The Onion on U.K. slang

[Joel S. Berson]

Heartfelt thanks to Michael Quinion.  Perhaps:

handbags = old ladies, derogatorily applied to the members of
Lords?  Medical slang has "Handbag positive - confused patient
(usually elderly lady) lying on hospital bed clutching handbag".

But I don't know how "fortnight-old" fits (= immature and
ignorant?  or = old and stale?). I find via Googling with "slang" a
hint of Australian slang origin or use:

http://www.nfsa.afc.gov.au/docs/photoplayartiste_reel5.pdf, from
1919: "N.S.W. He was only a fortnight old when he. made his first
appearance."  (If he is a stage performer, he surely can't be
literally 14 days old.  But I haven't tried to pull out the context
from the PDF.)

Joel

At 11/19/2007 02:38 PM, you wrote:
> > 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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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