Forum Moderators: open

Message Too Old, No Replies

Question for Englishman / Englishwoman

What does this slang term mean

         

SlimKim

6:01 am on Oct 8, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I'm in the USA and I find those English folks from the ole country have funny sayings.

If you pave the parking lot they say tarmac instead of pavement, and that's not so bad - most everyone can figure that one.

I guess the one that sticks in my crawl the most is the use of "one-off" to mean a one time event. Boy-oh-boy, how are you suppose to know what that means.

But what I'm asking is this:

What do english folk mean when they say, "you don't know you're born."

Is that the equivalent of you don't know squat or what exactly does it mean?

Thanks,

Leosghost

4:01 pm on Oct 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



'less you are refering to the fact that in the previous post I only used the "majuscule" on the word Irish and not on all the other nationalities ..

'scuse moi .

Leosghost

4:13 pm on Oct 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I couldnt understand him - I got only a few words and gathered an idea about what he was saying. Truly terrible.

Slightly OT ( as is my wont :) ..anyone remember "Little Jim" ..lived in the toe of Eccles's shoe ( Goons )..

Neddie ..I cant undestand him ..ask him "whats he saying"
Eccles ..OK
Little Jim ...( various small indistinguishable noises are heard from "jim" )..
Neddie ..whats he say
Eccles ..he says that he doesnt know what he is asying either ..

Fertang!

BeeDeeDubbleU

8:42 pm on Oct 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



he says that he doesnt know what he is asying either

Was that intentional and are you referrnig (sic) to Neddy Seagoon?

(Now the colonials are really wondering what we are are goin' on aboot!)

tbear

9:39 pm on Oct 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Well, nobody's perfect :)

Syzygy

11:05 pm on Oct 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



(Now the colonials are really wondering what we are are goin' on aboot!)

Even the natives have no idea what you're on about! Must be a generational thing! ;-)

Syzygy

Leosghost

3:33 am on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



youth of today ..they dont know they're born ..when i lived in a shoe box and Beedeewhossit lived in't lake downt road and gromit used to leave us 'is bowl to lick if us was lucky ..

stealing dartmoor prison was one of the best ...

Neddy ..you silly boy ..

not generational ..we just had better food drink drugs and no HIV....sniff ..those were the days ..we didn'nt know we was born ..and we 'ad 'ovis and sohdee bread..southeners don't know what they is tho ...big girls blouses that they are

BeeDeeDubbleU

7:10 am on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



... and gay meant happy and a pint of beer was 2/6d and the all the Beatles, Stones and Hendrix were still alive and I wore hipsters with a 28" waist :)

Syzygy

8:18 am on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



...lived in a shoe box...

There's a generation between the 1950's Goons and Monty Python in the 70's, even if it is still the same pre-pubescent humour...(blows Secombe-esque raspberry whilst doing a Cleasian silly walk) :-)

...a pint of beer was 2/6d... and I wore hipsters with a 28" waist...

Isn't that what they call inflation...? ;-)

Syzygy

BeeDeeDubbleU

8:42 am on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Very much so! I struggle to get into 38" now :(

AlexK

11:07 am on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



fish_eye:
Oh no - it's started again!
AlexK:
What was the name of that TV programme?

Twin Peaks!

Boy, that took some time to remember.

...a pint of beer was 2/6d
Hmm, expensive tastes. The stuff I drank in Newcastle pubs was 1/11 3/4d (one shilling, eleven pence and three-farthings--less than 10p) and even cheaper in the Union bar. The Newcastle Union was the number one university in terms of gallons of beer drunk, and was reputed to out-drink numbers 2 and 3 combined! For the benefit of our USA cousins the student age was 18+, and it was (is) legal to drink at that age.

Probably not a lot has changed there. Apart from the price, of course.

BeeDeeDubbleU

1:26 pm on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



AlexK are you sure that your memory is not playing tricks on you? Farthings were phased out in 1959/60.

AlexK

8:07 pm on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Ah, shucks. Must have been 1/11 1/2d, then. Just under 2 shillings. The 'good' beer was another thrupenny piece.

always someone to spoil a good story... mumble...

BeeDeeDubbleU

8:31 pm on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Don't know about spoiling a good story but I can just about remember farthings :(

AlexK

11:07 pm on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I was 10 in 1960. Another couple of years before I began drinking.

I also recommend Newcastle Brown Ale to anyone (mustn't forget to promote the nation). I cannot recall the price in 1968, but it was even more expensive than the 'good' ale, and worth every penny.

RailMan

11:13 pm on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



great britain / UK (or whatever you americans want to call it!) is a wonderful place ........ it's a shame you only come over to see "Bucking Ham Palace" and London Bridge (real name Tower Bridge!) .... and maybe the odd PubCon or two!

so much to see, so much to do ... so many different ways of life and so many different dialects packed into a tiny island (and a few even tinier islands)

sad thing is that very few brits appreciate britain ..... they all fly out to spain for holidays in the sun with cheap booze and you know what .....

tbear

9:39 am on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Lol, I used to appreciate it, then I flew out to Spain and stayed there.... ;)

lawman

10:53 am on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



great britain / UK (or whatever you americans want to call it!) is a wonderful place ........ it's a shame you only come over to see . . . London Bridge (real name Tower Bridge!)

Ha, you need to brush up on your local history. Some farsighted American bought London Bridge years ago and moved it to Arizona [prairieghosts.com] (southwest United States, which is in America). :)

Apparently the bridge came complete with ghosts.

RailMan

11:09 am on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Ha, you need to brush up on your local history. Some farsighted American bought London Bridge years ago and moved it to Arizona (southwest United States, which is in America). :)

i'm a londoner born and bred!

i was making the point that americans call tower bridge "london bridge"!

lawman

11:35 am on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



i'm a londoner born and bred!

Yep, somehow I already had that figured out. :)

Maybe you should put a big sign on Tower Bridge informing the americans that if all they came to see was London Bridge, they should turn around and go to Lake Havasu, Arizona, USA. ;)

saoi_jp

11:49 am on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



One can't really blame Americans for calling Tower Bridge "London Bridge." The well-known nursery song (London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...) makes people believe that there is a bridge in London of that name, and quite a lot of "Tour London" travel publicity contains a caption-less photo of Tower Bridge. That this bridge is "London Bridge" is a valid assumption. Now, however, all Tower Bridge is famous for amongst savier Americans is, "It's the bridge that's not called London Bridge." We need to get the British Council on this straight away.

vincevincevince

12:06 pm on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Well, there is a brige called London Bridge, but it's not the one you (Americans) think :)

lawman

12:19 pm on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



UK, GB, England, Brits, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, still another bridge called London Bridge - all so confusing; head hurts . . . must abandon . . . this thread . . .

AlexK

9:41 pm on Oct 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Pshaw!

Y'know, I've always wanted to be able to say that.

Syzygy

8:21 am on Oct 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Well, there is a brige called London Bridge, but it's not the one you (Americans) think :)

Without having checked to confirm - and if memory serves me well (which it usually doesn't) - the present London Bridge was built after the old London Bridge (which needed to be knocked down and replaced) - was sold off to the American chappie.

This was the person who - in considering the logistics of transporting "Tower Bridge" to the States brick by brick - had each brick marked and numbered so that everything could be reassembled correctly at a later stage.

Having marked all the bricks the deconstruction process commenced. This revealed that every brick was already marked and numbered. This had been done during the construction!

Syzygy

BeeDeeDubbleU

10:54 am on Oct 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Amazing what one learns in this forum :)

Old_Honky

12:17 am on Oct 31, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



the old London Bridge (which needed to be knocked down and replaced) - was sold off to the American chappie.

The punchline is that the daft American thought he was buying tower bridge. London Bridge is a pretty uninspiring bridge to go and visit after all.

lawman

12:41 am on Oct 31, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Big red grapes up on the vine
Big red grapes wish they were mine
Big red grapes too high for me
Big red grapes not ripe I see
I’m sure that they must be
Sour sour grapes ;)

Old_Honky

6:39 pm on Oct 31, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Big red grapes up on the vine
Big red grapes wish they were mine
Big red grapes too high for me
Big red grapes not ripe I see
I’m sure that they must be
Sour sour grapes ;)
Oooh that's so hurtful. ;~]

BeeDeeDubbleU

7:09 pm on Oct 31, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I think you guys are misreading the situation ;)

The old London bridge was collapsing due to the volume of traffic. It was sold off to the American guy because it had no value. Britain is full of old bridges, we had no use for it so there are no sour grapes involved.

Enjoy your bridge and let us know if you want any more old stuff. We've got stacks of it over here :)

lawman

7:45 pm on Oct 31, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



It was sold off to the American guy because it had no value.

What, huh?

This 69 message thread spans 3 pages: 69