Continuing the discussion from Did I muck up my settings?:
I cannot find that in the dictionary. Is this a local term ?
The closest I find is:
Fubbery - n. 1. Cheating; deception.
And I am aware of the acronym for the WWII slang.
SO, the question for the bar today is, … what other colorful local terms are there in your area, for something being messed up ?
I use “mung” a lot (Mung Until No Good). According to Wiktionary: “To make repeated changes to a file or data which individually may be reversible, yet which ultimately result in an unintentional irreversible destruction of large portions of the original data.” This applies to several of the legacy systems where I work.
Could be that Rick meant to say “fubared,” which I presume would be the past participle of “fubar.” As you may know, FUBAR is an acronym that originated in the WWII era, meaning “fouled up beyond all recognition” (except “fouled” was not the original word used).
-Gully
Yup, they used it often in Memphis Belle (the movie,) and had a little dialogue exchange of one character explaining the meaning to a “less enlightened” character.
… back on subject, I have been watching the asian swing of the LPGA these past few weeks, and they have English and Aussie announcers.
They have been using quite a few terms we do not use in the states for when a player messes up.
Like, “knackered”, “going pear-shaped” …
… and one guy even slipped and used “tits up” during the 1st day in Malaysia at the KLGCC. (At least I thought that’s what he said. Haven’t heard them use that term since. In the states he’d be the victim of a public “hatchet campaign” and would likely be out of a job already.)
Many times I have had to translate both ways between brits and yanks.
As a motor head in middle and through high school we would hang the term FORD on anything. That didn’t
" cut it " or was lets say, like a diamond in a goats ars.
My son-in-law says something is “borked”, which evidently derives from the mess when Robert Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court.
*In my local dialect [Geordie] ==bad/good:
*Canny == good / nice / very [e.g. canny good]
*Class == a very good thing
*Belta == an even better than Class thing
*Bonny == good looking / nice [any gender or age - e.g. bonny lad, bonny lass]
*Geet Lush == very good looking [esp. a woman]
*Dunch == to bump and break
*Divvin == don’t [do something]
*Geet Walla / Howfing / Muckle == very big
*Radge / Radgie == bad temper or a bad-tempered Chava
Chava == ne’r-do-well [low-class] male, often a teenager - now used as ‘chav’ in rest of UK
Gadgie == an old man
*Haddaway == go away [I don’t believe you]
*Haddaway and Shite == ditto with added insult
*Howay [Man]! == en-/dis-couraging expletive - used either way [note how ‘Man’ is used for any person, of any gender or age]
*How Man! == be warned, your actions will have dire consequences [a threat]
*Aareet? == are you alright?
*Wey Aye [Man]! == of course / I agree
Yem / Hyem == home
Hoy == to throw
Stott == to throw and hit something
*Clamming == in desperate need of help or food
*Set-a-had == to set on fire
*Hacky == dirty [Hacky-lazy == very lazy, giving a Hacky look == looking at critically/angrily]
*Clarts / Clarty == muddy [or shite]
*Doylem == a fool with no common sense
*Micey == going mad
*Workeyticket == someone who is very annoying / vexing
*Up A Height == to be very upset [emotionally]
*Had Ya Pash! == be patient [lit. hod onto your patience]
*Get Wrang == to get into trouble with your parent or someone in authority over you [==wrong]
Nebb / Nebby == nosy / asking too many questions [e.g. nebby bugga == a nosy person (bugger)]
*Wazzock == an imbecile or buffoon
*Fettle == various idioms. e.g. - in a fettle == bad mood, out of fettle == unwell, canny fettle == well, to fettle xxx == to sort out someone [xxx] - as in resolving an argument with violence
*Bobby Dazzla == someone who looks good, or thinks that they do!
*Paggered == [to be] exhausted
*Proppa == very significant, also used as ‘really’
Shooting And Bawling == arguing with someone [shouting]
Gan / Gannin == to go / be going [somewhere]
*Galky == slow witted
*Gowk == a fool / a cuckoo / an apple-core
*Mingin == disgusting or smelly
*Nowt / Noot == nothing
*Nobbut == nothing but
Tret / Tretten == treated
Wor == [pron. wuh] own/mine as in wor lass - my wife, or me/us as in, ya gannin wi wor? - are you coming with me/us
Wot Cheor == Hello
Wot Fettle? == How are you - response, canny fettle! [well]
*Ket == rubbish or offal
Kets == sweets/candy - usually for children, and thought of as not good for you!
But do you know who gilligan is?
You do realize that “Geordie Shore” is NOT reality ! [like Gilligan’s Island…]
And the Australian surfing slang for ‘idiot’ seems somewhat disconnected ?
Surely a what? rather than a who?
Gilligan is without a doubt a who.
As for the surfer idiot slang you might need to give me a search filter for the specific one you have been bombarded with.
Slang when at home is extremely local specific.
I am confused…
Easy done !
Your question has insufficient anchors…
So here are some random thoughts…
Gilligan’s Backpackers Hostel in Cairns Aus. has been unfavorably compared to the soap-opera ‘Geordie-Shore’… But that’s a what not a who?
Peter Gilligan is a Geordie keyboard player… A who ?
Gilligan [a who] - the ‘steward’ [or first mate] off the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ TV series was played by Bob Denver [a who].
There is much debate about his actual name - is it a surname or first name etc, or even Gil Egan, Willy etc - but somewhat like Lt Columbo or Dr Quincy he was never fully named…
Then oddly at the end of ‘A Very Brady Sequel’ [the Brady Bunch were also created by Schwartz], Dr Whitehead says his son Gilligan was the steward on the same boat on which Carol Brady’s first professor husband disappeared [strongly hinting at it being the ‘SS Minnow’]…
So it could be ‘Gilligan Whitehead’ ?
One of the most erudite examples of lost in translation.
Ask a Brit who Gilligan is and they think, question and search google.
Ask a Yank and they automatically start singing the theme tune, picture the island and see Alan Hale jr hit Bob Denver over the head with his Capt’ cap.
Australians grew up with TV imports from UK and US so we know and understand both. It’s much harder for people in a large demographic to be influenced by another large demographic. Whereas a small one can absorb bit from many.
Take it out of the English language and you’ll see what I mean. Germany with 80 million people is a big enough audience for film makers and TV producers to Dub the films and series.
Finland on the other hand has a smaller audience and so gets much of it’s international film and television in English (or other) with subtitles. Many a film I have watched in Finland with 3 sets of subtitles.
So back to the point of this thread, slang is different everywhere and very very local. True understanding only comes with understanding the culture that uses it.
If we are to go too deep…
Language is metaphor.
Slang is a subset of a language.
Jargon is technical slang.
Technical terms are just slang used by the erudite.
Dialect is a way of speaking that may or may not include slang,
Slang is often used by sub-groups to preserve their identity or secrets.
There is no right or wrong way of pronouncing, saying, phrasing or spelling something.
However, agreed norms that are shared by many people make communication less obtuse or prone to confusion.
So two Geordie gas-fitters get along just fine together speaking the broadest dialect, but when they try to communicate with a Cockney they need to both adjust there approach so they have a shared basis of language.
A dictionary tells you [or at least it should] how people spell things - not how they ought to spell things - hence color v. colour etc.
Over time all words’ meanings change - some fall out of use [aka archaic], whilst others become mainstream dictionary entries.
So the back-slang of the 19th c. gutter ‘yobo’ [literally ‘a boy’ said backwards] became ‘yob’ in mainstream 20th c. UK English, with a slightly different meaning of a ne’r-do-well young man, probably with oafish or violent tendencies.
And no one now says someone is a ‘jackanapes’, unless they are in a Shakespeare play!
The word ‘nice’ has had many meanings over the centuries, its current one is not that old…
When a Geordie says he is ‘gannin hyem’ [going home], and it’s likely to be better understood by a German or Dane as it shares some common word use [gang, hjem etc], than a UK Cockney - although he’d understand related words like ‘gangplank’ etc.
Obviously the ubiquity of English world wide makes using some standardized words/phrases, meand you are much more likely to be understood when ‘abroad’.
The variation between US and UK English is also often noticeable [let alone any others like AUS ], but there is a subset not actually spoke by anyone other that some international travelers - like airline pilots - so Airplane v. Aeroplane v. Aircraft etc
So we ought to see that there’s really no right or wrong word or phrase - it depends who you are, where you are, who you are with, and what you are doing…
Attempts to rationalize/simplify English have had limited success.
There is an interesting one, Basic Global English, which seeks to have a limited subset of words/phrasing that will be widely understood…
But of course one of English’s greatest advantages is that it has lots of words that mean the same thing, with subtle nuances, and we adopt foreign words into it quite rapidly, even if we already have some suitable words in use !
The European Commission has announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU, rather than German, which was the other contender. Her Majesty’s Government conceded that English spelling had room for improvement and has therefore accepted a five-year phasing in of “Euro-English”.
In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make sivil servants jump for joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of the “k”, Which should klear up some konfusion and allow one key less on keyboards.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”, making words like “fotograf” 20% shorter.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent “e” is disgrasful.
By the fourth yer, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and everivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. ZE DREM VIL FINALI COM TRU!
Änadö propoust impruuvment is tu svits tu ö Finis sistem ov fonetik speling äs thö karent Inglis speling häs bikam tuu mats distänst from thö vei thö längvits is spouken. In Finis thö letörs aar klous tu theär oritsinal Lätin fonetik väljuus.
Anssi
I know Anssi, I spent a lot of time there with all that double speak. I miss Finland though.
“Ghoti” is a creative respelling of the word “Fish”, used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling.
gh, pronounced [f] as in tough [tʌf]
o, pronounced [ɪ] as in women [ˈwɪmɪn]
ti, pronounced [ʃ] as in nation [ˈneɪʃən]