The Onion on U.K. slang

[Michael Quinion]

> Would someone on the other side of the pond be so kind as to translate the
> slang terms in the item below.

Gordon Bennett, squire, that's a tough 'un! There's a bit of a mixture of
slang there, not all British and I don't recognise all of it.

> LONDON-The nightly Ten O'Clock News program on Great Britain's BBC One
> channel upgraded a minor flap in Parliament's House of Lords to an all-out
> row Tuesday after Conservative Party leader Thomas Galbraith, 2nd Baron
> Strathclyde, told the Lord Speaker to sod off. "The fortnight-old handbags
> suddenly exploded into a proper barney when Lord Strathclyde had an eppy
> and called Baroness Hayman a 'dozy slag' and then buggered off for a Jack
> Dash in the bog," BBC political correspondent Basil Islington said.
> "Needless to say, the other geezers went chicken oriental." The BBC said if
> the tossers don't jam their tarts by late afto, they will be forced to
> classify the bull and cow as a paddy, though they haven't ruled out the
> possibility of a total fucking pagger.

sod off = please go away (but more strongly expressed)
handbag = no idea
barney = a noisy quarrel
eppy = episode
dozy = sluggish and stupid
slag = a promiscuous woman
buggered off = went away
Jack Dash = I assume rhyming slang -> slash -> urination
bog = toilet, loo, bathroom, restroom ...
geezers = men
chicken oriental = no idea
tosser = masturbator
jam their tarts = Australian slang for fart (I think)
afto = Australian slang for afternoon (I think)
bull and cow = row
paddy =  a fit of temper (from paddywhack)
pagger = Scots slang for a fight


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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