this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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British Problems
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Yeah, well, y'all'rn't doin' anything interesting with it, so we made it better.
"Had to have it simplified because we're a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic"
Yeah, well. Listen, we might need it simplified, but we make up for it by constantly adding to our vocabulary. Quantity over quality, as they say. Just like everything else in this country.
Fair point about interesting, I will say the variety of different American slangs and vernaculars are bordering on being classed as distinct dialects which is fascinating. Not to mention niche culture terms like "based" becoming mainstream amongst the Anglosphere.
Which is one of the things, biased as I am about my native language, I like about English: it will accept any commonly spoken enough words into the dictionary.
So in that respect, I propose an exchange of terms that I think Americans might enjoy using:
"Naff" - lacking in style or good taste: vulgar and unfashionable. I think this would be great due to the distinct difference in the 'AA' vowl that would be delightful in a southern drawl. It originally came from Polari and Carnival Speak and has fallen out of fashion (ironically) but I think could see a new lease of life on your continent.
"Mithering" - To make an unnecessary fuss or moan. Since I've seen a lot of clips from Game Of Thrones around Americans liking the use of "Whinging" over "Whining" I think y'all would like an alternative to "Bothering".
"Bodge / Bodged" - to do something clumsily or quickly as a temporary measure. I think this one would be excellent as an alternative to "Jerry-rig / Jerry-rigged". Especially as an enjoyer of high-quality "Redneck-engineering" which I occasionally come across on my feeds. Because there's an art to throwing something together with what you have around you based on experience and guesswork that somehow just works beautifully right when you need it to.
Especially with America's history of large and successful inventions spawning from garages much like in the UK coming from small garden sheds all starting from barely-working prototypes.
It's funny you've mentioned this, because I've also heard that American tourists have a reputation for not only enjoying queues like y'all in the UK, but will also form queues where one doesn't exist. I fully believe this too, because I don't think I've ever seen Americans form a mob except when we're protesting, rioting, or it's Black Friday. Otherwise, people will just automatically form lines. They'll even join lines when they have no idea what the line is for. I honestly question whether queues are even necessary in this country because we seem to just do it automatically lol.
Anyway, as for the slang terms,
I like "Mithering".
"Naff" - may be a bit difficult to adapt; something about it feels off in my mouth. It'd probably end up mangled if adopted.
"Bodge"/"Bodged" - I think this is where the term "botch-job" came from, which refers to something thrown together sloppily or carelessly in the US. As such, it'd have to buck its reputation first. Otherwise it'd probably be pretty popular as a "classy" way of saying "jerry-rigged" (basically anything from the UK tends to be viewed as being "classy" in the US, except for when it isn't; don't ask me why, I don't know lol).