字幕表 動画を再生する
-
Oscar Wilde famously described Britain and the US
-
as two nations divided by a common language.
-
Now, there are many different words
-
that Britons use and Americans don’t.
-
For example fortnight, caravan, petrol and so on.
-
But there are also many phrases and idioms
-
that are common in the UK but unheard of in the US.
-
And here are some of my favourites.
-
Hi, I’m Siobhan Thompson
-
and this is Anglophenia.
-
Now, if I were to say to you
-
Brian used to know his onions
-
but then he lost a plot,
-
he made a right roll kock-up,
-
and now he’s living at Her Majesty’s pleasure’
-
If you’re American
-
this might not make the blindest bit of sense to you.
-
But all of these phrases
-
are used pretty ubiquitously in the UK.
-
Enough, that when I first used them in the States,
-
I was shocked
-
when people had no idea what I was talking about.
-
So, here are some pretty common examples
-
of British phrases.
-
The etymology of them is a little bit hazy
-
since they are colloquialisms.
-
But when they are known, I will tell you.
-
[AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES]
-
This means that somebody is daydreaming,
-
or in sort of out of touch with reality.
-
It doesn’t actually mean
-
that they've run away with actual fairies.
-
Fairies don’t exist.
-
Sorry, Tinkerbell.
-
So, as an example:
-
‘Oh my goodness! Sorry, I was away with the fairies.’
-
Or ‘Don’t mind Daisy, she’s away with the fairies.’
-
It does come from all of those terrifying stories about children
-
being kidnapped by fairies.
-
But it also indicates somebody who lives
-
in their own fantastical imagination.
-
The closest in American English is probably ‘space cadet’
-
but it’s not exactly the same.
-
[SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS]
-
This means that everything evens out in the end.
-
Sort of like
-
six of one and half a dozen of the other.
-
So swings and roundabouts
-
always end up in the same place eventually.
-
So you don’t have to worry about
-
where they are right now.
-
The Manhattan Bridge is closer than the Brooklyn Bridge
-
but there’s more traffic,
-
so it’s swings and roundabouts, really.
-
This phrase probably came about
-
at the end of the 19th century
-
when fairgrounds became wide spread throughout Britain.
-
[HORSES FOR COURSES]
-
This means that
-
different people are good at different things.
-
Just like some horses are better at racing
-
and some at jumping.
-
You have to pick the right horse
-
for the right course.
-
- Why wasn’t George Clooney cast as Harry Potter?
-
– Well, it’s horses for courses, isn’t it?
-
[THE DAWN CHORUS]
-
This refers to the swell of birds
-
the one that happens
-
right as the sun comes up.
-
As in
-
‘Ah, I was trying to lie in this morning
-
but I got woken up by the dawn chorus.’
-
All of you city dwellers
-
might not know that this is a thing.
-
It is!
-
Also,
-
did you know that
-
there are birds that aren’t pigeons?
-
Yeah, true story.
-
[BOB’S YOUR UNCLE]
-
This is a way of saying
-
‘And there we go’
-
or ‘And right away.’
-
It indicates that something is done very quickly and efficiently.
-
So, throw a tea-bag in a cup,
-
pour on some boiling water,
-
and Bob’s your uncle,
-
a cup of tea.
-
Sometimes people honestly think
-
that a Robert is your mother’s brother,
-
or a Robert is your father’s closest male relative.
-
Seriously, this is a thing that people do.
-
[CHIN-WAG]
-
This means gossiping and chatting.
-
Having a nice chin-wag
-
is just having a little catch up with your friends.
-
So, I’m just gonna go put the kettle on
-
and then we have a nice chin-wag
-
about that George Clooney being cast as Harry Potter.
-
[DONKEY'S YEARS]
-
This means ‘a really long time’, like
-
‘Oh, I haven’t seen you in donkey’s years.’
-
The closes American vocable into this is ‘Oh, I haven’t seen you in an age.’
-
This comes from two different roots.
-
Firstly,
-
the Cockney rhyming slang for ‘years’ is ‘donkey’s ears’.
-
And secondly, donkeys live for a really long time.
-
Yeah, we’re learning a lot of things today.
-
[TO HAVE A BUTCHER'S]
-
This means ‘to have a look at’.
-
Oh, you got engaged?
-
Let’s have a butcher’s at that ring, then.
-
It’s another one that comes from Cockney rhyming slang,
-
butcher’s hook meaning ‘look’.
-
And it spread around the country
-
after the advent of radio and television.
-
If you watch the show ‘Call the Midwife’,
-
you’ll hear it said about 800 times every episode.
-
[IT'S MONKEY'S]
-
This means ‘it’s very cold.’
-
It comes from the nautical slang,
-
‘It’s cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey.’
-
Meaning cannon balls,
-
not the balls you are thinking about.
-
The brass monkey was the name of the stand.
-
If it got too cold
-
the metal would whop
-
and all of the cannon balls would roll off.
-
Of course, this never happened in Britain,
-
where it is a rainy 12 degrees centigrade
-
every day of the year.
-
[UP THE WOODEN HILL TO BEDFORDSHIRE]
-
This means ‘to go to bed.’
-
Just think about it for a second.
-
Got it?
-
Good.
-
[UP THE DUFF]
-
This is kind of a funny way to say that somebody is pregnant.
-
It probably comes from about the same place
-
as ‘having a bun in the oven’.
-
Plum duff is and other name for Christmas pudding.
-
Nurse, I think I’m up the duff.
-
Come and have a butcher’s.
-
Go! Wake up! What?
-
Are you away with the fairies?
-
It’s monkey’s, ain’t it?
-
Can’t you turn the heating up?’
-
So, there we go.
-
Do you have a favourite British phrase?
-
Let us know in the comments.
-
Don’t forget to subscribe
-
and watch some of the other videos.
-
Oh yeah, click down one,
-
is really interesting.
-
No, really is!
-
Go on!
-
Click, click, click.