British-American Humor: "Effingpot" House of Uniting Cultures

  • Thread starter wolram
  • Start date
  • Tags
    Humor
In summary, Woolie found a great site with British slang and shared it with the other users of the chat room. He also shared some fond memories of living in Britain and some of the terms used there. The other users asked Woolie about toilets and he explained that most British homes have a separate room for the toilet and the bath. He also shared his thoughts on the use of American words in Canada.
  • #1
wolram
Gold Member
Dearly Missed
4,446
558
With great british bulldog spirt i have surfed the web without rest to find this
site, now there will be no excuse for misunderstanding.

http://www.effingpot.com/house.shtml

Now maybe one of you of the US of A will reciprocate and perchance we britts will no what in the blue blazes you are rattling on about :smile:

Or maybe not, i could never relate a sex aid to a stuffed pepper.
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #2
Awww, thanks Wollie! :smile:

Bin men - The chaps that come around at 6am and wake the entire street up with their bin lorry to empty your dustbins. Sometimes the rubbish even goes in the lorry! I'm sure they have some kind of machine that singles out the crisp bags and deposits them along the street!
:rofl:

Some of those terms are used in the US too, though. I run the bath, and when I was a kid, we had to store our lunch boxes in our cubby holes in school (those were the little box-shaped shelves just about big enough for a lunchbox and a pair of mittens). We definitely use couch too, completely interchangeable with sofa.
 
  • #3
Moonbear said:
Awww, thanks Wollie! :smile:


:rofl:

Some of those terms are used in the US too, though. I run the bath, and when I was a kid, we had to store our lunch boxes in our cubby holes in school (those were the little box-shaped shelves just about big enough for a lunchbox and a pair of mittens). We definitely use couch too, completely interchangeable with sofa.

I have some fond memories of sofas :smile:
 
  • #4
Moonbear said:
Awww, thanks Wollie! :smile:
Quote:
Bin men - The chaps that come around at 6am and wake the entire street up with their bin lorry to empty your dustbins. Sometimes the rubbish even goes in the lorry! I'm sure they have some kind of machine that singles out the crisp bags and deposits them along the street!
My neighbours refer to these guys as Dustmen - very Shavian! Had I not heard of Doolittle I wouldn't have had any idea what they were saying!
 
  • #5
I got hit by the bathroom mistake. I asked where one was and the guys I asked looked at me like "now is the wierdest time anyone would want to take a bath."
 
  • #6
Great link, Woolie! I had to finally just force myself to leave the 'slang' section. I'll be back to it later. :biggrin:
A lot of the stuff is familiar to Canuks, but the rest is a hoot.
 
  • #7
FredGarvin said:
I got hit by the bathroom mistake. I asked where one was and the guys I asked looked at me like "now is the wierdest time anyone would want to take a bath."
:rofl: I don't recall any difficulty finding a toilet when I was in Britain, but I don't know how I was asking either. I usually ask for the restroom rather than the bathroom when in public. In someone's house, I call it the bathroom.

So, do all British homes have a separate room for the toilet than the bath? I kind of like that idea, especially if you're sharing the home with other people and are all in a rush to get ready in the morning...one can bathe while the other still can get to the toilet (of course, the downside is you get absolutely no warning that they are about to flush the toilet while you're in the shower :eek:).
 
  • #8
Most houses have an up staires ( bathroom toilet) and a down stairs toilet.
 
  • #9
My cousin sent me a link to a site displaying "kids' dummies". We don't call them that.

http://www.systemf.demon.co.uk/gargrave/funnies/funny30.htm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #10
turbo-1 said:
My cousin sent me a link to a site displaying "kids' dummies". We don't call them that.

http://www.systemf.demon.co.uk/gargrave/funnies/funny30.htm

Do you call them comforters ?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #11
wolram said:
Do you call them comforters ?

Soothers or pacifiers. A comforter goes on a bed.
 
  • #12
George Jones said:
Soothers or pacifiers. A comforter goes on a bed.
They are also called binkies and plugs around here. (TN)
 
  • #13
Just the artificial ones, I presume?
 
  • #14
Well blow me, you put a plug in a baby.
 
  • #15
wolram said:
Do you call them comforters ?
No, that's more like a duvet. :biggrin:

I've never heard them called a plug. That's the fun part about the US, we don't even use the same words within the country. I've only heard them called pacifiers (the name that shows up on the packaging), or a binky, which I think originates from a brand name.
 
  • #16
Here, the nose-in-the-air types call them pacifiers. To everyone else, they're soothers.
 
  • #17
Danger said:
Here, the nose-in-the-air types call them pacifiers. To everyone else, they're soothers.
Ooh, I'll have to be careful not to offend the Canadians with our American words. :biggrin: I kind of like the idea of calling it a plug though. Plugging the baby's mouth is a pretty good description of how most people (mis)use them. :rofl:
 
  • #18
Danger said:
Here, the nose-in-the-air types call them pacifiers. To everyone else, they're soothers.


Yeah I only ever hear people call them soothers.
 
  • #20
scorpa said:
Not as good as the English one but here is a Canadian one I found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_slang


Timbits: a brand name of doughnut holes made by Tim Hortons that has become a generic term

Ok this is getting silly, a name for a hole in a doughnut :confused: :smile:
and i thought Danger was 1 off :biggrin:
 
  • #21
wolram said:
Timbits: a brand name of doughnut holes made by Tim Hortons that has become a generic term

Ok this is getting silly, a name for a hole in a doughnut :confused: :smile:
and i thought Danger was 1 off :biggrin:
Oh, no, no, no, it's not the hole in the doughnut, it's the dough that was punched out of the middle made into a little doughnut. In the US, they more often get called Munchkins, because that's what the brand Dunkin' Donuts calls them, and that brand is found all over the US while Tim Hortons is mostly in Canada and a few northern states near the border. Doughnut holes is the more generic term that nobody actually uses. :biggrin:
 
  • #22
Moonbear said:
Doughnut holes is the more generic term that nobody actually uses. :biggrin:
I only know them as doughnut holes, that's what Krispy Kreme calls them.

And I've never heard of a pacifier being called a soother.
 
  • #23
Evo said:
And I've never heard of a pacifier being called a soother.

It seems to be a US/Canada thing. When I made the post that introduced the terms soother and pacifier in this thread, I originally included only soother, but, as an afterthought, I edited the post to include pacifier.

As another (possible?) example of US/Canda differences, what does "pissed" mean?
 
  • #25
George Jones said:
It seems to be a US/Canada thing. When I made the post that introduced the terms soother and pacifier in this thread, I originally included only soother, but, as an afterthought, I edited the post to include pacifier.

As another (possible?) example of US/Canda differences, what does "pissed" mean?
"pissed" = "ticked" :tongue:
 
  • #26
Ah, you are so wrong, dear Evo. 'Pissed off' means that.

I'll elaborate upon an entry in the Canuk dictionary that Scorpa linked to. The reason that 'goof' is considered a 'fighting word' is that it refers to a child molester.
 
  • #27
Danger said:
Ah, you are so wrong, dear Evo. 'Pissed off' means that.

You refer to the most common meaning in Canada for pissed, but I find the meaning that Evo gave is starting to creep in. Any other Canadians noticed this?

I like what the Brits sometimes use - legless.

So, in Canada, "pissed" might now be able to do double-duty. If you say, "He's really pissed!", you could mean that you've got a really angry drunk on your hands.
 
  • #28
Luckily, it hasn't crept in here yet. It's just a matter of time, though, with all the Yank TV coming in.
 
  • #29
Danger said:
Luckily, it hasn't crept in here yet.

I hear you.

It's just a matter of time, though, with all the Yank TV coming in.

I decided not get cable or satellite, so I only see CBC and CTV on my TV!
 
  • #30
Good on ya'. I never had cable until I moved in with W. CTV, though, carries all of the Law & Order series, as well as the CSI ones and a bunch of other shows from down south. (I like them, so that isn't a complaint.)
 
  • #31
Moonbear said:
Oh, no, no, no, it's not the hole in the doughnut, it's the dough that was punched out of the middle made into a little doughnut. In the US, they more often get called Munchkins, because that's what the brand Dunkin' Donuts calls them, and that brand is found all over the US while Tim Hortons is mostly in Canada and a few northern states near the border. Doughnut holes is the more generic term that nobody actually uses. :biggrin:

Hang about, i have seen doughnuts cooked and the hole is allready in them,
is this a pull wollies leg day?:smile:
 
  • #32
wolram said:
Hang about, i have seen doughnuts cooked and the hole is allready in them,
is this a pull wollies leg day?:smile:

Here in North America, we get to eat doughnut parts that add negative Calories to us!
 
  • #33
George Jones said:
Here in North America, we get to eat doughnut parts that add negative Calories to us!

We have jam buttie mines in England :tongue2:
 
  • #34
wolram said:
Most houses have an up staires ( bathroom toilet)

The apples and pears "toilet" [translation?] if in the shadow of Big Ben?
 
  • #35
Ivan Seeking said:
The apples and pears "toilet" [translation?] if in the shadow of Big Ben?

Ivan, apples and pears is (staires), one could say,( get up those apples and pears to bed), an alternative is up the woden hill and down sheet lane.
 

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top