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One to maybe confuse the Americans - in the UK when we make a point of saying someone went to public school, that actually means they went to private school.

The US has adopted an Australian phrase--hook, line, and sinker:

"No worries," meaning "no problem,"has completely superseded "no problem" among people of multiple generations...at least in NYC and especially amongst college students.

That's interesting, cuz I always thought "tea" was an afternoon snack----say, around 3 or 4pm-ish; roughly, half-way between lunch and supper.

So, does your username mean you LOVE what we call cookies?

Oh, that's interesting, TOO. Why do you call it "public", then----and, what do you call actual "public" schools?

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Nobody says "no worries", down here----in-fact, this is the first I've heard-of it.....

"Private".

Very funny.

^^ I was just laughing to myself about that too..

Called public as a member of the public has to directly pay for it. You can also put your kid in for exams at 10 years old if you want and the very top couple of kids might be offered a place in a private school for free or a much reduced price.

Normal schools are just called Comprehensives, state school, or just school, as people will assume you mean regular Government funded school unless you specify otherwise.

Last edited by Biscuitman on 08 Oct 2017, 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There is no midafternoon meal here, so if you had one you would just call it a snack I guess. Friend of mine moved from Spain to here 15 years ago and also thought tea was a midafternoon meal we had. Wtf?!

Tea is either a cup of tea or your evening meal.

Or cream crackered. And yeh, it means really tired, not drunk. A similar word would be "shattered".

^^^ Is that Cockney Rhyming Slang?

Yeah. If you're inebriated in Britain you are "pissed". Same in Australia. In contrast "pissed" means "angry" in the USA (short for "pissed off"), and has nothing to do with alcoholic beverage consumption.

It probably is. I don't think I ever hear Cockney Rhyming Slang over here though. My mum used to use that one all the time, but her accent sounded more middle class (but she wasn't middle class) and "cream crackered" was used as a joke.

There are phrases that are rhyming slang that people don't know are rhyming slang, "I don't have a scooby" being one of the more popular examples. It's slang for Scooby Doo\clue.

Agree with that. There are probably quite a lot that are used in daily life by all sorts of people as they are just part of the lexicon now and we never stop to think where it comes from.

I used to work with a guy known as Mickley Bubble. It was only after about a year I learned he had Greek heritage so it then clicked as to why he would be called Bubble (bubble & squeak = Greek)

Oddly enough some expressions we Americans often use seem to have had their roots in Cockney Rhyming slang.

"Didya see those two guys duking it out?"

Making "duke" into a verb like that is a recent (and probably American) flourish.

But it derives from "put up your dukes" which has been used for decades (you see it in every black and white classic Hollywood movie).

Apparently Victorian London blokes would challenge each other to "put up your forks" (because hands look like forks).

That became "put up your Duke of Yorks".

Then THAT got shortened to "put up your dukes".

Then somehow "put up your dukes" vaulted the Atlantic to the US and became endemic at least by the interwar era when my parents were growing up if not earlier.