WSJ: British slang on its way out?

[Voboy]

Lol, I remember reading a Boston Globe headline, "Hub man killed in crash". Surely that's still understandable?

It is if you're a local.

"The Hub" is EMass slang for Boston, and has been for well over a century.

 

[Abbafan]

Old timey slang like that is fading away everywhere. Boston/NE has it's own particular slang that is distinct from much of the rest of the country, and my wife is probably the last generation that spoke it natively.

Globalization and nationwide media along with lots of transplants have diluted it so that it's more of a remnant of what it was.

On the flip side, it's easier to pick up words from other languages. I've picked up using Scheiße as a mild exclamation.

Right. It's happening just about everywhere. The same thing is happening with local accents as well. They haven't disappeared, but they are becoming flatter. Kind of sad, really, but inevitable.

 

[Bamagan]

A tombola is a very distinct type of raffle, though. There's dozens of prizes of varying desirability, mostly shit like a can of soup or spaghetti hoops, a few good ones like champagne. Each has a number ending in 5 or 0 stuck to it. All the number tickets are folded and put in the tombola, which is a cylindrical wooden drum on a stand that rotates to mix the tickets, then you open a wee hatch in the tombola and draw say 5 tickets for your £1, check the numbers, and you instantly win a prize.

Chocolate tombolas and wine tombolas make huge amounts of money for school fairs, even more than the bouncy castle. I seem to recall there's a different US word for bouncy castle, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

I have occasionally heard people refer to those as 'tumble' raffles, and the device as a tumbler, which looks like it might be a translation or cognate of tombola, which I think is Italian maybe?. But, if that was ever widely used here, it was at least two or three generations ago.
*The devices themselves are not particularly rare, though, nor raffles using them.

 

[Carnevil9]

.......I seem to recall there's a different US word for bouncy castle, but I'm sure you can figure it out.

No; bouncy castle or bounce house is pretty common in the USA.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Whenever we have American visitors they're always taken aback by British English, especially the idioms, rather than specifically slang (and slang insults). I think some of those insults are dying off because it's much less acceptable these days, especially in schools and workplaces, to insult people, even as a joke or in a friendly way.

Recently I broke out 'squeaky bum time' in front of an American... He was amused, to say the least.

 

[onehitwanda]

According to several of my coworkers American kids are learning Australian from watching Bluey.

Bluey is the third greatest thing the Australians have ever done for the world.

(The second being Kylie Minogue and the first being Nicole Kidman)

 

[Bamagan]

Bluey is the third greatest thing the Australians have ever done for the world.

(The second being Kylie Minogue and the first being Nicole Kidman)

I'll contest that ranking. I think Cate Blanchett and Isla Fisher make strong cases for being in the top 3.

 

[onehitwanda]

Cate's alright, but Nicole's got a nicer bum.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Mate, I'd shag Nic over the singing budgie any day.

 

[onehitwanda]

Mate, I'd shag Nic over the singing budgie any day.

I'd be pleased with a thoughtful, lingering glance from either of them.

 

[Lucy_Lastic]

Bollocks our slang is dying off.

This.

The wall street journal isn't the best place to find out about British slang.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'd be pleased with a thoughtful, lingering glance from either of them.

I'd invite Nic over for a lamb roast. It's the red hair.
My SIL used to look like Nicole in their younger days...

 

[subdudeme13]

This.

The wall street journal isn't the best place to find out about British slang.

The Financial Times?

 

[MrStill]

Struth and stone the crows, this British slang chat has been hijack by folk who have been Captain Cooking at our sheilas.

[note: no one actually talks that way here, mind...]

 

[StillStunned]

The Financial Times?

Parliament, probably.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I'd invite Nic over for a lamb roast. It's the red hair.
My SIL used to look like Nicole in their younger days...

And if she brings her husband all the better...

 

[Rustyoznail]

And if she brings her husband all the better...

My BIL? You sure? He hasn't aged well.

Oh... Keith. Right.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Parliament, probably.

Most recently, "looking at tractors" as a euphemism for watching porn.

Other contributions from Parliament include 'badger watching' and 'a moment of madness' as euphemisms for "shagging some bloke in public", and one very popular on Usenet but less so now, MRDA, for Mandy Rice-Davies Applies, ie "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?"

Reading Hansard (the transcripts of Parliament) can be both hilarious and cringe-making... It goes back to 1800 online now, for anyone interested in history.

 

[StillStunned]

Most recently, "looking at tractors" as a euphemism for watching porn.

"I drove my tractor through your haystack last night", as the song goes.

 

[Bazzle]

"I drove my tractor through your haystack last night", as the song goes.

"I've got a brand new combine harvester and I will give you the key." Then talking about acreage -is all to do with going down on a girl and the coverage of pubic hair.
Wurzles.

 

[StillStunned]

"I've got a brand new combine harvester and I will give you the key." Then talking about acreage -is all to do with going down on a girl and the coverage of pubic hair.
Wurzles.

And it was the mid-1970s, so a combine harvester was pretty much what you needed for the pubic hair.

 

[Rustyoznail]

A UK member of Parliament was caught by the media watching porn on his phone in the Parliamentary chamber. He denied it, saying he was "looking at tractors".

 

[TheLobster]

A UK member of Parliament was caught by the media watching porn on his phone in the Parliamentary chamber. He denied it, saying he was "looking at tractors".

Either way, there was likely some ploughing involved.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Either way, there was likely some ploughing involved.

A lot of backhoeing, too, once the MP realised the TV cameras had picked up everything!