Is there anything cuter than the British version of the English language? I’m reading a novel by a British writer and he uses the following beautiful turn of phrase, “fine words would butter no parsnips.” How delightful is this? This great expression really buttered my parsnips.
16 responses to “British English”
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I’ve never eaten a parsnip before, but that is a delightful turn-of-phrase! I’m positively chuffed by it. 🙂
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Oftentimes when you read books written in a dialect of English that’s not your own you find similar phrases and differences. One that seems obvious to me is that some British books often to use single quotes where others use double quotes.
You also get differences in vocabulary. If you read The Lord of the Rings you’ll see that the term fag[got] is used to refer to a kind of wooden kindling, without any pejorative connotation in it. You can make jokes/puns out of words like that if you like:)
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I once went to a conference at which a non-native speaker of English was discussing the fuel-sense of faggot, and commented that it was really hard to search for pictures on the internet, but that they had learnt a new Americanism…
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Not British English, but how fun and disturbing it is to discover that a character in a XIXth century novel can ejaculate words.
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Ha! I had the fun and disturbing experience of being a child reading those novels, and becoming familiar with that sense of the word “ejaculate” before I learned about the other sense. Now I have a completely different mental image when I see that usage …
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I also learned the non-sexual usage of ejaculate first. This is what happens to people who grow up on XIXth century English lit.
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“Biggles Takes It Rough” has to be the best titled Biggles book, though I bet if it is reissued the name gets changed
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“Ejaculate” is occasionally used this way in the Sherlock Holmes novels.
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“You also get differences in vocabulary. If you read The Lord of the Rings you’ll see that the term fag[got] is used to refer to a kind of wooden kindling, without any pejorative connotation in it. You can make jokes/puns out of words like that if you like:)”
The LotR uses some words which were obsolete or archaic when Tolkien wrote it, some of which have been revived as a consequence, for example “fell” as an adjective meaning “evil”.
The word “faggot” in British English can refer to bundles of thin sticks bound together for use as kindling, but this is rare these days. It’s more commonly used to refer to a type of food. A “fag” is commonly a cigarette. To “bum a fag” is to ask for a cigarette, despite the fact that “bum” in British English refers to the buttocks, and we all know the other meaning of “fag”. A “fag” can also be a junior schoolboy in his role as a servant to a senior in some schools.
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Fag is also used descriptively for something that is a dreary nuisance; e.g. getting across London in the rush hour is a terrible fag.
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I still find it hard not to say “flat” and “bloke” because I originally learned the British version of English. Had a beautiful British pronunciation, too.
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Faggots are a type of English and/or Welsh meatball made mainly from the bits of an animal which nobody would otherwise want to eat;
Or, Faggots are bundles of twigs which can be used to light November 5th bonfires, on which we Brits burn effigies of a Roman catholic called Guy Fawkes who failed to commit regicide, 400 years ago. Ain’t we cute, and quaint? (N.B. we HATE being described as cute/quaint..!)LikeLike
A conservative literary critic and college professor
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