L.L. Diamond

If you haven’t preordered The Peculiarity of Mr. Darcy’s Mirror, you can do that here!!!

One thing I’ve had with editing and proofreading modern or in this case a story with a modern character that takes place in England is questions about slang. I think most JAFF readers are familiar with the -or vs. -our differences (color vs. colour, honor, vs. honour) but there are other spelling differences (traveled vs. travelled, jewelry vs. jewellery, focused vs. focussed) and the -ed vs. -t past tenses (learned vs. learnt). But what about the slang!! That can be the fun part, so let’s go through some of the fun British slang words/phrases and a few just every day British things that you may not be familiar with.

Mental – In most places if you call someone or say something is mental, it’s really offensive. I always heard it used more in terms of things or something that has happened than people, but I have heard someone saying “I must be going mental.” It’s like saying something is crazy or I must be going crazy.”

Barmy – Also can mean mad or crazy.

Bollocks – It can mean a gentleman’s testicles, but in MDM, it’s like saying “Crap!” or “Blast!”

Take the Mick out of – Is to tease or ridicule.

Takeaway – Takeout from a restaurant

Cuppa – cup of tea

Fit – Good looking. I had a friend say my husband is a “fitty.” She was horribly embarrassed when she realised he was my fitty.

Bloke – guy, man

CV – resume

Ribena – So, not slang to start off. Ribena is black current juice. It’s often sold in concentrate like squash and you add water. You can also buy it in juice boxes for school lunches.

Mr. Kipling’s – These are different little cakes and such. They remind me of Little Debbies.

Hobnobs – Are like a flat oatmeal cookie. You can get them with a layer of chocolate on them too.

Victoria Sponge – YUM!!! A double layer vanilla sponge cake with clotted cream and raspberry or strawberry jam between the layers and dusted in powdered sugar.

NHS – National Health Service.

Paracetamol – Acetaminophen/Tylenol

Lovely – So, not slang or something unusual, but one thing an American friend of mine and I noticed when we were both living in England was that prior to living there, we both always used “lovely” sarcastically. It came up in the car ride from picking her up at the Epping tube station to Cambridge. We then spent the day taking turns laughing when the other would use it as a compliment. We went to Wimpole and one of us would breathe “Lovely” at a room or a painting and the other would laugh.

Hope everyone enjoyed my little glossary/fun fact sheet for Mr. Darcy’s Mirror! If you haven’t preordered it yet, what are you waiting for? Preorder it now!!

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