Hi all! As an American I don't always understand the Slang that Jo uses in the books. If anyone can help translate these terms for me I would really appreciate it a lot!
git and smarmy are all I can think of right now but, I don't have my books here with me.

Thanks so much

Hi Jessica, welcome to the forums!!

Now as a new member you really should have read through the forums rules here first before posting. It would have saved you from getting this wee poke from me now...

As this is a forum, a place for discussion, one-liners are not allowed. In saying that, what you have just posted is even moreso not allowed, as all it contains is just a smiley. In future, posts like that will be deleted without any notice.

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Hope you enjoy your stay here!!

EDIT : Oh Ash, I'm really, really sorry...I hit delete on Jessica's post because it was just a smilie before I saw that you'd posted... My fault...profuse apologies...you can kick me all you like for it after.....sorry mate....

Funny, I know exactly how and when to use these words but giving a definiyion is harder.

smarmy - Hypocritically earnest, or being insincerely earnest (think used car salesman or realestate agent )

git - covers a milliard of personality types, basically it's someone you either have a low opinion of, or you may just have a low opinion of something they do, then you would call them a git.

hope that helps, there's probably loads more.

Wotcher (the word that Tonks mostly uses to greet people)- is a shortened form of "what cheer!" which is a cheerful exclamation used as a greeting, usually between friends.

Well, speaking as a Brit, I have to say you guys have got a much better idea of our slang than I probably do of yours!! Taks had to explain to me what a smorg was a few months ago...

Anywho, yeah...git is just a word for someone who isn't particularly nice - it's certainly not derogatory in the way it seems to have been used in the way you've heard it used, Pixymajik...thankfully. I think Jo would have had a major kicking over it otherwise.

And smarmy...yeah, just as razz said...think used car salesman... Slimy, bit of a suck-up...shallow person.

As for wotcher, I've said this before somewhere around here...mmm....Tonksified...did you get that from the Lexicon? Because I don't think that's right.... It's why I've always thought that Tonks has a bit of a 'Sowf London' accent, because that's how they speak down there...'Wotcher' is 'Wotcha' about?'...'How are you' in other words...at least, that's what I've always understood it as. Just watch EastEnders on the BBC if you get that over there... They use it all the time. Or, another way I guess, think Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins...'Wotcher, Admiral?'...early on in the film....

Ok, again speaking as a brit, im not sure how right i am, but where I live "Wotcher" is the equivelent to "whassup" ? Its just a general greeting term. it definatly doesnt mean "What cheer" - unless you were talking to the poshiest of posh!!

Again - totally with Raz and Lou on Git - just a general person you dont like.

"Wotcher my china - hop on the dog and bone and tell your blood and blister ill be at the rub a dub dub for a night on the tiles!"

ten points to the first person to dechyper the above british slang!

(no - im not turning it into a game - but just imagine the trouble the world would have if JK wrote like that - and yes - it is all genuine british slang!)

LOL oh so close "my china" is mate, but close enough

(for those who dont know China = China Plate = Mate (yay - it rhymes) )

I think cockney rhyming slang is one of the greatest ways to talk. You can stand almost anywhere in london and you'll hear some slang wherever you are! so cool..

Cockney Rhyming slang always makes me laugh. It's like a ridlle!

Being a bit of an Anglophile, I really do enjoy learning details of new local dialects. I'm quite familiar with northern accents/slang, having watched Coronation Street and Emmerdale for years now. I never really got into Eastenders, but am familiar with the London accent and slang. "Wotcher" I always took as beeing the London equivalent to "Whassup?", it's just delivered in a different way, not really as a question like "Whassup" is, even though I suppose it is a question...

If you want a real interesting romp through Scottish/Edimburgh slang, you should pick up Trainspotting (the book, not the movie, although the movie is fantastic as well...) I'll wager you'll have to read through it at least twice to get what everyone is saying exactly, well, at least those of you on this side of the Atlantic...

Getting back to some terms which may not be clear...

Snog is pretty clear in context.

Prat, well, that one I always took as describing an awkward kind of person who thinks they are right 110% of the time (Think Percy Weasley..)

Arrrggghhh... I can't think of anymore from the books. All I can come up with are ones from Corrie... Cuppa, summat, sling yer 'ook... That kind of thing...

Help, Louise!!

Ok so I was right about some of the slang terms, Probably form reading a lot of C.S. Lewis. I had no idea it would be so different in the various parts of England as well. America has it's differences but it is huge!
Still don't have my books so I can't think of any more right now!
Thanks all of you!

i totaly understand. true, what louise said, we probably get a little more of their slang then they do ours. to tell the truth, most of it isnt really too difficult to understand. the first one that really gave me trouble before i found out what it ment was 'jumper.' mainly because it's frist mentioned in book 2 when ginny asks here mom where hers is, and in America, jumpers are like these denim dress things that little girls wear over t-shirts, so you'd see why i was confused.
book4, though, that was a nightmare. chock full of the most confusing british words your kind has ever devized. aqualung... i really had no idea what that was for a LONG time.... and i had to outright ask my mom what in the world a 'balaclava' was. i still think it's really weird.
the worst one though, that i was absoloutly sure had to thought of by an absoloute FREAK was 'budgeriger.' when i read that in 'duddley demented' i first though of a chimp, for some reason. (ps, i agree with harry on that one, why the heck is waterskiing parrekeets news?! lol)


if you can get your hands on a copy of 'a muggle's guide to the wizarding world' by fiona boyle, that has a good british word translator. there are also many on the web.

Hehe, I still don't know a lot of those words, avrilluver! Aqualung took me a while (had to look that one up online after a while)... balaclava... that one didn't work too well for me, either... and 'budgerigar' .... no idea what that one means, to this day. I'm proud to say that I did get the 'jumper,' though!

I love Trainspotting, it feel it's given me an appection of Bristh cinema and I've been looking for the book lately. It will take me quite a while I'm sure to understand everything, but I really like the story.
Also I've gotten used to British slang from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I use all kinds of words from there. I could say my favorite British word but it means a bad thing, I yell it out in my gym class, the teachers don't yell at me because they don't know what it means.

Having not read all the books in a while alot of the slang i dont know where it came from, but im english, and from what i use a budgerigar is a budgie, which is a type of small bird, dont you have budgies in america? or am i just totally thinking of the wrong thing? they can be quite cute actually. as for balaclava, im pretty sure, again by what i would think of it as, is basically a wooly hat that pulls down completly over your face and just has one hole in it for the eyes and sometimes one for the mouth.

If i am totally barking up the wrong tree here (is that slang? i dont know, i use these things every day so dont know!!! if that is, it means if im totally misunderstanding you) just ignore me, or tell me im an idiot. i wont mind, much.

I live in America, but have a British friend who loves England. He plans on moving there once he is an adult. he always uses these British terms in our conversations to annoy us.

He has told me a few of their meanings (that probably shouldn't be mentioned on this forum), and I just wonder where people come up with these things . But I guess some of you think the same of American slang.

Yeah... Emmerdale is my second favourite... Gotta love those Dingles!

I was thinking, perhapsyou'd introduce us to some of the slang from Wales? What a great way to expand our knowledge of your fine corner of the British Empire! ;D Maybe Ash and Razz can chime in too! I'll see what I can come up with from Canada!

Cheers!

Hiya Omerus

Unfortunately the three Aussie ones I could come up with I am sure you will know what they mean because they have been used so much

* Fair Dinkum
* Blow the froth of a couple
* True blue
* Cobba

I'll bet there will be people who know these ones

Git is brittish slang? My you learn summat every day eh? I thought it was just a word every one used, lol!

As for Wotcher, i always thought it meaing something along the lines of 'Eh up!' (which is pretty much the same as wassup)

Now i'm going to add some of the slang where i'm from in britain.
As for Dorrick (Aberdeen slang, where i live) i don't understand it. It's a launguage in it's self, but i do know some things.

Aye--Yes (i'm guessing most people know that but some might not)
Fit?--What?
Ken-- know
Fae--where
Quine (sp) Girl

And as for Canny it's... well the ultimate 'What does that mean?' word.

I know what it means...but it's impossible to exaplain, it's kinda means your nice, 'You're a canny lass.' it's a compliment anyway.

Also up here, we normally use the negitve for things (oh how optismic are we ) instead of saying 'It's cold' or 'This food is horrible'

we say (and not saying it is really hard for me)

'It's nae warm.' or 'this is nae fine like' meaning we don't like it (normally food)

btw Tonksfield who's guising as Tonks on your avvie?

lol, yhea, ally, think tweety bird. only bird nuts over here say budgie, vicky. we call em parekeets.

Goodness Razz! I thought American's had bad slang! I guess most of our slang (at least in the South) is us being lazy and dropping letters or running words together ya'll (you all) and fixin' (fixing). we also change vowel sounds far with a long a instead of fire with a long i.
Oh and Dana could you translate your statement "Jo was taking the mick from our media" I'm assuming you mean she was poking fun at the media. am I correct?
Our news at least the Little Rock news doesn't do the 'lighter side' they do stupid expose stories that scare people into buying something or refusing to do something, like vaccinate their children with the polio vaccine because it will cause autism. Anyways...straying off topic a bit...

Avrilluver

You're a Welshy too?! Ooh, I thought I was the only one!!

Oh, those Scottish slang words are totally beyond me.... You're talking to someone here who had to have the subtitles on to figure out what Rab C. Nesbitt was on about!

Dana, Jam is sweet sugary fruit that we spread on toast that still has pieces of friut in it also known as preserves. Jelly has no fruit in it although sometimes it will have seeds. It is made from the juice of the fruit. Jell-o is a fruit flavored gelatin dessert that wobbles usually severed with friut or whipped cream. At easter we use juice instead of water to mix the jello and pour it into egg shaped molds, these we call jigglers. Smetimes we also pour the jello into a cake pan so that it firms up in large flat sheet, then use cookie cutters to make shapes out of it. The juice, especially apple, makes it a little more firm.
Pixymajik, duh *slaps self in head* I should have know 'blow the froth off a couple' and 'true blue' my family uses those. *scrathes head wondering where on earth family came from or if they just make things up and happen to hit it right on the head*

This thread rocks!! Very informational and entertaining

*Slaps self over the back of the head*

I don't know why Ashleigh, but I assumed that you were a Brit! You should be able to answer most of the Aussie ones that I posted up then- since you already answered Heaps and Bikkie

I swear "biccie" is my niece's favourite word. She must associate my house with biscuits as my dad used to give her some when she came over and now you open the front door and she comes in going "Biccie, biccie, biccie..."

YAY!! Pixy and Ash are on my level of thinking. I forgot all those ones you guys put up because to be honest, I use them so much that I dont tend to think of them as 'quirky slang' they seem like perfectly legit terms to me

LOL Dana, that is so cute that you didn't know them! I tend to think that because they are stereotyped here that everyone will have heard them as real "Aussie" overseas. Funny though I'm racking my brain for more and I cant think of them because like I said before, I take it for granted and dont consider it 'slang'

I like Sookie-la-la, thats one I repeat in mirth.

ooh, I just thought of another one I use all the time, and unfortunately it's literal meaning is not a very nice thought but it's slang is very commonly used - Dag!

Crikey is one, but I think the Britts use that one too???

I'll post when I've got more

Ok... I guess it's my turn. I have to say that the terms I'm about to list are from the areas I have lived in or where my family or wife's family originated (mostly Eastern New Brunswick, Quebec North Shore around Sept-Iles, Central Ontario as in Lindsay/Peterborough area, etc...). Keep in mind also that these will no doubt be rather easy to get for most of you, seeing as they are probably somewhere right up the middle between american english and british english... There are some one-word terms, but a lot of them are more expressions or sayings...

One I heard quite a bit growing up was "Madder than a wet hen", usually refering to my Great-Gran...

A bundle of dried fish (usually salted cod) was referred to a faggot.

Someone taking an awful scolding would be taking a carding, a raking, or a cacking...

On a good party week-end, you might go through a couple of 2-4s, maybe more...

If you live in the sticks, you may have to resign yourself to watching Farmer Vision (the basic 2-3 tv channels, one being the CBC, the very, VERY poor distant cousin of the Beeb...)

Our dollar coin is refered to as a "Loonie", due to the picture of a Loon adorning it's one side; when the $2 coin was introduced, with a bear on the front, it was christened the Toonie! Original, eh? ;D

Oh, and did I mention that, apparently, we end all our sentences with "Eh?", eh?

In honour of my favourite aunt, who hails from Newfoundland, I shall not relate to you the shortest conversation know to the English language. I shall preface this by introducing 2 Newfoundland slang terms: Arn, and Narn. The former can mean "either one" or "anything", the latter means "neither" or "nothing." The word "by", is the translitteration of the word "boy", which comes out like "by" and is used fairly commonly in speech.

Fisherman 1: Arn, By? (Meaning "did you catch anything today?)
Fisherman2: Narn! (Meaning "No, I dod not catch anything today.")

Interestingly, a lot of the expressions from the UK are heard fairly commonly in Canada, especially in rural areas, where the cosmopolitan influence of the big cities hasn't been felt quite so much... Lavs, biccies, cuppa, ken, chuffed, cannae, dinnae, are all commonly heard.

That's about my contribution for the time being... I can only imagine how amusing it would be to have a wizarding school in some remote corner of Canada... Wasn't there a quidditch team from Moose Jaw in "Quidditch Through the Ages" ? Having been to Moose Jaw, I can tell you it certainly is remote enough!

Cheers!

I just typed out an enormous reply to all the amazing stuff people have put up here and it didn't go up when I pressed reply and I lost the lot So now it's going to be a much shorter reply which is a shame because I thought my last one was rather witty

Got two more for you lot

Hoon, and
Spunk

Pixy, I did have yours quoted so I could reply properly and I had amusing anecdotes and sentences of how they are used but this will have to do I'm afraid Oh and Happy Birthday hehe...

Ankle Biter - child
Arvo - Afternoon
The Great Aussie Salute - shooing a fly away
Yobbo - Ignorant, lazy, beer swilling pig!(man )
It's Gone Walkabout - Lost something

I know they are very literal but as I said I had good answers then lost the lot

Heres some thati know are used around out way, one in particular i think was made for us!!!!

Townie
Chav
Yarco

no prizes, but lets see if anyone knows what they all mean.

Townie and chav are used in Wales but I've never heard a yarco, is it the same thing as a townie/chav or is it something else?

Vickylizzy I have absolutely no idea what yarco means either but then again I suppose I''m a wee bit isolated from mainland Britain, it must of never made it over this far.

A Townie is some one who lives in the town, A chaz is some one who dresses up in tracksuitish/designer labels and trade-mark baseball hat and are extremely stand offish (this is all base on what I've seen on TV though I know alot of people who dress in a certain way and are very rude but I’ve seen nothing to suggest that dress sense has any bearing on how someone behaves. I believe there typified by the little boy/girl racer stereotype. again as for yarco I have absolutely no idea! Is it some derivative off the yuppie, a person who is young white collar and snobby just a guess.

I don't think we have to many colloquialisms over here, at least non which are non sectarian, there’s loads of them though. (grand means your fine not sure how universal that one is).
As for Dublin now there’s a great place for local language. There’s a stretch of land from Dublin to Dundalk (home place of the Corrs ) along the east coast known as the pale. Any one who lives beyond this place in Ireland is known by people with in the pale are known as culchy (sp?), (or basically backwards country people ) with in the pale there's a kind of off shoot of cockney slang which is great to listen to in fact it might just be cockney slang I'm not too sure Taxi - Jo maxi, Skydiver fiver, Five pounds. Jack and nory -story as in what's the .. (don't ask me what a nory is ) and of course the classic Dog and bone
Corks another great place for colloquialisms, also the accent makes cork people sound like there singing at you which sometimes can take a while to adjust to (Roy Keane is probably one of the most famous people from that neck of the woods. Is that an other one??

Oh shoot.... That's the mildest of the cuss words currently spitting acidicly towards my monitor right now....

Same thing as with razz....flippin' server....

Well, I'm not typing all that lot out again. Suffice it to say that I have read everyone's posts and had a good laugh!! But as I have nothing new to add right now, unless you want to hear a few colourful Welsh swearwords, so I guess I'll just call it a night and come back in the morning when the posts actually stand a chance of getting though.