

Would Americans say "he scored", meaning "last night he went to a bar with the intent of finding someone wiling to have sex with him, and he succeeded in this objective"? I start second-guessing every slang word after a while, but this one always reminds me of football (ie soccer) commentators going "He shoots! He scores!" But if you go somewhere 'to score', that means acquiring drugs. Subtle distinction.

Yes. "Went to the club last night and scored with a hot chick." But, the meaning 'to score' in managing to acquire recreational drugs isn't so far off. In both cases, it means to acquire something of a slightly less than wholesome nature.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Other languages do some pretty fancy swearing, some of which is lost on me.

Tabernac, in French Canada is like saying Fuck or calling someone a Fuck, though it refers to a Catholic Communion host container. It's one of the worst swear words in Quebec.

Porco cane in Italian is a huge insult. In English it means Pig-dog or piggish dog. It's even worse if you combine it with dio, then you're really being nasty and vulgar.
Piccolo cazzo or little dick, is also pretty insulting. It's usually used like asshole in English.
Brutto figlio di puttana bastardo or Ugly son of a bitch bastard (Hit every nerve with this one)
Intro culo di mammata or Up your mother's ass (Two for one, insults you along with your mother)

Puta, Puttana, curva, are all interesting ways to call a woman a whore that are mostly internationally understood.

English has a few basic swear words, but other languages tend to have more colorful ways to be insulting, often taking swipes about ones looks or intelligence or background, more than just referring to sex or body parts.

 

[PennameWombat]

Oh. Sorry. I assumed everyone knew this.

In the States, fanny is a rather innocuous term for butt. In the UK, it most definitely means pussy.

I have a tale around this. Although it involves Australian English, but it has the same usage of 'fanny' as UK English.

About twenty years back, I was sitting in San Francisco airport waiting for a flight to Sydney. I've no clear recollection how, but I started talking to a couple of women who were in their forties. To cut to the chase, they were part of a group of eight (or so, recollection is fuzzy) American women who were going to Australia for some sort of 'holiday' related to riding horses and such. None had ever been Down Under before.

The discussion got to slang, and one of the women said as she held up her, ahem, fanny pack, "Our hostess told us to call these 'bum bags,' but wouldn't explain why. Do you know?"

So I got to explain to a group of middle-aged American women that 'fanny' referred to, well, a different part of their anatomy than they likely had in mind. The discussion moved on to the different meanings of 'root.' I recommended they not tell anyone "I like the look of that football team, I'll root for them." Unless, well, they were interested in such an endeavo(u)r. If so, go for it. And, yes, they'd been initially confused when the Aussie side had set up their 'holiday', until they worked out it meant 'vacation.'

So, 'root.' In UK/Aussie/others, it means 'to fuck.' In American English, it means 'to cheer for your team.'

And, 'randy.' Although Americans, like other English dialects, do generally know it can mean 'horny,' it's also a not so uncommon proper name in American English. My Australian wife finds its use as a name hilarious.

 

[XerXesXu]

English has a few basic swear words, but other languages tend to have more colorful ways to be insulting, often taking swipes about ones looks or intelligence or background, more than just referring to sex or body parts.

The art of taking the piss, at its best, is to be arch, subtle and very polite, so the conversation has moved on before the penny drops.

 

[Handley_Page]

True, the C word is the ultimate insult, aimed at a either sex. Usually only used in heated arguments, like in traffic when someone does something really stupid.

My other half and I lived in Asia for a number of years. Whenever we were invited to dinner parties, I'd be fascinated by all the different names for things, depending on where the other people were from, although we were all speaking English. Being from places like Hong Kong, Britain, the U.S., Canada, Australia or South Africa, we all had different names for the same things.

Someone mentioned a new dual carriage way was going in, and I pictured a carriage- like the Queen's- of course, lead by a team of horses. But quickly realized that they were saying a new highway was going in.

Same for a foot path. In North America I would think of a well-worn path, maybe out in the countryside. I discovered it was what we would call in North America, a sidewalk.

Someone mentioned getting a push cart for their new baby, and I thought back to what dad talked about as a kid. These contraptions little boys would build to play with on the street, with reclaimed wheels and whatever they could find to sit on. And the carts were always pushed by a stick at the back to get them going. (Which I doubted she wasn't going to use for her new baby, or at least hoped not). I asked, "Do you mean a stroller?" as we'd call them here. Someone else said, "No, that's what old people use to help them walk." I said, 'We call that a walker." A British lady said, "In the UK, they're called Zimmer frames." And I was told a cane is called a walking stick. In England a baby's stroller, is called a pram. Which I remember as an old term, for a high end perambulator or fancy baby carriage that you rarely see anymore.
We never did figure out exactly what the lady was buying for her baby. But we had fun realizing how differently we actually speak.

In Hong Kong, a friend of ours was moving back to Australia, and she had three children to get ready and was running out of time. I offered to help put out their clothes to get dressed, after their mother had bathed them. It was cool out, so I asked their seven year old daughter if she wanted to wear an undershirt. I had to explain what that meant, and she said, "Oh, you mean a singlet." Then I asked if she wanted to wear a sweater, and she didn't know what that meant, so I showed her one that her mother had packed. She rolled her eyes and said, "That's a jumper. Don't you know anything?" I tried to think of other names for the rest of her clothes, likes leggings or pants or jeans or whatever, and finally she gave up on me, called down and told her mother that I didn't know anything, so I really wasn't helping.

Talking about drinks. In Canada it's pop, in the U.S. it's soda, and other places it's called a soft drink. In Britain and in Hong Kong they refer to Sprite or 7up as lemonade, but we think of a drink made from fresh lemons, water and sugar as lemonade, or limeade, if it's made with limes. Apparently, even getting something to quench your thirst can be tricky, if you're saying it wrong!


Funny how we all speak English, but almost need a dictionary from each country, to know what we're trying to say to each other.

The term 'pram' (a short-form for Perambulator) is generally applied to both types of wheeled baby-moving things.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Talking about drinks. In Canada it's pop, in the U.S. it's soda, and other places it's called a soft drink. In Britain and in Hong Kong they refer to Sprite or 7up as lemonade, but we think of a drink made from fresh lemons, water and sugar as lemonade, or limeade, if it's made with limes. Apparently, even getting something to quench your thirst can be tricky, if you're saying it wrong!

Thing is, in Britain we're used to people from different regions talking about fizz or pop or ginger, or,from Scotland, juice, to mean soda/pop. And parts of England use juice to mean squash (fruit flavoured drinks like non-alcoholic cordial or Koolaid, only you mix them up from a concentrate (it's been squashed, see?) about 1 to 10 with water).

And 'council pop' (council being the local government) is tap water. Council telly is the free-to-air TV channels.

I'd defend Brits against anyone to make colourful insults "about ones looks or intelligence or background" - 'looks like the back end of a bus' (ie fat), 'face like a bag of spanners', 'room-temperature IQ' 'who put 50p in the idiot?' (when someone is talking lots of crap - remember the arcade machines where you put coins in the Laughing Policeman or whatever machine), references to places in say a Croydon/Essex/Rotherham facelift (hair pulled back in a ponytail so tight it tightens the skin, associated with chavs - trailer trash, basically).

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The term 'pram' (a short-form for Perambulator) is generally applied to both types of wheeled baby-moving things.

Here it's only the large lay-flat ones, and the word buggy is taking over to mean both them and pushchairs (and stroller is used for the simpler type of folding pushchair used for older toddlers until they can walk full time), mostly because buses had to have signs up stating baby buggies get priority in the open space on a bus, unless a wheelchair user needs it. Still having court cases over how much enforcement bus drivers need to do of this... but don't get me started on the Equality Act failings not those of the ADA...

 

[Lifestyle66]

True, the C word is the ultimate insult, aimed at a either sex. Usually only used in heated arguments, like in traffic when someone does something really stupid.

...
Talking about drinks. In Canada it's pop, in the U.S. it's soda, and other places it's called a soft drink. In Britain and in Hong Kong they refer to Sprite or 7up as lemonade, but we think of a drink made from fresh lemons, water and sugar as lemonade, or limeade, if it's made with limes. Apparently, even getting something to quench your thirst can be tricky, if you're saying it wrong!

The C word in the U.S. depends upon the context, and any man shouldn't use it when talking to a woman unless he intends to insult her. Calling a woman a cunt is definitely an insult, probably because you're defining her as a person. But I've heard even some woman refer to that part of their own anatomy with "Fuck my cunt!" (in the throws of passion.)

As for the term "pop" referring to soda, that's also common in parts of the U.S. such as rural Pennsylvania or parts of New Jersey.

 

[BritStories]

Thing is, in Britain we're used to people from different regions talking about fizz or pop or ginger, or,from Scotland, juice, to mean soda/pop. And parts of England use juice to mean squash (fruit flavoured drinks like non-alcoholic cordial or Koolaid, only you mix them up from a concentrate (it's been squashed, see?) about 1 to 10 with water).

And 'council pop' (council being the local government) is tap water. Council telly is the free-to-air TV channels.

I'd defend Brits against anyone to make colourful insults "about ones looks or intelligence or background" - 'looks like the back end of a bus' (ie fat), 'face like a bag of spanners', 'room-temperature IQ' 'who put 50p in the idiot?' (when someone is talking lots of crap - remember the arcade machines where you put coins in the Laughing Policeman or whatever machine), references to places in say a Croydon/Essex/Rotherham facelift (hair pulled back in a ponytail so tight it tightens the skin, associated with chavs - trailer trash, basically).

Love these. I can definitely out myself as a child of the 70s, growing up in the 80s by using the insult that someone or something was 'well BT' (i.e. out of order as in British Telecom phone boxes that you'd have to trudge down the road to get to to call anyone when you were out, only to find it had an 'out of order' sign on it).

I can also out my location by talking about bread rolls as 'batches' (which the city 30 miles down the road wouldn't understand), or by saying someone was looking 'gone out' (vacant behind the eyes), yet will talk about going 'round the Wrekin' when taking the long way round (which is a hill 65 miles away that locals presumably had to walk around rather than going over back in the olden days). I love how some sayings travel within counties/regions/countries, yet others stay specifically local. Roundabouts in the middle of the road are 'islands' round here too, which really wound my southerner husband up when he first moved north of the Watford Gap.

 

[Voboy]

Love these. I can definitely out myself as a child of the 70s, growing up in the 80s by using the insult that someone or something was 'well BT' (i.e. out of order as in British Telecom phone boxes that you'd have to trudge down the road to get to to call anyone when you were out, only to find it had an 'out of order' sign on it).

I can also out my location by talking about bread rolls as 'batches' (which the city 30 miles down the road wouldn't understand), or by saying someone was looking 'gone out' (vacant behind the eyes), yet will talk about going 'round the Wrekin' when taking the long way round (which is a hill 65 miles away that locals presumably had to walk around rather than going over back in the olden days). I love how some sayings travel within counties/regions/countries, yet others stay specifically local. Roundabouts in the middle of the road are 'islands' round here too, which really wound my southerner husband up when he first moved north of the Watford Gap.

I grew up without roundabouts, and my brother and I first encountered one on a family trip to London around 1992. I remember asking a nice person for directions, and trying to explain where we thought we were relative to "that circle thing with all the cars." He nodded. "The roundabout, yes."

Now I live in a place that has them, but we call them "rotaries" and people around here don't really know how to use them properly. Because nobody knows how to drive anymore. But elsewhere in the country, "rotary" is a charitable organization. So you never know, even when talking about them.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Love these. I can definitely out myself as a child of the 70s, growing up in the 80s by using the insult that someone or something was 'well BT' (i.e. out of order as in British Telecom phone boxes that you'd have to trudge down the road to get to to call anyone when you were out, only to find it had an 'out of order' sign on it).

I can also out my location by talking about bread rolls as 'batches' (which the city 30 miles down the road wouldn't understand), or by saying someone was looking 'gone out' (vacant behind the eyes), yet will talk about going 'round the Wrekin' when taking the long way round (which is a hill 65 miles away that locals presumably had to walk around rather than going over back in the olden days). I love how some sayings travel within counties/regions/countries, yet others stay specifically local. Roundabouts in the middle of the road are 'islands' round here too, which really wound my southerner husband up when he first moved north of the Watford Gap.

Are you from Coventry?

 

[oggbashan]

As A child, I used to be fluent in Cockney because both my paternal and maternal relations had been cockneys in their youth, and my youngest uncle had a stall in Bethnal Green's market. But my cockney is decades out of date. Wher it used to have Yiddish words it now has words from the Indian Sub-continent and Jamaica.

Later I learned Llanito, the pidgin spoken only in and around Gibraltar.

In the early 1960s I was fluent in Australian slang specifically from Melbourne and because of C J Dennis and Banjo Patterson, the Australian slang of the 1890s to 1920s.

Later I learned the dialect of Portsmouth, and Devonport/Plymouth.

But because my staff were scattered around the UK I got used to Brum, Geordie, etc.

Now? I'm out of date in all of them. My daughters aren't.