yelm

The noun is derived from Middle English yelm, from Old English ġielm (“bunch or handful (of plant stems)”), from Proto-West Germanic *galmi (“bundle or handful of plants”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”) or *gʰel- (“to cut”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

inh

After the leaves had been removed, as many turnips were thrown together as would lie upon a circle four yards in diameter: yealms of wheat-straw were made, similar to such as are used for thatching, but longer, thicker, and formed with less precision: four tall stakes were then driven into the earth, each a yard from the heap, so as to form a square, each side of which would measure six yards. Two courses of yealms were next placed on the earth, so as to enclose the quadrangle indicated by the stakes; […]

1822 April 27, John Cowley, William Staines, “L.—On Preserving Turnips, &c. during the Winter.”, in Thomas Gill, editor, The Technical Repository, Containing Practical Information on Subjects Connected with Discoveries and Improvements in the Useful Arts, volume III, London: Printed by R. Watts, for the proprietors; published by T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1823, →OCLC, page 253:

Another useful implement of Mr. Williams' is his Patent Horse-rake. […] [A] ball working with the leverage of a handle keeps the teeth at their work, and is connected with the bar running underneath by a spring, and cannot lose the yealm.

1852 December 11, “The Smithfield Club Show—Agricultural Implements”, in R[ichard] A[rchibald] Brooman, editors, The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette, volume LVII, number 1531, London: Robertson, Brooman, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 467, column 1:

The carts take them [mangold or mangelwurzel] to the place for graving, and the whole is so regulated that all are kept going. The grave is usually set out about eight or nine feet in width, and the slant upwards finishes in a point at about five to six feet in height. Straw or stubble is drawn out in "haulms" or "yealms" as for thatching, and with these the grave is securely thatched and made safe by spits of earth being thrown upon the sides.

1866, “a practical farmer” [pseudonym], “The Harvesting of the Mangold Crop”, in The British Farmer’s Magazine, volume XL (New Series), number CXXI, London: Rogerson and Tuxford, […], →OCLC, page 499, column 2:

He [the thatcher] is attended by a man to carry up the ‘yelms,’ […]

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Hamlet—Cottage Astrology—Ghost Lore—Herbs—The Waggon and Its Crew—Stiles—The Trysting-place—The Thatcher—Smugglers—Ague”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 124:

The thatcher then laid the ‘yelms’, or bunches of drawn straw, on the laths, beginning at the eaves and working up towards the ridge.

1952, L[ouis] F[rancis] Salzman, “Thatch, Tiles, Slates, Vanes”, in Building in England down to 1540: A Documentary History, revised edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press by Vivian Ridler […], published 1967, →OCLC, page 224:

(UK, dialectal) A bundle of straw laid out straight, chiefly to be used for thatching; a helm.


haver

en-verb

haver (third-person singular simple present havers, present participle havering, simple past and past participle havered)

havers (present singular third-person)
havering (participle present)
havered (participle past)
havered (past)

This didn't seem at all unlikely, but when I none the less havered, he insisted that his 'Egyptian fortune-teller' had confirmed it.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 154:


haver

Borrowed from Scots haver, from Middle English haver, from Old Norse hafri (“oat, oats”), from Proto-Germanic *habrô (“oat, oats”), from Proto-Indo-European *kapro- (“goat”). Cognate with Dutch haver (“oats”) and German Hafer (“oat”).

(UK, Scotland, dialect) Oats (the cereal).


toll

From Middle English toll, tol, tolle, from Old English toll m or n and toln f (“toll, duty, custom”), from Proto-West Germanic *toll, *tolnu, from Proto-Germanic *tullaz, *tullō (“that which is counted or told, reckoning”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tol (“toll”), Dutch tol (“toll”), German Zoll (“toll, duty, customs”), Danish told (“toll, duty, tariff”), Swedish tull (“toll, customs”), Icelandic tollur (“toll, customs”). More at tell, tale.
Alternate etymology derives Old English toll, from Medieval Latin tolōneum, tolōnium, alteration (due to the Germanic forms above) of Latin telōneum, from Ancient Greek τελώνιον (telṓnion, “toll-house”), from τέλος (télos, “tax”).

der

(UK, law, obsolete) A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.


vest

From French veste (“a vest, jacket”), from Latin vestis (“a garment, gown, robe, vestment, clothing, vesture”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéstis, from *wes- (“to be dressed”) (English wear). Cognate with Sanskrit वस्त्र (vastra) and Spanish vestir.

(British) A sleeveless garment, often with a low-cut neck, usually worn under a shirt or blouse.


ACAS

(British) Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service


throat

en-verb

throat (third-person singular simple present throats, present participle throating, simple past and past participle throated)

throats (present singular third-person)
throating (participle present)
throated (participle past)
throated (past)
throate (alternative obsolete)
throte (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English throte, from Old English þrote, þrota, þrotu (“throat”), from Proto-Germanic *þrutō (“throat”), from Proto-Indo-European *trud- (“to swell, become stiff”). Cognate with Dutch strot (“throat”), German Drossel (“throttle, gorge of game (wild animals)”) (etymology 2), Icelandic þroti (“swelling”), Swedish trut.

cog

(UK, dialect, obsolete) To mow (beans, etc.) in a direction against their bending.


merkin

merkins (plural)
'merkin (alternative)
Merkin (alternative)
'Merkin (alternative)
murkin (alternative)
'murkin (alternative)
Murkin (alternative)
'Murkin (alternative)

Representing an aphetic pronunciation of American.

For all you non-'merkins: Most 'merkins are idiots, just like the residents of your country. See, most people are idiots. We just have idiots with a higher average income than you do, so they can afford to be better cretins.

1998 January 15, Vasilisha, “Internet Oracularities Digest #973”, in rec.humor.oracle.d (Usenet):

It is, unfortunately, an all-to-common assumption -- sort of like assuming that all posters here are 'merkins. Perhaps it's best to assume that all posters are vertebrates (I was going to type primates, but one of my neutered cats sent a post awhile^([sic]) back).

2000 August 2, John Monrad, “One group's thoughts”, in talk.origins (Usenet):

There is a brand of cheap, nasty aftershave over in Britain caller Que. About two quid a bottle and it's foul. Buy some and fly to Noo Yawk. Then sell it to a Murkin for forty bucks. Tell them it is Calvin Klein's British version.

2000 December 29, RampRat, “making money from stupid Murkins”, in alt.nuke.the.british (Usenet):

Well he did say he doesn't follow the sport so it is understandable that he isn't aware of the four year rotation (soon to be changed to 2 years if FIFA (the internatinal football body for you unknowing merkins) have their way). I couldn't tell you sod all about the 'World' Series as I don't follow Baseball.

2002 June 23, John of Aix, “Where Did The Merkin Footballers Go?”, in alt.nuke.the.usa (Usenet):

(British, slang, derogatory) An American.


blag

The origin of the noun is unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.

'What's he do, Micky?' / 'Armed blags is what I hear – s'posed to be one or two nice little tucks down to him that he didn't go for. He keeps well active. Someone told me he's putting one together now.[…]'

1977, G[ordon] F[rank] Newman, chapter 4, in Law and Order, St. Albans, Hertfordshire: Granada Publishing, published 1983, →ISBN, page 40:

Through Lenny I had met a character whom I shall call Billy. He was part of a blag team famous for a series of large-scale wage snatches.

1997, Stephen Smith, “Helter Skelter Years”, in Addict: An Incredible True Story with a Fairytale End, [United Kingdom]: Westworld International, →ISBN:

They're turning over any business that couldn't go running back to the Other People, sex shops and massage parlours, doing blags long after they went outta fashion, doing loads of drugs and not giving a fuck about keeping a low profile.

2000 April, J. J. Connolly, “April Fool’s Day 1997: Welcome to the Layer Cake”, in Layer Cake, London: Duck Editions, Duckworth Literary Entertainments, published July 2001, →ISBN, page 6:

Darlin' – I know your old man's keen for you to learn the ropes an' all that, but let's not forget who's running this blag, shall we?

2005, Echo Freer, chapter 1, in Diamond Geezers, London: Hodder Children’s Books, Hodder Headline, →ISBN, page 2:

(British, criminal slang) An armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft.


blag

en-verb

blag (third-person singular simple present blags, present participle blagging, simple past and past participle blagged)

blags (present singular third-person)
blagging (participle present)
blagged (participle past)
blagged (past)

(transitive, British, criminal slang) To obtain (something) through armed robbery or robbery involving violence, or theft; to rob; to steal.


blag

en-adj

blag (comparative more blag, superlative most blag)

more blag (comparative)
most blag (superlative)

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly:
* from blag (“to rob; to steal”) (see etymology 1); or
* borrowed from French blaguer (“to joke (about); to tell a lie”), from blague (“pouch, especially for tobacco; joke (from the notion of something puffed up, and thus fanciful)”) (from Dutch balg (“leather bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”)) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).
The adjective and noun are probably derived from the verb.

der

You’re wearing a blag designer shirt!


zoot suit

zoot suits (plural)
zootsuit (alternative)
zuit suit (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-zoot suit.wav

Zoot may be a Caló slang pronunciation of suit, thus making the term a tautology and reduplication.

Before his nap, Kaplan had put on all his clothes, including the wool-lined waterproof double-zippered survival suit nicknamed the zoot suit.

2019, Ellin Bessner, Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II:

(UK, military, slang) Synonym of goon suit (“waterproof rubber suit for pilots”).


reg

What's your reg and where are you parked?

registration number
registration number#English

(informal, UK) Clipping of registration number.

registration
Clipping of registration number.


property

en-noun

property (countable and uncountable, plural properties)

properties (plural)
propretie (alternative)

From Middle English propertee, properte, propirte, proprete, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French propreté, proprieté (“propriety, fitness, property”), from Latin proprietās (“a peculiarity, one's peculiar nature or quality, right or fact of possession, property”), from proprius (“special, particular, one's own”). Equivalent to proper + -ty. Doublet of propriety.

خَاصَّة

attribute or abstract quality associated with an object, individual or concept

characteristic

attribute or abstract quality of an object

He works in property as a housing consultant.

(British) Real estate; the business of selling houses.


greeve

greeves (plural)
greave (alternative)
grieve (alternative)

From Middle English gryve, grayve, from Old Norse greifi (“a count, earl, steward”), akin to Swedish and Danish greve (“a count, earl”), Old English ġerēfa (“reeve”). More at reeve.


shield

en-verb

shield (third-person singular simple present shields, present participle shielding, simple past and past participle shielded)

shields (present singular third-person)
shielding (participle present)
shielded (participle past)
shielded (past)

From Middle English shelden, from Old English scildan.

The government has updated its guidance for people who are shielding taking into account that COVID-19 disease levels have decreased over the last few weeks.

2020 May 31, “Guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19”, in GOV.UK:

(UK, intransitive) To shelter; to protect oneself.


target

→ Japanese: ターゲット (tāgetto)

From Middle French targette, targuete, diminutive of targe (“light shield”), from Old French, from Frankish *targa (“buckler”), akin to Old Norse targa (“small round shield”) (whence also Old English targe, targa (“shield”)) from Proto-Germanic *targǭ (“edge”), from Proto-Indo-European *derǵʰ- (“fenced lot”). Akin to Old High German zarga (“side wall, rim”) (German Zarge (“frame”)), Spanish tarjeta (“card”).

cog

(UK, dated) A thin cut; a slice; specifically, of lamb, a piece consisting of the neck and breast joints.


grazier

/ˈɡɹeɪʒə(ɹ)/

Graziers on the tablelands are in dire straits because they do not have enough winter feed and will have to keep reducing stock.

(UK, historical) One who grazes cattle and/or sheep on a rural property.


hacker

From Late Middle English hackere, hakker, hakkere (“one who cuts wood, woodchopper, woodcutter; (rare) tool for cutting wood”), from hakken, hacke (“to cut (something) with a chopping action, hack; to make a chopping action”) + -er(e) (suffix forming agent nouns). Hakken is derived from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; a handle; a hook; a peg”). The English word may be analysed as hack (“to chop or cut down in a rough manner”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

hacker

one who uses a computer to gain unauthorized access to data stored in, or to carry out malicious attacks on, computer networks or computer systems

ха́кер

one who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer

hakkuri

something that hacks; device or tool for hacking

The upper half of each swede-turnip had been eaten off by the live-stock, and it was the business of the two women to grab up the lower or earthy half of the root with a hooked fork called a hacker, that it might be eaten also.

1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XLIII, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume III, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the fifth (The Woman Pays), page 44:

Hack. […] To loosen the earth round potatoes, preparatory to earthing them up. This is done with a ‘tater-hacker,’ an old three-grained garden-fork, which by bending down the tines or ‘grains’ at right angles to the handle has been converted into something resembling a rake, but used as a hoe.

1893, George Edward Dartnell, Edward Hungerford Goddard, “Hack”, in A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Wiltshire, London: […] [F]or the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, […], →OCLC, page 72:

Something that hacks; a device or tool for hacking; specifically, an axe used for cutting tree branches or wood.

(British, regional) A fork-shaped tool used to harvest root vegetables.


hacker

en-verb

hacker (third-person singular simple present hackers, present participle hackering, simple past and past participle hackered)

hackers (present singular third-person)
hackering (participle present)
hackered (participle past)
hackered (past)

From hack (“(obsolete) to confuse or mangle (words) when speaking”) + -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs).

suffix

The interrupting of the Miniſter by the Clark, and the vvhole congregation, vvhen he readeth the Pſalms, by taking every other verſe out of his mouth, vvith an hackering confuſed noiſe, eſpecially in countrey Churches, vvhere the people cannot read vvell.

1642, Lewes Hughes, “The Errors and Ungodliness of the Service Displaid and Laid Open, by Way of a Dialogue between a Countrey Gentleman, and a Minister of Gods Word”, in Certain Grievances, or The Popish Errors and Ungodlinesse of the Service-book; […], 5th edition, London: […] T. P., →OCLC, page 13:

Stammering, hackering—and so forth; it's shameful to relate! A soldier should be sound, brave, firm, decisive, true, honourable!

1810, Alexander Vassiliavitch Suvorof, “Appendix No. II. Field Marshal Court Alexander Vassiliavitch Suvorof’s ‘Discourse under the Trigger;’ […]”, in Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels in Various Countries of Europe Asia and Africa, 1st part (Russia Tartary and Turkey), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University Press by R. Watts for T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies […], →OCLC, page 709:

[M]y noble patron has my habit of hackering so completely that he scarcely speaks three words without two stops; but when we get at his meaning it is better than any one's.

1814 June 18 (date written), Mary Russell Mitford, “To Mrs. Mitford, Bertram House”, in A. G. K. L’Estrange, editor, The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, […] Told by Herself in Letters to Her Friends. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 214:

Since the new marriage act, we, who belong to country magistrates, have gained a priority over the rest of the parish in matrimonial news. […] Many a blushing awkward pair hath our litle lame clerk (a sorry Cupid!) ushered in between dark and light to stammer and hacker, to bow and curtsy, to sign or make a mark, as it pleases Heaven.

1824, Mary Russell Mitford, “Hannah”, in Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery, volume I, London: G[eorge Byrom] and W. B. Whittaker, […], →OCLC, page 22:

[P]oor Adams became flustered, and hackered and stammered, as if in the way of imitating the Westminster Ciceros.

1825 March 9, William Cobbett, “To the Electors of Westminster. On the Speech of Sir Francis Burdett, of the 1st March 1825, when He Presented the Petition of the Catholics of Ireland.”, in William Cobbett, editor, Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, volume 53, number 11, London: […] C[harles Robert] Clement, […], published 12 March 1825, →OCLC, column 643:

Certainly, some folks said that he was a born fool, and that he said so few words because he hackered and stammered so awfully. But that, belike, was only jealousy.

1891, J[ohn] C[hristopher] Atkinson, “How Little Jack Came to be Called the Wolf-queller”, in The Last of the Giant Killers: Or The Exploits of Sir Jack of Danby Dale, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 52:

He hackered an' stammered leyke an au'd ganthert chooakin wi bran.

1892, M[armaduke] C[harles] F[rederick] Morris, “Specimens of the Folk-talk”, in Yorkshire Folk-talk with Characteristics of Those who Speak It in the North and East Ridings, London: Henry Frowde, […]; York, Yorkshire: John Sampson, →OCLC, page 122:

"Ha," they hollowly hackered, / "You come, forsooth, / "By stealth to obliterate / Our graven worth, our chronicle, our date, / That our descendant may not gild the record / Of our past state,[…]"

1914, Thomas Hardy, “[Miscellaneous Pieces.] The Obliterate Tomb.”, in Satires of Circumstance: Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, page 179:

(intransitive, chiefly British, dialectal, archaic) To speak with a spasmodic repetition of vocal sounds; to stammer, to stutter; also, to mumble and procrastinate in one's speech; to hem and haw.


level

en-noun

level (countable and uncountable, plural levels)

→ German: Level

→ Irish: leibhéal

desctree

→ Japanese: レベル (reberu)
→ Korean: 레벨 (rebel)

→ Welsh: lefel

From Middle English level, from Old French livel, liveau m, later nivel, niveau, from Latin libella f (“a balance, a level”), diminutive of libra f (“a balance, a level”); see libra, librate. Doublet of libella and niveau.
The verb is from Middle English levelen, from the noun.

The troops grow mutinous—the revenue fails—
There’s something rotten in us—for the level
Of the State slopes, its very bases topple,
The boldest turn their backs upon themselves!

1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

(British) An area of almost perfectly flat land.


nutter

From Middle English nutter, notere, equivalent to nut + -er.

That bird who's hanging' out with you is mad like cat piss / Like bread and jam, or a knife going with butter / Face it son, your missus is a nutter!

2005, “Your Missus Is A Nutter”, performed by Goldie Lookin Chain:

When I asked Mr Robinson why he'd made his own attempts, he said, 'It gets to be a bug. And I suppose I'm a nutter.'

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 268:

(UK, Ireland, sometimes derogatory, informal) An eccentric, insane, crazy or reckless person.

kaheli

an eccentric, insane, crazy or reckless person


lush

en-adj

lush (comparative lusher, superlative lushest)

lusher (comparative)
lushest (superlative)

From Middle English lusch (“slack, relaxed, limp, loose”), from Old English *lysċ, lesċ (“slack; limp”), from Proto-West Germanic *laskw, from Proto-Germanic *laskwaz (“weak, false, feeble”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēy- (“to let; leave behind”).
Akin to Old English lysu, lesu (“false, evil, base”), Middle Low German lasch (“slack”), Middle High German er-leswen (“to become weak”), Old Norse lǫskr (“weak, feeble”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍃𐌹𐍅𐍃 (lasiws, “weak, feeble”), Middle Low German las, lasich (“slack, languid, idle”), Low German lusch (“loose”). Doublet of lusk. More at lishey, lazy.

cog

Boys with long hair are lush!

Your voice is lush, Lucy! I could listen to it all day!

(British, Canada, slang) Amazing, cool, fantastic, wicked.


Tim

(slang, derogatory, UK, Ireland) A Catholic.


regarder

(chiefly British, archaic) An official responsible for monitoring woodlands and forest areas and reporting to the court of regard.


TIM

The service was originally reached in major cities by dialling the letters TIM (846) on a dial telephone.

(British) A nickname for the speaking clock.


palaver

en-noun

palaver (countable and uncountable, plural palavers)

→ Danish: palaver

→ Finnish: palaveri

→ German: Palaver

→ Hungarian: paláver

→ Swedish: palaver

Originally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“parable, speech”). The term's use (especially in Africa) mimics the evolution of the word moot. As such, for sense development, see moot. Doublet of parable, parole, and parabola.

doublet

What a palaver!

Not for the first time, he reflected that it was not so much the speeches that strained the nerves as the palaver that went with them.

1985, Justin Richards, Option Lock, page 229:

What's the good of going through all this palaver of giving very small sums to very obscure charities?

1988, Lord Grimond, House of Lords vol 492 col 695

We fill up the bathtub for a proper bath maybe once a month because it is such a palaver. We have a 150 litre pot and a 60 litre pot that we have to fill up and boil on the wood stove which takes hours.

2021 February 22, “Life slows down’: the islander who swapped Shetland for living off-grid in a Norway forest”, in Shetland News:

(British) Mentally draining activity, either physical or fuss.


kettle

en-verb

kettle (third-person singular simple present kettles, present participle kettling, simple past and past participle kettled)

kettles (present singular third-person)
kettling (participle present)
kettled (participle past)
kettled (past)

From Middle English ketel, also chetel, from Old English ċietel (“kettle, cauldron”) and in Middle English possibly influenced by Old Norse ketill and both from Proto-Germanic *katilaz (“kettle, bucket, vessel”), of uncertain origin and formation. Usually regarded as a borrowing of Late Latin catīllus (“small bowl”), diminutive of Latin catinus (“deep bowl, vessel for cooking up or serving food”), however, the word may be Germanic confused with the Latin: compare Old English cete (“cooking pot”), Old High German chezzi (“a kettle, dish, bowl”), Icelandic kati, ketla (“a small boat”). Cognate with West Frisian tsjettel (“kettle”), Dutch ketel (“kettle”), German Kessel (“kettle”), Swedish kittel (“cauldron”), Swedish kittel (“kettle”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (katils, “kettle”), Finnish kattila, Polish kocioł (“cauldron”), Czech kotel (“boiler”), Russian котёл (kotjól, “boiler, cauldron”).
(watch): Cockney rhyming slang from 'kettle and hob' to 'fob' (fob watch).

cog

[…] to contain demonstrators for hours in a confined spot. This tactic, known as kettling, is seen by some as an attempt to prevent people lawfully demonstrating.

2009, John O'Connor, G20: The upside of kettling: The Guardian:

(originally British, of the police) To contain demonstrators in a confined area.


pump

From Middle English pumpe, possibly from Middle Dutch pompe (“pipe, water conduit”) or Middle Low German pumpe (“pump”), probably ultimately imitative.
Compare Dutch pompen, German pumpen, and Danish pompe; also Spanish bomba (“pump”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

Thus to and again to our paſtime we went, / And my Cards I play'd fairly to Jenny's content; / I work'd at her Pump till my Sucker grew dry, / Then I left pumping, a good Reaſon why.

1750, “Ge ho, Dobbin or the Waggoner”, in The Tulip, page 2:

(obsolete, vulgar, British slang) The vagina.


pump

en-verb

pump (third-person singular simple present pumps, present participle pumping, simple past and past participle pumped)

pumps (present singular third-person)
pumping (participle present)
pumped (participle past)
pumped (past)

→ Czech: pumpovat

Tok Pisin: pamim

→ Thai: ปั๊ม (bpám)

→ ǃXóõ: pàmpa

→ ǃXóõ: pòmpa

onomatopoeic

imitative

Pump my tight hole so long and hard that I can't walk or sit when you're done.

1990 December 9, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 12:

(transitive, UK, slang) To have sex with; to sexually penetrate, especially with a thrusting motion.

People never pumped, just never never, but sometimes ye got smells.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 82:

(British, slang, vulgar) To pass gas; to fart quietly.


pump

The etymology of the term is unclear and disputed. One possibility is that it comes from pomp (“ornamentation”). Another is that it refers to the sound made by the foot moving inside the shoe when dancing. The Oxford English Dictionary claims that it appeared in the 16th century, and lists its origin as "obscure". It has also been linked to the Dutch pampoesje, possibly borrowed from Javanese pampus, ultimately from Persian پاپوش (pâpuš), borrowed from Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš).

unk

obscure

der

Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš)

(British) A low-top shoe with a rubber sole and a canvas upper; a low-top canvas sneaker.


dogsbody

From dog + -s- + body. 1818, British navy slang (dog's body), originally derogatory reference to unappetizing pease pudding (compare dog's breakfast), as if it were made of mashed dog meat. In 20th century applied to low-ranked sailors, thence menial servants in wider usage.

Who chose this face for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

'Cause I, I wanna be anarchy! / No dogsbody!

1976, “Anarchy in the U.K.”, performed by Sex Pistols:

That's just Baldrick, my dogsbody.

1994, Blackadder (television production):

Furthermore, there are still rather backward opinions in our society about the role of a translator. A translator is often regarded as a linguistic dogsbody.

1995, Paul Kussmaul, Training The Translator, John Benjamins Publishing Co, page 146:

(British, Ireland) A person who does menial work, a servant.


electric fire

[A] skinny blonde of about twenty sitting in an armchair by an electric fire reading a true romance magazine.

1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 69:

An electric fire came next, followed by an umbrella and then a colander.

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 67:

He was watching television when I got in. The curtains were drawn, and he had dug out an old half-broken electric fire; it was extremely hot.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 2:

(UK, Ireland) A fire, stove or heater powered by electricity.


loot

Borrowed from Middle Dutch loet or loete (“scoop, shovel, scraper”), from reconstructed Old Dutch *lōta, from Old Frankish *lōtija (“scoop”), from Proto-Germanic *hlōþþijō (“scoop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- (“to lay down, deposit, overlay”).
Related to lade and ladle, and cognate with Dutch loet, Scots lute or luyt (“scoop”), West Frisian loete or lete, Middle Low German lōte (“rake”), and French louche (“ladle”).

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A scoop used to remove scum from brine pans in saltworks.


twat

Unknown origin. Possibly cognate with Old Norse þveit (“cut, slit, forest clearing”), and if so a doublet of thwaite. May however simply be onomatopoeic or sound-symbolic.

uder

At 4pm, the phone went. It was The Sun: 'We hear your daughter's been expelled for cheating at her school exams...'
She'd made a remark to a friend at the end of the German exam and had been pulled up for talking.
As they left the exam room, she muttered that the teacher was a 'twat'. He heard and flipped—a pretty stupid thing to do, knowing the kids were tired and tense after exams. Instead of dropping it, the teacher complained to the Head and Deb was carpeted.

"LARGE MOCHA TO GO, MEDIUM CHAI FOR HERE, YOU TWATS"

2009, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 1433: Sweet Distraction:

(offensive, vulgar, slang, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A contemptible and stupid person, idiot.


unite

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *éy?
Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos
Proto-Italic *oinos
Old Latin oinos
Latin ūnus
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Latin -iō
Latin ūniō
Proto-Indo-European *-tós
Proto-Italic *-tos
Latin -tus
Latin ūnītuslbor.
Middle English uniten
English unite
From Middle English uniten, from Latin ūnītus, perfect passive participle of ūniō.

etymon

Occasionally Scots and Irish coins are also found. The gold hoards consist entirely of crown gold unites, half unites and quarter unites from the reigns of James I and Charles I.

1968, Seaby's coin and medal bulletin, numbers 593-604, page 198:

(UK, historical) A British gold coin worth 20 shillings, first produced during the reign of King James I, and bearing a legend indicating the king's intention of uniting the kingdoms of England and Scotland.


click

Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).

onomatopoeic

Imitative

snapping one's fingers
snap one's fingers

(British) The act of snapping one's fingers.

This roused the tinker's choler, already provoked at Tugwell's amorous freedom with his doxy, and he gave him a click in the mazard. Tugwell had not been used tamely to receive a kick or a cuff; he, therefore, gave the tinker a rejoinder, […]

1808, Richard Graves, The Spiritual Quixote, page 127:


click

en-verb

click (third-person singular simple present clicks, present participle clicking, simple past and past participle clicked)

clicks (present singular third-person)
clicking (participle present)
clicked (participle past)
clicked (past)

onomatopoeic

Imitative


click

From Middle English clike, from Old French clique (“latch”).


spark

→ Esperanto: sparko

→ Japanese: スパーク

From Middle English sparke, sperke, from Old English spearca, from Proto-West Germanic *sparkō (compare Saterland Frisian Spoorke, West Frisian spark, Dutch spark, German Low German Sparke, German Sparke), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *sparkaz (“lively, energetic”), from Proto-Indo-European *sperg- (“to strew, sprinkle”) (compare Breton erc’h (“snow”), Latin spargō (“to scatter, spread”), sparsus (“scattered”), Lithuanian sprógti (“to germinate”), Ancient Greek σπαργάω (spargáō, “to swell”), Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬀𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬈𐬔𐬀 (frasparega, “branch, twig”), Sanskrit पर्जन्य (parjanya, “rain, rain god”)).

cog

At the other extreme, with limitless budgets all they have to do is dream up amazing lighting rigs to be constructed and operated by the huge team of gaffers and sparks, with their generators, discharge lights, flags, gobos and brutes.

1999, Des Lyver, Graham Swainson, Basics of Video Lighting, page 103:


cracker

From Middle English craker (“a boaster”), equivalent to crack (“to break, snap, utter, make a sound”) + -er. From crack (verb), the sound made when one is broken. The hard "bread" and "biscuit" sense is first attested in 1739. The computing senses of cracker, crack, and cracking were promoted in the 1980s as an alternative to hacker, by programmers concerned about negative public associations of hack, hacking (“creative computer coding”). See Citations:cracker. Various theories exist regarding the term's application to poor white Southerners. One theory holds that it originated with disadvantaged corn and wheat farmers (corncrackers), who cracked their crops rather than taking them to the mill. Another theory asserts that it was applied due to Georgia and Florida settlers (Florida crackers) who cracked loud whips to drive herds of cattle, or, alternatively, from the whip cracking of plantation slave drivers. Yet another theory maintains that the term cracker was in use in Elizabethan times to describe braggarts (see crack (“to boast”)); a letter from 1766 supports this theory.

suf

(UK) A northern pintail, a dabbling duck of species Anas acuta.

She's an absolute cracker!

The show was a cracker!

A cracker of a day.

And just before the interval, Kolarov, who was having one of his better games in a City shirt, fizzed in a cracker from 30 yards which the Wolves stopper unconvincingly pushed behind for a corner.

2011 January 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 4 - 3 Wolves”, in BBC:

(slang, chiefly British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) A fine, great thing or person (crackerjack).


guy

PIE word
 *h₁weydʰh₁-
Coined by semantic widening from the name of Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), an English Catholic executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, from Old French Gui, a form of Proto-Germanic *Wido, a short form of names beginning with the element witu "wood" from Proto-Germanic *widuz, such as Witold and Widukind. Cognate with Italian Guido.

(UK, Ireland) An effigy of a man burned on a bonfire on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (5th November).


backsword

A stick with a basket handle, used in rustic amusements.

One afternoon, as the missionary and I were sitting outside our tents, my attention was attracted towards a group of sepahis engaged under a banyantree, playing the game of backsword […]

(UK, dated)
The game in which the stick is used.


connexion

en-noun

connexion (countable and uncountable, plural connexions)

connexions (plural)
connex. (alternative abbreviation)

From Middle English connexioun, from Latin connexiō (“a conclusion, binding together”), from connectō.

der

There are undoubtedly facts, which, may come to their knowledge by means of their connexion with the ſecretary of ſtate, reſpecting which they cannot anſwer.

1803 February 10, John Marshall, quotee, “Marbury v. Madiſon”, in U.S. Reports, volume 5, Washington, D.C.: William Cranch, pages 141–142:

It is now time for the opposition to the Annexation of Texas to cease, all further agitation of the waters of bitterness and strife, at least in connexion with this question,–even though it may perhaps be required of us as a necessary condition of the freedom of our institutions, that we must live on for ever in a state of unpausing struggle and excitement upon some subject of party division or other.

1845 July and August, John O’Sullivan, “Annexation”, in United States Magazine and Democratic Review, volume 17, number 1, page 1:

I saw he was going to marry her, for family, perhaps political reasons; because her rank and connexions suited him; […]

1848, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography:

And about this harpooneer, whom I have not yet seen, you persist in telling me the most mystifying and exasperating stories, tending to beget in me an uncomfortable feeling towards the man whom you design for my bedfellow–a sort of connexion, landlord, which is an intimate and confidential one in the highest degree.

All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion […] such talk had been distressingly out of place.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Persuading the widow that my connexion with her husband's 'technical matters' was sufficient to entitle me to his manuscript, I bore the document away and […]

1928 February, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”, in Farnsworth Wright, editor, Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual, volume 11, number 2, Indianapolis, Ind.: Popular Fiction Pub. Co., →OCLC, pages 159–178 and 287:

It resembled them in the sense that it was not ended, when it was past, but continued to unfold, in Watt's head, from beginning to end, over and over again, the complex connexions of its lights and shadows, the passing from silence to sound and from sound to silence, the stillness before the movement and the stillness after, the quickenings and retardings, the approaches and the separations, all the shifting detail of its march and ordinance, according to the irrevocable caprice of its taking place.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:

In this connexion, it is worth remembering that we are never told how the tribute was collected within the tributary state.

1978, Moses I. Finley, “The fifth-century Athenian empire: A balance sheet”, in Peter D. A. Garnsey, C. R. Whittaker, editors, Imperialism in the Ancient World: The Cambridge University Research Seminar in Ancient History, Cambridge University Press (reprinted 2006), →ISBN, page 125:

1984 November 20, “Rugby Union: The Jaguars Make A Move To End Their Isolation Argentina turns to FIRA and the French connexion is set to benefit”, in The Times, page 21:

(chiefly UK) Dated spelling of connection.


fibre

en-noun

fibre (countable and uncountable, plural fibres)

tlb

(British, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa spellings)

From French fibre, from Old French, from Latin fibra.

The microscope showed several different fibres stuck to the sole of the shoe.

(countable) A single piece of a given material, elongated and roughly round in cross-section, often twisted with other fibres to form thread.

Under this map, any two values in the fibre of a given point on the circle differ by 2π.

(mathematics) The preimage of a given point in the range of a map.

säie

mathematics: preimage of a given point in the range of a map

(category theory) Said to be of a morphism over a global element: The pullback of the said morphism along the said global element.

It is the deeper parts of such cells which give rise to delicate muscular fibres or networks of fibres, while the superficially placed body of the cell myoblast), the part which produces the above, performs other functions, and usually bears a cilium.

1892, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus, edited by F. G. Heathcote, Elementary Text-book of Zoology:

(cytology) A long tubular cell found in bodily tissue.


nana

nanas (plural)
'nana (alternative)
narna (alternative)
narner (alternative)

You look a right nana dressed up like that.


alcopop

en-noun

alcopop (usually uncountable, plural alcopops)

Blend of alcohol + pop (“sweetened carbonated drink”).

blend

However, the media soon went too far in playing the story up, claiming that underage drinkers drank only alcopop (actually they preferred cheap cider).

1999, Stanton Peel, Marcus Grant, editors, Alcohol and Pleasure: a health perspective:

The breweries began to develop alcopops with names and advertising drawn from drug culture.

2003 January 23, Dave Haslam, London Review of Books:

Over on cheap flights from Prestwick and Stansted, these boys were often to be found floating trouserless in the Liffey at dawn, or staggering up Grafton Street, their T-shirts clinging to them with alcopops and spilled Sambuca.

2004 June 3, Andrew O'Hagan, London Review of Books:

(British, Ireland, Australia) An alcoholic drink that looks and tastes like a soft drink.

napój alkoholowy o niskiej zawartości alkoholu


fiddle

→ Swahili: fidla

From Middle English fithele, from Old English *fiþele, from Proto-West Germanic *fiþulā, from Proto-Germanic *fiþulǭ (“fiddle”), of uncertain etymology. Some contest that the Germanic terms are borrowed variations of Late Latin vitula (see viola); others contest that the word has a separate origin within Germanic languages, and still others believe that the Late Latin term for the stringed instrument is a borrowing from Germanic as a change of Latin t to Germanic þ is highly improbable, yet Germanic þ to Latin t is well documented (see troop, Teobaldo, etc.). Cognate with Old High German fidula (German Fiedel), Middle Dutch vedele (Dutch vedel, veel), Old Norse fiðla (Icelandic fiðla, Danish fiddel, Norwegian fela, Swedish fela).
The change from /ðl/ to /dl/ in modern English is regular; compare Bedlam, staddle, swaddle (in brothel, it was prevented; see that entry for discussion).

hang up one's fiddle when one comes home

there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle

(UK slang, obsolete) A watchman's rattle.

Done at a fiddle.


fiddle

en-verb

fiddle (third-person singular simple present fiddles, present participle fiddling, simple past and past participle fiddled)

fiddles (present singular third-person)
fiddling (participle present)
fiddled (participle past)
fiddled (past)

A cake-seller told me that a little while before I saw him a lad of twelve or so had consumed a shilling’s worth of cakes and pastry, as he had got a shilling by “fiddling;” not, be it understood, by the exercise of any musical skill, for “fiddling,” among the initiated, means the holding of horses, or the performing of any odd jobs.

1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:

(intransitive, UK, slang, obsolete) To do odd jobs for money.


fiddler

From Middle English fithelere, from Old English fiþelere, from *fiþele. By surface analysis, fiddle + -er.
(capstan-house): So called because the fiddle would sometimes be played to cheer the sailors working there.

(UK, slang, obsolete) A coin of little value: a sixpence or a farthing.


redundant

en-adj

redundant (comparative more redundant, superlative most redundant)

more redundant (comparative)
most redundant (superlative)

From Latin redundāns, present participle of redundō (“to overflow, redound”), from red- (“again, back”) + undō (“to surge, flood”), from unda (“a wave”).

Four employees were made redundant.

(chiefly British, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia) Dismissed from employment because no longer needed.


's

Contractions of various words ending in s.

All’s he wanted was to go home.

(UK, dialect) Contraction of as (when it is (nonstandardly) used as a relative conjunction, or like a relative pronoun, meaning "that").


's

He takes his bottle of whisky a day and gets drunk’s a lord in the evening.

1922, E. F. Benson, Negotium Perambulans:


tosspot

tosspots (plural)
toss-pot (alternative)

Well, that's one in the eye for the nay-sayers, the doubters, the cynics and assorted tosspots what make up the media and that.

2000 June 13, Darren Tackle, The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, offensive, slang) A fool, prat; an idiot.


phwoar

Imitative of the sound made, with the mouth initially partly closed and then opened wide.

onom

Imitative

That Susan, phwoar!

For quotations using this term, see Citations:phwoar.

(UK, slang) Expresses sexual desire on seeing a person to whom one is attracted.


catapult

From Middle French catapulte, from Latin catapulta, from Ancient Greek καταπέλτης (katapéltēs), from κατά (katá, “downwards, into, against”) + πάλλω (pállō, “I poise or sway a missile before it is thrown”). Doublet of catapulta.


principal

en-noun

principal (countable and uncountable, plural principals)

principals (plural)
principall (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.

Principal (education)
Principal value
principal

1967, University of Edinburgh Graduates′ Association, University of Edinburgh Journal, Volumes 23-24, page 314,
Unlike the students, Principal Robertson, who now resided almost alone in the College, continued to use the accustomed route on his visits to the Old Town; and it “became the joke of the day that from being the principal gate it had become only a gate for the Principal.”⁵

Coordinate term: bursar

(UK, Canada) The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.


bint

Borrowed from Arabic بِنْت (bint, “girl, daughter”), from Proto-Semitic *bint-, used to denote a patronym.
The term entered the British lexicon during the occupation of Egypt at the end of the 19th century, where it was adopted by British soldiers to mean "girlfriend" or "bit on the side". Its register varies from that of the harsher bitch to being affectionate, the latter more commonly associated with the West Midlands. The term was used in British armed forces and the London area synonymously with bird in its slang usage (and sometimes brass) from at least the 1950s. (In the Tyneside shipping industry, particularly in Laygate, in South Shields, the term may have been adopted earlier, from the Yemeni community which had existed there since the 1890s.)

Tell that bint to get herself in here now!

Don't you remember the Crimbo din-din we had with the grotty Scots bint?

1997, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery:

If I went round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory) A woman, a girl.


BSc

Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science#English

(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland) Abbreviation of Bachelor of Science.


corset

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-corset.wav

From Middle English corset, from Old French corset. Equivalent to corse + -et.

(UK, finance, historical) A regulation that limited the growth of British banks' interest-bearing deposits.


hoodwink

hoodwink (countable and uncountable, plural hoodwinks)

The verb is derived from hood (“head covering attached to a larger garment such as a jacket or cloak”) + wink (“to close one’s eyes”). (< C16 'to blindfold').
The noun is derived from the verb.

compound

Whereas the Mountaine Nymphs, and thoſe that doe frequent / The Fountaines, Fields, and Groues, with wondrous meriment, / By Moone-ſhine many a night, doe giue each other chaſe, / At Hood-winke, Barley-breake, at Tick, or Priſon-baſe, / With tricks, and antique toyes, that one another mocke, / That skip from Crag to Crag, and leape from Rocke to Rocke.

1622, Michael Drayton, “The Thirtieth Song”, in The Second Part, or A Continuance of Poly-Olbion from the Eighteenth Song. […], London: […] Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriott, Iohn Grismand, and Thomas Dewe, →OCLC, page 164:

(British, games, obsolete, uncountable) The game of blind man's buff.


lag

en-noun

lag (countable and uncountable, plural lags)

→ Finnish: lagi

→ Swedish: lagg n

卡

(Internet) bad connection, loss of connection

(UK, Ireland, slang, archaic) One sentenced to transportation for a crime.

On both these occasions I had ended up behind the bars, and you might suppose that an old lag like myself would have been getting used to it by now.

1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves:

He sat with his great head tipped forward, scowling with a lag's sullenness, and I swear he had closed off his hearing with his thinking and hadn't heard us coming. 'Father,' said Pym.

(UK, Ireland, slang) A prisoner, a criminal.


lag

en-verb

lag (third-person singular simple present lags, present participle lagging, simple past and past participle lagged)

lags (present singular third-person)
lagging (participle present)
lagged (participle past)
lagged (past)

→ Swedish: lagga

She lags us if we poach.

1847, Thomas De Quincey, Secret Societies":

(UK, slang, archaic) To transport as a punishment for crime.

"We must get the old dear out," said Lord Roxton to Malone. "He'll be had for manslaughter if we don't. What I mean, he's not responsible - he'll sock someone and be lagged for it."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(UK, slang, archaic) To arrest or apprehend.


hire

hire (third-person singular simple present hires, present participle hiring, simple past and past participle hired)

hires (present singular third-person)
hiring (participle present)
hired (participle past)
hired (past)

→ Hawaiian: hai

From Middle English hiren, hyren, from Old English hȳrian (“to hire”), from the noun (see above). Compare West Frisian hiere (“to rent, lease”), Dutch huren (“to rent, lease”), Low German hüren (“to rent”), Danish hyre (“to hire”), Swedish hyra (“to hire”).
Eclipsed Middle English souden (“to hire, employ, enlist”), borrowed from Old French souder, soudre, souldre (“to take into employ, pay”); see English sold (“salary, military pay”).

noncog

We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.

“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(transitive, chiefly UK) To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.

أَجَّرَ

to obtain the services of in return for fixed payment

I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to hire.

1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

(transitive, chiefly UK) To occupy premises in exchange for rent.

After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.

(transitive, chiefly UK) To accomplish by paying for services.


majority

en-noun

majority (countable and uncountable, plural majorities)

/məˈd͡ʒɒ.ɹɪti/

/məˈd͡ʒɑ.ɹɪti/

/məˈd͡ʒɔɹ.ɪti/

From Middle French maiorité, from Medieval Latin maiōritātem, accusative of Latin maiōritās, from Latin maior (“greater”).
Morphologically major + -ity

The ruling party had a narrow three-seat majority in the legislature.

The winner with 53% had a 6% majority over the loser with 47%.

In a parliament or legislature, the difference in seats between the ruling party and the opposition; (UK) in an election, the difference in votes between the winning candidate and the second-place candidate, or between the winning candidate and all of the other candidates combined.

çoxluq, əksəriyyət

difference between the winning vote and the rest of the votes

On receiving the news of his promotion, Charles Snodgrass said he was delighted to be entering his majority.

He was a captain before he went to the front, and following the Argonne battles he got his majority and the command of the divisional machine-guns.

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 8, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 150:

(UK) The office held by a member of the armed forces in the rank of major.


income

income (countable and uncountable, plural incomes)

→ Irish: ioncam

→ Welsh: incwm

From Middle English income, perhaps continuing (in altered form) Old English incyme (“an in-coming, entrance”), equivalent to in- + come. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Íenkúumen (“income”), West Frisian ynkommen (“income”), Dutch inkomen, inkomst (“income, earnings, gainings”), German Low German Inkumst (“income”), German Einkommen, Einkunft (“income, earnings, competence”), Danish indkomst (“income”), Swedish inkomst (“income”), Icelandic innkváma (“income”).

inh

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A disease or ailment without known or apparent cause, as distinguished from one induced by accident or contagion; an oncome.


prime

en-verb

prime (third-person singular simple present primes, present participle priming, simple past and past participle primed)

primes (present singular third-person)
priming (participle present)
primed (participle past)
primed (past)

to prime trees

(UK, dialect, obsolete) To trim or prune.


solution

en-noun

solution (countable and uncountable, plural solutions)

From Middle English solucioun, from Old French solucion (French solution), from Latin solūtiōnem, accusative singular of solūtiō, from the verb solvō. Compare solve, -tion.

there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution

he was not obliged to repeat what he had received, in solution of a just debt

1681, Scotland. Court of Session, edited by Lord Alexander Fraser Tytler Woodhouselee and William Maxwell Morison, The decisions of the Court of Session, published 1802, page 2927:

A disposition granted on a cessio bonorum is merely in farther security to the creditors, not in satisfaction or in solution of the debts.

1827, John Erskine, The Principles of the Law of Scotland, page 508:

It is said that there is no violation of the law of this State in the simple act of paying money in solution of a promise to do so

1879, “Conflict of Law — Promissory notes governed by law of place where made and payable”, in Albany Law Journal, volume 20:

(law, UK, archaic, rare) Satisfaction of a claim or debt.


strewth

Minced form of God's truth. Compare zounds, blimey.

’strewth (alternative)
streuth (alternative)
strooth (alternative)
struth (alternative)
’struth (alternative)

“Strewth! Here she is,” said the salesman.

1957, Greta X (Angela Pearson), The Whipping-Post, page 109:

“Strewth,” he whistled. “I reckon that’s a complicated fracture of the right tibia.”

1971 July 1, Michael O’Donnell, “Take to the hills”, in New Scientist, page 41:

He smiles and is going to say something encouraging. Strewth! Why doesn’t he duck? His head’s above the parapet. He’s in the line of fire. Silly BUGGER! “CRACK!”

2007, Marilys Edwards, Keep The Home Fires Burning, AuthorHouse, page 187:

Nicky: 'Helloooooo?' / Sam: 'Strewth. You gotta be kidding me.'

2020, "Moments of Silence", in Taskmaster, series 10, episode 8, Channel 4, character scripts in The Smart Steak

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, originally a minced oath) A mild oath expressing surprise or generally adding emphasis.


return

en-verb

return (third-person singular simple present returns, present participle returning, simple past and past participle returned)

returns (present singular third-person)
returning (participle present)
returned (participle past)
returned (past)
returne (alternative obsolete)
retvrn (alternative Internet)

From Middle English returnen, retornen, from Anglo-Norman returner, from Old French retourner, retorner, from Medieval Latin retornare (“to turn back”), from re- + tornare (“to turn”). Compare beturn.

der

(British, by extension, dated in the US) To elect according to the official report of the election officers.


blabber

en-verb

blabber (third-person singular simple present blabbers, present participle blabbering, simple past and past participle blabbered)

blabbers (present singular third-person)
blabbering (participle present)
blabbered (participle past)
blabbered (past)

(UK, obsolete) To stick out one's tongue.


firm

From Italian firma (“signature”), from firmare (“to sign”), from Latin firmāre (“to make firm, to confirm (by signature)”), from firmus (“firm, stable”). The contemporary sense developed in the 18th century simultaneously with German Firma (“business, name of business”). There are conflicting statements in the literature as to which of the two languages influenced which. Doublet of dharma and dhamma. Other cognates include Russian держать (deržatʹ, “to hold”).

der

(UK, business) A business partnership; the name under which it trades.


firm

en-verb

firm (third-person singular simple present firms, present participle firming, simple past and past participle firmed)

firms (present singular third-person)
firming (participle present)
firmed (participle past)
firmed (past)

From Middle English fermen (“to make firm”), partly from (either through Old French fermer or directly) Latin firmō, from firmus (“firm”, adjective), and partly a new formation on the adjective.

(transitive, UK, slang) To select (a higher education institution) as one's preferred choice, so as to enrol automatically if one's grades match the conditional offer.


lateral

en-adj

lateral (comparative more lateral, superlative most lateral)

more lateral (comparative)
most lateral (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin laterālis (“belonging to the side”), from latus (“the side or flank”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

af

(UK) Non-linear or unconventional, as in, lateral thinking.


team

→ Armenian: թիմ (tʻim)

→ Bengali: টীম (ṭim)

→ Cantonese: team

→ Catalan: tim

→ Czech: tým

→ Dutch: team

→ Indonesian: tim

→ Esperanto: team

→ Finnish: tiimi

→ German: Team

→ Hausa: tim

→ Hawaiian: kime

→ Hindi: टीम (ṭīm)

→ Italian: team

→ Japanese: チーム (chīmu)

→ Korean: 팀 (tim)

→ Macedonian: тим (tim)

→ Maori: tīma

→ Marathi: टीम (ṭīm)

→ Northern Kurdish: tîm

→ Norwegian Bokmål: team

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: team

→ Pashto: ټيم (ṭim)

→ Persian: تیم (tim)

→ Polish: team

→ Portuguese: time (Brazilian)

→ Romanian: team

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: тим

Latin script: tim

→ Slovak: tím

→ Swahili: timu

→ Swedish: team

→ Tagalog: tim

→ Thai: ทีม (tiim)

→ Tok Pisin: tim

→ Urdu: ٹِیم (ṭīm)

→ Welsh: tîm

→ West Frisian: team

From Middle English tem, teem, teme, from Old English tēam (“child-bearing, offspring, brood, set of draught animals”), from Proto-West Germanic *taum, from Proto-Germanic *taumaz (“that which draws or pulls”), from Proto-Germanic *taugijaną, *tugōną, *teuhōną, *teuhaną (“to lead, bring, pull, draw”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull, lead”). Cognate with Scots team, teem (“a chain, harness”), Saterland Frisian Toom (“bridle; breeding”), West Frisian team (“bridle, team”), Dutch toom (“bridle, reins, flock of birds”), German Low German Toom (“bridle”), German Zaum (“bridle”), Norwegian tømme (“bridle, rein”), Swedish töm (“leash, rein”). More at teem, tie, tow.

cog

TEAM, Theam, Tem, Them. Sax. [from tyman, to propagate, to teem.] In old English law. Literally, an offspring, race or generation. A royalty or privilege granted by royal charter to a lord of a manor, of having, keeping and judging in his court, his bondmen, neifes and villeins, and their offspring or suit. They who had a jurisdiction of this kind, were said to have a court of Theme... constantly used in the old books in connection with toll, in the expression Toll & Team.

1871, Alexander M. Burrill, Law Dictionary & Glossary, volume II:

(UK, law, obsolete) A royalty or privilege granted by royal charter to a lord of a manor, of having, keeping, and judging in his court, his bondmen, neifes, and villains, and their offspring, or suit, that is, goods and chattels, and appurtenances thereto.


surrogate

→ Dutch: surrogaat

From Latin surrogātus, perfect passive participle of surrogō (“ask”); a variant of subrogō, from sub (“under”) + rogō (“ask”).

(chiefly British) A deputy for a bishop in granting licences for marriage.


panel

From Middle English panel (“piece of cloth, saddle pad, pane of glass, piece of ice, part, division, jury list, jury members”), from Anglo-Norman panel, panelle (“piece of cloth, saddle cushion”), from Vulgar Latin *pannellus, diminutive of Latin pannus (“cloth, rag, garment”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“fabric”). Cognate with Old English fana (“a piece of cloth, patch, banner, flag, vane”). Doublet of vane.

cog

(British, historical) A list of doctors who could provide limited free healthcare prior to the introduction of the NHS.


shag

en-noun

shag (countable and uncountable, plural shags)

From Middle English *schagge, from Old English sċeacga (“hair, wool”), from Proto-Germanic *skaggô, *skaggiją (“projection, bristly hair, stem”), *skag- (“to emerge, stick out, protrude”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kek- (“to jump, move, hurry”).
Akin to Old Norse skegg (“beard”) (compare Danish skæg, Norwegian skjegg, Swedish skägg). Related to shake and shock via the root.

der

(UK, Ireland, archaic) Bacon or fat, especially if with some remaining hair or bristles.

But it is a braw elemental sphere this o' ours, for here's a good queich o' claret for ye, an' a shag o' butter-an'-bread.

1830 January 23, Ettrick Shepherd, “Dr David Dale's Account of a Grand Aerial Voyage”, in The Edinburgh Literary Journal, volume 3, number 63, page 52:

romancing Shelley between / sips of thermos tea and / yeasty shags of bread, sour-sweet, / from Lizzie Coutinho’s bakery.

2001, Ranjani Neriya, “Husk”, in Beloit Poetry Journal, volume 51, number 4, archived from the original on 2016-03-03, page 21:

(UK, Ireland, archaic) A roughly-cut or torn-off piece of bread or cheese.


shag

en-verb

shag (third-person singular simple present shags, present participle shagging, simple past and past participle shagged)

shags (present singular third-person)
shagging (participle present)
shagged (participle past)
shagged (past)

From Middle English schaggen, a variant of Middle English schoggen (“to shake; shake off; tremble”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a byform of Middle English schokken (“to shake; move rapidly”), related to Middle Low German schokken (“to shake; tremble”). Alternatively, perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skakkōną (“to shake”), specifically continuing a post-Proto-Germanic variant *skagg-, where the non-singular stem *skag- caused the analogical replacement of the stem-final voiceless geminate consonants with voiced geminates, which was then leveled throughout the paradigm.

cog

Every time since has been a disaster. Our sex life always has been. After k.b.ing me for ages, she’d eventually let me shag her.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “The Glass”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 76:

‘You never got so much as a bit of tit in three months, and I shagged her first week!’

1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 18:

I can kick this stuff any time I like. I tell you what. Get this week over, we'll go to a health farm for ten days. No drugs. No drink. And shag ourselves silly. How about that?

1990, Michael Dobbs, Andrew Davies, House of Cards, season 1, episode 2:

“Ha! Shagging a chair is quite odd.” “Its legs were very sexy. And I know how you are, so I expected a challenge. What did you turn into anyway?” “Oh, the dowdiest mortal woman. You should have seen it.” “Oh, I would have been all over that.” “I know!”

2025 May 11, Monica Padrick, “Don Tyxote” (15:59 from the start), in Krapopolis, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Deliria (Hannah Waddingham):

(UK, Ireland, transitive, slang, vulgar) To have sex with.

I'm not pregnant! I have shagged and shagged and shagged and all the little bastards missed!

2002, Steven Moffat, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (Coupling), season 3, episode 7, spoken by Jane Christie (Gina Bellman):

(UK, Ireland, intransitive, slang, vulgar) To have sex.


spiffing

en-adj

spiffing (comparative more spiffing, superlative most spiffing)

more spiffing (comparative)
most spiffing (superlative)

We're having a picnic at the races — how spiffing!

(British, colloquial, dated) Very good, excellent.

I say, that outfit is simply spiffing.

I have a lovely pair with a hair strip, grey. You'll look spiffing in them.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

2007, "Spiffing new image", Times Online, London, 18 May (retrieved 14 June 2007),
Spiffing new image: ITV is developing an updated version of Spitting Image, with CGI graphics.

(British, colloquial, dated) Smart or appealing in dress or appearance.


tyke

From Middle English tike, tyke, from Old Norse tík (“female dog”), from Proto-Germanic *tīkō. Compare Icelandic tík, Faroese tík, and Swedish tik, all meaning “bitch”.
Sense 5 (“Roman Catholic”) is an alteration of taig, and was first used in writing in the early 20ᵗʰ century.

Why, the inquiry thing, the yellow-dog thing—you wouldn’t think a mangy, native tyke would be allowed to trip up people in the verandah of a magistrate’s court, would you?

1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 5, in Lord Jim:

(dated, chiefly British) An uncultured, crude and unrefined or uncouth ill-bred person.

(UK, informal) A person from Yorkshire; a Yorkshireman or Yorkshirewoman.


wheelie bin

wheelie bins (plural)
wheelie-bin (alternative)

From wheelie, presumably as a variant of wheely (“wheeled”) + -ie, and bin.

Instead we switched from dustbins to wheelie bins which required equally significant investment in new bins and refuse vehicles. However because the wheelie bins were larger and easier to collect they actually increased the volume of unsegregated waste.

1999, David Rudlin, Nicholas Falk, Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood, UK: Elsevier, page 95:

You see the occasional frustrated libidinous lunatics walking along Johnson Street kickboxing at the wheelie bins and spreading the contents all over the road.

2005, John Chalmers, Byron Bay Taxis And Lunacies, page 85:

It collects waste materials, including paper, glass, plastics and metals, in the blue-topped recycling wheelie bins from more than two million households each week.

2009, James Kirby, Rod Myer, Richard Pratt: One Out of the Box: The Secrets of an Australian Billionaire, page 49:

She likes to go into town using her wheelchair. It can be difficult when people leave their wheelie bins out on the pavement and she has to go into the road to get past.

2011, Peter Beresford, Jennie Fleming, Catherone Bewley, Michael Glynn, Suzy Croft, Supporting People: Towards a Person-Centred Approach, UK: The Policy Press, page 271:

The next Monday afternoon Daryl hooked his wheelie bin onto the ute′s tow bar. He was just about to tow it up the driveway when Doris yelled out, telling him to go to the shops and grab some milk. With his wheelie bin in tow Daryl set off.

2012, John Bryant, Great Australian Ute Stories, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland) An outdoor rubbish bin on wheels for easier movability.


crikey

Euphemistic substitute for Christ, perhaps a corruption of Christ King. Compare criminy, cripes, crivvens. Attested from the 19th century.

crickey (alternative uncommon)
cricky (alternative uncommon)

Crikey, mate, that ain't a knife, this is a knife!

The label is based on the word “crikey” the famous catchphrase of Steve Irwin, and “core,” meaning the essential part of anything, according to dictionary.com.

2023 February 16, Erielle Sudario, “Australia gets its own online aesthetic with 'crikeycore'”, in We Got This Covered, archived from the original on 2023-11-23:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, Commonwealth) An exclamation of astonishment.


triage

en-noun

triage (countable and uncountable, plural triages)

From French triage, from trier (“to sort”).

Similarly, any group of sidings is known to army railway personnel as a "triage". This word is derived from the French verb trier, which means literally "to sort," and hence "triage" has become the common army expression for a marshalling yard.

1943 September and October, “Military and Civil Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 257:

(rail transport, military, British) A marshalling yard, classification yard.


passenger

/ˈpæsɪnd͡ʒɚ/

/ˈpæsənd͡ʒɚ/

/ˈpæsɪnd͡ʒə/

/ˈpæsənd͡ʒə/

From Old French passagier with intrusive n (see etymology of messenger).

(informal, chiefly UK) Somebody in a team who does not do their fair share of the work.


niffy

en-adj

niffy (comparative niffier, superlative niffiest)

niffier (comparative)
niffiest (superlative)


gobshite

From gob (“mouth”) + shite (“excrement”).

What's that gobshite talking about now?

That whereas for anie time this foure and twentie yeare they haue plaid the fantasticall gub-shites and goose-giblets in Print, […]

1596, Thomas Nashe, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, page 14:

(Ireland, UK, slang, offensive, vulgar) One who engages in nonsensical chatter or unwanted conversation.

LaTisha [...] left school a head-banging argumentative gobshite with no qualifications who wouldnʼt take no orders from no one

2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 191:

“Water Lily of the Nile. That is what they call it. It's a medicinal flower. It's a narcotic that the Egyptians used to bury with their dead in order to help ease the sufferings of the afterlife. And according to the Compendium Narcoticum, it is the only drug that helps with the pain of being a wraith. Very hard to come by. And it is said that those little gobshites will do anything for it.”

2022 July 26, William Meny & Paul Simms, “The Night Market” (23:43 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 4, episode 4, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):

(Ireland, UK, slang, offensive, vulgar) A person of very poor judgment and unpleasant character.

"You do work on the brick when you raise it. The Earth doesn’t do work on the brick as it falls."
With all due respect, that's a load of gobshite, John.

2013 July 12, Wow [username], “How Einstein's most famous equation affects you”, in Science blogs, archived from the original on 2023-11-29, comments:

Aw they were always talking gobshite as far as I was concerned, but for most bods, if it was in black and white it was true.

2015 July 6, Macart [username], “The belated truth”, in Wings over Scotland, archived from the original on 2023-12-24, comments:

(Ireland, UK, slang, offensive, vulgar) Nonsense; speech or writing that is untrue, meaningless, or otherwise unwelcome.


ciggy

“Open early and close up late, get people before work and get people after work, not just the dear bloody housewifes going out for a packet of ciggies and a chit-chat.”

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 8, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:


piggy

(derogatory, slang, UK, Ireland) A member of the police.


brickie

(British, New Zealand, Australia, slang) A bricklayer.


gob

Probably from Irish gob, Scottish Gaelic gob (“beak, mouth”).

He′s always stuffing his gob with fast food.

Oi, you, shut your gob!

She's got such a gob on her – she's always gossiping about someone or other.

Now washing you will be like washing a goth / All that black lipstick around their gobs

2005, “Tango”, in Public Warning, performed by Lady Sovereign:

(countable, UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, slang) The mouth.


billy

Of obscure origin. Perhaps a variant of bully (“companion, mate, comrade”). Compare Scots billie (“a comrade; companion”). Compare also Middle Low German billig (“equitable, reasonable, lawful, fitting, according to natural law, just”).

unk

Of obscure origin

m+

All fighting coves you too must know, / Ben Caunt as well as Bendigo, / And to each mill be sure to go, / […] And you must sport a blue billy, / Or a yellow wipe […]

1859, Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, page 54:

(UK, slang, obsolete) A silk handkerchief.


willy

en-adj

willy (comparative willier or more willy, superlative williest or most willy)

willier (comparative)
more willy (comparative)
williest (superlative)
most willy (superlative)

From Middle English willy, willi, equivalent to will + -y. Cognate with Dutch willig (“obedient, hearsome”), German willig (“willing”), Swedish villig (“willing, agreeable”).

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Self-willed; willful.


willy

From Middle English wilie, from Old English wiliġe, wileġe (“basket”), from Proto-Germanic *wiligō (“wicker basket”), from Proto-Indo-European *weliko- (“willow-tree”). More at weel, willow.


willy

Originally northern British usage, from the 1960s. Probably the simple use of a proper name as a pet name; compare dick, fanny and peter. Unlikely to be a contraction of Latin membrum virile, male member (that is, the penis), a Latin term used in English in the nineteenth century.

Little Johnny got his willy stuck in his zipper.

Everybody knows your mum is a whore / Getting 'round Piccadilly looking for willy / Punters pull up and say "don't be silly"

2016 March 7, “Road Rage (Freestyle)”, performed by Little T (Josh Tate):

(hypocoristic, slang, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, childish) the penis.


Indy

Clipping of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Independent + -y.

(UK, informal) The Independent, a British newspaper.


clippie

From clip + -ie, in reference to clipping tickets of passengers.

And yet, in the last decade, women in trousers have ceased to be […] functionally invisible. (I can’t remember if clippies wear trousers or skirts, these days; that’s what I mean by invisible.)

1975, Angela Carter, “Trouser Protest”, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage, published 2013, page 144:


nippy

en-adj

nippy (comparative nippier, superlative nippiest)

nippier (comparative)
nippiest (superlative)

A Rolls Royce will not do if you need an economical, nippy car that is easy to park.

c. 2000, Melanie Allen, Customer Relations Management, page 6:


oi

Variant of the interjection hoy with h-dropping in working class and Cockney speech; first recorded in the 1930s. Compare also unrelated Portuguese oi and Japanese おい (oi).

A way for Oi musicians to avoid responsibility for acts of violence that were preceded by listening to Oi is the claim that what people do with their music is out of the control of the musicians themselves.

1997, David Schwarz, Listening subjects: music, psychoanalysis, culture:

Oi! is characterized by cleaner guitars and slower tempos than most punk music, and many Oi! songs feature sing-along, "soccer chant" choruses.

2012, Tiffini Travis, Perry Hardy, Skinheads: A Guide to an American Subculture:

(UK, sometimes capitalized) A working-class punk rock subgenre of the 1970s, sometimes associated with racism.


wizard

From Middle English wysard, wysarde, equivalent to wise + -ard. A uniquely medieval Anglo-Saxon word with no known morphologically exact cognates inside the Germanic family; did not gain distinct sense of "occultist, magic user" (as opposed to a philosopher or sage) until circa 1500s, aligning roughly with the starting English Renaissance.
However, via Proto-Indo-European *weyd- cognate with Proto-Celtic *druwits (whence English druid), Proto-Slavic *vědьma (Polish wiedźma, Russian ве́дьма (védʹma)), Russian веду́н (vedún)).
The sense of "old (male) virgin" is from a Japanese Internet meme where virgins who are typically friendless, shy, outcasts, and loners who don't fit in anywhere, legendarily gain magical powers upon reaching 30 years of age; popularized ultimately by 4chan and adjacent online incel spaces.

"We had a wizard show," the young leader of an Australian squadron said, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice.

1942, Quentin James Reynolds, Only the Stars are Neutral:

But he was a wizard flyer, that boy.

1943, Howard Macy Coffin and Walter Leslie River, Malta Story:

(slang, dated, British) Fine, superb (originally RAF slang).


gorger

(UK, slang, obsolete) A well-dressed man; a swell; sometimes an employer, or principal, as the manager of a theatre.


comp

Although she got expelled from Pennington after three months and ended up at Broadmead, which is like this totally tough comp where they have to check you for weapons at the door.

2011, Joanna Nadin, Buttercup Mash, OUP Oxford, →ISBN:

comprehensive school
comprehensive school#English

(British, education) Clipping of comprehensive school.


cocktail

→ Catalan: còctel

→ Czech: koktejl

→ Dutch: cocktail

→ Esperanto: koktelo

→ Finnish: cocktail

→ French: cocktail

→ Galician: cóctel

→ German: Cocktail

→ Greek: κοκτέιλ (koktéil)

→ Hungarian: koktél

→ Italian: cocktail

→ Japanese: カクテル (kakuteru)

→ Korean: 칵테일 (kakteil)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: cocktail

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: cocktail

→ Polish: koktajl

→ Portuguese: coquetel

→ Russian: кокте́йль (koktéjlʹ) (see there for further descendants)

→ Spanish: cóctel, coctel

→ Swedish: cocktail

→ Thai: ค็อกเทล (kɔ́k-teel)

→ Turkish: kokteyl

Early 17th century, from cock (“male bird”) + tail, in the sense “(a horse with its) tail standing up, like a cock’s”. The origin of the extension to “an alcoholic mixed drink” is unknown. One theory is that it refers to a stimulant (gingering), hence a stimulating drink; compare pick-me-up. Another attested use is for non-thoroughbred racehorses: these were considered "cock-tailed" due to their docked tails. This may have led to the term "cocktail" (sense 1) being used for an adulterated spirit.

It was in the second affair that poor little Barney showed he was a cocktail.

1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC:

(UK, slang, dated) A mean, half-hearted fellow.


sax

en-verb

sax (third-person singular simple present saxes, present participle saxing, simple past and past participle saxed)

saxes (present singular third-person)
saxing (participle present)
saxed (participle past)
saxed (past)

From Middle English sax, sex, from Old English seax (“a knife, hip-knife, an instrument for cutting, a short sword, dirk, dagger”), from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“stone chip, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Doublet of seax and zax.

inh

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-sax.wav

(transitive, British dialectal) To cut or slash with a sharp instrument; incise; scarify.


beggar

beggars (plural)
begger (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar (“beggar”), from Middle English beggen (“to beg”), equivalent to beg + -ar.
Alternative etymology derives Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, a lay brotherhood of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert (“mendicant”), with pejorative suffix (see -ard); the order is said to be named after the priest Lambert le Bègue of Liège (French for “Lambert the Stammerer”).

set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil


blunt

From Middle English blunt, blont, from Old English *blunt (attested in the derivative Blunta (male personal name) (> English surnames Blunt, Blount)), probably of North Germanic origin, possibly related to Old Norse blunda (“to doze”) (> Icelandic blunda, Swedish blunda, Danish blunde).

gloss

Down he goes to the Commons, to see the lawyer and draw the blunt[…]

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:


lazy

en-adj

lazy (comparative lazier, superlative laziest)

lazier (comparative)
laziest (superlative)

Attested since 1540, origin uncertain. Probably from Low German and Middle Low German lasich (“slack, feeble, lazy”), from las, from Old Saxon lask, from Proto-Germanic *lasiwaz, *laskaz (“feeble, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European *las- (“weak”).
Akin to Dutch leuzig (“lazy”), Old Norse lasinn (“limpy, tired, weak”), Old English lesu, lysu (“false, evil, base”). More at lush.
An alternate etymology traces lazy to Early Modern English laysy, a derivative of lay (plural lays + -y) in the same way that tipsy is derived from tip. See lay.

der

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

The swilland dropsy enter in
The lazy cuke , and swell his skin

(UK, obsolete or dialect) Wicked; vicious.


roger

→ Japanese: ラジャー (rajā)

From Roger, used circa 1940 in UK and US military communication to represent "R" when spelling out a word. "R" is the first letter in received, used to acknowledge understanding a message. "Roger" for "received" was in spoken usage in air traffic radio parlance by 1950.

Pilot: CESSNA TWO THREE FOUR—ROGER—OUT.

(radio telecommunications) Received (used in radio communications to acknowledge that a message has been received and understood)


lodge

→ Dutch: lodge

From Middle English logge, from Old French loge (“arbour, covered walk-way”), from Frankish *laubijā (“shelter; arbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *laub (“leaf; folliage”) (whence English leaf).
See also (compare cognate Medieval Latin lobia, laubia; also Old High German louba (“porch, gallery”) (German Laube (“bower, arbor”)), Old High German loub (“leaf, foliage”), Old English lēaf (“leaf, foliage”). Doublet of loggia and lobby.

cog

[H]e walked across Hawthorn Tree Court on his way to the porter's lodge. […] At the lodge he cleared his pigeon-hole.

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 39:

Ellipsis of porter's lodge: a building or room near the entrance of an estate or building, especially (UK, Canada) as a college mailroom.


nicker

This coat cost me 50 nicker.

Seems? Well, this seems to be a waste of my time. That is 900 nicker in any shop you're lucky enough to find one in. And you're complaining about 200? What school of finance did you study?

1998, Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (motion picture), spoken by Tom (Jason Flemyng):


nicker

en-verb

nicker (third-person singular simple present nickers, present participle nickering, simple past and past participle nickered)

nickers (present singular third-person)
nickering (participle present)
nickered (participle past)
nickered (past)


sov

That car of his has got to be worth a few sovs.

(British, slang) A sovereign (former gold coin).


quid

Likely derives from the phrase quid pro quo (“this for that”), referring to the exchange of goods/services for money.

Seven quid for a toastie? You're joking, aren't you?!

Forty quid a fuckin ticket. No shy they British Rail cunts, ah kin fuckin tell ye.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 114:

The ride costs exactly fifteen quid, but that doesn't include the tip, and bitter is two pounds a pint.

1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, pages 71–72:

(UK, colloquial) Pound sterling. (usually only used with a whole number of pounds)


quids in

Buy three items for the price of two and you'll be quids in!

(slang, UK) In a position of having gained or saved money through some financial transaction.


twoccer

The police caught the twoccer breaking into the car.

Not all modes of reading (and not all readers) can be described in its terms, but just as those who joyride in twocced cars often know and care more about their chosen vehicles than do the owners, so it is the more astute and committed fans of reading who are most likely to be twoccers.

1994 Winter, John Hartley, “Twoccing and joyreading”, in Terence Hawkes, editor, Textual Practice, volume 8, number 3, page 2:

Joyriding was prominent in the media in the 1980s. Twoccers joined muggers in the panoply of folk devils. Newspapers vied with each other to report the youngest, the most daring and despicable, and the most prolific young offenders.

2024, Barry Godfrey, Alexandra Godfrey, “Hoodies”, in The Criminal Classes: Who Does Society Fear and Why?, Pen and Sword, →ISBN, page 165:

(British) A person who engages in twoccing; a car thief.


twoccing

He pleaded guilty to twoccing.

Twoccing (of cars or writings) is not a glamorous crime of cultural politics or personal passion, not epic or heroic; it's a routine, low grade, show-off offence, and as such it cannot be romanticized as a form of consumer resistance.

Not sure admitting to twocking is a great idea, even on Reddit - but I’m happy for you. Fun little motor. Enjoy it while you can.

2024 May 27, jamieliddellthepoet, “Took this in my neighborhood today.”, in reddit, r/london:

(British) The act of taking a car without the owner's consent, usually in order to engage in joyriding.


TWOC

en-noun

TWOC (countable and uncountable, plural TWOCs)

Initialism of "taken (or taking) without owner's consent". From section 12 of the United Kingdom's Theft Act 1968, which states 'a person shall be guilty of an offence if, without having the consent of the owner or other lawful authority, he takes any conveyance for his own or another’s use or, knowing that any conveyance has been taken without such authority, drives it or allows himself to be carried in or on it'.

[…] women making arrests for aggravated burglary represent 22 per cent of the total and for aggravated TWOCs, 23 per cent […]

2002, Louise Westmarland, Gender and Policing, Routledge, →ISBN:

[…] the reported victimisation rate for TWOC and attempted TWOC (six out of 28 available vehicles victimised, and […])

2010, Anthony Bottoms, Julian Roberts, Hearing the Victim: Adversarial Justice, Crime Victims and the State, Routledge, →ISBN, page 121:

(British, law enforcement) The crime of taking a car without the consent of the owner.

未獲授權而取用運輸工具 /未获授权而取用运输工具

the crime of taking without the consent of the owner

mei6 wok6 sau6 kyun4 ji4 ceoi2 jung6 wan6 syu1 gung1 geoi6


TWOC

(British) Of a car, taken without consent of the owner.


commence

en-verb

commence (third-person singular simple present commences, present participle commencing, simple past and past participle commenced)

commences (present singular third-person)
commencing (participle present)
commenced (participle past)
commenced (past)

From Middle English commencen, comencen (also as contracted comsen, cumsen), from Anglo-Norman comencer, from Vulgar Latin *cominitiāre, formed from Latin com- + initiō (whence English initiate).

[…] I question whether the Formality of Commencing was used in that Age: inclining rather to the negative, that such Distinction of Graduates was then unknown […]

1655, Thomas Fuller, “The Seventh Century”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI), page 75:

[…] was admitted a minor fellow of his college 4 Oct. 1591, a major fellow 11 March 1591-2, and commenced M.A. in 1592.

1861, George John Gray, Athenae Cantabrigienses: 1586-1609, page 272:

(UK, intransitive, dated) To take a degree at a university.


lav

Please, miss, I need to go to the lav.

If you had too much slap on when you went out . . . your mates say too much slap on your ecaf. Yeah. Oh really girl? Yes . . . Go in the lavs here and have a look.

Quoted in 2006, Matt Houlbrook, Queer London (page 151)

(UK, Ireland, slang) Clipping of lavatory.


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.


rozzer

Late 19th century UK. Etymology unknown. Possibly a play on the given name of Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police Service. Compare peeler, bobby.

unk

Etymology unknown

"Another wrong un," says the carman. "Hi, Mr. Graham!"—and up walks a rozzer and buckles me tight.

If the rozzers was to see him in bona clobber they'd take him for a gun.

1893, P. H. Emerson, Signor Lippo, Burnt-Cork Artiste:

‘I was never frightened of any job yet,’ he said, ‘and I'd do this job to-night if the house was full of rozzers,’ Hill pretended that he wasn't particular whether the thing came off or not that night, but all the while he kept egging Fred on to do it.

1916, Arthur J. Rees, John R. Watson, The Hampstead Mystery:

Jed Mercurio’s corrupt cop hit remains one of the best shows on TV, but surely every rozzer in the Midlands knows who Kate Fleming is by now?

2017 March 25, Errigo Angie, “Dodgy detectives, Twitter trolls and whistleblowers: Line of Duty is back”, in The Guardian, TV & Radio blog:

(UK, Ireland, slang, dated) A police officer.


suss

en-adj

suss (comparative more suss, superlative most suss)

more suss (comparative)
most suss (superlative)
sus (alternative)

2001, Mo Hayder, The Treatment, 2008, Bantam, UK, page 244,
‘Yes – OK, OK. Try not to struggle, Tracey. It just makes you look even more suss.’

2009, Barbara Ward Smith, Dead Centre: Murder Mystery, AuthorHouse, UK, page 191,
I think it was Amber Johnson dressed up said Marc, but its proving it, we don′t have much to go on according to her said Jan her friend has been driving her car, yes very convenient said Marc and it′s even more suss that this friend has gone on holiday, did she ever give us the name of this mystical friend? Asked Jan.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, US, colloquial) Suspicious.


suss

(UK) Suspicious behaviour; the act of loitering with intent.


suss

en-verb

suss (third-person singular simple present susses, present participle sussing, simple past and past participle sussed)

susses (present singular third-person)
sussing (participle present)
sussed (participle past)
sussed (past)
sus (alternative)

(transitive, UK, obsolete) To arrest for suspicious behaviour.


suss

From suspect; originally suss out (“to discover or figure out”).

Think we're standing for injustice / White gets two and black gets five years / Well it took me quite a while to suss this

1993, “Emergency On Planet Earth”, performed by Jamiroquai:

This David did without the crook knowing he had been sussed out.[…]When David returned home after sussing this new crook, he made sure one or two key people were informed about his true nature, and they were all then further protected.

2007, Alex Caldon, The Quest for Truth, page 107:

For some other guys who′ve sussed me out, it′s taken them quite some time. A certain regular of mine comes through three or four times a night, but not every night.[…]That said, this regular never sussed for a hell of a long time.

2007, Jenny Ainslie-Turner, Jolene: A Fiery Redhead Who Loves Talking Dirty: True Life Autobiography of a 1-2-1 Chat Girl, page 43:

2008, David Burchell, Trying to find the sunny side of life, Tony Jones, Best Australian Political Writing, page 275,
It occurred to me that Matt′s mates, far from being proper objects of solicitation and sympathy, actually must feel they had life sussed.

(transitive, UK, Australia, New Zealand, often with "out") To discover, infer or figure out.

(transitive, UK, Australia, New Zealand) To study or size up, to check out (examine).


suss

‘I′m surprised at you, Danny Weston! I thought you had a bit more suss than this. I never thought you were capable of something so ... silly.’

1995, Philip Caveney, Skin Flicks, published 2012, unnumbered page:

The next painter the sultan approached was a sly old dog with more suss than a Cockney two-card trickster.

1996, Phil Healey, Rick Glanvill, Now That′s What I Call Urban Myths, page 138:

‘I always was the true fucking star of this band. They uaed to say I was the fifth member ... I′m the first fucking member. Always was and always will be a star ... that′s me. Fucking Wythenshawe taking over Washington, that′s what this is, miles more suss we have than any of these bastards.’

1996, Mick Middles, Factory: The Story of the Record Label, published 2011, unnumbered page:

No, not cynicism, just fucking suss, David Bowie has more suss than the fucking people that are trying to put him through the mincer.

2001, Victoria Mary Clarke, A Drink With Shane MacGowan, published 2012, unnumbered page:


aggro

From a clipping of aggravation + -o (diminutive suffix), influenced by aggressive.

Move along, lads; we don't want any aggro.

That is the case because, according to Marsh, soccer hooliganism is one of Britain's principal forms of aggro. If it is true that there is an absence of aggro traditions in the USA — and there is a wealth of evidence which suggests that Marsh is wrong on this score — then it is reasoble to deduce from Marsh′s arguments that it is unlikely that phenomena such as soccer hooliganism could or ever will develop there.

1999, Eric Dunning, Sport Matters : Sociological Studies of Sport, Violence and Civilisation, page 162:

‘We ain′t got a name yet. We′re into aggro.’
‘Aggro?’
‘Yeah, you know, aggression, aggravation. Aggro’.

2011, Jake Arnott, The Long Firm, unnumbered page:

(chiefly UK, Australia) Aggressive behaviour; loud, intimidating behaviour that convincingly threatens violence without necessarily actually becoming violent.


aggro

en-adj

aggro (comparative more aggro, superlative most aggro)

more aggro (comparative)
most aggro (superlative)
agro (alternative)

At the beginning of the twenty-first century the physically adept aggro femme had become a recurring motif in new circus and physical theatre.

2005, Peta Tait, Circus Bodies: cultural identity in aerial performance, page 131:

Each Black Flag line-up had a personality and vibe. They were all totally aggro and totally rocking.

2013, Stewart Dean Ebersole, Barred for Life:

(British, US, slang) Hardcore, aggressive.


suss law

suss laws (plural)
sus law (alternative)

(British, law) A former (1824–1981) law by which police officers were permitted to arrest anyone under suspicion of having committed a crime


jobbie

I'll take care of the pasta jobbie, don't worry about that.

(UK, informal) A job, normally a task rather than a form of employment for which one is paid.


gobby

gobby (comparative gobbier, superlative gobbiest)

gobbier (comparative)
gobbiest (superlative)

From gob (“mouth”) + -y. The meaning "inclined to talk" is probably related to gabby.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, derogatory, said of a person) Inclined to speak in a loud and offensive manner.


gobby

In year eight, crouched in a playground cubby, she gave Ryan Glover a gobby. Brief, busy, urgent. Then afterwards, slipping it back into his pants, he said thank you.

2004, John Charalambous, Furies, Queensland, →ISBN, page 164:

He bustles me into a cubicle and locks the door.
"I'm not really in the mood for a gobby," I slur, and laugh girlishly at my joke as I unzip my fly, "but if you insist..."

2007, Joe Lewis, The Insurmountable Malaise of Man, Lulu (self-published), page 278 http://google.com/books?id=myJ8WLBqDOcC&pg=PA278&dq=gobby

Have you seen the Colgate Total ad with the female Indian dentist? Would you let her give you a gobby? I would. She has a perdy mouth.

2007 July 17, Gordon Lightfoot III , “A Question for Darkfalz (colgate total)”, in aus.tv (Usenet), message-ID <1184667039.997405.66870@m37g2000prh.googlegroups.com>:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) An act of fellatio.


offy

From off (“first element of noun”) + -y (“diminutive suffix”).

suffix

(Ireland, British, slang) An off-licence.


off-licence

off-licences (plural)
off licence (alternative)
off-license (alternative)

From the fact that such stores have a licence only to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises.

Rolliver's inn, the single alehouse at this end of the long and broken village, could only boast of an off-license; hence, as nobody could legally drink on the premises, the amount of overt accommodation for consumers was strictly limited to a little board about six inches wide and two yards long, fixed to the garden palings by pieces of wire, so as to form a ledge.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 40:

After six such encounters in tiny corner shops which normally complained that they were out of sugar, that the cornflakes were late in again and that they couldn't get tomato sauce for love nor money, the Captain, his head reeling, had staggered into the High Street off-licence.

1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope, page 123:

(UK, Ireland) A shop selling alcohol for consumption only off the premises.


brolly

It's going to rain today – you'd better take your brolly.

“The young lady’s hi,” he said suddenly, holding out the umbrella, “is fixed on this here. I am well aware that it is not for the lowest of the low to carry a gentleman’s brolly, and I ask your ladyship’s pardon for the liberty. I come by it accidental-like, and should be glad of a reasonable offer from any gentleman in want of a honest article.”

1887, George Bernard Shaw, chapter III, in An Unsocial Socialist:

The only brolly that's in sight / Is the mini one that's in my drink / JD, coke and lime / This is how I want to spend my time

2010, “Hawaii”, performed by Tom Felton:

Look! The Gnome Girl believed the letter you sent and brought the magic brolly! […] Now, we just wait for the Wretch to eat her and we can finally grab it!

2023, A. C. MacDonald, Twistwood Tales (comic), Andrews McMeel, →ISBN, page 116:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Alternative form of brelly.


Walt

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty

Clipping of Walter. The derogatory British sense is a reference to the fictional character Walter Mitty from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a mild-mannered pushover who has wild fantasies about his life in various daring roles.

You're just a bloody Walt!

(UK, military, derogatory, slang) Someone who impersonates a veteran (retired member of the armed forces).


dateless

en-adj

dateless (comparative more dateless, superlative most dateless)

more dateless (comparative)
most dateless (superlative)

Unknown. Perhaps derived from Old English þeatless (“thoughtless, without plan”). See also deedless.

inh

Into the court you'd swanned, you dateless little pillock, if not wholly confident of winning, surely careless of losing.

1997, Peter O'Toole, Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice, →ISBN, page 281:

You dateless fool, you stupid ass, clamped to / This crag for all eternity

1976, Fred Beake, Legends from Mammon, page 8:

"You dateless article," stormed his father, leaving Bennett to realise in his laconic way that he was, and probably always would be, a disappointment to Dad.

2001 August 4, Lynne Walker, “Classical: Musical portrait of the artist as a young man”, in The Independent: