The Language (and travel) Thread

[Julia Mae]

May I prevail upon my British language specialists one more time?  In the US, if a guy has gone on a bit of a binge, we might say he is "drunk off his ass."  (Amongst other colorful expressions.)   What are some of the BE forms of the same idea?

[Liselle]

Ohhhh, we have LOTS of expressions for that Most are quite informal though, so you wouldn't say them in polite company. Though I'm betting 'drunk off his ass' is the same

The closest we have to that is probably 'rat-arsed'. But if you wanted some other alternatives, there's 'gone on a bender' or 'gone on the piss', and being absolutely 'sloshed', 'plastered' or 'shit-faced'.

 

Out of those, the politest would probably be 'gone on a bender'.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

   On the East Coast, known for its sailing heritage, it's being "Three Sheets to the Wind".

[Julia Mae]

Ohhhh, we have LOTS of expressions for that Most are quite informal though, so you wouldn't say them in polite company. Though I'm betting 'drunk off his ass' is the same

 

The closest we have to that is probably 'rat-arsed'. But if you wanted some other alternatives, there's 'gone on a bender' or 'gone on the piss', and being absolutely 'sloshed', 'plastered' or 'shit-faced'.

 

Out of those, the politest would probably be 'gone on a bender'.

 

Yes, not polite company, but friends speaking privately.  This is interesting, it seems booze brings us together!   All of these: 'sloshed', 'plastered' or 'shit-faced' are also common  AE  expressions.  As is "gone on a bender."   Love "rat-arsed."  Thanks again!

 

 

[Liselle]

Didn't realise you used those expressions in AE too, Julia Mae Guess you're right; booze does bring us all together!

[aely]

We use Three Sheets to the wind too - but Liverpool is a port so it's not surprising.

 

Other words for drunk - bevvied, trollied, sozzled, piddled, bladdered, tanked, steamin', being 'out of it' can be either drunk or spaced out for another reason and someone else may comment that someone was 'off his head', 'off his face', 'out of his skull' and if you're very drunk in Liverpool you would be well bladdered or well bevvied.

 

If you're going out for a bevvy with your mates you sometimes go out for craic, that's usually only used with people who are of Irish or Scottish descent.

[Julia Mae]

We use Three Sheets to the wind too - but Liverpool is a port so it's not surprising.

 

Other words for drunk - bevvied, trollied, sozzled, piddled, bladdered, tanked, steamin', being 'out of it' can be either drunk or spaced out for another reason and someone else may comment that someone was 'off his head', 'off his face', 'out of his skull' and if you're very drunk in Liverpool you would be well bladdered or well bevvied.

 

If you're going out for a bevvy with your mates you sometimes go out for craic, that's usually only used with people who are of Irish or Scottish descent.

 

Here's a partial AE list:

bombed

wasted

hammered

plastered

sloshed

blotto

squiffed

blasted

stewed

 

 

"Squiffed" is pretty old-fashioned, but it's in the movie "Harvey" so I always include it.   I notice some  BE words often have to do with bodily functions or the results of the condition.  A lot of the AE words connote violence, like the booze attacked them and won.   But "out of his skull"  or "off his head" would be like "bombed out of his mind" I think.

[Julia Mae]

Didn't realise you used those expressions in AE too, Julia Mae Guess you're right; booze does bring us all together!

 

That and war.  We started out fighting against each other but since then the Americans and British have fought, at least on the same side and often together.  I know in both world wars a lot of American men thought we should have gotten into it earlier and went to England to volunteer.    We exchange our movies and television, it's a wonder we have so many differences in language.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... "out of his skull"  or "off his head" would be like "bombed out of his mind" I think.

 

... or [whatever'd] out of his gourd.

 

Did anybody say snockered yet?

 

Also, for mild inebriation:

 

lit

tipsy

[aely]

we'll also say 'a bit squiffy', in the UK though we don't use squiffed

 

merry is another one for mild inebriation

[Julia Mae]

 

... "out of his skull"  or "off his head" would be like "bombed out of his mind" I think.

 

... or [whatever'd] out of his gourd.

 

Did anybody say snockered yet?

 

Also, for mild inebriation:

 

lit

tipsy

 

 

Yes, "gourd."  We use that a lot to mean head, I think.  My aunt used to grow gourds and shape them into heads and paint them.  In the 50s. 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

How about "buzzed"?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yes, "gourd."  We use that a lot to mean head, I think.

 

Right, as in "Are you out of your gourd?!" -- meaning roughly the same thing as Ron Weasley's "Are you mental?!"

 

[Julia Mae]

 

Yes, "gourd."  We use that a lot to mean head, I think.

 

Right, as in "Are you out of your gourd?!" -- meaning roughly the same thing as Ron Weasley's "Are you mental?!"

 

 

Precisely!

 

BRITISH POSTERS: (or anyone who knows)

 

New question on BE useage:

 

I know in BE "take-away" is for ordering food and then picking it up.  AE is "takeout."  But does take-away include fast-food?  Would you say in BE:  "I'm going to get some fast food?"  Or would it still be take-out?  Or something else?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm not British (well, not for about 400 years, anyhow), and can't speak for fast food as such, but when we went to restaurants in London where you ordered at the counter, they would ask whether it was for take-away.  (Note:  Take-away is apparently cheaper than eating in the restaurant, due to some sort of tax, or perhaps it's a surcharge that the restaurants themselves impose.)  We were asked this in a very nice sit-down type Indian restaurant, and also in a Pret-a-Manger (I think that's how it's spelt, give or take a few diacritical markings -- at any rate, it's our favorite chain of sandwich shops).

 

So at any rate, it's still take-away if you order on the spot, rather than phoning your order in, if that's what you were asking.  And judging by "The Blind Banker," it's also take-away if you phone and they deliver.  (Sort of like it's still "mail-order" here if you order it on the internet and it's delivered by UPS.)

 

Would love to be corrected and/or clarified and/or expanded upon by anyone, particularly anyone British.  

 

[Julia Mae]

So at any rate, it's still take-away if you order on the spot, rather than phoning your order in, if that's what you were asking.  And judging by "The Blind Banker," it's also take-away if you phone and they deliver.

 

No, I'm asking how  the British person refers to McDonald's.

 

(I know.  Another straight line.  Have fun, but please give me an actual answer, also!)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Ah, OK.  I can't answer that.  But it's 3 a.m. in the UK, and all of our experts are presumably sound asleep, so I will say I'm virtually certain that the general term for fast food is not "take-away."  (Of course, if you want your Happy Meal "to go," that would be take-away, same as at any other restaurant.)

 

Hopefully we'll hear a more complete and authoritative answer in a few hours, when the UK wakes up.

[Carol the Dabbler]

While doing internet research for a story, I came across a new-to-me website, The Dialect Dictionary.  They define (accurately so far as I've seen) assorted terms in "32 dialects and counting."

 

And how could you fail to fall in love with a site that lists 314 synonyms for "vomit"? 

 

We now return you to Julia Mae's fast-food question.

 

[Julia Mae]

While waiting for tomorrow and the interesting responses from across the water, I found this on Wikipedia:
 

English words that survived in the United States and not in the United Kingdom
 

A number of words and meanings that originated in Middle English or Early Modern English and that have been in everyday use in the United States dropped out in most varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots. Terms such as fall ("autumn"), faucet ("tap"), diaper ("nappy"), candy ("sweets"), skillet, eyeglasses and obligate are often regarded as Americanisms. Fall for example came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".^%5B68%5D

 

During the 17th century, English immigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak and the new settlers took the English language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America. Gotten (past participle of get) is often considered to be an Americanism, although there are some areas of Britain, such as Lancashire and North East England, that still continue to use it and sometimes also use putten as the past participle for put (which is not done by most speakers of American English).^%5B69%5D

 

Other words and meanings, to various extents, were brought back to Britain, especially in the second half of the 20th century; these include hire ("to employ"), quit ("to stop", which spawned quitter in the U.S.), I guess (famously criticized by H. W. Fowler), baggage, hit (a place), and the adverbs overly and presently ("currently"). Some of these, for example monkey wrench and wastebasket, originated in 19th century Britain.
The mandative subjunctive (as in "the City Attorney suggested that the case not be closed") is livelier in American English than it is in British English. It appears in some areas as a spoken usage and is considered obligatory in contexts that are more formal. The adjectives mad meaning "angry", smart meaning "intelligent", and sick meaning "ill" are also more frequent in American (these meanings are also frequent in Hiberno-English) than British English.^{%5B70%5D%5B71%5D%5B72%5D}

------------------------------------

 
I was especially surprised by "diaper," for some reason.  (source)

[Liselle]

British person here, awake and ready to offer assistance!!

 

'Take-away' refers to any kind of food you buy at a restaurant and then take home to eat; it doesn't matter what kind of food it is. So yes; if you go to McDonalds and buy some food but want to eat it away from the restaurant, it's still called a take-away. But we refer to the food itself as fast-food.

[aely]

In Liverpool we don't use take-away for fast food, and don't always use it for things like kebabs or fish and chips from the chippy either. Take-away is usually reserved for Chinese/Indian/Greek/whatever food.

 

If we go to a fish and chip shop, we 'go the chippy' for whatever - a chippy dinner is usually fish or sausage, chips and mushy peas - and might be classed as take out, but not take-away (yeah, I don't get that either).

 

Macdonalds is specifically referred to as Maccy Ds so if you're going to the drive through you don't get take out or take away, but a Maccy D (no matter what you get in your bag). In fact, we tend to refer to all those branded/franchised fast food places by their names - burger king, wimpy, kfc. Pizza is pizza and not take out or take away and anything from Subway is 'a subway' no matter what you get in that.

 

Goodness knows what the rest of the country does!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

  What an education us Yanks are getting! But it sure will be a big help when writing up an English based fanfiction or a "cosy".

[Selena]

/>

What an education us Yanks are getting! But it sure will be a big help when writing up an English based fanfiction or a "cosy".

A cosy? I have not heard that word before. What does it mean?

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

  It's a certain type of English mystery story.

[Caya]

Learn something new every day . I only knew it as the thingy you pull over your teapot so your tea stays hot.

 

Seriously,

 

 

I've learned so much from you already, Brits and Yanks alike, about regional idioms, it's amazing.

 

eta: McDonalds is called Macky round here, too.