Gooseberry

I am sure that I have heard this a lot while I have been over here but I only picked up on it the other day.

Someone might say "I don't want to be a gooseberry" and this means the third wheel.

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

Good old Coronation Street brought this one to my attention. 

In the show one of the characters said "Let us in its cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". My ears instantly perked up. It means being really cold.

Here is a detailed explanation of where it may have come from.

Ring around the Rosey

"Ring around the rosey" is a nursery rhyme and a game that we grew up with but do we know the origins of the rhyme?

The poem dates back to around the first Black Death in 1347. The first line is, "Ring around the Rosey," talks about the swelling on a lymph node called a bubo which looks like a ring. The center goes black and makes a rosey.

The victims would stick so healthy people would bring them a "Pocket full of posies."

The original third line is "Atch chew! Atch chew!" This was changed in America to "Ashes! Ashes!" so people thought it was tied to cremation but instead goes to the next symptom the victim would have, a sneezing fit.

Of course the last line, "we all fall down!," eludes the final stage of the victim dying from their affliction.

Hokey Cokey

Not even sure how I came upon this, but in the UK they call it the hokey cokey but we call it the hokey pokey.

Cheers

The English use the word "Cheers" when saying thank you or when toasting to a drink. Men generally use cheers for thank you, its not usually used by women this way.

Aubergine

I always get stuck on this one. Aubergines are eggplants. That seems easy to remember but it won't stick in my head!

popper

Don't ask me why but when I came across this, it make me laugh very hard. I think that Jon and I were in the Lake District getting ready to brace the rain and he said to me did all his poppers up. I stopped and said "what is a popper?" and he pointed to the snap on his jacket. For whatever reason it tickled me. A popper is a snap.

Pucker Tucker

As with most posts, I am inspired by life. I was away for the weekend with Jon in Nottingham and I saw a sign that said "Music-Pool-Pucker Tucker." Usually you can kind of figure out what something means by the way it is used but this stumped me. When Jon told me what it meant, I did not believe him. Pucker Tucker means good food. Apparently Jamie Oliver says it a lot.

I could not make this up.

Crazy Golf

I thought if you look for  miniture golf places here and did not find them, you might like to know it is called crazy golf.

pernickety

Pernickety means to focused or fussed about details. I think that us Americans would say, picky. I just love the subtle differences between the languages.

Doddle

Doodle came up when I was watching the Sky Broadband ad featuring Jennifer Aniston. It means it is easy.

Warm Your Cockles

I saw this in a pub during the Christmas break. I had never come across this before so I thought you might not either. Cockles are a type of food that the English eat at the sea side so this phrase really confused me.

From the research I have found says that the full phrase is 'warm the cockles of your heart' and that cockles probably used to be Kachels which are tiles that were on stoves and fireplaces that radiated heat.

But basically it means warm your inner feelings or insides.

Pleb

This word popped up when the MP Andrew Mitchell yelled at the police guarding Number 10 because they wouldn't open the main gate to let him through but instead made him use the pedestrian gate.

Pleb means commoner. It is used to differentiate that the person speaking is above the person he is addressing.

The MP later resigned after many weeks of controversy.

Ten Pin Bowling

I thought this was interesting.

I was booking our work's Christmas party and we decided to go bowling. Every time we were talking about it the guys kept saying ten pin bowling and I was saying bowling. When you say bowling they think of this and I think of this

Its easy to get crossed wires!.

Partner

The English use partner the same way we do (a same-sex couple may refer to one another as a partner) but may also use it to refer to an older person's 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' or someone that they have been in a relationship for a long time.

British Grocery Terms

I am often at the grocery store looking for something for an American recipe and when I can't find it, I ring my husband and ask him what they call it. I thought that you would like to have a list so that you might find what you are looking for.

English                                          American

• Aubergine                                                        Eggplant
• Bicarbonate of Soda                                        Baking Soda
• Fairycakes                                                       Cupcakes
• Courgette                                                        Zucchini
• Jelly                                                                 Jello

Ickle

Ickle is used to say little.

Pet Hate

Pet hate is used like pet peeve.

Car terms

The English have different words for everything it seems, here are some relating to cars:

• Lorry- semi
• bonnet- hood
• boot- trunk
• windscreen- windshield
• exhaust pipe- tail pipe
• number plate- license plate
• caravan- camper van
• car park- parking lot/garage
• central reservation- median
• cat's eyes- the reflector things on the road
• demister- defogger
• gearbox- trasnmission
• handbrake- emergency brake
• indicator- turn signal
• hard shoulder- shoulder
• dual carriageway- highway
• jump leads- jumper cables
• kerb- curb
• lay-by- rest area
• L-plates- denote a learner is in the car.
• pavement- sidewalk
• petrol- gas
• puncture- flat tire
• tyre- tire
• slip road- off/on ramp

Cinema

When you go to the cinema  you are going to see a movie, when you go to the theater you are going to see a play.