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a statutory holiday when banks and most businesses are closed [20] (national holiday; state holiday in U.S.) bap soft bread roll or a sandwich made from it (this itself is a regional usage in the UK rather than a universal one); in plural, breasts (vulgar slang e.g. "get your baps out, love"); a person's head (Northern Ireland). [21] barmaid ...
a close relationship or connection; an affair. The French meaning is broader; liaison also means "bond"' such as in une liaison chimique (a chemical bond) lingerie a type of female underwear. littérateur an intellectual (can be pejorative in French, meaning someone who writes a lot but does not have a particular skill). [36] louche
The language of slang, in common with the English language, is changing all the time; new words and phrases are being added and some are used so frequently by so many, they almost become mainstream. While some slang words and phrases are used throughout Britain (e.g. knackered, meaning "exhausted").
"Excuse my French" appears an 1895 edition of Harper's Weekly, where an American tourist asked about the architecture of Europe says "Palaces be durned! Excuse my French." [3] [4] The phrase "pardon my French" is recorded in the 1930s and may be a result of English-speaking troops returning from the First World War. [4] The phrase has been used ...
Although the term may have been used earlier in the US Navy as slang for a British sailor or a British warship, such a usage was not documented until 1918. [9] By 1925, the usage of limey in American English had been extended to mean any British person, and the term was so commonly known that it was featured in American newspaper headlines. [9]
Meaning origin and notes References Bible beater, Bible basher: North America: Evangelicals of Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal denominations A dysphemism for evangelical Christians who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, particularly those from Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal denominations. [1] It is also a slang term for an ...
By the beginning of the 19th century, the word (sometimes extended to the phrase "gammon and spinach") had come to mean "humbug, a ridiculous story, deceitful talk". [16] Writers of the era who used the word or phrase include Charlotte Brontë , [ 17 ] Charles Dickens (in a number of works, including Nicholas Nickleby , [ 18 ] Bleak House ...
Brochers, [23] (not to be confused with people from Burghead) Frinton-on-Sea Master Gaters (pejorative; the town used to hide behind a set of railway crossing gates) Frodsham Jowie Heads (from old Runcorn area Cheshire meaning turnip, reference to the rural position of the town), Frodos (a character in The Lord of the Rings) Frome