Unique British Words from N to Z

In this edition of our look at our genuinely useful and uniquely British words that you will not be hearing in the United States from N to Z!

 

Niff – an unpleasant smell such as a toilet or bodily odor

Nob – a person of wealth or social importance

Nosh – to have a snack

Nutter – a crazy, insane and violent person

Overleaf –  describes the other side of the page as in “you will find the rest of the recipe ingredients listed on the overleaf.”

Panda  car – a small police car

Paracetamol – the same as acetaminophen in the U.S.

Pear-shaped – a situation that fails

Pillar box – a post office box in the street

Pillock – a stupid or foolish person

Pleb – a person from the lower classes

Ponce – an effeminate person or a person who borrows with no intention of repayment

Pong –  a strong unpleasant smell

Porky – slang for a lie as in “Prince Charles told a big porkie to Diana.”

Poxy – an adjective that means something is broken or in bad condition

Prat – an incompetent or idiotic person

Punch up – means a fist fight

Quiff – a hairstyle with a large forelock (like the hair of Elvis!)

Rodger – to have sexual intercourse

Ropey – something that is of poor quality

Row – to have a fight or argument

Sack – to be fired from work

Sarny – a sandwich

Scrumping – to steel apples from an orchard

Skint – to be broke or out of money

Skive – to sneak off or avoid work

Slaphead – a bald man or woman

Slummy – loose change as in “Put some slummy in the gumball machine.”

Smalls – underpants

Spanner – an idiotic and mean person

Spawny – another word for lucky

Spiffy – good-looking, high-quality or traditional

 

Spiv – someone who lives by their wits

Spod – an egghead or teacher’s pet who does well at school

Squiz – to have a rare peek at something

Telly – short informal slang that means television

Toffee-nosed – a way of describing a pretentious or stuck-up individual

Totty –  a sexually alluring woman or prostitute

Twee – an excessively precious or cute thing

Up himself – a snotty type as in “He’s a bit up himself.”

Veruuca – the British wise word for what is known in the U.S. as a plantar’s wart

Wally – an idiot, buffoon or c

Wazzock – an idiot

Wally – a noun that means to put some effort into something such as “He put some welly into the formatting of his new resume.”

Whinge – to repeatedly whine about something

Yonks –  means “a long time” as in “I have not seen that person on Facebook for yonks!”

Zebra crossing –  slang for a crosswalk

 

Interestingly the British may have more slang words for idiots, fools and annoying people which points to this being a very sarcastic culture at times.