It's genuinely incredible how diverse our world is – but what's particularly impressive is the number of stunning languages it carries. To be somewhat precise, around 6,500 languages are currently spoken by folks globally, as well as an uncountable amount of accents and dialects. Every language has its own set of slang words and sayings that might make no sense to other people yet are perfectly straightforward to those who're used to using them. After all, who knew that "Bob's your uncle" could ever become a way of saying "and there you have it", though the origin of the phrase is quite amusing.
Speaking about British slang and sayings, an online user shared a now-viral Tweet stating how she wishes she were British just so that she could describe everything as "absolutely mental". The post ended up receiving nearly 100K likes and even encouraged fellow non-Brits to share their favorite slang words that they wish to use in their everyday conversations.
More info: Twitter
Image source: GiuliaRozzi
This post may include affiliate links.
No fraudulence at all ; the phrase ' Bloody Hell, you really are rubbish at that' can be used in many situations from driving, to golf to lovemaking ......
According to the definition of the word "slang", it is basically a language that is made up of words and sayings that are considered to be very informal and are not a part of the standard vocabulary. To describe it in a simpler way, slang words are usually those very rich metaphors that essentially add extra color to our everyday conversations.
Whenever one decides to learn a new language, slang tends to be the hardest aspect to grasp in the entire process, as all the words are typically quite unique and more often than not, nobody really knows where the term or phrase came from.
It's fascinating how the slang world constantly changes and never stays in one place. Each century, decade and year, our society comes up with brand new meanings for different words and actions, or even creates something totally new. People constantly come up with things to express themselves in a more creative manner and it's truly brilliant.
For all one knows, these days the number one source for all kinds of innovative and even sometimes artistic slang words would be everybody's favorite – the internet. The web is full of insanely talented people, and it's not surprising that once in a while we get a little something that we could add to our slang jar.
Moreover, in the space of a year, Oxford Online Dictionaries adds roughly 1000 words to our what seems like infinite vocabulary list. It's fascinating how new expressions come around because of music, politics, films, and most importantly, all sorts of things that happened to earn the title of a meme. We adopt those words into our daily conversations without even realizing that the word didn't exist a few months ago.
However, our cultural lexicon never stays the same and that's the true beauty of any language, even if we end up embarrassing our future selves when remembering how often we said "yas, queen" in 2019.
What's also quite thought-provoking is that slang is somewhat similar to what we call "offensive" language. Profanity has existed for centuries or even thousands of years, and the vocabulary for this kind of language also tends to grow, definitely not as rapidly as slang does, but still.
Slang is mostly forbidden from any serious literature and films, just like profanity is, and it essentially shows us that humanity craves and requires more ways that could potentially help folks to express themselves in a more vibrant manner.
Anyhow, British slang tends to satisfy people, whether it's the words themselves or the accent that enunciates the absurdity of some sayings that makes it all sound so exciting and entertaining. For instance, the previously mentioned "Bob's your uncle" has such an amusing history that it makes you want to adopt the phrase forever.
The thing is, in 1887, British prime minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil appointed his nephew Arthur James Balfour as Minister for Ireland, and the phrase originated when the nephew addressed the prime minister as "Uncle Bob", which is why the saying began to be used to describe something that could be done very easily.
In which case, you would be chuffed to say aluminium (with the pronounced 'i')
Bit of a pickle is an ironic military term for when everything is going tits up and one might need to get one's a**e out of there sharpish .....
Ultimately, it's pretty obvious that slang helps people to express their thoughts and is essentially just a very fun twist for any language to have. Just imagine what kind of words the English language will have in 50 years' time – do you think things will still be absolutely mental?
Must be a young persons thing ; us oldies have been wankered, wasted, totalled, tired and confused (that's a toff politicians excuse), trolleyed, pissed, lathered and full to the eyeballs.......
Fact: Wank is a town in Germany. Now imagine an alternate universe where it is the capital of Germany. Now think of John F. Kennedy in said universe.
Oh dear, you are going to have a massive shock if you ever get over to this sceptered isle ..... probably thinks we all wear bowler hats to work and have afternoon tea every day ....
No thanks... I think it would be more engaging to watch paint dry...
The problem I have found with Americans trying to do British, is that they often get the context wrong and they always get the pronunciation wrong, so it falls flat. I lived in the USA for over 22 years and on a daily basis, I would be confronted with an American who tried to emulate my British accent and share what they thought were British slang words/colloquialisms. Bloody nightmare!!
"Bob's your uncle" and "It's all gone t1ts up" are some of my favorites.
The problem I have found with Americans trying to do British, is that they often get the context wrong and they always get the pronunciation wrong, so it falls flat. I lived in the USA for over 22 years and on a daily basis, I would be confronted with an American who tried to emulate my British accent and share what they thought were British slang words/colloquialisms. Bloody nightmare!!
"Bob's your uncle" and "It's all gone t1ts up" are some of my favorites.
