The Onion on U.K. slang

[Chris F Waigl]

Joel S. Berson wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: The Onion on U.K. slang
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>>
>>
I took "chicken oriental" als rhyming slang for "mental". Have heard
this with "chicken" only in the under-15 crowd (in London).

Chris Waigl

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