Favorite British monosyllables
Erin McKean, the lexicographer, evidently on a trip to Britain, commented on Facebook recently: “BrEng is so cute! She just wants to pat it on the head.”
These selections may not be what she had in mind.
Bog: Lavatory, toilet. Not a bathroom, which would have a tub.
Braw: Fine, good, first-rate, a variant of brave.
Bumf: Official forms, memorandums, paperwork. From bumfodder, or toilet paper.
Git: A worthless person, a variant on get —slang for brat, bastard, fool, etc. — from the verb get in the sense of beget. Works best as the culmination of a series of two- and three-syllable adjectives: cretinous pig-faced git.
Gongs: Military medals. Presumably from the resemblance of the disc to the musical instrument.
Loo: Same as bog, but in posher premises.
Naff: Unfashionable, tacky, rubbishy.
Posh: Luxurious, fashionable, elegant. Possibly from push or poosh, a dandy. Probably not from the folk etymology, Port Out, Starboard Home, identifying the better shipboard quarters to and from India.
Prat: A fool, a contemptible or ineffectual person. Etymology unknown to the OED, but an alternate meaning of the word is buttock.Twee: Affectedly quaint, overdone. (Think of those horrible, horrible houses with every wall and available surface covered with the cutest handmade items. Every time my wife lures me into a crafts store, I break out in a cold sweat and begin to hyperventilate.)
Affectedly quaint, overdone. (Think of those horrible, horrible houses with every wall and available surface covered with the cutest handmade items. Every time my wife lures me into a crafts store, I break out in a cold sweat and begin to hyperventilate.)Twit: A git with pretensions. Perhaps too widespread now in America to be considered entirely British.
Your suggestions for additional citations are, as always, welcome.
Comments
wanker, which apparently has a much cruder sense in Britain than it does here. Often found on US blogs.
Posted by: Pam | December 3, 2007 4:08 PM
Here I go, trying to be reasonably decorous with British monosyllables, and a colleague springs "wank" on me.
Posted by: John McIntyre | December 3, 2007 5:12 PM
As a native of the British Isles, I have to say that these are all fine words. But I must point out that 'braw' is largely limited to Scotland, you're unlikey to hear it elsewhere in Britain.
I propose the addition of 'ming', vi, to be physically unattractive.
Posted by: Steve | December 4, 2007 6:02 AM
"Braw" is Scots, rather than English, and not slang, but simply a variant on "brave".
Posted by: jhughes | December 6, 2007 8:11 PM