Very much like a wally, there's a plonker...

The amusement - and bemusement - about expressions also happens between different regions of the UK, as well as from one side of the Pond to the other. Having been born in Wales, and having lived most of my life in southern England, I'm always amused by the Northern expression "Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs !"

My Scots grandfather always used to welcome people at the front door by saying "Come away in !"

I think I speak "normal" English (I suppose we all think that !), but I find that in some schools I have taught in, the children are very amused by my saying things like "Jolly good !" and "Okey dokey" - I think they count that as somehow "posh". They tell me they have never heard anyone say things like that.

Oooh, here's one that I've heard and had to have explained to me: lary (as in "a lary (very bright/garish patterned) tie").

Fascinating to delve into language differences and nuances. You never do meet a young git, do you ? I've just looked the word up. It is a variation of the noun "get", meaning a fool/idiot, from Middle English, "get" being a noun for "offspring of animals" (< beget). So really, I suppose, all gits ought to be young.

Toodleooo

- jeanie