done

From Middle English don, idon, ydon, ȝedon, gedon, from Old English dōn, ġedōn, from Proto-West Germanic *dān, from Proto-Germanic *dēnaz (past participle of *dōną (“to do”)). Equivalent to do + -en (past participle ending). Cognate with Scots dune, deen, dene, dane (“done”), Saterland Frisian däin (“done”), West Frisian dien (“done”), Dutch gedaan (“done”), German Low German daan (“done”), German getan (“done”). More at do.

suffix

en<id:past participle><pos:past participle ending>

I woke up and found out she done left.

I done made some real bad choices with my life

On my soul, this for my kids and the cold shit I done did

2022, Nas, “Legit”, in King's Disease III:

(African-American Vernacular, Southern US, Cockney, auxiliary verb, taking a past tense) Used in forming the perfective aspect; have.

African-American Vernacular; taking a past tense; African-American Vernacular; taking a past tense


bread

en-noun

bread (countable and uncountable, plural breads)

Bislama: bred

→ Big Nambas: p'ret

desctree

Sranan Tongo: brede
Aukan: beele
Saramaccan: bëë́ë
→ Kari'na: perere

Tok Pisin: bret

→ Fiji Hindi: bareed

→ Hausa: burodi

desc

→ Malayalam: ബ്രെഡ് (breḍŭ), ബ്രെഡ്ഡ് (breḍḍŭ)

→ Marshallese: būreej

→ Nupe: bureedi (possibly via Hausa)

→ Yoruba: búrẹ́dì

From Middle English bred, breed, from Old English brēad (“fragment, bit, morsel, crumb", also "bread”), from Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą (“cooked food, leavened bread”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrew- (“to boil, seethe”) (see brew). Alternatively, from Proto-Germanic *braudaz, *brauþaz (“broken piece, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰera- (“to split, beat, hew, struggle”) (see brittle). Perhaps a conflation of the two. Possibly a doublet of broa. Cognate with Scots breid (“bread”), Saterland Frisian Brad (“bread”), West Frisian brea (“bread”), Dutch brood (“bread”), German Brot (“bread”), Danish and Norwegian brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”), Albanian brydh (“I make crumbly, friable, soft”), Latin frustum (“crumb”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English payn (“bread”), borrowed from Old French pain (“bread”).

sai

white bread; broadly those which are not the “leib“

don't get your meat where you get your bread

know which side one's bread is buttered on

Maybe somebody would see him and recognize him, maybe one of the guys would lay enough bread on him for a meal or at least subway fare.

1962, James Baldwin, Another Country, New York, N. Y.: The Dial Press, published 1963 January, pages 3–4:

[…] save up all your bread, and fly Trans-Love Airways to San Francisco, USA.

1967, “San Franciscan Nights”, in Winds of Change, performed by Eric Burdon and The Animals:

And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar / And say, "Man, what are you doing here?"

1973, Billy Joel, “Piano Man”, Billy Joel (music), performed by Billy Joel:

Hey, baby, I don't care if the motherfucker's growing hair just so long as we get our bread.

2000, Darren Aronofsky, Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream, spoken by Tyrone:

Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it.

2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:


flash

en-noun

flash (countable and uncountable, plural flashes)

→ Catalan: flaix

→ Polish: flesz

In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

(British, Cockney) The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.


cor

A minced oath or dialectal variant of God.

[…] She perused it with an interested eye and having mastered its contents said, “Cor chase my Aunt Fanny up a gum tree,” adding that you never knew what was going to happen next these days.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:


gaff

Unknown. Possibly from Etymology 1, via a sense of “a place that will be robbed” in criminal argot; possibly from Etymology 2, via a sense of "cheap theatre"; possibly from Romani gav (“village”) (whence German Kaff (“village”)).

We're going round to Mike's gaff later to watch the footie.

"Steady on, mate. How was I to know this was your gaff? I was lookin' for somewhere to kip."

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 56:

And like I said, I was so fuck-faced that I forgot I'd moved and let myself back into my old gaff.

1993, Tristan Hawkins, Pepper, London: Flamingo, →ISBN, page 106:

Am I alone in feeling smug (if slatternly) about the news that super-clean homes are a breeding ground for infection? Apparently, all that bleach is bad not just for germs but for children's immune systems, too, and paradoxically causes more disease than it prevents. Not round my gaff. Oh no. My standards of housekeeping are so abysmally low that my eldest daughter was three years old before she even developed a temperature.

2015 April 4, Judith Woods, “I knew it! Spring cleaning is bad for your family's health [print version: Vindicated at last! It's healthier to be a slatternly housewife, p. 28]”, in The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 2015-04-09:

Man will enter the gaf with crown
Gun shot spin his head right round

2019 April 30, “The Godfather”, Ink (lyrics), 0:37–0:40:

The term ‘free gaf’ is music to any teenage ears in Dublin, while the term ‘wreak the gaf’ should fill any parent with dread. The term ‘gaf’ means ‘house,’ so when parents are away […]

2019 November 7, Erike Sanker, “20 mad Dublin slang phrases that only make sense to locals”, in Ireland Before You Die (IB4UD):

(Ireland; British, especially Dublin, Manchester, MLE, Cockney and Glaswegian; slang) A place of residence.

especially Dublin; Manchester; especially Dublin; Manchester


bovver

en-noun

bovver (countable and uncountable, plural bovvers)

Represents a nonstandard or dialectal (in particular Cockney) pronunciation of bother.

In London there are some thirty gangs of “bovver birds,” violence-prone girls who roam the streets in packs attacking almost any vulnerable object for no apparent reason other than the sheer thrill of it.

1976, Freda Adler, Herbert Marcus Adler, Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal, page 100:

(British, slang) Violence, especially that associated with youth gangs.


slag

slag (countable and uncountable, plural slags)

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare also Old Saxon slegi, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi.
See also Dutch slak, German Schlacke, Swedish slagg; also compare English slay.

The writers took it for granted that England, with its working class composed of slags, purple-nosed losers, and animals fed on pinball, pornography and junk-food, was disintegrating into terminal class-struggle.

1990, Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia, London, Boston: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 207:

1996, Sarah Kane, Phaedra′s Love, Scene 8, 2001, Sarah Kane: Complete Plays, page 100,
Kill him. Kill the royal slag.

2012, Danny Dyer, tweet, quoted by Alexis Petridis, "Danny Dyer: why them 9/11 slags are freaking his nut", The Guardian
Can't believe it's been nearly 11 years since them slags smashed into the twin towers

(UK, Ireland, chiefly Cockney, derogatory) A contemptible person, a scumbag.


bruv

PIE word
 *bʰréh₂tēr
Clipping of bruvver.

The lads in the Nags 'Ead were just talking about your bit of managerial bovver and I said to Rodney, 'Bruv, this could be my big chance.'

(UK, Canada, chiefly Cockney, MLE, MTE, Australia, slang) Brother, mate, friend.


bruvver

Representing the Cockney or Multicultural London English pronunciation of brother (th-fronting).

Gurdjieff I thot a man an a bruvver, but NObuddy is goin to swallow Ouspensky

1953, Ezra Pound, letter to Margaret Anderson, reproduced in Thomas L. Scott et al. (editors), Pound/The Little Review: the Letters of Ezra Pound to Margaret Anderson, New Directions Books (1988), page 314

Gawd knows when yer bruvver's gonna get married.

1992, Harry Bowling, The girl from Cotton Lane, Headline Book Publishing:


John Thomas

* 17th century. From the forenames John and Thomas.
* (penis): Compare dick, peter, willy and johnson.

'John Thomas! John Thomas!' and she quickly kissed the soft penis, that was beginning to stir again.

1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 14, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition, [Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina, […]], →OCLC; republished as Lady Chatterley’s Lover (eBook no. 0100181h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, August 2011, archived from the original on 2020-11-11:


geezer

From guiser. Compare also German Low German Kieser (“an obstinate person; brute; savage”).

cog

Geezers need excitement / If their lives don't provide 'em this, they incite violence / Common sense, simple common sense

2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:

He turned out to be a proper geezer who was willing to listen to my proposition that if he took the door at the Ministry, I would pay him £400 a month to mark my cards.

2003, Carlton Leach, Muscle, John Blake Publishing, →ISBN:

He was a bit of a geezer. Used to box with the Krays when he was a young 'un.

2009, Dreda Say Mitchell, Geezer Girls, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

When I'd first met Adam, at work when we were both 23, the fact that he seemed a little rough around the edges appealed to me. He was a bit of a geezer, a joker, one of the lads.

2013, Charlotte Ward, Why Am I Always the One Before 'The One'?, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a wide boy.


garn

mrs pearce. […] But you dont know anything about her. What about her parents? She may be married. / liza. Garn! / higgins. There! As the girl very properly says, Garn! Married indeed! Dont you know that a woman of that class looks a worn out drudge of fifty a year after shes married?

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 125:

(Cockney slang) A response that expresses disbelief or mockery.


guv

Alternative phonetic spelling of gov, short for governor.

We cover up the window so the guvs can't see us.


sparra

Pronunciation spelling of sparrow, representing Cockney English.

pronunciation spelling of

Jason dons a screwed-up accent that Madonna would be proud of. While Martine, loved for being a cockney sparra, unfortunately goes posh.

2008, Jon Wise, “Double trouble as soap won't wash”, in People:

"Ah ! ah ! the fun was, one of the company said it was as like a sparra as one pea is like another; how I did laugh to myself, for she grew quite offended like, and insisted that this was a light brown bird, but that a sparra was next to black"

1859, Samuel Carter Hall, The book of the Thames: from its rise to its fall, page 351:


fack

en-verb

fack (third-person singular simple present facks, present participle facking, simple past and past participle facked)

facks (present singular third-person)
facking (participle present)
facked (participle past)
facked (past)

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(UK, Cockney, vulgar) Pronunciation spelling of fuck.


guv'nor

“Now we have to get out of here before the fuzz start sniffing around. Fingers, get the Rolls resprayed and change the number plates in case they trace it.”
“Yes, guv’nor.”

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(UK, Ireland) An informal form of address to a man; see guv. This version is especially likely to be applied to the owner of a business or the landlord of a public house.


rum go

UK dialectal (chiefly Cockney); rum (“strange, peculiar”) + go (“incident, occurrence”).

‘Here’s rayther a rum go, sir,’ replied Sam. / ‘What?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick. / ‘This here, Sir,’ rejoined Sam. ‘I’m wery much afeerd, sir, that the properiator o' this here coach is a playin' some imperence vith us.’

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXV, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

“Well, who's a better right?” growled the gamekeeper. “A pretty rum go if squire ain't to talk for Dr. Livesey, I should think.”

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Go to Bristol”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part II (The Sea Cook), page 55:

There they are, Strawberry—Fledge, I should say. This is a rum go.

1955, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew, London: The Bodley Head, →OCLC:

Bert: Life's a rum go, Guv'nor, and that's the truth.

1964, William Crozier Walsh et al., Mary Poppins:

Adrian thought it worth while to try out his new slang. ‘I say, you fellows, here's a rum go. Old Biffo was jolly odd this morning. He gave me a lot of pi-jaw about slacking and then invited me to tea. No rotting! He did really.’

1991, Stephen Fry, chapter III, in The Liar, London: William Heinemann, →ISBN, page 26:

(Cockney slang, dated) A peculiar, surprising, and/or confusing event, thing, etc.


werry

Better let me make you up a little fire, the nights is werry cool," continued Ben.

1857, Frank J. Webb, The Garies and Their Friends:

"We must be off if we're to lie at Uxbridge overnight; for there hath been rain beyond, sir, and the roads be werry deep."

I spent a werry plessant arternoon there, and drove home in style on the Box Seat of a reel Company's Bus. The nex day I went to Higate Wood, another of the grate works of the good old Copperashun.

1890, Various, Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 30, 1890.:


larf

larf (third-person singular simple present larfs, present participle larfin', simple past and past participle larfed)

larfs (present singular third-person)
larfin' (participle present)
larfed (participle past)
larfed (past)

The neighbours described me as "a sorrowful lookin' delicate creetur', that couldn't larf to save her life"—[…]

1901, Miles Franklin, “Mr M‘Swat and I Have a “Bust Up.””, in My Brilliant Career, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 269:

(chiefly Cockney) Pronunciation spelling of laugh.


gertcha

Get out of here!
get out of here#English

(Cockney, slang) Get out of here! No way! (expression of disbelief)


muvver

(Cockney, MLE) Pronunciation spelling of mother.