Taking the piss (was: teenager doing accents)

[Paul Frank]

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Damien Hall <djh514 at york.ac.uk> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Damien Hall <djh514 at YORK.AC.UK>
> Subject:      Taking the piss (was: teenager doing accents)
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>
> To me (BrE, born mid-'70s), _take the piss_ doesn't necessarily have the
> element of the victim not knowing he's been mocked. It's perfectly possible
> to take the piss out of someone to their face (and equally behind their
> back). In fact, the first time I encountered the phrase (I ran away soon
> after) I was asked whether I was taking the piss by someone whose jump on
> his bike I had applauded while standing by him with no other audience - so
> clearly not behind his back, as there was no-one else to benefit from the
> supposed piss-take. (I hadn't been, but thought it better not to argue the
> point.)

I heard the expression and used it myself thousands of times in the
1980s and 1990s in the UK and speaking with Brits in Hong Kong, India
and many other places. My impression was that a successful pisstake
was done to someone's face but with sufficient subtlety that the
victim didn't know he was having the piss taken. The piss is best
taken with a straight face, to someone's face. But maybe I'm wrong.
I'm not British.

Paul

Paul Frank
Translator
German, French, Italian > English
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 77 4096132
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
paul.frank at bfs.admin.ch

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