Questions for Americans

[Kumquatqueen]

and other non-Europeans. Some things one just can't ask the elderly rellies on Facebook....

Would a heterosexual man (mid 20s around 2010) understand the word 'felching', either immediately or after a moment to recall things he'd heard about in high school?

If someone invites you for a dram or a wee dram, what are they offering?

Are the words chap, bloke, geezer commonly understood? (they just mean guy or dude, geezer being older)

If someone comes home and tells their spouse they left the car outside number 19, would the reader be
a) confused,
b) understand that they live in an urban street without garages nor driveways hence leaving the car on the street and needing to tell your partner if it's not visible from the doorstep, or
c) understand the car is parked outside a different house but not why?

How likely is it that a smartly-dressed woman (in the last 20 years) would be wearing stockings rather than pantyhose? If she were in stockings and garter belt, might that be mere sartorial choice or is it pretty much given she is planning for someone to see under her skirt?

Would any American say 'pretty much?

I think US tights = UK leggings, is that a 1:1 correspondence?

 

[PennameWombat]

and other non-Europeans. Some things one just can't ask the elderly rellies on Facebook....

Would a heterosexual man (mid 20s around 2010) understand the word 'felching', either immediately or after a moment to recall things he'd heard about in high school?

Tough for me to answer (too old), I'd say not generally known, but not sure. There would be certain communities where it would be known, but general population, no.

If someone invites you for a dram or a wee dram, what are they offering?

Maybe. If they're into British TV and such, or have friends who are ex-pats from the UK (e.g., in the 1980s/1990s, a good friend of mine was Glaswegian, so the terms were common enough.) But if not, these will not be universal.

Are the words chap, bloke, geezer commonly understood? (they just mean guy or dude, geezer being older)

Reasonably so, although chap is least common. Geezer for Americans is "very old."

If someone comes home and tells their spouse they left the car outside number 19, would the reader be
a) confused,
b) understand that they live in an urban street without garages nor driveways hence leaving the car on the street and needing to tell your partner if it's not visible from the doorstep, or
c) understand the car is parked outside a different house but not why?

Depends. For example, one house number I had in the US was "3748", another was "132". So, it depends on where they live. So, b or c, maybe. It depends on the neighborhood, so a is also possible.

How likely is it that a smartly-dressed woman (in the last 20 years) would be wearing stockings rather than pantyhose? If she were in stockings and garter belt, might that be mere sartorial choice or is it pretty much given she is planning for someone to see under her skirt?

Again, I might be a bit old, but, it would be rare, unless she's someone daring or unusual in her fashion choices. As to the intent to offer views, only if she's an exhibitionist. It would more be for her lover to notice and/or discover at the appropriate time. I use them regularly in my (American set) stories, but also note that my characters who wear them are somewhat off the 'regular' path.

Would any American say 'pretty much?

Pretty much.

I think US tights = UK leggings, is that a 1:1 correspondence?

To my knowledge, essentially.

 

[YDB95]

Would a heterosexual man (mid 20s around 2010) understand the word 'felching', either immediately or after a moment to recall things he'd heard about in high school?

I was in my mid-30s in 2010 and I still don't know what it means, for what it's worth.

If someone invites you for a dram or a wee dram, what are they offering?

A shot of some spirit, usually whiskey.

Are the words chap, bloke, geezer commonly understood? (they just mean guy or dude, geezer being older)

They are to anyone with any exposure to British pop culture. If you want an American character to use those words, it'd be useful to make some mention that s/he likes British movies or novels or some such.

If someone comes home and tells their spouse they left the car outside number 19, would the reader be
a) confused,
b) understand that they live in an urban street without garages nor driveways hence leaving the car on the street and needing to tell your partner if it's not visible from the doorstep, or
c) understand the car is parked outside a different house but not why?

I think i'd understand what it means, but I'd be wondering why they said it that way. I would probably just say "I parked in the street". (Americans live on a street rather than in a street, but we do use "in" when it comes to parking cars by the side of the street, or at least my family always did.) Depending on how far from our house it was, I might also say which house, but I'd only use the number if we didn't know who lived there and if the house had no distinguishing features. ("I parked outside the Emersons" or "I parked down by the green house on the corner" would be more likely).

How likely is it that a smartly-dressed woman (in the last 20 years) would be wearing stockings rather than pantyhose? If she were in stockings and garter belt, might that be mere sartorial choice or is it pretty much given she is planning for someone to see under her skirt?

I'm a man, so take it with a grain of salt, but I'd say it's not at all unlikely. Most women I know hate wearing pantyhose (quite possibly second only to periods in terms of what they don't like about being a woman) and would gladly wear any alternative. As for garter belts, I don't know that I've ever seen an American woman wearing one.

Would any American say 'pretty much?

All the time, yes.

I think US tights = UK leggings, is that a 1:1 correspondence?

"Tights" are one piece, with a gusset, like pantyhose but usually colored. Stockings are separate, like sports socks. If a woman is fully clothed, you usually can't tell which she is wearing.

 

[SimonDoom]

50-something American.

Felching -- don't know what this is.

Dram -- small amount but don't know what it's equivalent to.

Chap, bloke--Americans don't use these terms other than to imitate Brits. "Good guy."

Geezer -- very old man.

Number 19 -- don't know.

A smartly dressed woman could wear either. I don't think stockings with panties would necessarily be considered risque.

Pretty much: pretty much.

I think of tights and leggings as generally the same. I think of leggings as possibly being a thicker material than tights.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I just looked up the meaning of 'felch.' I kinda wish I hadn't.

I thought my American awareness of Britishisms was average, but that was before I saw recently how many of my countryfolks are stopped dead by 'colour.' So my awareness of dram (wee or otherwise), chap, and bloke may not be as widely shared on this side of the pond as I thought. Geezer, though, may be universal.

Rewording the car-parking passage might be wise, but the context should be clear as it is.

Tights/leggings: What the above folks said.

I'm pretty sure (heh heh) that pantyhose(n?) are widely sold in the U.S. to this day, despite how women feel about them. If garter belts are marketed here even in catalogs for intimate garments, my wife has not informed me.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I just looked up the meaning of 'felch.' I kinda wish I hadn't.
.

Sorry. When dealing with insomnia and posting, I honestly didn't think that was the most obscure term! Not on this forum, at least.

Maybe it was just the schools I went to, but people sharing obscure sexual terms, the more gross the better, or the obligatory quizzing as to whether a word applied to you, was how we occupied our time without the internet.
(Eg 'Are you a virgin?' Yes = ha ha ha! Point and laugh, No = Ugh ! Point and act disgusted.)

I did spend teenage years in Brighton, then the only gay centre in Britain, where all pubs had signs demanding customers be over-21, for deniability if any underage gay sex happened on the premises, age of male gay consent then being 21, which meant they cared even less about the age of girls than other pubs. So in our bid to avoid the pubs our teachers drank in, and the usual men who liked groping teenage girls, my friends and I ended up in gay pubs. Which did mean I was used to going to the Ladies and squeezing round men who were mid-fuck. This may explain a fair bit of my sexuality, come to think about it!

Should I predict that the sexual meaning of 'rainbow' isn't widely known, either?

(adds reference to an afternoon reading the Urban Dictionary, to draft story)

Tights ie American pantyhose have almost died out over the last 20 years here - smart office clothing for women will be trousers, or a dress with black leggings (ie footless American style tights) underneath. In summer, just ditch the leggings (possibly keep cycling shorts, to avoid chub run). If I saw a woman in a suit with tights I'd guess she was either a lawyer or a receptionist in somewhere like a big financial firm. My impression is that many US companies still expect that level of formal dress.

As some people upthread have explained much better than I did, a woman in stockings and garter belt (what we call a suspender belt - I always do a double-take when my uncles talk about their suspenders...) is probably expecting a partner to see them.

Fascinating to read your responses, thank you all.

I didn't get an Ameri-picker to read through my Valentine's story as it was close to the deadline, so got the usual 'wtf?' but also amusingly a comment saying "Great story. Didn't understand a word of it, but loved it." I can only assume they skipped the sentences that weren't about blow jobs and gay sex, which to be fair wouldn't have made much difference to that story!

 

[PennameWombat]

I just looked up the meaning of 'felch.' I kinda wish I hadn't.

If garter belts are marketed here even in catalogs for intimate garments, my wife has not informed me.

I didn’t explicitly state, simply implied, on my original answer that I knew what ‘felch’ meant, am heterosexual and male, and learned about the term long ago, so definitely while I was decades younger and still living in the US. I do not recall the context of why or how I learned it, but clearly an American could know it.

Sorry. When dealing with insomnia and posting, I honestly didn't think that was the most obscure term! Not on this forum, at least.
<snip>

I think I know which meaning of ‘rainbow’ you’re thinking of here, the one that involves menstrual blood and oral sex? Picked up the term somewhere, since one woman I was intimate with long ago didn’t, um, warn me before I, uh, dove in… didn’t know the term then, but some things stick with you.

As to panty hose, their status in the US seems to have tracked with much the rest of the world. In other words, while still readily available, where they’re worn depends (in addition to flight attendants) as you note and are worn much less than before. But garters and stockings are still very, very niche. In my younger days, I never met a woman who wore them except for ‘special occasions.’ And that would be beyond a simple night out.

As to garters vs. suspenders, in a story I did set in Australia, ‘garter belt’ is actually commonly enough used here, so I had my characters touch on that (also allowed me to ensure American readers understood.)

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

and other non-Europeans. Some things one just can't ask the elderly rellies on Facebook....

Would a heterosexual man (mid 20s around 2010) understand the word 'felching', either immediately or after a moment to recall things he'd heard about in high school?

If someone invites you for a dram or a wee dram, what are they offering?

Are the words chap, bloke, geezer commonly understood? (they just mean guy or dude, geezer being older)

If someone comes home and tells their spouse they left the car outside number 19, would the reader be
a) confused,
b) understand that they live in an urban street without garages nor driveways hence leaving the car on the street and needing to tell your partner if it's not visible from the doorstep, or
c) understand the car is parked outside a different house but not why?

How likely is it that a smartly-dressed woman (in the last 20 years) would be wearing stockings rather than pantyhose? If she were in stockings and garter belt, might that be mere sartorial choice or is it pretty much given she is planning for someone to see under her skirt?

Would any American say 'pretty much?

I think US tights = UK leggings, is that a 1:1 correspondence?

I've been married to a Brit 'chap' for nearly 25 years now so most of this is clear to me. The first time hubby explained to me what 'Felching' is I laughed like a drain, it just seemed so disgustingly funny. I did see it used in one of the 'Tales from the Shack' stories by Todd172, where the character Needles calls a biker a'goat-felching strap-f*ggot', which I still don't know that means...

None of my relatives or friends live in or have seen what the Brits called 'Terraced-housing', a row of adjoined houses on a street, usually with neither off-street parking nor garages, so it took me a while to understand the concept of 'I'm waiting outside number 33', because I'd either park on the drive or tell whomever I'm meeting that I've parked outside the gray house with the Beemer on the drive.

I wear stockings or nothing because standing in the lecture hall half the day or in the OR for 7 hours with my pantyhose bunching up and being unable to adjust is torture. Most of my female surgical colleagues at the hospitals in London either wore stay-ups or none at all, for the same reason. I've also noticed Brits often call pantyhose 'tights', whereas what I used to call tights I now call leggings or Jeggings.

My husband uses bloke, chap, geezer interchangeably, so I get them, but most of my friends and none of my family do and look blank when I use them; Will asks me not to, because with my Southern accent, he says they sound really weird coming out of my mouth...

Hubby's dad used to offer me a 'wee dram', but he was a Scotsman so he did it deliberately. First time he did it I stared blankly, Will had to explain it to me. Most Brits don't use 'wee dram' in my experience, unless they're being ironic; for some reason the word they use a lot for a glass of spirits is 'shorts', and no, I don't know why, nor does anyone I've asked; it seems to be some sort of slang from the vintner's trade. Colloquial English still defeats me on occasion, even after 25 years.

I never heard of nor used 'pretty much' until I heard Will using it, and it seemed so expressive I use it all the time myself now instead of my previous fallback, 'Kinda, sorta, yeah'.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I think i'd understand what it means, but I'd be wondering why they said it that way. I would probably just say "I parked in the street". (Americans live on a street rather than in a street, but we do use "in" when it comes to parking cars by the side of the street, or at least my family always did.) Depending on how far from our house it was, I might also say which house, but I'd only use the number if we didn't know who lived there and if the house had no distinguishing features. ("I parked outside the Emersons" or "I parked down by the green house on the corner" would be more likely).

That's actually interesting. I wonder if you are a generation older than me or if it's just a cultural difference - I might say 'I parked by Sally's house' or 'outside Gus and Sue's house ', but I'd never use the surname, mainly because I generally don't know them! I actually had a mare the week before our wedding, when the venue asked for a list of all guest names, and we realised there were at least a dozen friends we didn't even know the surnames of! Saying 'I saw the Hendersons' sounds like a 1950s American sitcom to me.

If someone said 'I parked in/on the street' Id infer there was a choice, maybe leaving the drive(way) free for someone else. If you're somewhere where there is only street parking, you'd only mention if you were parked right outside vs somewhere not visible from the house (nothing like being in a hurry and then having to yell, Oi, sweetie, where did you leave the bloody car!!)
Pretty much all British towns have houses numbered from 1 at the intersection with a larger road/closer to the town centre, odds on one side, evens on the other. Where more houses or flats have been squeezed in, typically where a couple houses were destroyed in the Blitz, you'll have a name for the new buildings (2 Kumquat Parade, 69 Queen Street) or just call them 69a, 69b, 69c.

In a typical more-urban suburb where car lengths are over half the width of a property, you park wherever there is space. It's likely, if you're mentioning where on the streets you parked, that there's cars up and down both sides of the road and only room for one car to drive down, despite being a two-way street.

I recall some US cities don't allow you to park on the left side of the street because having to cross the traffic is apparently bad - is that widespread? I imagine the kinds of places that give 14yos drivers licences ('hardship permits) don't need much in the way of parking rules.

 

[Bramblethorn]

and other non-Europeans. Some things one just can't ask the elderly rellies on Facebook....

Would a heterosexual man (mid 20s around 2010) understand the word 'felching', either immediately or after a moment to recall things he'd heard about in high school?

The South Park movie (1999) features Elton John playing a piano branded "Felcher and Sons". Presumably a felching gag. So, yes, it was known at least to a certain kind of edgelord, and it's fairly plausible your character would have seen it in that movie and looked it up if he wasn't the type to have heard it from his friends.

 

[jsmiam]

Not a lot to add that hasn’t already been said.

- urban dictionary and google preview lets people look up a term they haven’t come across in seconds. Even though felch isn’t super widely used, an engaged reader would look it up if the context didn’t give it away.

- in spite of the vast size of New York city, a huge number of Americans are suburban dwellers who wonder why anyone would live somewhere like NYC (no hate intended. I mean crowded, cost of living, maybe not even owning your own car, having to say ‘ting’ instead of ‘thing’). I wouldn’t dwell (ba-dom-bom) on parking intricacies.

- Leggings is known here too. I’d almost say it’s superseded tights as a term. I wouldn’t worry about that one.

- The pantyhose/stockings part could unintentionally make the story feel dated, if the context were work attire. More and more, the workplace has liberated women from pantyhose.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

a' goat-felching strap-f*ggot', which I still don't know that means...

Having never heard the phrase in my life, but having grown up with gluing world's together to make more colourful insults, it's implying a man both sucks semen out of a goat's arse (how it got there is unspecified) and is such a pansy of a gay man they want to be fucked by anything resembling a dick, such as a strap-on. But just flinging all the words out is the important part of the insult, not the exact details!

None of my relatives or friends live in or have seen what the Brits called 'Terraced-housing', a row of adjoined houses on a street, usually with neither off-street parking nor garages, so it took me a while to understand the concept of 'I'm waiting outside number 33', because I'd either park on the drive or tell whomever I'm meeting that I've parked outside the gray house with the Beemer on the drive.

Doesn't even need to be terraced houses - many roads of desirable semis (semi-detached houses, ie only sharing one wall with a neighbour, then there will be an alleyway giving access to behind the houses, before the next pair) will have the same problem. Mine, for example. You can imagine the fun when a supermarket delivery truck comes along, as they just stop in the middle of the road and everyone has to just wait until they've unloaded, the householder has unloaded all the crates, and the driver can drive on again.

My husband uses bloke, chap, geezer interchangeably; ... Will asks me not to, because with my Southern accent, he says they sound really weird coming out of my mouth...

Hubby's dad used to offer me a 'wee dram', but he was a Scotsman so he did it deliberately. First time he did it I stared blankly, Will had to explain it to me. Most Brits don't use 'wee dram' in my experience, unless they're being ironic; for some reason the word they use a lot for a glass of spirits is 'shorts', and no, I don't know why, nor does anyone I've asked; it seems to be some sort of slang from the vintner's trade. Colloquial English still defeats me on occasion, even after 25 years.
'.

Yeah, it really sounds wrong for any American to try saying the word 'bloke'! Doesn't stop my cousins taking the piss and trying. (taking the piss - is there any more British concept?!)

A dram would be understood as an offer of whisky or other spirits by any Brit, I think, and a wee dram would be understood but likely only said by a Scot or Irish person or for effect, along the lines of a 'swift half' or a 'cheeky Nando's'. 'wee' technically just means small, but goes before many words in Scots to denote affection, attachment, etc, and before most nouns in Northern Irish, just because. When I've written a NI character I then go through and remove at least half the uses of the word, but watching Derry Girls confirmed if anything I'd underused it!

(Season 3 of Derry Girls is showing in a couple months! I highly recommend it to anyone, but with captions...)

A short is any, well, short drink, like a cocktail that is only alcohol but no mixer included. So it could be a simple shot, or a cocktail like a B52 (Cointreau, Tia Maria and Bailey's). I wouldn't use it myself outside a cocktail bar.

A shot or a single (possibly a short but rare in my dialect) used to be 'one sixth of a gill' in England and Wales (about 23.5ml), or a quarter gill in Scotland and Ireland. Not that anyone in the last 100 years knew what a gill was. These got metricated into the current 25ml single, 35ml large, and 50ml double, though I think Scotland, NI and Ireland still have 35ml as their default single. Insert stereotypes about drinking ability here.

 

[oggbashan]

A "wee dram" has different meanings the further North ib the UK you are. In Glasgow, it might mean half a pint of whisky. Elsewhere, a glass or several.

Leggings, tights, pantyhose, stockings.

Tights are pantyhose. Leggings can be anything from thick opaque pantyhose to tightly fitting 'trousers'. Jeggings are tight-fitting slim denim.

Stockings? A fashion choice that has no other significance if hold-ups. The woman might prefer not to be too hot around the crotch area. But a garter belt? That is aimed at the sexual preferences of an older male. Stockings that need a garter belt are inconvenient.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

70 something male, who has spent time in England and worked with Brits from all over England.

Would a heterosexual man (mid 20s around 2010) understand the word 'felching', either immediately or after a moment to recall things he'd heard about in high school?

I doubt it, although he might infer something that he probably doesn't want to think about. And as I don't know what it means and haven't looked it up yet, I can only infer as to its meaning.

If someone invites you for a dram or a wee dram, what are they offering?

Maybe but I doubt it unless they have watched a lot of British TV. For me as I have been around a lot of Brits, yes.

Are the words chap, bloke, geezer commonly understood? (they just mean guy or dude, geezer being older)

Geezer yes. Chap and bloke probably. Although I had never heard them used until the late 90s when the company I worked for acquired and English company and a bunch of them came over to work in the US office and some of us, me included, went there.

If someone comes home and tells their spouse they left the car outside number 19, would the reader be
a) confused, I would at least.,
b) understand that they live in an urban street without garages nor driveways hence leaving the car on the street and needing to tell your partner if it's not visible from the doorstep, or
c) understand the car is parked outside a different house but not why?

How likely is it that a smartly-dressed woman (in the last 20 years) would be wearing stockings rather than pantyhose? If she were in stockings and garter belt, might that be mere sartorial choice or is it pretty much given she is planning for someone to see under her skirt?

They would be looking for a good time or their husband forbad them to wear pantyhose.

Would any American say 'pretty much? Pretty much.

I think US tights = UK leggings, is that a 1:1 correspondence?

Well, maybe but I don't think so. At least not from what I understand. Tights cover the entire lower body of a woman, waist to the tip of the toes, essentially opaque pantyhose. Whereas leggings only her legs from mid-thigh to ankle.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

A "wee dram" has different meanings the further North ib the UK you are. In Glasgow, it might mean half a pint of whisky. Elsewhere, a glass or several.

Heh. True enough. The 'wee' just suggests 'not as much as if we were actually *planning* a heavy session...

Stockings? A fashion choice that has no other significance if hold-ups. The woman might prefer not to be too hot around the crotch area. But a garter belt? That is aimed at the sexual preferences of an older male. Stockings that need a garter belt are inconvenient.

I predict you are not a person who has ever suffered hold-up holding-up failure. Either you treat them as disposable, as post-washing they are prone to not holding, or invest in a suspender belt.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I think US tights = UK leggings, is that a 1:1 correspondence?

Well, maybe but I don't think so. At least not from what I understand. Tights cover the entire lower body of a woman, waist to the tip of the toes, essentially opaque pantyhose. Whereas leggings only her legs from mid-thigh to ankle.

Were you last in England in the 80s?
You're thinking of legwarmers, which admittedly were also known as leggings, but since certain elastane fibres were trademarked and their use in clothing took off in the late 80s onwards (Lycra, for example), no-one this millennium would think of them rather than an item of stretchy outerwear or underwear (depending on thickness and budget) going from waist to ankles.

(thanks for showing how to do coloured text,.btw)

Now I'm wondering if 'camel toe' is a recognised phrase (effect on the pubic area's appearnce if a woman wears too-tight leggings/tights), and what is the US or other foreign equivalent of a 'Croydon facelift'?

(that's a ponytail that's pulled so tight it pulls the skin tight a bit like a cheap facelift. Associated with what are often known as chavs, which my mother says in America are called 'trailer trash what don't necessarily live in trailers, which I think sums up Croydon's reputation fairly well.

 

[oggbashan]

...



I predict you are not a person who has ever suffered hold-up holding-up failure. Either you treat them as disposable, as post-washing they are prone to not holding, or invest in a suspender belt.

When appearing as Henry VIII

<----

I had to wear opaque black tights. I had to buy the enormous size because although my legs are not long as a proportion of my height, they are much thicker than a normal woman's would be, and standard sizes didn't have enough left at the top to reach anywhere near my waist.

In the 1960s most of my girlfriends wore tights, NEVER stockings, because they wore short miniskirts, so they wore either tights or had bare legs.

When they did wear stockings, yes, hold-ups were regarded as disposable. They were cheap and not expected to last more than two or three wearings. But none of them ever wore suspender belts. they were for older women, and more particularly for dirty old men.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Now I'm wondering if 'camel toe' is a recognised phrase (effect on the pubic area's appearnce if a woman wears too-tight leggings/tights), and what is the US or other foreign equivalent of a 'Croydon facelift'?

(that's a ponytail that's pulled so tight it pulls the skin tight a bit like a cheap facelift. Associated with what are often known as chavs, which my mother says in America are called 'trailer trash what don't necessarily live in trailers, which I think sums up Croydon's reputation fairly well.

Camel toe is commonly understood. I used it in The Gold Dollar Girls; one of the strippers said to her friend, "Joe Camel called, he wants his toe back." (Joe Camel was a well known advertising mascot for Camel cigarettes)

As someone who has been called trailer trash on more than a few occasions, I have never heard the expressions "Croydon effect" or "chav."

 

[NC_Coastal]

You know what they say: America and England are two countries separated by a common language, though I don't know who 'they' are.

 

[oggbashan]

You know what they say: America and England are two countries separated by a common language, though I don't know who 'they' are.

Oscar Wilde or Bernard Shaw but opinions vary.

 

[LongDraw]

and other non-Europeans. Some things one just can't ask the elderly rellies on Facebook....

Would a heterosexual man (mid 20s around 2010) understand the word 'felching', either immediately or after a moment to recall things he'd heard about in high school?

If someone invites you for a dram or a wee dram, what are they offering?

Are the words chap, bloke, geezer commonly understood? (they just mean guy or dude, geezer being older)

If someone comes home and tells their spouse they left the car outside number 19, would the reader be
a) confused,
b) understand that they live in an urban street without garages nor driveways hence leaving the car on the street and needing to tell your partner if it's not visible from the doorstep, or
c) understand the car is parked outside a different house but not why?

How likely is it that a smartly-dressed woman (in the last 20 years) would be wearing stockings rather than pantyhose? If she were in stockings and garter belt, might that be mere sartorial choice or is it pretty much given she is planning for someone to see under her skirt?

Would any American say 'pretty much?

I think US tights = UK leggings, is that a 1:1 correspondence?

Never heard of felching in my life, and I'm late 30's.
Don't know what a dram or wee dram would be without Googling it.
Chap and bloke I know and have heard, but mostly from Eastern European immigrants I worked with and watching BBC America or Amazon TV series like Expanse. Geezer is more of a term that used to be used back when I was younger. I think most, if not all Americans would be familiar with the term, it's just not used too frequently.

If my wife told me that, I'd think she left it on 19th floor of a parking garage, but I'd be totally lost to be perfectly honest.

Not that up-to-date on how women dress since I've been stuck disabled at home for past 2 years, sorry.

Yes, pretty much every American has said "pretty much" pretty much all the time, pretty much.

When I think tights, it makes me think of tights or sheer stockings. Leggings reminds me more of Soccer (or what Europeans call Football) socks.

Hope that helps you.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Camel toe is commonly understood. I used it in The Gold Dollar Girls; one of the strippers said to her friend, "Joe Camel called, he wants his toe back." (Joe Camel was a well known advertising mascot for Camel cigarettes)

As someone who has been called trailer trash on more than a few occasions, I have never heard the expressions "Croydon effect" or "chav."

When a woman has her hair scraped up into a tight bun or topknot on top of her head, Will calls it a 'Croydon Facelift', and anyone who wanders around the area draped in (usually fake) Burberry plaid, shell-suit, and knock-off designer sneakers is, by definition, a chav. I asked his father once where the word comes from, he being, like a Will, a goldmine of weird trivia, and he reckoned it comes from chavi, a Romany word for 'child'.

Will occasionally still refers to the police as 'the filth', or 'the bizzies' (that's his inner Londoner coming out) when he's pissed off at them, crooks are 'blaggers', his home region is 'my manor', anything he thinks is tacky is 'naff', and when he was a medical student based up around London's theaterland, he was fascinated by and learned the secret language of the theatrical/homosexual community, Polari. Polari is a mish-mash language, made up of yiddish, Romany, Italian, dog-Latin, London rhyming and thearical slang, and half a dozen other languages and cants so gay people in the 1940's and 50's could talk openly without fear of being overheard and reported, homosexuality being strictly illegal at that time in the UK; it's mostly dropped from use these days because no-cares anymore. Now it's just fascinating to hear him spouting away all those odd, funny, but somehow poetic words and phrases

 

[Kumquatqueen]

What are UK leggings? In the US leggings are nothing like tights really. Leggings can be worn as pants with just a tee shirt. To me leggings and yoga pants are pretty much the same thing. Tights are thicker pantyhose and not meant to be worn as pants.

UK leggings cover both thin varieties - lycra-containing footless pantyhose - and thick varieties - I think what you would call yoga pants. And ones in between. Generally you'd wear a long T-shirt or dress with them, that covers your arse, but especially if they're thin cheap ones that show your underpants through them.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

When a woman has her hair scraped up into a tight bun or topknot on top of her head, Will calls it a 'Croydon Facelift', and anyone who wanders around the area draped in (usually fake) Burberry plaid, shell-suit, and knock-off designer sneakers is, by definition, a chav. I asked his father once where the word comes from, he being, like a Will, a goldmine of weird trivia, and he reckoned it comes from chavi, a Romany word for 'child'.

Chav is a word that started to describe a clothing style (fake Burberry check, cheap bling, fake designer trainers and sportswear, as you say), then became used to describe behaviour (what more upmarket newspapers called 'the underclass' or 'feral youth' or 'ASBO scum' (antisocial behaviour order)), then became used widely to describe gypsies and/or Travellers (the only groups it's acceptable to be publicly racist about), then even more widely to mean anyone working class, at which point no-one was sure which of the four was meant and the word became fairly useless beyond a generic insult.

It likely did derive from Romany 'charver' meaning child - the one thing we do know is that like all backronyms, it didn't derive from 'Council Housing And Violent', even though that's generally what's implied by it. (Council housing = housing projects, I think.)

Will occasionally still refers to the police as 'the filth', or 'the bizzies' (that's his inner Londoner coming out) when he's pissed off at them, crooks are 'blaggers', his home region is 'my manor', anything he thinks is tacky is 'naff', and when he was a medical student based up around London's theaterland, he was fascinated by and learned the secret language of the theatrical/homosexual community, Polari. Polari is a mish-mash language, made up of yiddish, Romany, Italian, dog-Latin, London rhyming and thearical slang, and half a dozen other languages and cants so gay people in the 1940's and 50's could talk openly without fear of being overheard and reported, homosexuality being strictly illegal at that time in the UK; it's mostly dropped from use these days because no-cares anymore. Now it's just fascinating to hear him spouting away all those odd, funny, but somehow poetic words and phrases

Those words from your Will sound like his inner posh education rather than inner Londoner! Am I right he went to the place on the edge of Windsor?

Polari is bizarre - but became widely known thanks to a BBC radio show, Around the Horne, where two characters talk mainly in Polari to Mr Horne, who visits their new business (Bona XXX) each episode. In Bona Law, one mentions 'we have a criminal practice which takes up all our time'. At the time the Beeb claimed they didn't see any references to homosexuality, but it's more likely they just decided the jokes had enough plausible deniability to pass scrutiny.
So many Brits would understand at least "Mr Horne! How bona to viddy your dolly old eek" (how good to see your dear old face", and many of the words have become mainstream slang just as with Cockney.

All the scripts are available and often performed now as a stage show - highly recommended.

 

[PennameWombat]

<snip>

Now I'm wondering if 'camel toe' is a recognised phrase (effect on the pubic area's appearnce if a woman wears too-tight leggings/tights), and what is the US or other foreign equivalent of a 'Croydon facelift'?

(that's a ponytail that's pulled so tight it pulls the skin tight a bit like a cheap facelift. Associated with what are often known as chavs, which my mother says in America are called 'trailer trash what don't necessarily live in trailers, which I think sums up Croydon's reputation fairly well.

'Camel toe' made an appearance in my Valentine's story (Hog in the Ground Day. Although the setting is never made clear, the language is essentially American English.