My brother is married to a US woman and I was visiting them in Chicago.Seeing their new labrador,i asked if i could clap him.This is a Scottish expression,meaning to pat or stroke and in common use.My sister in law’s face become one of absolute horror,my prother was in hysterics.Turns out that in America,to clap someone means to have sex,especially if it’s an animal.I’d been vey careful about other terms with different meanings such as fanny and fa**ot,as in Mr Brains meatballs-not that I’d had any need to use them-but i didn’t know about this one.Just as well they didn’t have a cat and I’d asked to clap their p***y.
A friend in college was telling me about a guy talking about jobs in class.
Don’t quite remember how it went other than the guy looking puzzled as he said something about a “quick jobby” and everyone was laughing.
Jobby being slang for poopin.
Loving these. The only one I had was when I was in a store and an assistant gave me a pair of trousers to try on and I said… There is no way I’ll get my bum in them… They laughed and jokingly asked me what size the homeless person I was buying them for was. Cheeky lol.
One of my friends who grew up locally now lives in Scotland, and we were taking about our mutual liking of vodka, she asked me what “juice” i mixed it with. I said that i mixed it with pop, and she told me that’s what she meant! I told her she’s gone native!
One thing that always made me titter regarding U.S. terms…ZZ Top’s Legs “She’s got legs right up to her fanny” and YES they played it uncensored on UK radio!
Yes , there are so many words used in different meanings not just between UK and US . On “my” motorcycle site we are world wide and the word differences can create quite the confusion at times . We watched a fair bit of BBC shows , so we are somewhat acclimated . Imagine to many people around the world they wonder what kind of violent place Uk must be , because everything is bloody ( AU) also . One that got me years ago was when single and chasing females at bars and dances was a girl I just met wanted to get pissed , WTF ? Oh , you want to get drunk . One that always drives me crazy id mostly from Canada , when they call electric lines hydro . I understand the reference to hydroelectric power generation . Across the US you would be amazed at the same problem . In the west we count the points of the rack on deer and elk on one side . Out east they count both sides . A friend from east was here visiting and one of my friends from here and he were talking hunting . My friend from east was telling about a deer he got last year that was a 14 point and my local guy was ready to get in a fist fight , calling him a liar . I defused it quickly and everyone had a good laugh .
Seems like a good spot to shoehorn in my Pissary: ![]()
Referring to the term Pissed, it has a completely different meaning in America as I found out when I was there. American’s-Not sure about every state-Use the word to describe someone as angry/annoyed. We add “Off” after Pissed if we are annoyed.
It really is not surprising why the rest of the World finds the UK language confusing ![]()
To add to this there is a very well known word beginning with a C that I believe in Australian is used in a completely different manner.
Also thong. Apparently its a flip flop down under.
Just in the UK alone there are lots of words that mean different things in different areas not to mention all the regional accents which must be the same whichever country you live in.
A member of the entertainment team in a hotel in Spain which I went to alot over a period of 5 years (and got to know quite well) said that out of all the languages the UK had the most regional accents he found difficult and he had been working in hotels on the entertainment teams over 30 years.
I live in Spain @CurvyJilly and (as best I can) speak the language as spoken in Madrid, as that is how I was taught. It’s like the “Queen’s English” apparently.
But, where we are on the south coast, a slang dialect is used and I am often told I speak “too posh!!!”
Considering I am from Essex originally…that does make me laugh! ![]()
@Latino_Caliente . Yes , i was told similar. " You speak Spanish very precisely "
@Oldfaithful ha ha…yes, exactly ![]()
Haha!! Oh Wowzers! I bet that was a funny sight to see ![]()
I often find some American terms rather bizarre like pants instead of trousers
or Fanny pack instead of bumbag ![]()
I love these! Someone i once worked with used to use the term ‘that makes my piss fizz’ which was to describe something making her really angry. I loved that phrase ![]()
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I have heard “That boils my piss” to mean the same thing!
Reminds me of a friend who was out in the US doing a long distance road trip on bikes. Stopped at a bar in the sticks and politely asked the barman if there was a ‘fag machine’? Got the very surprised reply “Gee, you have a machine for that in the UK?!” ![]()
Haha i love being scottish and having these situations happen.
As a mid-20s American, clap either means to hit someone or give sass back to someone (clap back), never heard it used sexually (but I’m from the west coast so
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Yes, pissed does mean extremely angry to us (fuming level angry, like ready to throw fists), fag is a derogatory term for a gay person and not a cigarette, and don’t ever say that ever UK loved c-word if you don’t want to get punched (the OH knows better than to say it around me
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The c word is used as a term of endearment hete,
For example “this person is a good c***”