British Slang Quiz

British Slang Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Prattish?

The following is not a multiple-choice test with a scoring system and a certificate. It is a guided encounter with British slang designed to establish whether you can operate in British English at the level of the initiated or whether you will continue to describe the lavatory as the bathroom and wonder why people look at you slightly differently. Both outcomes are fine. Only one of them is funny.

Preliminary Assessment: The Essentials

If someone describes your plan as a bit dodgy, they mean: (a) it has been checked for compliance and found satisfactory; (b) it is of questionable legality, reliability, or wisdom; (c) it involves a dog. The answer is (b), and the degree to which this is obvious to you determines whether you have been in Britain long enough for the slang to have settled. The OED defines dodgy as dishonest or unreliable, but the British usage extends considerably further into the general territory of anything that might turn out to be a mistake, which is a much larger territory.

If someone tells you they are absolutely gutted, they mean: (a) they have recently undergone abdominal surgery; (b) they are extremely disappointed about something; (c) they are describing the state of the fish they are preparing. The answer is (b). Gutted in British English means devastated, the gutting being a metaphor for the hollowing-out quality of genuine disappointment. It is used for situations ranging from mild inconvenience to genuine loss, which is the British calibration problem in miniature.

Intermediate Level: Contextual Competence

What does it mean when a British person says something is proper mint? Mint, in British slang (primarily northern), means excellent, first-rate, desirable. Proper functions as an intensifier meaning genuinely or thoroughly. Proper mint therefore means genuinely excellent, with the specific quality of mint suggesting both freshness and pleasantness. This is not related to the herb or the currency, and explaining this to someone who has just used the phrase will cause them to look at you in a way that is also informative.

If someone says they will be with you in a mo, how long should you wait? A mo is a moment, from the contraction of moment that entered British English in the nineteenth century. The actual duration implied is between thirty seconds and five minutes, with the specific duration negotiated by the tone of the delivery and the context. If the mo is delivered with urgency, it implies less time. If it is delivered with the slight distraction of someone dealing with something else, it implies more. This is British time-keeping in its most concentrated form. Collins Dictionary is useful for checking the formal definitions once you have worked out the informal ones.

Advanced Level: The Regional Specialist

What is a bairn and where would you use the word? A bairn is a child, used in northern English and Scottish dialects, from the Old English bearn. Using it in London will produce polite confusion. Using it in Newcastle will produce warm recognition and the implicit approval of someone who has correctly identified where you are and respected the linguistic choice accordingly.

What does it mean to be mithered in Yorkshire? To be mithered is to be pestered, bothered, or worried – the word covers both the external pressure applied by another person and the internal state produced by that pressure. A Yorkshire person who says they are mithered about something is expressing concerned preoccupation. A Yorkshire person who says they are mithering someone is expressing that they are applying concerned preoccupation to them, possibly against their wishes.

Expert Level: The Rhyming Slang Section

What does dog mean when used in the phrase on the dog? On the dog and bone means on the telephone. On the dog, having dropped the rhyming element, means the same thing. If you knew this, you are either from the East End, have watched an improbable amount of British television, or have read the rhyming slang section of this website, which would mean the slang section is doing its job.

If someone tells you they are having a bubble, what are they doing? They are having a laugh – from bubble and squeak, meaning cheek, which by a further linguistic step produces the sense of having a laugh at someone’s expense, the cheek of the thing being the relevant quality. This is rhyming slang at its most operationally complex, requiring the decoder to follow two separate steps of association. The fact that this is normal is itself the most British thing about British slang. The Museum of London’s language collection documents the history of London speech for those wishing to pursue the rabbit hole further.