From my trip to London and English movies I have seen:
'ere (here) - used to begin almost every sentence.
'ello (hello) - obviously a greeting, but used more for surprise or in a slightly leering fashion.
mumsie
milkified
bird
bloke
geezer - just means "man," not "old man," as in North America.
clobber - raincoat
me - often substituted for 'my.'
proper - it means the same thing as in America, they just use it more often where we would use other words (correct, real, etc.)
playing a fiddle - stealing money or supplies systematically from an employer.
cloth ears - used for someone who isn't listening.
bleedin' - an overused intesifying adjective that is not used in polite society, but I am not sure if it is a swear word or just 'common' - or somewhat in between.
[plus a whole bunch of other expressions I can't repeat]
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3 comments:
Hehehe...I like "milkified." I believe "bloody" is a swear word in England, so I would imagine "bleedin" is along those lines also. Yet, they use the f-word like it's going out of style!
I've heard some people say that "bloody" is a slang expression that came from "By Our Lady". I have no idea if it actually is, though...
Whatever it's origins, it is only identified as an "intensifier" in the dictionary - and I doubt it would have appeared in a movie of this era (Alfie - 1966) if it were a bona fide swear word like the f-word. I think it is more a "common word" which wasn't considered "proper."
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