Essex.Just a username."Rubbers" I may have heard used a lot later than "rubber jonnies" though.That might have been on TV or equivalent.Never heard that - some Newcastle expression?
Essex.Just a username."Rubbers" I may have heard used a lot later than "rubber jonnies" though.That might have been on TV or equivalent.Never heard that - some Newcastle expression?
Never heard that one. Is that the same as "polishing the bishop"?I have always heard them referred to as rubbers or rubber jonnies so I didn't quite get it.(didn't know the US only called them erasers)
I wonder if a "rub of the relic" has the same meaning in the USA as here..
Shome mishtake shurely? As I recall, one polishes a rocket and bashes a bishop. In Australia, it is punishing Percy in the palm.Never heard that one. Is that the same as "polishing the bishop"?
A hone is apparently also a kind of whetstone, used to sharpen razors or knives.That last one is just ignorance, surely? Like "the proof is in the pudding", or "I see no ships". I don't think it is specifically American.
Though a weird one I do recall from my time in Houston was "honing in" on something, as opposed to "homing in". Honing is a process in metalworking of abrading a metal surface to leave a fine but matt, rather than polished, finish. (A typical example would be the finishing process for the inside surfaces of cylinder liners in engines, i.e. the running. surface against which the piston slides.) So "honing in" is quite meaningless. But I heard it quite often.
Sports commentators have always been notorious for malapropisms, mixed metaphors etc. Private Eye has for years run a column called “Colemanballs” , publishing examples sent in by readers, named after the BBC sports commentator David Coleman. I remember one of his best was “…..and Juantorena opens his legs and shows his class…….” during a race involving a Cuban runner of that name. Another was Bill McLaren’s “That ball took off like a meteorite.”Maybe not a "UK v US"ism, but in the vein of misused words, I've just heard a sports commentator talking about how a goal (in a football/soccer game) has put "a whole new complex on the game". This was a UK pundit, and I know they meant to say "complexion" (pundits rarely being the sharpest tools in the shed), but was wondering whether this has come over from the other side of the pond? Anyone else experienced the jarring phrase?
Much as I love dear Susie, I could not make it to the end of her clip because of the bloody music. (Why the fuck the BBC has to contaminate radio pieces with this distracting junk is beyond me. It adds nothing, adds to the production cost for licence fee payers and gets in the way. It seems to be a recent fad.) The bit I did hear seemed to say much the same as my post 29 on this thread, about different approaches taken on opposite sides of the Atlantic when spelling came to be standardised, something that did not occur until the c.18th.I thought early doors was a pub thing too.It also puts me in mind of the double swing doors in Western movies and in the entrances to sauna rooms.
Susie Dent has done a small piece on the BBC website
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09fv1w9/us-english-why-do-brits-hate-it-so-
We can. We just don't spell it incorrectly.Don't worry about spelling, Americans cannot spell colour or neighbour either.
"me" is "my".Doing me crust in"
Khazi means "toilet". It comes from an old cockney word "carsey" meaning "toilet" (possibly originally from the Italian "casa" meaning "house"). As to why the "khazi" spelling, this may have been from one of the many colonies of our old Empire, possibly one of the African ones."khazi"
Flogging could mean "selling" as in trying to get water out of a stone or convince a very sceptical buyer.flogging a dead horse?
Spike Milligan, in one of his books, possibly "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall", claimed Khazi, or Karzi, comes from the Swahili word m'karzi, meaning, er, karzi. However, this being Milligan, I'm not sure it was entirely serious."me" is "my".
"Crust" is from cockney rhyming slang: "crusty bread" = "head".
So this means "doing my head in" - i.e. to frustrate.
Khazi means "toilet". It comes from an old cockney word "carsey" meaning "toilet" (possibly originally from the Italian "casa" meaning "house"). As to why the "khazi" spelling, this may have been from one of the many colonies of our old Empire, possibly one of the African ones.
It's quite possible, although whether Swahili or Zulu, perhaps? That may be where the cockney derived from, albeit a change of spelling. Possibly mixed two similar influences: Italian and swahili/Zulu.... And that's part of the joy of English... words can originated from anywhere!Spike Milligan, in one of his books, possibly "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall", claimed Khazi, or Karzi, comes from the Swahili word m'karzi, meaning, er, karzi. However, this being Milligan, I'm not sure it was entirely serious.
Well it's certainly the case that the British Army from imperial times has imported slang from other languages, "bint" for a young woman (feminine of "bin" = son of, i.e. daughter of) and "shufti" for to have a look at something from shuf or shoof, to see, both coming from (probably Suez canal) Arabic, as I realised during my time in the Gulf.It's quite possible, although whether Swahili or Zulu, perhaps? That may be where the cockney derived from, albeit a change of spelling. Possibly mixed two similar influences: Italian and swahili/Zulu.... And that's part of the joy of English... words can originated from anywhere!
Well it's certainly the case that the British Army from imperial times has imported slang from other languages, "bint" for a young woman (feminine of "bin" = son of, i.e. daughter of) and "shufti" for to have a look at something from shuf or shoof, to see, both coming from (probably Suez canal) Arabic, as I realised during my time in the Gulf.