rip

From Middle English rippen, from earlier ryppen (“to pluck”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rupjaną, *ruppōną (compare West Frisian rippe, ripje, roppe, ropje (“to rip”), Dutch dialectal rippen, Low German ruppen, German Low German röpen, German rupfen), intensive of *raupijaną (compare Old English rīpan, rīepan (“to plunder”), West Frisian rippe (“to rip, tear”), German raufen (“to rip”)), causative of Proto-Indo-European *roub- ~ *reub- (compare Albanian rrabe ‘maquis’, possibly Latin rubus (“bramble”)), variant of *Hrewp- (“to break”). More at reave, rob.

(UK, Eton College) A black mark given for substandard schoolwork.


shackle

From Middle English shakel, schakkyl, schakle (“a fetter, shackle; coupling used to connect a plough or wagon to a draft chain”), from Old English sċacul, sċeacel, sċeacul (“fetter, shackle”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakul, from Proto-Germanic *skakulaz (“shackle”), possibly from *skakaną (“to shake; to swing; to escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeg-, *skek- (“to shake; to stir”). However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary because *skeg-, *skek- lack the meaning of attaching or fastening.
Sense 3 (“length of cable or chain equal to 12½ or 15 fathoms”) derives from the original distance between two shackles (sense 1.1.2) connecting lengths of cable or chain together.
cognates
* Danish skagle (“carriage trace”)
* Dutch schakel (“clasp; link; shackle”)
* German Schäckel (“shackle”)
* Icelandic skökull (“carriage pole”)
* Swedish skakel (“loose shaft of a carriage”)

kahleet

restraint on one’s action, etc. — see also restraint

(usually in the plural) A restraint fitted over a human or animal appendage, such as an ankle, finger, or wrist, normally used in a pair joined by a chain.

(Scotland, archaic) Short for shackle-bone (“wristbone, carpal; wrist”).


ugly

en-noun

ugly (countable and uncountable, plural uglies)

Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300.

der

[…] camp-stools, telescopes, poetry-books, blue uglies, red petticoats, and parasols of every hue.

1857, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in Two Years Ago, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:

(UK, informal, dated) A shade for the face, projecting from a bonnet.


penny chew

(British) A chew (chewy confectionery) costing (or formerly costing) one penny.


nun

From Middle English nonne, nunne, from Old English nunne (“nun”), from Late Latin nonna (“nun, tutor”), originally (along with masculine form nonnus (“man”)) a term of address for elderly persons, perhaps from children's speech, reminiscent of nana, like papa etc. Doublet of nonna.

onomatopoeic

children's speech

Why laſt night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were careleſsly ſliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who ſhould trip by but an abbeſs, well known about town, with a ſmart little nun in her ſuite.

1770, Samuel Foote, The Lame Lover, a Comedy in Three Acts. […], London: […] Paul Vaillant; and sold by P[eter] Elmsly […]; and Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 12:

"I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety [...]"

1881, Pierce Egan, chapter 8, in Life in London, page 205:

John S[tephen] Farmer
w:John Stephen Farmer

W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley
w:William Ernest Henley


chip

→ Catalan: xip

→ Greek: τσιπ (tsip)

→ Italian: chip

→ Korean: 칩 (chip)

desc

→ Hebrew: צִ׳יפְּס, צִ׳יפּ

→ Hebrew: צִ׳יפְּס, צִ׳יפּ (chips, chip)

→ Hungarian: csip, csipsz

→ Turkish: cips, çip

→ Yiddish: טשיפּל (tshipl)

→ Welsh: tsip

Noun from Middle English chip, chippe, from Old English ċipp (“chip; small piece of wood, shaving”), from Old English *ċippian (“to cut; hew”) – attested in Old English forċippian (“to cut off”) –, from Proto-West Germanic *kippōn (“to cut; carve; hack; chop”), from Proto-Germanic *kippōną (“to chip, chop”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeyb- (“to split; divide; germinate; sprout”). Related to Dutch kip, keep (“notch; nick; score”), Dutch kippen (“to hatch”), German Low German kippen (“to cut; clip; trim; shorten”), German kipfen (“to chop off the tip; snip”), Old Swedish kippa (“to chop”). Compare also chop.
The formally similar Old English ċipp, ċypp, ċyp (“a beam; log; stock; post”), from Proto-Germanic *kippaz (“log; beam”) (whence Old Saxon kip (“post”), Old High German kipfa, chipfa (“axle, stave”), Old Norse keppr (“cudgel, club”)) is a different, unrelated word either borrowed from Latin cippus (“stake; pale; post”) or borrowed from the same source language as the Latin.
Verb from Middle English chippen, from Old English *ċippian (“to cut; hew”) – attested in Old English forċippian (“to cut off”) – see above.

cog

I always say the best way to judge an establishment is by its chips because if you can’t master that, what can you do?

2023 July 21, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star:

Do you want ketchup, mustard, or mayonnaise on your chips?

Fish and chips is a traditional British dish.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, archaic in Canada, usually in the plural) A deep-fried strip of potato; see also usage note at french fries.


chip

en-verb

chip (third-person singular simple present chips, present participle chipping, simple past and past participle chipped)

chips (present singular third-person)
chipping (participle present)
chipped (participle past)
chipped (past)

stiften

to play a shot hitting the ball predominantly upwards

Everyone needs to chip in £1 for George's leaving collection.

(UK, transitive, often with "in") To contribute.


chip

‘Lloyd, I’m gonna chip.’ ‘You just got here!’ ‘I know–but I gotta chip. Got shit to do.’

2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 109:


pong

1992, Bryce Courtenay, Tandia, Volume 1, 2011, Read How You Want, page 109,
She sniffed, squiffing up her nose. ‘What a pong! Do they all smell like this?’

I can remember calling round once and when she answered the door I was greeted by an unmistakable, noxious pong. “I can smell gas!”
I said. “Oh, have I left the ring on?” she asked vaguely.

1998, Catherine Fox, Heaven′s Scent: Third Way, page 13:

2000, Susan Sallis, 2011, unnumbered page,
‘I see what you mean about the pong. I couldn′t smell it on myself but I can smell it on you!’

If you want to empty a crowded room strong body pong will usually do the trick.

2009, Martin Fine, The Devil′s Fragrance, page 109:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A stench, a bad smell.


pong

pong (third-person singular simple present pongs, present participle ponging, simple past and past participle ponged)

pongs (present singular third-person)
ponging (participle present)
ponged (participle past)
ponged (past)

1997, Taufiq Ismail, David M. E. Roskies (translator and editor), Stop Thief!, Black Clouds Over the Isle of Gods and Other Modern Indonesian Short Stories, page 97,
On she walked at a crawling pace, ponging of sweat, drops of mucus and blood falling between her feet.

2009, Susan Brocker, Saving Sam, HarperCollins, New Zealand, unnumbered page,
The place ponged, like the smell of stale cat pee.

“[…]That toothless bloke ponged. Couldn′t you smell him? He smelled like a bloody pub floor at closing time.”

2010, Robin Easton, Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest, page 63:

2011, Victor Pemberton, We′ll Sing at Dawn, 2012, eBook, Headline Publishing, unnumbered page,
[…] and this evening, Eileen Perkins′s daughter Rita ponged with the smell of cheap carbolic soap, after a late-afternoon visit to the public baths down Hornsey Road.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) To stink, to smell bad.


inside

From Middle English ynneside; equivalent to in- + side.
Compare German Innenseite (“inside”), Danish inderside (“inside”), Swedish insida (“inside”), Dutch binnenzijde (“inside”), German Low German Binnensied, Binnersied (“inside”), Saterland Frisian Binnersiede (“inside”).

cog

So down thy hill, romantic Ashbourne, glides / The Derby dilly, carrying three insides.

1798, John Hookham Frere, George Canning, The Loves of the Triangles:

So, what between Mr. Dowler's stories, and Mrs. Dowler's charms, and Mr. Pickwick's good humour, and Mr. Winkle's good listening, the insides contrived to be very companionable all the way.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

(dated, UK, colloquial) A passenger within a coach or carriage, as distinguished from one upon the outside.


carrot

en-noun

carrot (countable and uncountable, plural carrots)

→ Fijian: kareti

→ Malay: karot

→ Tagalog: karot

→ Thai: แครอท (kɛɛ-rɔ̀t)

From Middle English karette and Middle French carotte, both from Latin carōta, from Ancient Greek καρωτόν (karōtón). Doublet of carotte and related to caraway. Displaced native Middle English more, from Old English more, moru (“edible root, parsnip, carrot”), related to German Möhre (“carrot”).
* Noun sense of "motivational tool" refers to carrot and stick.
* Verb sense in felt manufacture refers to the orange colour of drying furs.

(UK, slang, derogatory) Someone from a rural background.

(UK, slang) A police officer from somewhere within the British Isles, but specifically outside of Greater London.


new penny

new penny (plural new pence or new pennies)

(British, Ireland, dated) Following decimalisation, the name given to the coin worth one hundredth of a pound; now known simply as the penny. Symbol: p


old money

(British, Ireland) The monetary system used in the United Kingdom and Ireland before decimalisation in 1971 and consisting of pounds, shillings, pence and farthings.


disallow

en-verb

disallow (third-person singular simple present disallows, present participle disallowing, simple past and past participle disallowed)

disallows (present singular third-person)
disallowing (participle present)
disallowed (participle past)
disallowed (past)
disallow (infinitive)

From Middle English disallowen, desallowen, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman desalouer, Old French desalöer. By surface analysis, dis- + allow.

(UK, law, historical) To overrule a colonial legislation by the sovereign-in-privy council.


bank holiday

Historically, a holiday, other than a public holiday, observed by the Bank of England.

On a bank holiday weekend.

(UK, Ireland) A weekday, often a Monday, on which most businesses are closed, and granted to workers as a national holiday.

wettelijke feestdag

a weekday granted to workers as a national holiday


ancient

From Middle English auncyen, from Old French ancien, from Vulgar Latin *anteānus, composed of Latin ante (“before”) + -ānus (adjective-forming suffix). The non-etymological /t/ is by analogy with the common ending -ent.

(UK, law) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.


WC

→ Czech: WC

→ Dutch: wc

→ Estonian: veetsee, vets

→ Finnish: WC, vessa

→ French: WC

→ Greek: βεσέ (vesé)

→ German: WC

→ Hungarian: WC

→ Polish: WC, wuce

→ Portuguese: WC

→ Romanian: WC, veceu

→ Serbo-Croatian: WC, vece

In the summer of 1877, a gentleman with whom I was well acquainted, took lodgings in Preston-street, Brighton. The morning after his arrival, he found in the W.C. some leaves of an old black-letter book.

1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 54:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Initialism of water closet: a lavatory; a toilet.


walk

From Middle English walk, walke, walc, from Old English *wealc (as in Old English wealcspinl) and ġewealc (“a rolling motion, attack”), from Proto-Germanic *walką. Cognate with Icelandic válk (“a rolling around, a tossing to and fro, trouble, distress”).

cog

(UK, finance, slang, dated) A cheque drawn on a bank that was not a member of the London Clearing and whose sort code was allocated on a one-off basis; they had to be "walked" (hand-delivered by messengers).


arse bandit

And all the sodomites and catamites, poncey sausage jockeys, arse bandits, turd burglars and fudge packers, fur burger-licking carpet munchers, gormless imbeciles, morons, geeks, cretins and retards […]

2011, Bruce Mason, The Telomere Conspiracy, page 96:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, derogatory) A gay man.


waver

From Middle English waveren, from Old Norse vafra (“to flicker”), akin to Old English wǣfre (“restless, wavering”). Related to wave.

50 to 80 Wavers or Saplings, on each acre

1813, John Farey, General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire:

(UK, dialect, dated) A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.


buggery

en-noun

buggery (countable and uncountable, plural buggeries)

Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of buggery […] shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be kept in penal servitude for life or for any term not less than ten years.

1861, United Kingdom, Offences Against the Person Act 1861:

Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable Crime of Buggery, committed either with Mankind or with any Animal, shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be kept in Penal Servitude for Life or for any Term not less than Ten Years.

1861, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Section 61”, in Offences against the Person Act 1861^(Offences against the Person Act 1861), page 833:

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Any sexual act deemed against nature, such as homosexuality, bestiality or necrophilia.

It's gone to buggery.

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland, slang) A broken or damaged condition.


buggery

Did he help? Did he buggery!

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland, vulgar, colloquial) Used after an inverted subject pronoun and auxiliary verb or copula to emphatically negate the verb.


lieutenant

→ Irish: leifteanant

→ Malay: leftenan

→ Swahili: luteni

From Middle English lieutenant, lieftenaunt, from Anglo-Norman lieutenant, lyutenaunt, leu tenant, leu tenaunt (“deputy, lieutenant”), from Old French lieu (“place”) + tenant (“holder”). Doublet of locum tenens.

commissioned officer
commissioned officer

(military) The lowest junior commissioned officer rank(s) in many military forces, often Army and Marines.

(military, UK) A commissioned officer in the British Army and Royal Marines, holding the rank above second lieutenant and below captain. Both ranks may be referred to as "lieutenant"; however, "second lieutenant" is to specify that the officer is not yet a full lieutenant.

lieutenant commander
lieutenant commander

(military, UK) A naval officer whose rank is above that of sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy and below that of a lieutenant commander.


crack

crack (countable and uncountable, plural cracks)

From Middle English crakken, craken, from Old English cracian (“to resound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną (“to crack, crackle, shriek”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to resound, cry hoarsely”).
Cognate with Scots crak (“to crack”), West Frisian kreakje (“to crack”), Dutch kraken (“to crunch, creak, squeak”), Low German kraken (“to crack”), German krachen (“to crash, crack, creak”), Lithuanian gìrgžděti (“to creak, squeak”), Old Armenian կարկաչ (karkačʻ), Sanskrit गर्जति (gárjati, “to roar, hum”).

cog

I'll be with you in a crack.

(slang, dated, UK) A brief time; an instant; a jiffy.


qualification

en-noun

qualification (countable and uncountable, plural qualifications)

Borrowed from Middle French qualification in the 1540s, which in turn derives from Medieval Latin quālificātiō. By surface analysis, qual(ify) + -ification.

surf

(UK) A certificate, diploma, or degree awarded after successful completion of a course, training, or exam.


NSPCC

In primary school, a teacher had told his class that it was child abuse for parents to smack their children and had made them write down the number for the NSPCC helpline.

2019, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, “Christmas is Coming”, in Manchester Happened, Oneworld Publications (2020), page 9:

(UK) Initialism of National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.


NVQ

National Vocational Qualification
w:National Vocational Qualification

(UK, education) Initialism of National Vocational Qualification.


drain

→ French: drain

→ Irish: draein

→ Welsh: draen

From Middle English dreinen, from Old English drēahnian (“to drain, strain, filter”), from Proto-Germanic *drauhnōną (“to strain, sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, parched”). Akin to Old English drūgian (“to dry up”), Old English drūgaþ (“dryness, drought”), Old English drȳġe (“dry”). More at dry.

der

(chiefly UK) An access point or conduit for rainwater that drains directly downstream in a (drainage) basin without going through sewers or water treatment in order to prevent or belay floods.

When the play was over, we came out together, and I said, "We've been very companionable and agreeable, and perhaps you wouldn't object to a drain?"

1850 September 14, [Charles Dickens], “Three “Detective” Anecdotes”, in Charles Dickens, editor, Household Words. A Weekly Journal., volume I, number 25, London: Office, […], →OCLC:

What did she want with money, except now and then for a drain of white satin.

1966, Henry Mayhew, Peter Quennell, London's Underworld, page 48:


clog

Unknown; perhaps from Middle English clog (“weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement”). Perhaps of North Germanic origin and derived from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“lump, mass, clasp”); compare Old Norse klugu, klogo (“knotty tree log”), Dutch klomp.

der

I let him in this morning. He lost one of his clogs.

1987, Bruce Robinson, Withnail and I, spoken by Withnail:


semibreve

From Italian semibreve, ultimately from Latin semi- (“half”) and Latin brevis (“short”).

(music, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A musical note four beats long in 4/4 time; a whole note (US)

โน้ตตัวกลม (not-tua-klom, literally “round body note”)


LSD

(British, Ireland, dated) Initialism of £sd. (pounds, shillings, pence)


torch

en-verb

torch (third-person singular simple present torches, present participle torching, simple past and past participle torched)

torches (present singular third-person)
torching (participle present)
torched (participle past)
torched (past)

The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
Sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun sense 1). Sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lămpắdă părădidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another.
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

(UK, dialectal, figurative) To (appear to) flare up like a torch.


jolly

From Middle English joli, jolif (“merry, cheerful”), from Old French joli, jolif (“merry, joyful”)
It is uncertain whether the Old French word is from Old Norse jól ("a midwinter feast, Yule", hence "fest-ive"), in which case, equivalent to yule + -ive, compare Dutch jolig (“happy, festive, frolicsome, jolly”), West Frisian joelich, joalich (“merry, jolly”), Middle High German jœlich (“hooting, jubilant”); however, OED considers this etymology unlikely. Alternatively, the Old French adjective originates from Vulgar Latin *gaudivus (from Latin gaudeō, more at joy), which would require that Early Old French ⟨d⟩ /ð/ irregularly turns up as ⟨l⟩ in jolif instead of being regularly dropped (alternatively, /l/ may be a hiatus filler inserted into expected *joïf). Possible parallels are found in French cigale and Provençal cigala from cigāda, and French Valois from Vadensis. For the loss of final -f compare tardy, hasty, hussy, etc.

cog

(UK, dated, often humorous) A pleasure trip or excursion.


jolly

en-adv

jolly (comparative more jolly, superlative most jolly)

more jolly (comparative)
most jolly (superlative)

It’s jolly hot in here, isn’t it?

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

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


get knotted

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-get knotted.wav

You want me to go to the party with you? Get knotted!

(chiefly British, imperative, slang) A mildly offensive expression of refusal.


average

From Middle English average, from Medieval Latin averagium, from aver (“horse or other beast of burden, service required from the same”) from Old English eafor (“obligation to carry goods and convey messages for one's lord”) from aferian (“to remove, take away”); + -age.

inh

(UK, law, obsolete) The service that a tenant owed his lord, to be done by the animals of the tenant, such as the transportation of wheat, turf, etc.


shithouse

From shit + house. Compare Middle Low German schîthûs, German Scheißhaus, Swedish skithus, Icelandic skíthús.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, derogatory, slang) A coward; one who is overly fearful or timid.


shithouse

The stupefied bus driver kept ranting and raving at him. “You could have been stuffed, mate! Once the water splits it would have been the most shithouse moment in your life, and the last one! This beach is for crocs only![…]”

2005, Eckhard Otto Hardy Marthen, Otto, page 334:

The story goes that when she applied for the job, they were fearful of hiring her because she was ‘much more shithouse than them’. I cannot imagine anyone being worse than those two but she did give it a good go.

2010, Brian Cadd, From This Side of Things, page 255:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) Of poor quality.


shithouse

en-verb

shithouse (third-person singular simple present shithouses, present participle shithousing, simple past and past participle shithoused)

shithouses (present singular third-person)
shithousing (participle present)
shithoused (participle past)
shithoused (past)

2021, Harry Diamond, “Five times El Cholo’s Atleti sh*thoused their way to famous Champions League wins”, in The Football Faithful:

(UK, Ireland, sports, slang) To engage in persistent unsporting behaviour or gamesmanship; to play in a cynical, ugly manner; to cheat without being punished.


sleet

en-noun

sleet (countable and uncountable, plural sleets)

From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.

cog

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Northeastern US) Precipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.


get one's kit off

en-verb

get one's kit off (third-person singular simple present gets one's kit off, present participle getting one's kit off, simple past and past participle got one's kit off)

gets one's kit off (present singular third-person)
getting one's kit off (participle present)
got one's kit off (participle past)
got one's kit off (past)

The woman in this film is not shy about getting her kit off, is she?

(British, slang) To undress or be naked.


leg it

leg it (third-person singular simple present legs it, present participle legging it, simple past and past participle legged it)

legs it (present singular third-person)
legging it (participle present)
legged it (participle past)
legged it (past)

After snatching my handbag he just legged it.

(intransitive, British, slang) To run away, to flee.

As soon as I heard about the fire I legged it over here as fast as I could.

(intransitive, British, slang) To hurry.


serial

desctree

→ Russian: сериа́л (seriál, “TV-series”)
→ Azerbaijani: serial

/ˈsɪə.ɹɪ.əl/

Formed as series + -al, on model of Latin seriālis, from seriēs + -ālis. Cognate to Italian seriale. First use appears c. 1823. See cite below.

The practice, especially among members of shield serials, of 'whooping like cowboys and indians' and beating of truncheons on riot shields must cease as this tends to frighten and intimidate rioters.

1992, James Donald, Ali Rattansi, Race, Culture and Difference, page 66:

The serials worked in pairs, one with long shields and one with short shields.

2013, Tony Moore, Policing Notting Hill: Fifty Years of Turbulence, page 324:

(UK) A unit of police officers equipped with shields to tackle a riot.


pain in the arse

en-noun

pain in the arse (plural pains in the arse)

You really are a pain in the arse, aren't you (laugh track)? The PM is going up the wall! Hitting the roof! You can't go around making speeches like that.

1980 February 25, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “Open Government”, in Yes Minister, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Vic Gould (Edward Jewesbury):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, sometimes considered, vulgar) Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating.


bloody

en-adj

bloody (comparative bloodier, superlative bloodiest)

bloodier (comparative)
bloodiest (superlative)

From Middle English blody, blodi, from Old English blōdiġ, blōdeġ (“bloody”), from Proto-West Germanic *blōdag, from Proto-Germanic *blōþagaz (“bloody”), equivalent to blood + -y. Cognate with Dutch bloedig (“bloody”), German blutig (“bloody”), Danish blodig (“bloody”), Swedish blodig (“bloody”), Icelandic blóðugur (“bloody”). See Wikipedia for thoughts on sense evolution.

Traffic in central London was a bloody mess this morning.

There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.

1916 May 31, David Beatty during the Battle of Jutland

Try to keep those bloody women's bloody heads on their bloody shoulders by somehow helping them make this whole mad impossible scheme actually work.

1994, Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos, page 519:

You are not to go asking anyone about who killed that bloody dog.

2003, Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, page 64:

“You bloody fool, I could′ve stabbed you in the heart,” David said in mock anger, and then smiled widely.

2007, James MacFarlane, Avenge My Kin, Book 2: A Time of Testing, page 498

With 109km of fixed infrastructure, of which only 50% is utilised, Perry's message is simple: "put more bloody trains on it!"

2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 45:

(informal, British, Ireland, Commonwealth, Hawaii, mildly vulgar) Used as an intensifier.


bloody

en-adv

bloody (comparative more bloody, superlative most bloody)

more bloody (comparative)
most bloody (superlative)

Walk! Not bloody likely. [Sensation]. I am going in a taxi. [She goes out].

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act III, page 153:

"Dice are no bloody good," David said.

1994, Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos, page 109:

(informal, Australia, British, India, Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, mildly vulgar) Used to express anger, annoyance, or shock, or for emphasis.


quarto

en-noun

quarto (countable and uncountable, plural quartos)

(paper) A size of paper (7.5"-10" x 10"-12.5" or 190-254 x 254-312 mm). Formed by folding and cutting one of several standard sizes of paper (15"-20" x 20"-25" or 381-508 x 508-635 mm) twice to form 4 leaves (eight sides).

(UK) Quarto writing paper (10 inches x 8 inches)


wank

wank (countable and uncountable, plural wanks)

Origin unknown. First known use as a verb is 1905, as a noun 1948. Perhaps compare regional slang term wang, whang (“to whack or beat”). Compare Dutch wanken (“to move back and forth; move with the hands”).

cog

This opera is wank.

Did you see that thing on Channel 4? Yeah, it was wank.

I do sell a lot of wank, don't I?

2000, Dylan Moran, “Cooking the Books”, in Black Books, season 1, episode 1 (television production), spoken by Fran (Tamsin Greig):

(uncountable, slang, vulgar) Nonsense, rubbish.


holiday

From Middle English halyday, holyday, halidei, haliȝdei, from Old English hāliġdæġ (“holy day, Sabbath”), equivalent to holy + day. Compare West Frisian hjeldei (“holiday”), Danish helligdag (“holiday”), Norwegian helligdag (“holiday”), Swedish helgdag (“holiday, feast”).

inh

No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

Climb aboard a butterfly and take off in the breeze. Let your worries flutter by and do the things you please. In the land where dollar bills are falling off the trees. On a dreamer’s holiday.[…]Make it a long vacation. Time, there is plenty of. You need no reservation. Just bring along the one you love.

1949 August 11, “A Dreamer’s Holiday”, performed by Perry Como, The Fontaine Sisters, and The Mitchell Ayres Orchestra:

(chiefly UK, Australia) A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural.

festë

I want to take a French course this summer holiday.

(chiefly UK, Australia) A period during which pupils do not attend their school; often plural; rarely used for students at university (usually: vacation).

tətil

period during which pupils do not attend school


holiday

en-verb

holiday (third-person singular simple present holidays, present participle holidaying, simple past and past participle holidayed)

holidays (present singular third-person)
holidaying (participle present)
holidayed (participle past)
holidayed (past)

(British, intransitive) To spend a period of time in recreational travel.

matkustella

to spend a period of time in recreational travel


non-alcoholic

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-non-alcoholic.wav

(chiefly British) Alternative form of nonalcoholic.


tablespoon

(Australia, New Zealand, Northern UK) A spoon too large for eating, usually used for cooking or serving.


uni

I'm going to uni after I leave school.

Turn left when you reach the uni.

(colloquial, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) University.


provost

From Middle English, from late Old English prōfost, prāfost, from Late Latin prōpositus, variant of Latin praepositus (“[one] placed in command”). In some senses, via Anglo-Norman provolt; via Anglo-Norman and Old French provost (modern French prévôt). As a Central European ecclesiastical office, via German Propst, Danish provst, etc.

steward

deputy overseeing medieval estates or fees

police officer

deputy overseeing medieval law enforcement; military police

One placed in charge: a head, a chief, particularly:

(UK, higher education) The head of various colleges and universities.

(UK, military slang, obsolete) A provost cell: a military cell or prison.


provost

en-verb

provost (third-person singular simple present provosts, present participle provosting, simple past and past participle provosted)

provosts (present singular third-person)
provosting (participle present)
provosted (participle past)
provosted (past)

Around the time of the Rebellions of 1837 and the First Anglo-Afghan War, British servicemen spoke of being provosted.

(UK, transitive, used in passive, obsolete, military slang) To be delivered to a provost marshal for punishment.


bob

One of the bottlenosed fraternity it was went by the name of James Wought alias Saphiro alias Spark and Spiro, put an ad in the papers saying he'd give a passage to Canada for twenty bob.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 308:

“’Ere y’are, the best rig-out you ever ’ad. A tosheroon [half a crown]^([sic]) for the coat, two ’ogs for the trousers, one and a tanner for the boots, and a ’og for the cap and scarf. That’s seven bob.”

1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXIX, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, pages 214–215:

[…] there was a sound of barking and a great hefty dog of the Hound of the Baskervilles type came galloping at me, obviously intent on mayhem,[…]. And I was just commending my soul to God and thinking that this was where my new flannel trousers got about thirty bobs' worth of value bitten out of them, […]

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

(Kenya, slang; UK and Australia, historical, dated) A shilling.


loony left

Tories Play Loony Left Card

1986: Headline in The Guardian, 18 Nov 1986

The Earl of Halsbury ([Hansard] 1986 p310) spoke of how he had been ‘warned that the loony left is hardening up the lesbian camp and that they are becoming increasingly aggressive'.

1988, Michael Urben, Biography and Education:

1988: John Twitchin, Introduction to The Black and White Media Book
The term ‘anti-racist' has become associated with ‘left-wing sentimentality', not to say ‘loony left extremism'.

I sold the story to The Sun for school funds. They led with TROUBLESOME TOT over another piece about LESBIAN LOONY LEFT IN RIOTS.

1989: Fred Sedgwick, Here Comes the Assembly Man: A Year in the Life of a Primary School (referring to an event in 1988)

They claimed that the London Boroughs Grant Scheme should be eliminated so that ‘public money' would no longer be spent on ‘"loony left" projects such as black lesbian groups'.

1992: Kenneth (EDT) Plummer, Modern Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experiences, referring to "leaflets distributed by the Conservative Party local constituency association in Surbiton before the May 1991 elections"

The exaggerations of the Thatcher [Conservative] governments, and the fabrications of the tabloid press, concerning the measures invoked by certain Labour councils in order to tackle discrimination and disadvantage led to coinage of the term 'loony Left'. The Government and its allies in the media ridiculed and reviled the principles and policies of such Labour councils, leading people to believe that one would not be allocated a job or house unless one was a disabled vegetarian single-parent lesbian from an 'ethnic minority' background.

1995, Peter Dorey, British Politics Since 1945:

The republican resolution was an example of the influence of the 'loony left' in the Labor Party.

1996: Mark McKenna, The Captive Republic: A History of Republicanism in Australia 1788-1996 (quoting Dr John Hewson, Leader of the Opposition)

[Political correctness] flourished for a while in what became known as ‘loony left' local authorities where public policies passionately favoured minority needs, the dubious as well as the deserving.

1996, Understanding Journalism, John Wilson:

[Linda] Bellos, who was active in promoting lesbian rights as well as supporting black community initiatives, was depicted as the embodiment of the ‘loony left' and her commitment to opposing racism, sexism and homophobia was caricatured.

1998, Julia Sudbury, Other Kinds of Dreams: Black Women's Organizations and the Politics of Transformation:

The Christic Institute, the looniest fringe group of the loony left, which publicised a number of bizarre conspiracy theories in which virtually every ill on earth could be traced to "secret teams" at the CIA involved in the narcotics trade.

1999, Barbara Olsen, Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton:

In most cases, they follow not the loony left in the Legislature, but Bush's biggest California backer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

2006, Peter Schrag, California: America's High-Stakes Experiment:

(British, Australia, New Zealand, derogatory, politics) Left-wing politicians or activists whose policies or ideas are considered to be ridiculous or too politically correct.


nap

en-noun

nap (countable and uncountable, plural naps)

From the name of the French emperor Napoleon I of France.

4. Races run on English, Welsh or Scottish racecourses. This criterion was included so that media tipsters ^([sic]) nap selections in general could be analysed; the source of naps, The Racing Rag 'tipster table', summarises the nap selections of newspaper tipsters, who restrict their selection to horses running at racecourses in these countries.

2005, Leighton Vaughan-Williams, The Economics of Gambling, page 71:

(British) A type of bet in British horse racing, based on the experts' best tips.


noughties

From nought (“zero”) + -ies (“plural of -y”), in imitation of the names of other decades (twenties, thirties, etc).

Our readers — and contributors — are apt to elect a good deal according to years. The seventies and eighties, we may suppose, are concerned for the large educational and cultural interests of their Alma Mater; the nineties are deep in the practical and business activities; the noughties are not naughty, but still young enough to sport a fantastic costume at reunion and let the college wag as it will; the oneties are the really wise as to what the college ought to be, especially on its athletic side, but as contributors modest.

1914, Amherst College, “Amherst graduates' quarterly”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 4, page 6:

I doubt if any modern poet can boast of as loud acclaim or as liberal reward as Longfellow received for Evangeline or Tennyson for the Idylls, but his fate today is somewhat kinder than that of Poe or Whitman, and much gentler than the stony dole dealt out to poets in the nineties and noughties.

1933, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, volume 43, Chicago, page 36:

During the Naughty Noughties, Jim was worth between ten and twelve million dollars and his income was more than even he could reasonably spend.

1934, Parker Morell, Diamond Jim: The Life and Times of James Buchanan Brady, page 219:

Every young woman with "advanced" ideas must live in Paris during the decade of the "noughties," as they were dubbed by some wit.

1966, Jean Gould, Modern American playwrights, page 30:

2009 [2006], Naomi Rosh White, “Tertiary education in the noughties: the student perspective”, in Malcolm Tight, editor, The Routledge international handbook of higher education:

2008, Cunningham, Gleeson, Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny, Painting in the noughties: 21st century British and Irish abstract painting:

An obsession with designer handbags, at ever-spiralling prices, became a phenomenon of the mid-noughties, driven principally by Louis Vuitton.

2009, Brenda Polan, Roger Tredre, The Great Fashion Designers, page 237:

The noughties are the bridge between the pre-internet era, and the life we live now.

2021 November 5, Jess Cartner-Morley, “The noughties are back – but do they warrant a revival?”, in The Guardian:

(UK, sometimes capitalized) The decade consisting of the last year of the previous century and the first nine years of the next: from 1900 to 1909, 2000 to 2009, etc.

teens · twenties · thirties · forties · fifties · sixties · seventies · eighties · nineties

Gay Nineties · Naughty Nineties · Roaring Twenties · Dirty Thirties · Swinging Sixties


too posh to push

(British, colloquial) Of a woman or women, preferring to have a Caesarean section rather than undergo natural childbirth.


outside

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Nattes à chat-outside.wav

The outsides did as outsides always do. They were very cheerful and talkative at the beginning of every stage, and very dismal and sleepy in the middle[…]

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

(dated, UK, colloquial) A passenger riding on the outside of a coach or carriage.


outside

en-adj

outside (comparative more outside, superlative most outside)

more outside (comparative)
most outside (superlative)

արտաքին

pertaining to the outer surface or boundary

the outside lane of the motorway

(chiefly UK) Positioned towards the central division of a road: towards the right-hand side if one drives on the left, or left-hand side if one drives on the right.


furlong

en-noun

furlong (plural furlongs or (archaic) furlong)

furlongs (plural)
furlong (archaic plural)

PIE word
 *dlongʰos
From Middle English furlong, forlong (“unit of distance about one-eighth of a mile; quantity of land equal to one square furlong; racetrack for foot races; foot race”) [and other forms], from Old English furlang, furlung, from furh (“a furrow”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“to dig; to open; to rip up”) + lang (“long”, adjective) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”)), originally the typical length of a furrow in an average field.

nb...

ferlong, forelang, forelange, forelong, forelonge, forlang, forlange, forlonge, fourlonge, furelang, furelange, furelonge, furlang, furlange, furleng, furlonge, furlung, furowlong, (rare) furʒlong

inh

(British, dialectal) An undefined portion of an unenclosed field.

palsta

(obsolete except British, dialectal, agriculture)

Synonym of headland (“unploughed boundary of a field”)

Synonym of land (“the ground left unploughed between furrows”)

land

Synonym of land (“any of several portions into which a field is divided for ploughing”)


nor

From Middle English nauther, from nother. Cognate with neither. By surface analysis, not + or.

common sense is neither common nor sensical

neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring

neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring

He's no better nor you.

'I used to think, when you first come into these parts, as you were no better nor you should be.'

1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner, London: Penguin Books, published 1967, page 131:

I wouldn’t like to live here though, not after dark. Sooner you nor me.

1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 92:


queue

From Middle English queue, quew, qwew, couwe, from Anglo-Norman queue, keu and Old French cöe, cue, coe (“tail”), from Vulgar Latin cōda, from Latin cauda. See also Middle French queu, cueue. Doublet of coda.

I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue.

1916, John Buchan, “Chapter 5”, in Greenmantle:

In a report published on October 31, Transport Focus said that a number of train companies were unable to convince it about their ability to sell a full range of tickets, handle cash payments, and avoid excessive queues at ticket machines.

2023 November 15, 'Industry Insider', “Outbreak of common sense”, in RAIL, number 996, page 68:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, less common in North America) A line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back).


anticlockwise

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, of movement) In a circular fashion so as to be moving to the left at the top of the circle and to the right at the bottom (when viewed from the front), in the opposite direction to the hands of an analog clock.

en el sentit antihorari

in the opposite direction to the hands of an analogue clock

dans le sens inverse des aiguilles d’une montre

საათის ისრის საწინააღმდეგო მიმართულებით

saatis isris sac̣inaaɣmdego mimartulebit moʒravi

საათის ისრის საწინააღმდეგო მიმართულებით მოძრავი

saatis isris saṗirisṗiro mimartulebit moʒravi

საათის ისრის საპირისპირო მიმართულებით მოძრავი

སྐོར་ལོག (skor log, literally “the backwards way around”)

ཕྱི་སྐོར (phyi skor, literally “the non-Buddhist way around”)

གཡོན་འཁྱིལ (g.yon 'khyil, literally “left-winding”)


anticlockwise

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) In an anticlockwise fashion.

dans le sens contraire des aiguilles d’une montre

en sentido contrario ás agullas do reloxo

antítheta me tin forá ton deiktón tou rologioú

αντίθετα με την φορά των δεικτών του ρολογιού

no sentido contrário aos ponteiros do relógio

en sentido contrario a las agujas del reloj

སྤྱི་སྐོར (spyi skor, literally “the non-Buddhist way around”)


programme

/ˈpɹoʊˌɡɹæm/

Our programme for today’s exercise class includes swimming and jogging.

The programme about Greek architecture starts at 9:00 on Channel 4.

ITEC is the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme.

It had been arranged as part of the day's programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Thus once a computer programme has been prepared, vastly different conditions can be inserted and experimented with at the expense of a few hours of computer time.

1961, New Scientist, volume 9, number 226, page 679:

It had been sixteen years since the BBC’s Grace Wyndham Goldie wrote her internal memo about luring him back to make sociological/scientific TV programmes. Now a second note had circulated, from the science department, proposing that he should present the Corporation’s next educative megaseries.

2012, Kate Bassett, “Mid-Seventies Onwards: Operatic beginnings and The Body in Question”, in In Two Minds: A Biography of Jonathan Miller, London: Oberon Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 219:

British, New Zealand, and India standard spelling of program.

(British, rare) Nonstandard spelling of program (“computer program”).


programme

en-verb

programme (third-person singular simple present programmes, present participle programming, simple past and past participle programmed)

programmes (present singular third-person)
programming (participle present)
programmed (participle past)
programmed (past)

/ˈpɹoʊˌɡɹæm/


soup

en-noun

soup (countable and uncountable, plural soups)

→ Tamil: சூப் (cūp)

→ Thai: ซุป (súp)

Wikiquote
The noun is from Middle English soupe, sowpe, from Old French soupe, souppe, sope, from Late Latin suppa (“sopped bread”), from Proto-Germanic *supô (compare Middle Dutch sope (“broth”)). Doublet of zuppa. See also sop and supper.
The verb is from the noun.

B. Wickham had also the disposition and general outlook on life of a ticking bomb. In her society you always had the uneasy feeling that something was likely to go off at any moment with a pop. You never knew what she was going to do next or into what murky depths of soup she would carelessly plunge you. [...] “It may be fun for her,” I said with one of my bitter laughs, “but it isn't so diverting for the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she plunges so ruthlessly in the soup.”

1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter I and X:

(figuratively) Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.

(UK, informal, often with "the") An unfortunate situation; trouble, problems (a fix, a mess); chaos.


fount

From Middle French fonte, feminine past participle of verb fondre (“to melt”).

For the small characters it was in fact imperative to use such a fount as was available; not to mention that no strictly accurate fount of Chinese type has as yet been cast.

1892, Herbert Giles, A Chinese–English Dictionary, Preface:

Mr. Tallboy corrected the misprints, damned their eyes for using the wrong name-block, made it clear to them that they had set the headlines in the wrong fount, cut the proof to pieces, pasted it up again in the correct size, and returned it.

1933, Dorothy Sayers, chapter 4, in Murder Must Advertise:

The company is to be congratulated on the neatness and businesslike look of the tickets, and also on the very clear and artistic founts of type which are used.

1940 May, G. W. J. Potter, “Tickets of the Great Southern Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 292:

(typography, UK, dated) A typographic font.


Mesopotamia

From the Classical Latin Mesopotamia, from the Koine Greek Μεσοποταμία (Mesopotamía), a feminine substantive form of the adjective Μεσοποτάμιος (Mesopotámios, “between rivers”), from the Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos, “between”) + ποτᾰμός (potămós, “river”) + -ιος (-ios), so called because Mesopotamia is located between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Also used as a translation of the Biblical Hebrew נַהֲרַיִם (naharáyim), the dual form of נָהָר (nahár, “river”).

(UK, slang, obsolete) The Eaton Square district of London, England.


presenteeism

From presentee + -ism, after absenteeism, coined by academic Cary Cooper.

Coordinate term: absenteeism

Research shows that presenteeism, apart from the obvious danger of contamination of other workers, can lead to longer absence from work later on.

2016, Slavina Spasova, Denis Bouget and Bart Vanhercke, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, December 2016

Organisations that have noticed an increase in presenteeism are nearly twice as likely to report an increase in stress-related absence and more than twice as likely to report an increase in mental health problems among their staff too.

2016 September 19, Peter Cheese, The Guardian:

Employers should guarantee sick pay, including for contacts of known cases, and do everything they can to discourage the practice of “presenteeism”.

2020 March 15, William Hanage, “I’m an epidemiologist. When I heard about Britain’s ‘herd immunity’ coronavirus plan, I thought it was satire”, in The Guardian:

"This also contributes to 'presenteeism', where people work when they are not at their most productive, and the newer trend of 'leaveism' where employees feel they must work outside of their normal hours."

2020 June 1, Paul Stephen, “Mental health in the workplace”, in Rail, page 50:

(chiefly UK) The fact of being present at work, especially if one is too sick to be productive, or working beyond the expected hours.


trainer

→ Cebuano: trainor
→ English: trainor

(UK, Ireland) A running shoe or sneaker.


bastard

bastard (countable and uncountable, plural bastards)

From Middle English bastard, bastarde, from Anglo-Norman bastard, Old French bastart (“illegitimate child”), perhaps via Medieval Latin bastardus, of obscure origin.
Possibly from Frankish *bāst (“marriage, relationship”) + Old French -ard, -art (pejorative suffix denoting a specific quality or condition). Frankish *bāst derives from a North Sea Germanic variety of Proto-Germanic *banstuz (“bond, connection, relationship, marriage with a second woman of lower status”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie, bind”) and is related to West Frisian boaste (“marriage, matrimony”), Middle Dutch bast (“lust, heat”), and more distantly to English boose (“cow-stall”). The term probably originally referred to a child from a polygynous marriage of heathen Germanic custom — a practice not sanctioned by the Christian churches.
Alternatively, Old French bastart may have originated from the Old French term fils de bast (“packsaddle son”), meaning a child conceived on an improvised bed (medieval saddles often doubled as beds while travelling). However chronology makes this difficult, as bastard is attested in Old French from 1089 (Middle Latin bastardus as early as 1010), yet Old French bast (modern French bât), though attested since 1130 with the meaning of "beast of burden", doesn't acquire the specific meaning of "packsaddle" until the 13c., making it too late to have given rise to the terms bastard and bastardus with this sense. The French Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales supports the Germanic theory further above as being most likely.

unk

obscure

cog

If you are a politician, you make sure that you know all such references in case an interviewer suddenly asks, 'Are you one of the bastards in Mr Major's cabinet?'

2000, Peter Hobday, Managing the message, Allison & Busby:

While John Major managed to get the Maastricht Treaty through parliament, despite the efforts of the “bastards” in his cabinet, the 2001 Conservative General Election campaign was fought on entirely eurosceptic lines.

2011, Duncan Hall, A2 Government and Politics: Ideologies and Ideologies in Action, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 62:

In the UK, Conservative Maastricht rebels (the 'bastards') almost brought down Conservative Prime Minister John Major's government.

2014 September 23, Stanley Johnson, Stanley, I Resume: Further recollections of an exuberant life, Biteback Publishing, →ISBN:

One “bastard,” the Minister for Wales, John Redwood (who mounted an unsuccessful campaign to displace the Tory chief, John Major), was removed in a Cabinet reshuffle; but was his young successor William Hague any more reliable?

2014, Melvin J. Lasky, Profanity, Obscenity and the Media, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN:

But there is no doubt that the “bastards,” who had tormented so many Tory leaders over the years, had won. The longed-for break with “Europe” had finally come, but at the same price that Americans paid for Trump's takeover of the Republican Party.

2020 September 3, Ian Buruma, The Churchill Complex: The Rise and Fall of the Special Relationship from Winston and FDR to Trump and Johnson, Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

(UK, politics, derogatory) A Eurosceptic Conservative MP, especially in the government of John Major.


bastard

en-adj

bastard (comparative more bastard, superlative most bastard)

more bastard (comparative)
most bastard (superlative)

unk

obscure

ondermaats

of abnormal, irregular or otherwise inferior qualities (size, shape etc.)

I’ve got a bastard headache.


hail

en-verb

hail (third-person singular simple present hails, present participle hailing, simple past and past participle hailed)

hails (present singular third-person)
hailing (participle present)
hailed (participle past)
hailed (past)

From Middle English heil (“healthy, sound”), from Old Norse heill, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, entire, healthy”). The verb is from Middle English heilen, itself from the adjective. Doublet of whole, hale, and heil.

өндәшеү

to call out loudly in order to gain the attention of

In Melbourne, you would usually have to hail a tram when you are travelling late at night and there are no other passengers waiting at your stop.

(transitive) To call out loudly in order to gain the attention of.

(transitive, by extension, UK, Australia) To indicate, from a designated stop or otherwise, to the driver of a public transport vehicle that one wishes to board and travel on the vehicle, usually using hand signals such as waving.


fletcher

Inherited from Middle English fleccher, from Old French flechier; equivalent to fletch + -er.

[…] the defendants cut down and lowered, and kept and continued so cut down and lowered, a part of the bank of the said river, situate and being between the mill of the defendants and the mill of the plaintiff, and on a part of the said bank so lowered, built and erected, and kept and continued so built and erected, a certain weir or fletcher, and by that means caused large quantities of the water of the said river, which otherwise would, and always before had, and still of right ought to have flowed to and through the plaintiff's mill, to flow in a new course or channel, […] and the said weir or fletcher, built and erected there by the defendant Inge in the month of June 1822; […]

1831, Liggins v. Inge, T. T. 1831 (court case), in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts (1832), page 289

They [some boards] had been washed away from the fletcher by the flood.

1896 September 5, Evesham Journal, quoted in the English Dialect Dictionary

You saw the river as you came along. Just above that bridge where you crossed there is a fletcher - weir, as some call them. Diver [a dog] used to cross the stream regular by running over the fletcher, and the other dogs picked up the trick from him.

1902, The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, page 451:

(UK, dialect, possibly dated) A weir or dam.


bum

en-verb

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

bums (present singular third-person)
bumming (participle present)
bummed (participle past)
bummed (past)

Attested since the 1300s, as Middle English bom (found in John Trevisa's 1387 Translation of the 'Polychronicon' of Ranulph Higden, "his bom is oute"), of uncertain origin. Sometimes suggested to be a shortening of botme, botom, bottum (“bottom”), but this is contradicted by the fact that bottom is not attested in reference to the buttocks until the late 1700s. Suggested by some old and modern references to be onomatopoeic.
Compare also Old Irish, Scottish Gaelic bun (“base, bottom”).

Your bars are fake and my bars are real; / Is it true you got bummed on a field?

2016 December 3, “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B:

(UK, Ireland, transitive, colloquial) To sodomize; to engage in anal sex.


bum

(more vulgar)

Maxine tried hers. ‘Oh bum,’ she said crossly. ‘The sugar isn’t sugar. It’s salt.’

(UK, Ireland, childish, euphemistic) An expression of annoyance.


bum

→ French: bummer

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: bomma

1864, back-formation from bummer, from German Bummler (“loafer”), from bummeln (“to loaf”).

(transitive, slang, British) To wet the end of a marijuana cigarette (spliff).


piss

piss (third-person singular simple present pisses, present participle pissing, simple past and past participle pissed)

pisses (present singular third-person)
pissing (participle present)
pissed (participle past)
pissed (past)

From Middle English pisse (noun) and pissen (verb), from Old French pissier, possibly from Vulgar Latin *pīssiāre, probably of imitative origin. Compare Old Norse pissa (“to urinate, piss”).

onom

imitative

"I'll piss this," I thought. "There's only Gary to beat and I beat him easily in both heats."

2018, Carl Fogarty, The World According to Foggy, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, transitive) To achieve easily.


appropriate

en-verb

appropriate (third-person singular simple present appropriates, present participle appropriating, simple past and past participle appropriated)

appropriates (present singular third-person)
appropriating (participle present)
appropriated (participle past)
appropriated (past)

From Middle English appropriaten, borrowed from Latin appropriatus, past participle of approprio (“to make one's own”), from ad (“to”) + proprio (“to make one's own”), from proprius (“one's own, private”).

Some [benefices] were appropriated to secular ecclesiastical corporations

176, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, book, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(transitive, British, ecclesiastical, law) To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).


carpet

carpet (third-person singular simple present carpets, present participle carpeting, simple past and past participle carpeted)

carpets (present singular third-person)
carpeting (participle present)
carpeted (participle past)
carpeted (past)

From late Middle English carpette, from Old French carpite, from Medieval Latin carpita/Italian carpita, introduced in the 13th century by the Florentines from the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, from Middle Armenian կարպետ (karpet, “carpet, rug”), earlier կապերտ (kapert).

der

Even Colonel Yakov, so recently carpeted by St Petersburg, was reported to be back in the Pamirs.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 428:

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.


kebab

From Arabic كَبَاب (kabāb), partly through Urdu, Persian and Turkish kebap. Doublet of cevapi. See the Arabic entry for more.

(British) A dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted on a skewer or spit, especially a doner kebab.


fuckwit

“Gizmo, you sound like a fuckwit.”

2024 November 25, Max Brockman, “P.I. Undercover: New York” (5:34 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 8, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry):


cubic centimetre

en-noun

cubic centimetre (plural cubic centimetres)

A unit of volume equal to that of a cube having sides each one centimetre in length, equal to 10⁻⁶ cubic metres and 1 millilitre. Commonly used in fluid measure and for engine sizes.


cowboy

cowboy (countable and uncountable, plural cowboys)

→ Catalan: cowboy

→ Dutch: cowboy

→ Estonian: kauboi

→ Finnish: cowboy

desctree

→ French: cow-boy, cowboy (rare, post-1990 spelling)
→ Vietnamese: cao bồi

→ German: Cowboy

→ Greek: καουμπόι (kaoumpói)

→ Hungarian: cowboy

→ Japanese: カウボーイ (kaubōi)

desc

→ Khmer: ខោវប៊យ (khaowbɔɔy), ខូវប៊ (khəwbɔɔ)

→ Korean: 카우보이 (kauboi)

→ Mandarin: 牛仔 (niúzǎi) (calque)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: cowboy

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: cowboy

→ Polish: kowboj

→ Portuguese: caubói, (Portugal) cobói, (unadapted form) cowboy

desctree

→ Russian: ковбо́й (kovbój)
→ Armenian: կովբոյ (kovboy)

→ Serbo-Croatian: kàuboj, ка̀убој

→ Spanish: cowboy

→ Swedish: cowboy

→ Thai: คาวบอย (kaao-bɔɔi)

(British, informal) A dishonest or incompetent independent tradesman.


over

en-verb

over (third-person singular simple present overs, present participle overing, simple past and past participle overed)

overs (present singular third-person)
overing (participle present)
overed (participle past)
overed (past)

From Middle English over, from Old English ofer, from Proto-West Germanic *obar, from Proto-Germanic *uber (“over”), from Proto-Indo-European *upér, a comparative form of *upo.
Akin to Dutch over, German ober, über, Danish over, Norwegian over, Swedish över, Icelandic yfir, Faroese yvir, Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂 (ufar), Latin super, Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér), Albanian upri (“group of peasants”), Sanskrit उपरि (upári).
Doublet of uber, super, and hyper.

all over the place like a mad woman's custard

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

He overed the fence in good style.

(UK, transitive, dialect, obsolete) To go over, or jump over.

The cattle have been overing all day because of the flies.

(UK, intransitive, dialect, obsolete) To run about.


arsehole

en-noun

arsehole (countable and uncountable, plural arseholes)

From Middle English arce-hoole, equivalent to arse + hole. Compare Old English ears-þyrel (“anus”, literally “arse-hole”).

cog

(UK, Ireland, vulgar, uncountable) A variant of the card game big two.


fry

From Middle English fryen, borrowed from Old French frire, from Latin frīgō (“to roast, fry”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-. Cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “I roast, bake”), Sanskrit भृज्जति (bhṛjjati, “to roast, grill, fry”), भृग् (bhṛg, “the crackling of fire”). Replaced native Middle English hirsten, from Old English hierstan (“to fry”).

(Ireland, British, cooking) A meal of fried sausages, bacon, eggs, etc.


fry

From Middle English frie (“spawn of fish, young or small fish, offspring, progeny, children”), probably from Old Norse frjó (“seed, semen”), from Proto-Germanic *fraiwą (“seed, semen, offspring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per-, *(s)prey- (“to strew, sow”). Cognate with Icelandic frjó (“pollen, seed”), Icelandic fræ (“seed”), Swedish frö (“seed, embryo, grain, germ”), Danish and Norwegian frø (“seed”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍅 (fraiw, “seed”). Likely merging with Old French froiz, froie (“spawn, spawning”), from froier, freier (“to spawn”), from Latin fricō (“to rub”). The Middle English is attested earlier than the terms in Old French, and the Anglo-Norman forms frie, fry are borrowings from the Middle English.

cog

(now chiefly UK dialectal) Offspring; progeny; children; brood.


maybe

From an ellipsis of Middle English it may be, equivalent to may + be. Compare mayhap.

Maybe not the best idea.


batty boy

From Caribbean slang batty (“buttocks”) + boy (“person”).

(Jamaica, Caribbean, UK, Canada derogatory slang) A homosexual man.


mozzie

2012, John Basham, Caravan Survival Guide, Explore Australia Publishing, unnumbered page,
As they can carry some dreadful diseases, mozzie defence is very important. It seems the types of mozzies and midges change from area to area.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Alternative form of mossie (“mosquito”)


only

From Middle English oonly, onli, onlych, onelich, anely, from Old English ānlīċ, ǣnlīċ (“only; singular; solitary”), from Proto-Germanic *ainalīkaz, equivalent to one + -ly. Cognate with obsolete Dutch eenlijk, German ähnlich (“similar”), Old Norse álíkr, Swedish enlig (“unified”). Regarding the different phonological development of only and one, see the note in one.

She's only gone and run off with the milkman!

The van said ‘BURT’S BURGERS’ on one side and ‘BURT’S PEST CONTROL’ on the other. Zoe stared at the van. The creepy man was only using the same vehicle for catching rats that he did for frying burgers!

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(British) Used to express surprise or consternation at an action.


righto

"You can count me in." "It may be really rather formidable. We shall have possibly to tackle a prize-fighter." "Right-o!" said Malone, cheerfully.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Introduces Some Very Physical Phenomena”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(colloquial, especially British, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland) Okay; all right.


misdemeanor

Coordinate term: felony

(law, criminology, historical in UK) A lesser criminal act in most common law legal systems, generally punished less severely than a felony.


coach

→ Czech: kouč

→ Danish: coach

→ Dutch: coach

→ French: coach

→ German: Coach

→ Italian: coach

→ Japanese: コーチ (kōchi)

→ Korean: 코치 (kochi)

→ Malay: koc

→ Polish: coach

→ Spanish: coach

→ Swahili: kocha

→ Swedish: coach

Borrowed from Middle French coche, from German Kutsche, from Hungarian kocsi. According to historians, the coach was named after the small Hungarian town of Kocs, which made a livelihood from cart building and transport between Vienna and Budapest.
The meaning "instructor/trainer" is from Oxford University slang (c. 1830) for a "tutor" who "carries" one through an exam; the athletic sense is from 1861.

(rail transport, UK, Australia) A passenger car, either drawn by a locomotive or part of a multiple unit.

կառք

wheeled vehicle drawn by horse power — see also carriage

(British, Australia) A long-distance, or privately hired, bus.


bender

Hypotheses:
* bend + -er. In sense of “heavy drinking”, originally generally “spree”, from 1846, of uncertain origin – vague contemporary sense of “something extraordinary”, connection to bend (e.g., bending elbow to drink (bend one's elbow)) or perhaps from Scottish sense of “strong drinker”.
* In Britain, for about four centuries, a sixpence was known as a bender because its silver content made it easy to bend in the hands. This was commonly done to create ‘love tokens’, many of which survive in collections to this day. The value of a sixpence was also enough to get thoroughly inebriated as taverns would often allow you to drink all day for two pence. This gave rise to the expression ‘going on a bender’.
* (interjection): From over the bender, referring to a person's arm (and sometimes accompanied by a gesture of the thumb backward over the shoulder); compare over the left shoulder.

“So they're easy about having a bender in the house, are they, their lordships?”

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 6, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK, slang, derogatory) A homosexual man.

'Oh and Gary, what happened in Ahmed?' 'Not guilty, sir.' 'Oh no! And Tredwell?' 'Bender.' 'Suspended sentence? So both walked. […]

2015, Olly Jarvis, Death by Dangerous, page 81:

He anticipated a prison sentence though he thought there was a slight possibility of 'getting off on a bender' (suspended sentence).

2019, Howard Williamson, Youth and Policy: Contexts and Consequences:

What will you take to be paid out?’ said the butcher. ‘The regular chummage is two–and–six. Will you take three bob?’ ‘And a bender,’ suggested the clerical gentleman. ‘Well, I don’t mind that; it’s only twopence a piece more,’ said Mr. Martin. ‘What do you say, now? We’ll pay you out for three–and–sixpence a week. Come!’

1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers 42


PRC

Pesticide Residues Committee
w:Pesticide Residue Committee

(British) Initialism of Pesticide Residues Committee.


felony

From Middle English felony, felonie, from Old French felonie (“evil, immoral deed”), from felon (“evildoer”). Ultimately of Proto-Germanic origin. More at felon.

der

Coordinate term: misdemeanor

Many experts have also expressed skepticism about the significance of this case and its legal underpinnings, which employed an unusual legal theory to seek a felony charge for what is more commonly a misdemeanor, and Mr. Trump will undoubtedly seek an appeal.

2024 May 30, The Editorial Board, “Donald Trump, Felon”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(law, criminology, US, historical in UK) A serious criminal offense, which, under United States federal law, is punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than one year or by the death penalty in the most serious offenses.


starter

(historical, British) A short length of rope formerly used for casual chastisement in the Navy.


sprog

en-noun

sprog (countable and uncountable, plural sprogs)

1940s, originally service slang. Perhaps from obsolete sprag (“lively young man”), of unknown origin.

To test this hypothesis further, he and his mate Fifer persuaded 16 women, heavy with child, to read a story called The Cat in the Hat to their unborn sprogs, twice a day, during the last few weeks of their pregnancies.

1984 September 13, Donald Gould, Forum: Suck it and see, page 54:

Any guardianship or trusts that you set up when your children were little sprogs may no longer be needed.

2008, Julian Knight, Wills, Probate, & Inheritance Tax For Dummies, UK, unnumbered page:

Kids will love the climbing wall and NZ′s highest vertical slide. If the sprogs get bored with reality, movie make-believe (p232) is right next door.

2010, Brett Atkinson, Sarah Bennett, Scott Kennedy, New Zealand′s South Island, Lonely Planet, page 220:

(UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, informal, humorous) A child.

(UK, military, RAF, slang, derogatory) A new recruit.


sprog

en-verb

sprog (third-person singular simple present sprogs, present participle sprogging, simple past and past participle sprogged)

sprogs (present singular third-person)
sprogging (participle present)
sprogged (participle past)
sprogged (past)

You must have been terrified, it′s not like today with film stars sprogging babies everywhere.

2007, Libby Purves, Love Songs and Lies, unnumbered page:

‘How′s it all going with your boyo in the valleys? Any plans for sprogging or vows or anything serious yet?’

2008, Lucy Diamond, Over You, unnumbered page:

‘Women lose their sexual drive after they′ve sprogged,’ Norman Potting interjected.

2009, Peter James, Dead Tomorrow, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, slang, humorous) To produce children.


bogey

Probably related to or alteration of bogle, akin to or from a variant of Middle English bugge (“frightening specter, scarecrow”) (whence partly bug), of uncertain origin: perhaps from obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”) (compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat”, older “fear”), Irish bagairt (“threat”)), from Proto-Celtic [Term?], or from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”) (compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge and Alemannic German Böögg (“goblin”, “snot”)); see also Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), whence obsolete English puck. Perhaps the Middle English and Welsh words come from a word related to buck and originally referred to a goat-shaped specter. Compare also booger.
The golf sense is from the devil as an imaginary player.

m+

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

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
w:Green's Dictionary of Slang

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

w:A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

(UK) Alternative form of booger: a piece of mucus in or removed from the nostril.


bogey

Clipping of bog-standard + -ey (diminutive suffix).

(UK, engineering) A bog-standard (representative) specimen taken from the center of production.


bogey

Upgrading the tram bogeys to air-conditioned bogeys costs the State Government approximately INR 25,00,000/- per bogey.

2020 January 30, “Upgrading Kolkata's Tram Network”, in C40 Cities, archived from the original on 2024-02-25:

(British, dated, India, rail transport) Alternative spelling of bogie (“railway carriage”)


drop

From Late Middle English droppe, Middle English drope (“small quantity of liquid; small or least amount of something; pendant jewel; dripping of a liquid; a shower; nasal flow, catarrh; speck, spot; blemish; disease causing spots on the skin”) [and other forms], from Old English dropa (“a drop”), from Proto-West Germanic *dropō (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Germanic *drupô (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to crumble, grind”).

nb...

dropan, droupe, (Northern England) droipe

afval

small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own round shape through surface tension

piisk

very small quantity of liquid, or of anything

piisk

that which hangs or resembles a liquid globule

pudotettu esine

(online gaming, video games) item dropped by a defeated enemy

langemine

decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate

afgrond

distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level

He usually enjoys a drop after dinner.    She won’t touch a drop while she’s on duty.

(figuratively) A very small quantity of liquid, or (by extension) of anything.

(chiefly Australia, British) A small amount of an alcoholic beverage.

It doesn’t matter where you’re from, anyone who enjoys the drop is a friend of mine.

She is rather fond of her drops, and is then particularly good-humoured; it is only when she is getting sober that she is querulous and nervous.

1834, Peregrine Reedpen [pseudonym], “The Survey Continued. Odds and Ends.”, in Our Town; or, Rough Sketches of Character, Manners, &c. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 61:

(chiefly British) Usually preceded by the: alcoholic spirits in general.


bottom

en-noun

bottom (countable and uncountable, plural bottoms)

→ Dutch: bottom

→ French: bottom

PIE word
 *bʰudʰmḗn
From Middle English botme, botom, from Old English botm, bodan (“bottom, foundation; ground, abyss”), from Proto-West Germanic *butm, from Proto-Germanic *butmaz, *budmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”). Cognate with Dutch bodem, German Boden, Icelandic botn, Danish bund; also Irish bonn (“sole (of foot)”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of a cup or jar”), Sanskrit बुध्न (budhna, “bottom”), Persian بن (bon, “bottom”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) (whence fund, via French). The sense “posterior of a person” is from 1794; the verb “to reach the bottom of” is from 1808. bottom dollar (“the last dollar one has”) is from 1882.

سَالِب

gay sexual slang: penetrated partner in sex

lack bottom

(uncountable, British, slang) Character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment.

издръжливост

character, reliability, staying power, dignity, integrity or sound judgment


till

From Middle English tylle (“till”), possibly from Middle English tillen (“to draw”) from Old English *tyllan (“to draw, attract”) (as in betyllan (“to lure, decoy”) and fortyllan (“to draw away”); related to *tollian > Middle English tollen). Cognate with Albanian ndjell (“I lure, attract”).
Alternatively, Middle English tylle is from Anglo-Norman tylle (“compartment”), from Old French tille (“compartment, shelter on a ship”), from Old Norse þilja (“plank”).


bogie

A dialectal word from Northern England of unknown origin which is unrelated to bogey (“hostile supernatural creature; terrifying thing, bugbear”).

The bogie coaches which he spoke of last year had been brought or were being brought into active service, but they had no further wagon stock available.

1917 October 12, “Company Meetings. [Assam Railways and Trading.]”, in The Near East: A Weekly Review of Oriental Politics, Literature, Finance, and Commerce, volume XIII, number 336, London: The Near East Editorial and Publishing Offices, →OCLC, page 479, column 3:

Although we took our eight bogies along to Whitstable at 60 m.p.h., and made a clean start from there, after Herne Bay the engine primed badly on Blacksole Bank and nearly stopped before we got over the top. Then we ran like the wind across the marshes with half-regulator, 30 per cent cut-off, and the engine blowing off.

1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 220:

Hard work is required from men and machines as I was to experience later when footplating Lambton No 5 on five bogies battling its way up Newtondale.

1979 August, Michael Harris, “A line for all reasons: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway”, in Railway World, page 415:

[...] Ashoke was still reading at two-thirty in the morning, one of the few passengers on the train who was awake, when the locomotive engine and seven bogies derailed from the broad-gauge line. The first four bogies capsized into a depression alongside the track.

2003 September, Jhumpa Lahiri, chapter 1, in The Namesake, New York, N.Y.: Mariner Books, published 2004, →ISBN, page 17:

(British, dated, India, rail transport) A railway carriage.


bogie

Reluctantly Raj used his fingernail to prise away the bogie he had long since sneezed up there and popped it in his mouth.

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(British, colloquial) A piece of dried mucus in or removed from the nostril.


pax

From Middle English pax and Latin pax (“peace”). Doublet of peace. See peace. As school slang, originally used at Winchester College, Hampshire in the United Kingdom.

to make pax with someone

to be good pax (i.e., good friends)

"I say, Lu! I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I see now you were right all along. Do come out. Make it Pax."

1950, C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

(British, dated, school slang) Friendship; truce.


pax

(UK, dated, school slang) A cry for peace or truce in children's games.


lord

Belizean Creole: laad

→ Bengali: লাট (laṭ)

→ Hindi: लाट (lāṭ)

→ Czech: lord

→ Faroese: lordur

→ Greek: λόρδος (lórdos)

Gullah: lawd

→ Hungarian: lord

→ Italian: lord

Jamaican Creole: laad

Pijin: lod

→ Portuguese: lorde

→ Russian: ло́рд (lórd)

→ Serbo-Croatian: lȍrd / ло̏рд

→ Spanish: lord

Torres Strait Creole: lod

→ Turkish: lord

→ Yiddish: לאָרד (lord)

From Middle English lord and lorde (attested from the 15th century), from earlier (14th century) lourde and other variants which dropped the intervocalic consonant of earlier lowerd, louerd, loverd, laford, and lhoaverd; from Old English hlāford < hlāfweard, a compound of hlāf (“bread”) + weard (“guardian”); see loaf and ward. The term was already being applied broadly prior to the literary development of Old English and was influenced by its common use to translate Latin dominus. Compare Scots laird (“lord”), preserving a separate vowel development (from northern/Scottish Middle English lard, laverd), the Old English compound hlāf-ǣta (“servant”, literally “bread-eater”), and modern English lady, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“bread-kneader”). The Middle English word laford was borrowed by Icelandic, where it survives as lávarður. Doublet of hlaford and laird.

Lord, a very crooked, deformed... Person.

1699, B.E., A new dictionary of the terms ancient and modern of the canting crew

Twenty years ago you might hear a sixpence described as a ‘Lord’ meaning ‘Lord of the Manor’; that is, a tanner.

1933 November 16, Times Literary Supplement, 782/1:

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang

(British, Australia, via Cockney rhyming slang, obsolete) Sixpence.


single

→ Dutch: single

→ Finnish: sinkku

→ German: Single

→ Indonesian: singel

→ Japanese: シングル (shinguru)

→ Polish: singiel

From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.

‘I want to know, Mr Stone, if, in the course of the day, you have issued any tickets to a person dressed in Arab costume?’
His reply was prompt.
‘I have — by the last train, the 7.25, — three singles.’

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.


Alsatian

Even the dogs here are restrained, Jesse thought, unlike the feral Alsatians back home that would sprint barking from the bottom of the garden straight through the house and smash themselves against the inside of the door until their owners appeared and locked them away.

2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 56:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, dated US) A German shepherd dog.

You shall sink a nobleman in the Temple Gardens, and rise an Alsatian at Whitefriars.

1822, Sir Walter Scott, chapter XVII, in The Fortunes of Nigel, Edinburgh:

(UK, obsolete) A rogue or debauchee, like those who haunted Alsatia in London.


Beeb

Clipping of BBC; possibly popularised by Peter Sellers, who is said to have called the corporation the Beeb Beeb Ceeb on The Goon Show in the 1950s.


kit out

en-verb

kit out (third-person singular simple present kits out, present participle kitting out, simple past and past participle kitted out)

kits out (present singular third-person)
kitting out (participle present)
kitted out (participle past)
kitted out (past)

As the soccer mom-ish leader of nefarious crime cartel the Golden Circle, Poppy rules over the entire global drug trade, which she controls from a jungle lair curiously kitted out as a kitsch 50s utopia, featuring gleaming bowling alleys, diners and nail salons, but also, somewhat confusingly, robot dogs and a captive Elton John.

2017 September 19, Gwilym Mumford, “Kingsman: The Golden Circle review – spy sequel reaches new heights of skyscraping silliness”, in the Guardian:

It has been kitted out with horizon scanning and other cameras, radar, 180° thermal imaging software, and acoustic monitors.

2023 February 8, “Network News: World interest in 'Intelligent Train'”, in RAIL, number 976, page 16:

(transitive, UK) To provide with equipment.

(transitive, UK) To prepare a boat or vehicle for a voyage or journey.

(transitive, UK) To supply with or dress in a uniform, especially a sports kit.


closet

→ Czech: klozet

→ Polish: klozet

→ Spanish: clóset

→ Welsh: closet

From Middle English closet, from Old French closet, from clos (“private space”) + -et (diminutive suffix), from Latin clausum. Equivalent to close + -et, but generally applied in French solely to small open-air enclosures.

cupboard

storage area set into a wall, used for storing food or dishware

cupboard

piece of furniture, used for storing food or dishware

(now chiefly Scotland, Ireland) Any small room or side room.

(obsolete) Clipping of closet of ease, (later, UK) clipping of water closet: a room containing a toilet.


yonks

Unknown. First seen in print around 1960. One theory is that it comes from donkey's ears; another is that it is an abbreviation of years, months and weeks.

Haven’t seen him in yonks!

I’ve been a teacher for yonks–I should really try another career.

This egg is taking yonks to boil.

I rang singer Julie Driscoll […] She said: "I haven't heard from you for yonks[…]"

1968 August 27, Christopher Ward, “The Christopher Ward Page”, in Daily Mirror, London, page 7:

Alas, the comics for that age group have nearly all picture stories today—and of course the ones for younger readers have been that way for yonks (sorry, years).

1975 January 28, Bill Stewart, “Comic Cuts”, in Evening Chronicle, number 30393, Newcastle, page 7:

It's what Miss Brunskill calls ‘our little backwater’. We're more or less fixtures there and have been for yonks.

1982, Alan Bennett, “A Woman of No Importance”, in The Complete Talking Heads, Picador, published 2010, →ISBN, page 14:

“Yonks,” he replies when I ask how long he's been stateside. “It's not like I've become American. I'm in England every year.”

2024 February 17, John Wright, quoting John Lydon, “I terrified a nation. Not bad for an 18-year-old”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 16:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A long time (especially a longer time than expected); ages


battle

From Middle English batel, batell, batelle, batayle, bataylle, borrowed from Old French bataille, from Late Latin battālia, variant of battuālia (“fighting and fencing exercises”) from Latin battuō (“to strike, hit, beat, fight”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from a Gaulish or Proto-Germanic root from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to stab, dig”), related to Old English beado (“battle”); or possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to hit, strike, beat”). Doublet of battalia and battel. Displaced native Old English ġefeoht, beado, camp, and wīg (“battle”), among others.

պայքար

struggle; a contest; as, the battle of life

Father Charles goes down and ends battle

no battle plan survives contact with the enemy

no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy


agro

en-adj

agro (comparative more agro, superlative most agro)

more agro (comparative)
most agro (superlative)

Trolls turns to me agro/sexy. "You're a weirdo who makes others feel weird cause you don't fit in...leave!"

2019 December, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 90:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, slang) angry


courgette

Unadapted borrowing from French courgette, diminutive of courge (“vegetable marrow, marrow squash”). Ultimately related to zucchini through the original Latin cucurbita.

ubor

Cucurbita pepo
Cucurbita pepo#Translingual

(British, Ireland, uncountable) A particular variety of Cucurbita pepo, a small marrow/squash.

意大利青瓜 (ji³ daai⁶ lei⁶ ceng¹ gwa¹, literally “Italian cucumber”)


filth

From Middle English filth, from Old English fȳlþu, from Proto-West Germanic *fūliþu, equivalent to foul + -th.

We were in the middle of stashing the money when the filth arrived.

(UK, Ireland, derogatory, slang) The police.


sub

* Shortened form of any of various words beginning with sub-.
* (lend a person money): From subsidize.

According to the best available information, GALAXY has several times as many subs as any other science fiction magazine!

1951, H. L. Gold, “Annual Report”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 2, number 6, page 2:

My friend Keith got me a sub to your paper for my Christmas present.

1985 February 2, 18, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 28, page 18:

(British, informal, often in plural) Clipping of subscription (a payment made for membership of a club, etc.)


sub

en-verb

sub (third-person singular simple present subs, present participle subbing, simple past and past participle subbed)

subs (present singular third-person)
subbing (participle present)
subbed (participle past)
subbed (past)

switch

one who is willing to take either a sadistic or a masochistic role

He never really made a contribution to the match, so it was no surprise when he was subbed at half time.

(British, informal, soccer) To replace (a player) with a substitute.

He was subbed on half way through the second half, and scored within minutes.

(British, informal, soccer, less common, often as "sub on") To bring on (a player) as a substitute.

(British) To perform the work of a subeditor or copy editor; to subedit.

I kept up the pleasantries as we were drying our hands and, realizing I didn't have any change for the lodger, I asked him, one drummer to another like, if he could sub me a quid for the dish.

2011, Rowland Rivron, What the F*** Did I Do Last Night?:

(UK, slang, transitive) To lend (a person) money.


dale

From Middle English dale, from Old English dæl, from Proto-West Germanic *dal, from Proto-Germanic *dalą.

And we will all the pleasures prove / That hills and valleys, dales and fields, / Woods, or steepy mountain yields

c. 1587, Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion, / Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, / Then reached the caverns measureless to man, / And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: [...]

1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 57:

The country about Nuncombe Putney is perhaps as pretty as any in England. It is beyond the river Teign, between that and Dartmoor, and is so lovely in all its variations of rivers, rivulets, broken ground, hills and dales, old broken, battered, time-worn timber, green knolls, rich pastures, and heathy common, that the wonder is that English lovers of scenery know so little of it.

1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “The Clock House at Nuncombe Putney”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 113:

Over hill, over dale / As we hit the dusty trail, / And those caissons go rolling along.

1908, Edmund Louis Gruber, The Caissons Go Rolling Along:

(chiefly British, slightly dated outside Yorkshire etc.) A valley, often in an otherwise hilly area.


patron

From Middle English patroun, patrone, from Old French patron, from Latin patrōnus, derived from pater (“father”). Doublet of padrone, Patronus, patroon, and pattern.

doublet

(UK, ecclesiastical) One who has gift and disposition of a benefice.


off

en-adj

off (comparative more off, superlative most off)

more off (comparative)
most off (superlative)

(older Received Pronunciation, General American) -ɔːf

From Middle English of, from Old English of, af, æf (“from, off, away”), from Proto-West Germanic *ab, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“from, off, back”). Doublet of of.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots of, af (“off, away”), West Frisian af, ôf (“off, away”), Dutch af (“off, from”), German Low German of (“off, from”), German ab (“off, from”), Danish af (“of, off”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish av (“of, off”), Icelandic af (“of, off”), Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af, “of, from”); and with Latin ab (“of, from, by”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from”), and others.

inh

This milk is off!

Denoting something faulty, unsatisfactory, objectionable etc.

The man and the horse came closer and were Sonny Jacobs of the Diamond Six and a smallish neat sorrel definitely favouring its off forefoot.

1963, Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, page 174:

The off front wheel came loose.

(British, in relation to a vehicle) On the side furthest from the kerb (the right-hand side if one drives on the left).


arse

Sranan Tongo: lasi

From Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Dutch aars and German Arsch), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃érsos (“backside, buttocks”) (according to Julius Pokorny and Carl Darling Buck).

could eat the arse out of a low flying duck

think the sun shines out of someone's arse

“You're an arse,” Ellen said. ¶ “Please? You must like something about me …?” ¶ “I do. You're an arse. I just told you that. I feel comfy with you, because you're such an arse.”

2007, Martin Harrison, The Judgement of Paris, page 282:

He looked at me, was just about to call me an arse, when I told him, “You throw it too hard. Try and think of the javelin hitting the target before you throw it. Let it all go through your mind first, see it, feel it, then throw it.” ¶ “Good advice, you arse,” he said and tried again.

2007, L. A. Wilson, The Silurian: Book One: The Fox and the Bear, page 103:

Felnigg. What a suppurating arse. Look at him. Arse.

2011, Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes, unnumbered page:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, slang) A stupid, pompous, arrogant, mean or despicable person.


rime

en-noun

rime (countable and uncountable, plural rimes)

The noun is derived from Middle English rim, rime, rym, ryme (“hoar frost; rime”), from Old English hrīm (“frost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrīm (“rime; hoar frost”), from Proto-Germanic *hrīmą (North Germanic), *hrīmaz, *hrīmô (“rime; hoar frost”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to graze, touch; to streak”).
The verb is derived from the noun. (The Old English equivalent, which did not survive into modern English, was behrīman.)
cognates
* Middle Dutch riim, rijm, rīm (modern Dutch rijm (“hoar frost”))
* Old Danish *rim (only in rimfrost (“rime frost”); modern Danish rim (“hoar frost”))
* Old French rime, rimee (Middle French rime, rimee (“hoar frost”), Anglo-Norman rime, rimee (“hoar frost”))
* Old High German rīm (Middle High German rīm, Bavarian Reim (“dew; fog; light frost”) (dialectal))
* Old Norse hrím (Icelandic hrím, Norwegian rim (“hoar frost”))
* Old Saxon hrīm
* Old Swedish *riim, *rim (only in rimfrost (“rime frost”); modern Swedish rim)
* West Frisian rime, rym

der

When Tommy and Elspeth reached the Den the mist lay so thick that they had to feel their way though it to the Ailie, where they found Gavinia alone and scared. […] "As sure as death," she said, "there was some living thing standing there; I couldna see it for the rime, but I heard it breathing hard."

1896, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “End of the Jacobite Rising”, in Sentimental Tommy: The Story of His Boyhood, London, Paris: Cassell and Company […], →OCLC, page 341:


boilerplate

en-noun

boilerplate (countable and uncountable, plural boilerplates)

The Star (1788)
boilerplate
boilerplate (spaceflight)

From boiler + plate. First use appears c. 1793 in the periodical Star.

(UK) The rating plate or nameplate required to be affixed to a boiler by the Boiler Explosions Act (1882).


keg

en-verb

keg (third-person singular simple present kegs, present participle kegging, simple past and past participle kegged)

kegs (present singular third-person)
kegging (participle present)
kegged (participle past)
kegged (past)

dated, New England, Virginia, South Carolina

From Middle English kag, from Old Norse kaggi (“keg”), likely a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *kagô (“bush, branch, stalk, stump”). Cognate with Icelandic kaggi (“keg; cask”), Norwegian kagg (“keg”), Swedish kagge (“keg”), Low German kag (“vessel; craft”), Dutch kaag (“vessel; craft”). Compare also English cag and chag.
The modern form keg with /ɛ/ is due to a dialectal raising of /a///æ/ to /ɛ/ before velars (cf. fleg); the expected form is preserved in dialectal /kæɡ/, while /keɪɡ/ reflects further raising that occurred in some dialects.

der

(UK) The pulling down of someone's trousers or kegs, oftentimes as a kind of bullying or prank.


gong

This grooming of the national mindset explains the retention of 92 "hereditary peers" in the House of Lords: individuals who are gifted a right to sit in the nation's upper chamber and facilitate laws for no other reason than that their ancestor was the illegitimate child of some prince, or willing to spaff a few quid on the title when David Lloyd Gorge was selling of gongs for bribes.

2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 114:

(British, slang) A medal or award, particularly Knight Bachelor..


gong

en-verb

gong (third-person singular simple present gongs, present participle gonging, simple past and past participle gonged)

gongs (present singular third-person)
gonging (participle present)
gonged (participle past)
gonged (past)

In 1972 he was awarded the British Red Cross Silver Medal for his services to the Red Cross. In 1978 he was 'gonged' once again, this time with the Queen's Jubilee Medal, marking the 25th year of her reign.

1997, Peter Stone, The Lady and the President, page 147:

(British, slang, transitive) To give an award or medal to.


bugger

From Middle English bougre (“heretic”), from Old French bougre, from Medieval Latin Bulgarus (“Bulgar”), from Old Church Slavonic блъгаринъ (blŭgarinŭ, “Bulgarian”), used in designation of heretics (especially the Bogomils, who arose around the 10th century AD in the First Bulgarian Empire), to whom various sexual practices such as anal sex were ascribed. Doublet of Bulgar.

der

The British Sexual Offences Act of 1967 is a buggers’ charter.

(UK law) Someone who commits buggery; a sodomite.

male homosexual and Thesaurus:fudge packer

What is that little bugger up to now?

(slang, UK, US) A whippersnapper, a tyke.


bugger

Bugger, I've missed the bus.

Dear Lord, forgive me for what I am about to, ah, say in this magnificent place of worship. Bugger. Bugger! Bugger-bugger-bugger-bugger!

1994, Richard Curtis, Four Weddings and a Funeral, spoken by Charles (Hugh Grant):

(slang, British, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar) An expression of annoyance or displeasure.