British/Scottish/Irish Slang

[grumpy cat]

okay, so after a very awkward search history today (lets not talk about it) i thought it might be a good idea to have a thread for slang words and since most of us write about HP i made the thread for british/scottish/irish slang but obviously, if it's needed the mods can change this into general slang and we can include american slang as well (i suspect it differs wildly between different regions so...). characters don't always talk in proper english and including some slang here and there might be a good idea. i think. (might be wrong).

write the currently popular slang words and their meaning and those of us who aren't familiar with some slang words and want to know them can post here and ask for someone to suggest some slang words. (like...do people actually call girls birds?)

[MrsDarcy]

this is a list of slang words I personally use or think are cool 

british slang (M)

I'm not a brit, or english for that matter, so if I've made some mistakes, feel free to poke me 

 

[beyond the rain]

Just popping in to say some of those are so posh/outdated that I've never heard of them

I also have a thing against chav - it actually stands for council house and violent, it was created by a conservative politician and is used in a derogatory way against the working class. I'm not saying it shouldn't be on the list, it's v important british slang, but it's pretty specific in its meaning. 

 

I would also say ive heard more "mad as a box of frogs" rather than bag of ferrets, but again that's upper class/empire era slang so I don't know much about it. Just that you'd use that phrase affectionately rather than negative. Like it's another way of calling them eccentric!  

 

 

I also think sot it should be sod it? But im not sure.  

Thank you for creating this list!!

I'd love to create a separate list of northern english slang but idk how much need/use there is for it

[MrsDarcy]

23 minutes ago, beyond the rain said:

Just popping in to say some of those are so posh/outdated that I've never heard of them

I also have a thing against chav - it actually stands for council house and violent, it was created by a conservative politician and is used in a derogatory way against the working class. I'm not saying it shouldn't be on the list, it's v important british slang, but it's pretty specific in its meaning. 

 

I would also say ive heard more "mad as a box of frogs" rather than bag of ferrets, but again that's upper class/empire era slang so I don't know much about it. Just that you'd use that phrase affectionately rather than negative. Like it's another way of calling them eccentric!  

 

 

I also think sot it should be sod it? But im not sure.  

Thank you for creating this list!!

I'd love to create a separate list of northern english slang but idk how much need/use there is for it

ah thanks, I'll make some changes then  like I said, not british here, and I have really no clue which ones are outdated, but I mostly use them in a 70s or 90s setting ^^ 

and I'd love a list on northern english slang btw. 

[dirigibleplums]

british slang differs by region and arguably socioeconomic factors i'd say. an upper class person is unlikely to say peng*, for example, just as a non-upper class person doesn't really use 'jolly' outside of describing santa claus (fellow brits, do people actually use the word jolly? because literally no one i know uses it?)

*good-looking (if talking about a person) or appealing (if talking about something else)

some slang terms off the top of my head:

- "alright?/alright mate?" = greeting

- "can't be arsed" = can't be bothered

- cheeky

- "knackered" = tired

- "fit" - good looking 

- as was mentioned, chav is a derogatory word that's often used against working class people, especially if they live on estates. similar words include "scally", "yob" and "roadman"** that paint a picture of disruptive, loud members of the youth.

**the aforementioned "peng" is associated with language that so-called "roadmen" use. there's a whole other lexicon there if anyone's interested haha

On 3/10/2019 at 3:45 PM, starbuck said:

(like...do people actually call girls birds?)

yup some people actually do e.g. "my bird's at home with the kids." also i remember there was this one time where some local guys used to coo like a bird if they thought you were pretty. cat-calling at its finest really

[grumpy cat]

sooo how about some scottish slang or just words that people may throw into a convo? i'm writing oliver wood right now and idk if there's anything that he'd be inclined to say. in most oliver/oc fics i've read he was written as saying 'love' a lot (alright, love? or something along those lines). is that a...scottish thing? idk i'm lost. is 'wee' an irish thing? (i watched all of derry girls and wee is the best word there is lol)

[Archer Rose]

4 hours ago, grumpy cat said:

sooo how about some scottish slang or just words that people may throw into a convo? i'm writing oliver wood right now and idk if there's anything that he'd be inclined to say. in most oliver/oc fics i've read he was written as saying 'love' a lot (alright, love? or something along those lines). is that a...scottish thing? idk i'm lost. is 'wee' an irish thing? (i watched all of derry girls and wee is the best word there is lol)

@something wicked is ya girl for this.

deni says wee like all the time so I'm assuming it's pretty Scottish. 

Alright, love? seems a bit more northern english greeting though we do say that down south. I think northerners are more friendly in general so more likely to use terms of endearment to strangers. 

[something wicked]

16 hours ago, grumpy cat said:

sooo how about some scottish slang or just words that people may throw into a convo? i'm writing oliver wood right now and idk if there's anything that he'd be inclined to say. in most oliver/oc fics i've read he was written as saying 'love' a lot (alright, love? or something along those lines). is that a...scottish thing? idk i'm lost. is 'wee' an irish thing? (i watched all of derry girls and wee is the best word there is lol)

love is pretty common, yeah. “Hen” is used in largely the same way (like as in “alright, hen?”) though maybe by people a wee bit older.

Wee (as demonstrated accidentally in the last sentence @Crimson Quill I feel called out here)  is also just part of the vocab here, and yes we say it for things that aren’t even that small a la Derry Girls (this is probably not the worst starting reference for the slang if you've seen it tbh because West of Scotland slang and Northern Irish can be pretty similar at times.).

for everyday vocab theres the standard “cannae” instead of “cant”, “wee” for “small”, “aye” for “ yes”, “dinnae” for “don’t”, “Na” or “naw” for “no” and then depending on how Scottish you want to go there are obviously more but that‘s a couple to get you started. also just in general we swear a lot, like everyone swears a lot and for things that aren’t even worth swearing for, it’s just vocab. with that in mind the phrase “get tae f***” or just “get tae” is pretty common. basically just means get lost or to f*** off or maybe that you just don’t believe something. It can be positive or negative depending on context etc but it’s definitely used multiple times a day by like everyone I know so worth keeping in mind

if I think of any more once my brain has woken up then I’ll give you a shout and I’ve you need anything specific then ask me! Always happy to look over stuff if needed too, I’ve done it for @Chemical_Pixie before so it’s no problem 

[MrsDarcy]

18 hours ago, grumpy cat said:

sooo how about some scottish slang or just words that people may throw into a convo?

All I know is that bonnie lass means pretty girl

anyways, check this out:

scottie translator

it's hilarious - the Jolly Well Spoken translator is, like, the best, sometimes it even adds a sentence  just keep in mind that's it over-the-top, but maybe a good source of inspiration 

[mydearfoxy]

On 3/15/2019 at 1:45 PM, beyond the rain said:

Just popping in to say some of those are so posh/outdated that I've never heard of them

I know this would be a huge project, but I would ADORE a resource for British/Irish/Scottish/Welsh slang separated by decade. Because Mauraders  

[Guest pookha]

Does anyone say 'pulling birds' any more or just 'on the pull?'

[Margaret]

To be honest, when writing Irish-speak, it's more the sentence structure than the actual words that is likely to be the difficulty. At least, that is what I tend to notice when reading Irish characters that aren't written by Irish authors. We do sometimes directly translate from Irish, so we speak English, but with the sentence structure of Irish. But then some authors do it WAY too much and it sounds forced.

The most obvious example of what I am talking about is, "I'm after doing..." which means the same as "I have done," only a little less formal. "Oh no, I'm after forgetting my keys," for example. A response that would also include Irish speak would be, "ah, sure, I've a key here." (But please do not use the Irish "sure" unless you know how to use it. It isn't necessary. "Don't worry. I've a key here" would work equally well and using it incorrectly really stands out and sometimes makes nonsense of sentences.)

We also regularly drop the "to" in stuff like "allowed to." Like "I'm not allowed play Quidditch until I've done my homework." That's not really important though, as "I'm not allowed to play Quidditch" might be a little less common but wouldn't stand out as in any way wrong.

Another direct translation is "safe home." It means like "safe journey home," but in Irish, the same word means "goodbye" and "safe" so it is sort of a play on words that the English translation loses. It is, however, quite common to say "safe home now" when somebody is leaving.

We also use the word "ye" (rhymes with "we" and "he") as the plural of "you." In Dublin, they say "yous" instead.

Oh, a "yoke" is anything you can't think of the name of. "What's that yoke over there?" And "your man" or "your one" is anybody you can't think of the name of. "What's your man's name again? You know the fellow. Lives next door to..."

[something wicked]

On 11/14/2019 at 11:20 PM, pookha said:

Does anyone say 'pulling birds' any more or just 'on the pull?'

yes but its rare. 'on the pull' is a lot more common or maybe saying you've 'pulled that bird' but its more used in past tense and even then it's rare. 

[Guest pookha]

Thanks. I thought it sounded outdated to me