Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Words

It's fun to hear folks at the Abbey picking up British usage. We're pretty much all taking coaches rather than busses now, and we like our chips, bangers, mash, etc.

One person has decided s/he likes the word "knackered." At the end of the day, s/he will tell us s/he's "knackered" and do it with an amused smile.

I like "chuffed" myself, as I've mentioned.

"Chuffed" sounds somewhat friendly, while "knackered" sounds like you've just had an unfortunate experience at a butchers. Of course, a large percentage of experiences to be had at a butchers would be unfortunate from one point of view, I suppose.

I don't think any of us is "knocking up" our friends in the morning, and that's just as well.

3 comments:

  1. Well, after some days, knackered feels just right. It may not quite have been a butcher, but I can feel pretty beaten up.
    I think I noticed you using twee, which is another great word.
    In addition to the confusion of " knocking up", I trust you are wearing trousers in addition to pants!

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  2. ...careful about chuffed though, it also means proud. "Dead chuffed" means very proud, eg. "Dave's sprog just wobbled his way across the pub, he's dead chuffed now."

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  3. Interesting. In my dialect a 'coach' and a 'bus' are two different things. Buses go around short loops inside a town and stop and start a lot. A coach goes between two towns and usually only has one place you can get on and one place (the final destination) where you can get off. E.g. Greyhound has coaches. I didn't realise that coach was used for both in UK English.

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