Whinge, Whine and Other Lovely Words.

When I started writing a few years ago I soon realized how limited my everyday vocabulary had become.

It’s not that I didn’t have the mental thesaurus available. It’s just that I never used it. It was weighted down with dust and inertia – it wasn’t going anywhere because I hadn’t driven it in so long.

Then I started writing. Suddenly I had to find extra words for things – you know, synonyms. Those different words that mean the same or almost the same thing, all so I wouldn’t end up repeating myself all over the place.

Within a matter of months, my vocabulary flourished again and my writing outgrew it. I needed more words (yeah, I’m a greedy slob, but that’s a different subject). So I started looking and do you know what I discovered?

Americans are bereft. We are pathetic in our language (borrowed, I grant you, and then abused).

For instance, when someone complains here we say they’re ‘whining’. That rhymes with wining as in dining and it doesn’t have the same punch as the Brit alternative.

Now, when a Brit or other non-American who uses the proper British pronunciation for stuff, s/he says ‘whinging’ (soft ‘g’ in the middle – win-ge-ing). With whinging, you can picture the snot-faced kid with the tear stained soulful stare and catch in their throat as they tug on their parent's garment – Mommee!

Gobsmacked is another one. What do you picture if I say, ‘I was gobsmacked!’? It's perfect! I picture smacking myself on the cheek, or over my mouth - gobsmacked.

See? You see? It’s beautiful – evocative – and we don’t have it here. We could, but we don’t because it’s Brit. So what do we have in its place? Shocked? No. Stunned? Borr-ing. Surprised? Oh, come on – that’s positively limp.

Foppotee yet another great word. I don’t know that most Brits even know about that one – but it really is a great word. Really great because it’s so far out of common use that if you say it about someone, no one will know what you’re saying (check it out – look it up). It has made it into the Urban Dictionary, but when was the last time you heard it used?

There are others, too. Beautiful words, lovely words that convey meaning and layers of meaning – veritable depths of meaning – and they rarely get used.

Plethora. A word that fills your gob and rolls right off your tongue.

Loo. Quick, succinct, not untasteful – ‘Pardon me, I must run to the loo.’ It just sounds so… so poncy!

Poncy. Great, great, great word! Posh, over the top, snobby even.

Sorry. Oh, the Brit understatement in that little word! It was bandied about on Authonomy a while back, offered up as the most useful word in English English. It can mean anything from an apology to a slur against one’s mother all dependent upon the arranging of the stresses.

SORree – apology

sor-ree – sneer

sor-REE – your mother wears army boots

See? You see what I mean? And there are so many others!

Scintillating and query (another Brit word not used here except if you're a computer geek talking about asking for something from a database).

We do have to careful, though, because we commonly say things that make the British eyebrows go up. Yeah, it's good exercise for an eyebrow, but it's almost always unintended.

Pissed here means angry. Yeah, I know that we all know that, but did you know that in other English speaking countries it usually means drunk?

How about that polite 'excuse me'? Nope - don't say it! Don't! It's the 'pardon me' for unfortunate bodily noises. You say that in a crowded restaurant and you might get a table to yourself, but it will be accompanied by many an aghast stare.

Did you see that? I slipped another great word in there - aghast. Agape. Awestruck (the original meaning, not the watered down modernized weak-as-water variety).

Fanny pack. Uh. No. Don't. Don't go there.

Fanny in England doesn't mean bottom or bum (although it is a diminutive <== [another one!] of Frances and variants [<==boom!]). It means, like... well, turn the woman around 180d (on the horizontal plane, please) and there, her... um... northerly nethers, at the top of her legs, between them.

So if you say fanny pack to a Brit, you're being very impolite. S/He might take offense and you'll be gobsmacked (in a not-a-good way) in next to no time.

Now - grab a thesaurus or hang out with your erudite friends, strike up a conversation and see what fantastic words you come up with today!

Best~
Philippa

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