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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2348 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 26, 2026

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What phrases are mostly innocent in the US but innuendo in the UK? Have some colleagues in the UK and would like to make things funny from time to time. I have no idea what they mean by "you alwight" and I want revenge.

Some examples that might be helpful.

  • "Bender" can be used as a derogatory term for a gay man.
  • "Bugger" can used as a verb meaning "to sodomize" (I don't know if this word has an innocent meaning in the US).
  • "Pants" refers to boxers and briefs, not trousers.
  • "Pissed" means drunk, rather than angry.
  • "To pull" means to get a girl to come home with you e.g. "I managed to pull at the pub last night."
  • "To shag" means to have sex with (I assume a lot of Yanks are familiar with this owing to Austin Powers).
  • "Slag" means a promiscuous woman.
  • "Spunk" means ejaculate.

Supposedly bugger's supposed to be just 'annoying person', and you'll hear 'silly bugger' in some circumstances, but I think that was a corruption from Gordon Ramsay and Terry Pratchett (and Father Ted, maybe?). It's still pretty low-stakes as an insult even among people that know the original context, though.

Under similar metrics, my impression's that 'arse' is a lot lighter-stakes than the UK take, though it's still not very harsh even in the UK. Same for 'bloody' as a prefix, which I still don't get.

From the other direction, in America, "cunt" is considered rude enough that I'll avoid it in explicit pornographic contexts (though not all Americans will), and could be a firing offense on the first use. Made a work trip to Australia very awkward.

Same for 'bloody' as a prefix, which I still don't get.

"Bloody" is generally just used as a generic intensifier. I have a very vivid childhood memory of listening to a newsreader talking about Bloody Sunday on the radio and feeling baffled as to why she was suddenly cursing mid-sentence.

‘Bloody’ is supposedly the descendent of a minced oath for ‘by Our Lady’. I don’t know if it’s true or not.

A 1909 dictionary of Victorian slang agrees, "by our Lord" (blood) "by our Lady (bloody), including a mention of a "blady hell" having been found in 18th century literature.

Of course, it also includes "birdofreedomsaurin" as a legitimate word, so...

Birdofreedomsaurin (Amer.). Birdof- freedom soaring. A jocular mode of describing the altitude of the American eagle. Used mildly in England to deprecate any chance American extreme expression of patriotism.

”I think that Prince Louis Napoleon was over-dressed. I know that in his green or purple stock (I forget which) he wore an immense breastpin representing an eagle in diamonds, not the eagle with displayed wings, that is, the American ' birdofreedomsaurin ' — but an aquiline presentment with the wings closed — the eagle of Imperial sway.”

That’s very funny. I guess it’s a play on the dinosaurs being named around this time, like stegosaurus?

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