If you want to master a modern British RP accent, and learn the slang and idioms actually used in British English, then I have great news. To celebrate Black November, we're offering a huge discount on my courses The Ultimate British Pronunciation Guide, and the Ultimate British Slang and Idioms Course as a bundle. This offer will be released on the 21st November and only available to members of an exclusive FREE VIP WhatsApp group - join now to get the offer: englishrightnow.co.uk/l05nov24-capture-page/?L05Nov24&
Roy, "pillock" is an actual insult, whilst now used for a general non-apecific dummy, it began as a specific descriptive insult, being a man who cannot grow pubic hair.
the best insult i ever heard was in the Army, the Sergent stormed up to a recruit and said somewhere out there is a tree producing oxygen for you, go and find it and appologise
During the school holidays in the 60s I travelled the country top to bottom with my dad who at the time was a lorry driver, regularly I heard him use the phrases "Tha Stupid Git", Tha Stupid Sod, Pillock, Warthog, Yer Gormless Git, or Clarthead, and if he was really annoyed "THA DOZY WAZZOCK", my dad had a way with words when some other road user did something idiotic. I'm 65 now and I still use these phrases today.
Here’s an oldie. ‘ Same to you with brass nobs on’ ! I am British with an American husband. In the early days of our marriage, we were having an argument that I was woefully losing, so in frustration I hurled this one at him! Incomprehension quickly followed by him bursting into laughter. I do think I won the argument…..
@@suzybabyukableWhen I,was young in UK we used that as reply when someone had said something not very nice to us, we would reply “and the same to you, with brass knobs on”. This could be in anger or humourlessly depending on context. My wife and Instill use it now in Canada.
I used to work at a nursery school - there was a little boy called Timmy - He was only four years old, but a real cool dude - his dad drive a sports car and his mum was really pretty and fashionable…. He once used a bad word, and I said, ‘Timmy, let’s not use bad words’ and he said (such a legend) ‘I know lots of bad words…. I know ‘git’. My dad’s a git.’!!!! It would not have been professional of me to laugh out loud!!!
@@phaasch It works with the right emphasis: “You’re an absolute _shower,_ ya know that?!” They won’t know what it means, but they’ll know they’re being insulted. 👌🏼
@@llamasugar5478 Oh I quite agree. I think the put-downs of that generation had a withering quality that we have lost, with our ubiquitous profanities.
@@phaasch I used to get after my kids for that. It’s not only rude, but it’s boring and reveals a sad lack of imagination. Obscenities do not make a good impression.
I’ve heard of all of these but my favourite was a term used by a work colleague many years ago who called anyone who made a mistake a “Doughnut”. I also use nitwit, flea bag and Dunderhead.
One of the insults I miss most is "big girls blouse" which was used when a man behaved like a little girl or old woman. It was replaced by insults to the man's sexuality. Big girls blouse questioners masculinity but not his sexual orientation 😅
My italian husband lived in the UK for 4 years. He gets some things slightly wrong which I find endearing..."he's off his rocket" is one of his classics (as well as calling "nails" "snails" and "scissors" "shissors".Bless him, what a wazzock! I sometimes use "divvy". My mum used to use "clot", my brother would describe someone as being "mad as a box of frogs". Thanks, Roy!😊
Scally is short for scallywag. When I was growing up in the 60s on Merseyside my Nan (a Scouser) used the longer version all the time, often about naughty children.
Being from the UK I had never heard it there and was called it in my early twenty’s while working in an English company here quite a few years ago (70s). Pulled the person up and asked him to explain, remembering that the age demographic of the older males I was working with had flown in bombers in WW2 (both English and Australians) his definition was completely different and NOT an sort of insult as he defined it precisely correctly as “A Scallywags” (Second World War), a nickname for the British GHQ Auxiliary Units, who were to engage in guerrilla warfare in the event of a Nazi invasion of the UK. i.e. An unknown espionage agent that ultimately could cause havoc when called upon! Best nickname I ever got given! NSW in Oz 🇦🇺
I 'm familiar with all of these wonderfully rich expressions, even though I'm an American. The single most glorious use of the English language isn't Shakespeare; it is "Blackadder". In my early twenties I discovered Monty Python, courtesy of America's first Public Television Station KUHT in Houston Texas. I was hooked! I fell in love with "Rising Damp", followed by the magnificent Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden in "Two's Company". When I discovered "Blackadder" in the 80's my love of British banter was indulged on a level that has never been equaled. Now that I'm in my 70's it is British comedic panel shows that keep me laughing, and laughter is what keeps me alive! American television is written for the least educated, our most popular comedies are so predictable that I can anticipate the punch lines. That is why I continue to watch British television today, 50 years after discovering Monty Python's Flying Circus. My Niece and her family live in Islington. She wrote a hilarious book on the differences between the American and British English "That Isn't English". Her friend Lynn Truss wrote the forward to her book. My Niece was the editor that acquired the rights to publish "Eats Shoots and Leaves" in America. It was a best seller for Lynn Truss here too!
Canadian here. I love Brit TV. Much of American TV seems to be written for highly confused, gullible twits. 😅 No thinking required, it's all been done for you. They even provide a highly annoying laugh track for comedies so they'll know when to laugh. It's so dumbed down.
Many years ago when I was working at Heathrow, a group of oilmen came through. One of them did something a bit daft. His mate, who was absolutely huge turned to him. ‘You… You… You… APRICOT!’
On the school bus a classmate was done with the guys in the back teasing her and she shouted at them: You have the intelligence of... of... plant life! 😂 I still laugh when I think of it.
UK English has probably the worlds greatest capacity for the truly creative unsworn insult. One which sticks in my mind from schooldays, because I was on the recieving end of it from my art master, is "You great cockeyed twittering lump of cheese!" I've used it a few times myself;)
@@OldManDave1960 Twit and off your rocker have been in use in the US since my childhood (I'm 45), and daft picked up in popularity after the French band Daft Punk started charting in the US. Never heard an American say nutter, though.
Well if you're British what others would consider the worst insult they know (usually whats politely called the C word) is often used as a term of endearment between friends even husbands and wives. When I sometimes disagree with my wife and she knows that I know I'm wrong she'll tell me to stop being such a C and if my best friend does something dumb I'll call him a silly C 😂
@ThomasPrior-wv6zn yeah bugger was considered pretty tame but back in the victorian days the word was buggered which apart from being an insult suggested you were doing something legal and could lead to a charge of slander. Australians use it in a much more lighthearted way "bugger me sideways Bruce is that time" 😅
I’m old enough to have heard all of those and forgotten a few more. Thanks for reminding me. 😂👍 'Muppet' was a slang insult my son used to use a lot. When someone was being clueless or stupid.
The word was coined by Jim Henson, he conjoined Marionette and Puppet for the character in the TV show he developed. The word did not exist before that - what a brilliant man JH was.
I grew up in Australia and manky is still a favourite word that I used often. Sometimes to describe a dirty oven or usually to describe a revolting human pile of garbage, but I put the word slag after it, so that the person is a manky slag (used for females only). My mum when we were kids used to tell me that I was a pill, which meant that I was annoying, and I use that still. A lot of these have crept into the Australian vernacular and we enjoy using them immensely if we can’t swear 😂
And insult I remember hearing to describe a numbskull was, "If we put your brain on the edge of a razorblade, it would look like a pea rolling down a 10 lane highway!"
You put them together and say them in your best Yorkshire accent for extra effect and then string them out 'Tha gorm-less waz-zock!' For those who have done something silly 'Tha daft clarthead ! Or tha daft bat!
Yeah it would be nice to know more about how old these words are, and scallywag I'm betting is very old. As below, the guy saying it's basically in South Africa still, your going way back when there were sailing ships and all, colonisation happening, for that to be embedded in the language. I grew up with it aswell, 63 today!
You could damn them with faint praise; he has over simplified things here. Sometimes the insulted person is the only one who doesn't understand the insult. English is a flexible yet insidious conveyor.
You missed out all the Scottish ones! Scunner, eejit, bampot, aff yer heid, oot the game, mingin', heid banger, and many more. And we have more words for 'drunk' than eskimos have for snow. Stotious, steamin', fu', oot the game are just a few. You haven't been insulted properly till you've been insulted by a Scot!
Mingin' is used in Lancashire a lot too but an older expression less heard now is "mon ehy" or man high in standard English and also could be for effect "stinks to high heaven".
Yesss....Bampot. So happy to see that one. Another one that was used in our Scottish home was "dolt" and I always liked the statement "daft as a brush" or "you look like you've been dragged through a bush backwards". Hilarious.
Chavs = antisocial ones dressed in baseball cap, hooded top and tracksuit bottom (or what they call "designer jeans"), wearing eyesore trainers or just slippers with woolie socks in any season, also covered in cheap-looking colourful tattoos, not to mention the lack of personal and dental hygiene. They also tend to drive modified cars, use/sell drugs and live off the dole. Their female versions are "single mums" out of teenage pregnancies, the kids never knew daddy or he's in the nick.
Others that have been used are: Burke, drip, Einstein (used as a sarcastic/derogatory term at someone when they suggest an idea or slow to work someth'g out/pick up on a sound idea/suggestion made by others). Dope, Prawn, Is Bell/Knob end acceptable? 😂😂
From the antipodes the following are used: dropkick, as in dropped and kicked; spaz, a short form of spastic; and, no hoper, as in has no hope and never will - and may lead to an all in brawl if one is not careful.
@@BGC-gp2in it wasn't polite in my childhood, but I was alerted by a friend that spaz had regained playground currency. Children are nasty and don't care about adult sensibilities.
I am an Australian here and I grew up with nearly all of these, although they seem to be less prevalent now. A couple of slight differences - scally was a scallywag; prat had a bit of stronger meaning - almost like a cad or like the other tw*t word you mention (which we also use, but it not considered so bad as prat.); and instead of Billy-no-mates we have Nigel no-mates, Nigel for short. Had not heard chav before. I agree we should bring back all these phrases - so much more colourful and fun than swearing.
Pom here. Heard and used Billy Nomates but I thought I was the first to use Nigel Nomates a few years ago when I used it to describe my neighbour Nigel who came over as, well, a Nigel.
As an American watching that lighting rod of controversy, George Galloway from across the pond once in a while, I have heard him use "Nutter" quite often and "Brass neck" to describe one's arrogance. I rolled my eyes last Spring when he returned to The House of Commons as an MP and declared that Donald Trump would be returning to the US Presidency, but,"son of a gun," he was correct.
@@jeremyfrost2636 Mug is a very intersting word when it comes to it's use by the English speakers of the British Isles. It is a drinking vessel firstly but also is a word used for an Aggravated Robbery or to describe someones Face or even their mouth. But in this particular instance it means a gullible person, someone who is easily deceived or a fool. For example, "He's such a mug, he believes everything she tells him". And when you feel as if someone has taken advantage of you and you've let them get away with it you have been "Mugged off"
Another one : Naff. If I remember rightly, this was the one invented by the writers of a sitcom set on the bin lorry where the men would have sworn more than the BBC were happy with. Naff all = nothing Naff off It's a bit Naff .......
"naff" or "naffball" meant a weakling, one who complains a lot, is fearful, excessively precautionary, risk-averse and uncompetitive. A synonym is "fart" and the US equivalent would probably be "chicken".
Princess Anne was known for using Naff off because royals can't be seen swearing in public. Never actually heard anyone else use it in real life it's for people who really want to swear but for some reason are afraid to😂😅
@@irenemarcus967 a good one from an episode of Doctor Who was something like " you're the perfect example of the inverse ratio between the size of the brain and the size of the mouth" 😁
The writers of "Only Fools and Horses" very famously tried (and managed) to slip in several rude slang words that they thought they could get past the higher-ups at the BBC. Several of the insults used in the show are quite rude if you know what they mean. An interview with David Jason and other people involved with the show confirmed as much several years ago. The word "plonker" has several meanings, but one is definitely "the male appendage". Even the OED gives the example: "to pull one's plonker." Dipstick - another insult used on the show - can also be taken to mean that, and don't even think about looking up what berk means (yet another insult used on the show). So, "plonker" might not be as safe as the video suggests. 😆 As for "chav", that one doesn't get used much north of the border. The Scottish equivalent is "ned".
I recently heard an Englishman call someone a bungalow, meaning they have nothing upstairs. There are levels to British insults! I presume "scally" derives from "scallawag" which is a pretty British word in itself.
An American woman from the south can tell people off and it only does the insulted thank her for time, they won’t realize they’ve been insulted for at least several minutes. RIP Katty, my MIL. She could pull off the whole, “Iron fist in a velvet glove”.
At 4:40 the way you were saying the sentence, my brain completed it with the "twit-with-an-i" word. 😮😂 Also, I always giggled when Malcom Tucker (The Thick of It) would call the opposing party the nutters.
I am a Canadian, with parents from Scotland and England, and I watch much British Television. Therefore, I have heard all, but two words. I hadn’t heard scally or chav before. My favourite of these words is pillock. I shall try to interject these words into my discussions in the future. Thanks
Yes, I believe this word started life in the north of England, spread everywhere, but seems to have become less common in recent times on a national level. While I think its origin was earlier, it especially seemed to become a mainstream word in the 90s, possibly spread by a number of bands the originated in the north and north-west at the time. I'm glad to hear it's still alive and well in Yorkshire.
Though never heard in the US, I love the classic British euphemism 'work-shy', and the simply perfect description of anyone who does the absolute bare minimum at work: a 'jobsworth'. They're not really insults, per se, but they're so funny and *perfectly* descriptive.
I asked someone once why they weren't working.. they said they had heart and kidney problems .. i said I'm sorry to hear that then he said... aye heart lazy 😮and kidney be bothered
I think you have the wrong idea of jobsworth. They are the people who get in the way. Defending their little bit of power to prevent you doing something. Come from the usual comment "it's more than my jobs worth to let you do that"
A few more... Berk - short for Berkshire Hunt - Cockney rhyming slang for the C-word, but means a foolish person. Mardy - from Yorkshire/Lancashire meaning sulky Muppet - a foolish, ineffectual person. Twazzock - for when wazzock isn't enough. Grockle - a West Country term for a tourist.
I use wazzack all the time. I'm from Manchester, but my kids grew up down south, and they think it's a Manc word. I'm glad to see it's not and I'm right 😊
I love the inclusion of twit as it reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch Upper Class Twit of the Year. And of course NewWhovians know chav thanks to the (supposed) last human, the Lady Cassandra ("Oh my God... I'm a Chav!"). 😂
Don't forget that "insult" (noun) is not pronounced the same as "insult" (verb) -- when you inSULT someone, you are using an INsult. Most of these monikers/pejoratives are known to South Africans of my generation, btw.
"bloody hell. sodding, blimey, shagging, knickers, bollocks. oh god, i'm english." - spike, 'buffy the vampire slayer' spke is a british vampire, played by an american with a first rate english accent - generally accepted as one of the best for an american. his swearing & insults towards buffy & her friends are top notch, must have gone right over the heads of the american audience & i think he was allowed to be ruder than usual because of that. brilliant writing, there are quite a few british characters in the show which really stretches the language for your average US teen show.
My favourite is "Pillock", I often add "uttter" before "nutter", another is dip-stick and "tosser or toss-pot". Is that rude ? How about "apeth" added to daft?
Very rude . A tosser is an exponent of the " hand shandy " or " five knuckle shuffle " and a " toss pot " is a receptacle for the result , similar to a spittoon..... Often one would call a tosser in very simple terms and in polite company , a " W " . Apeth is short for one eighth of a penny , a totally useless sum of money .
Actually toss-pot is from the 16th century, and means drunkard or heavy drinker. Ale was served in pots, and if you drank it quickly you tossed it down your throat.
@@JudithAtyeo-xn6tm Yes the archaic meaning from Middle English, but for many decades now a tosser has become associated with a wanker and both have been linked with the performing arts although relating to an obnoxious individual. The Great Bard himself and other playwrights of the period like Beaumont and Fletcher are a great source of comical English insults .
I loved your video. Most of those insults have made their way to Australia. There were a few new ones. There are variations like ‘Nigel no mates’ and ‘Nancy no friends’. I’m going to watch it again to learn the unfamiliar ones.
If you want to master a modern British RP accent, and learn the slang and idioms actually used in British English, then I have great news. To celebrate Black November, we're offering a huge discount on my courses The Ultimate British Pronunciation Guide, and the Ultimate British Slang and Idioms Course as a bundle. This offer will be released on the 21st November and only available to members of an exclusive FREE VIP WhatsApp group - join now to get the offer: englishrightnow.co.uk/l05nov24-capture-page/?L05Nov24&
Roy, "pillock" is an actual insult, whilst now used for a general non-apecific dummy, it began as a specific descriptive insult, being a man who cannot grow pubic hair.
Like the word Thick refers to slow wit
it's Nigel No Mates ya muppet
This video is 100% cunty.
It's us Americans who elected a... well... you know who...why are you in the UK calling it Black November???... personally I prefer Smeg Head...Peac7❤
the best insult i ever heard was in the Army, the Sergent stormed up to a recruit and said somewhere out there is a tree producing oxygen for you, go and find it and appologise
My favourite was "Am I hurting you? I should be.....I'm standing on your hair". 😂
Our sergeant used to refer to us as "jack slugs"
Hahaha! My mental voice used my old drill SGT's voice.
You 24kt plonker, Rodney!!!
Another Army one ! A sergeant to a lowly rookie.’ I have never seen s..t piled so high’!
I’m a Canadian who watches Coronation Street. I’ve not only heard all of these I can use them in a sentence. No daft mare here!
During the school holidays in the 60s I travelled the country top to bottom with my dad who at the time was a lorry driver, regularly I heard him use the phrases "Tha Stupid Git", Tha Stupid Sod, Pillock, Warthog, Yer Gormless Git, or Clarthead, and if he was really annoyed "THA DOZY WAZZOCK", my dad had a way with words when some other road user did something idiotic. I'm 65 now and I still use these phrases today.
😂 this made me giggle and took me back to my dear ol grandad- your dad sounds like a brilliant chap x
😆
@@AliSkarsgard Glad you got a chuckle from my comment, dad was a brilliant bloke he was my hero.
@ 🤗x
Nothing brings out colorful oratory like your fellow commuters.
Love British banter, there's nothing like it. You forgot plank. My favourite is muppet. lol
Yes. He's as thick as two planks.
Here’s an oldie. ‘ Same to you with brass nobs on’ ! I am British with an American husband. In the early days of our marriage, we were having an argument that I was woefully losing, so in frustration I hurled this one at him! Incomprehension quickly followed by him bursting into laughter. I do think I won the argument…..
😂❤
@@suzybabyukableWhen I,was young in UK we used that as reply when someone had said something not very nice to us, we would reply “and the same to you, with brass knobs on”. This could be in anger or humourlessly depending on context. My wife and Instill use it now in Canada.
AND YOU ,,, JUST KEEP SAYING THAT WHEN IN AN ARGUMENT,,,, AND YOU GETS THEM EVERY TIME LOL
I like it. Overpowering an American with the real English language.
He must have been shocked and awed.
@@philiptownsend4026 He’s probably proper bi-lingual now, fluent in English and American.
Tone of voice means everything when speaking English
Like Chinese LOL
And yet english is not recognised as a tonal language.
Tone of voice is substantive. Heard it from an English teacher
I was surprised not to hear Git.
Or muppet
Or even yaolgit as one word, muppet we used at school my mum always used silly mare
That is actually a swear word Irish
I'm from the US, big fan of Brit TV, I love the word git.
I used to work at a nursery school - there was a little boy called Timmy - He was only four years old, but a real cool dude - his dad drive a sports car and his mum was really pretty and fashionable…. He once used a bad word, and I said, ‘Timmy, let’s not use bad words’ and he said (such a legend) ‘I know lots of bad words…. I know ‘git’. My dad’s a git.’!!!! It would not have been professional of me to laugh out loud!!!
Anything can be an insult if one puts “absolute” in front of it.
“You’re an absolute turnip, ya know that?”
"Absolute shower!"
@@phaasch It works with the right emphasis: “You’re an absolute _shower,_ ya know that?!”
They won’t know what it means, but they’ll know they’re being insulted. 👌🏼
@@llamasugar5478 Oh I quite agree. I think the put-downs of that generation had a withering quality that we have lost, with our ubiquitous profanities.
@@phaasch I used to get after my kids for that. It’s not only rude, but it’s boring and reveals a sad lack of imagination. Obscenities do not make a good impression.
Brilliant! I love that!
I’ve heard of all of these but my favourite was a term used by a work colleague many years ago who called anyone who made a mistake a “Doughnut”. I also use nitwit, flea bag and Dunderhead.
One of the insults I miss most is "big girls blouse" which was used when a man behaved like a little girl or old woman. It was replaced by insults to the man's sexuality. Big girls blouse questioners masculinity but not his sexual orientation 😅
My italian husband lived in the UK for 4 years. He gets some things slightly wrong which I find endearing..."he's off his rocket" is one of his classics (as well as calling "nails" "snails" and "scissors" "shissors".Bless him, what a wazzock! I sometimes use "divvy". My mum used to use "clot", my brother would describe someone as being "mad as a box of frogs". Thanks, Roy!😊
"Clod" too, as in clod of earth.😂
Or "strange" as a sack of badgers 🤔
@@JF-kv1gm On Family Affair Mr. French said clot.
Scally is short for scallywag. When I was growing up in the 60s on Merseyside my Nan (a Scouser) used the longer version all the time, often about naughty children.
I use the word scallywag, never scally on its own.
Or Dodgy 😅
Being from the UK I had never heard it there and was called it in my early twenty’s while working in an English company here quite a few years ago (70s). Pulled the person up and asked him to explain, remembering that the age demographic of the older males I was working with had flown in bombers in WW2 (both English and Australians) his definition was completely different and NOT an sort of insult as he defined it precisely correctly as “A Scallywags” (Second World War), a nickname for the British GHQ Auxiliary Units, who were to engage in guerrilla warfare in the event of a Nazi invasion of the UK. i.e. An unknown espionage agent that ultimately could cause havoc when called upon! Best nickname I ever got given! NSW in Oz 🇦🇺
My dad was a scouser and always called me a scally wag
End of the Civil.War and Reconstrction. Scalawag was used as an epithet in the Former C.S.A , neè The South.
I 'm familiar with all of these wonderfully rich expressions, even though I'm an American. The single most glorious use of the English language isn't Shakespeare; it is "Blackadder". In my early twenties I discovered Monty Python, courtesy of America's first Public Television Station KUHT in Houston Texas. I was hooked! I fell in love with "Rising Damp", followed by the magnificent Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden in "Two's Company". When I discovered "Blackadder" in the 80's my love of British banter was indulged on a level that has never been equaled.
Now that I'm in my 70's it is British comedic panel shows that keep me laughing, and laughter is what keeps me alive!
American television is written for the least educated, our most popular comedies are so predictable that I can anticipate the punch lines. That is why I continue to watch British television today, 50 years after discovering Monty Python's Flying Circus.
My Niece and her family live in Islington. She wrote a hilarious book on the differences between the American and British English "That Isn't English". Her friend Lynn Truss wrote the forward to her book. My Niece was the editor that acquired the rights to publish "Eats Shoots and Leaves" in America. It was a best seller for Lynn Truss here too!
Rising Damp tends to be overlooked but it is thoroughly recommended.
Canadian here. I love Brit TV. Much of American TV seems to be written for highly confused, gullible twits. 😅 No thinking required, it's all been done for you. They even provide a highly annoying laugh track for comedies so they'll know when to laugh. It's so dumbed down.
Actually, the most glorious use of the English language is PG Wodehouse.
If you haven't already, watch Fawlty Towers. It is a situation comedy of only 12 episodes. If you like Monty Python, you will love this.
I have “Eats Shoots and Leaves” too!!
Many years ago when I was working at Heathrow, a group of oilmen came through. One of them did something a bit daft. His mate, who was absolutely huge turned to him. ‘You… You… You… APRICOT!’
🍑😂
On the school bus a classmate was done with the guys in the back teasing her and she shouted at them: You have the intelligence of... of... plant life! 😂
I still laugh when I think of it.
@@Paperscrapper😂😂😂 that’s hilarious, thanks for sharing.
Hilarious! 🤣
I've been called a spoon.
UK English has probably the worlds greatest capacity for the truly creative unsworn insult.
One which sticks in my mind from schooldays, because I was on the recieving end of it from my art master, is "You great cockeyed twittering lump of cheese!"
I've used it a few times myself;)
Nutter, off your rocker, daft, bonkers, twit and prat are used in the US as well with the same meanings.
I've never heard any of them used, here.
@@OldManDave1960 Twit and off your rocker have been in use in the US since my childhood (I'm 45), and daft picked up in popularity after the French band Daft Punk started charting in the US. Never heard an American say nutter, though.
The only one of those I don’t hear in the USA is “prat.” Probably due to regional differences.
I'm American, but I love British insults. Yiddish insults are hilarious too 😁
Oy vey
Berk is a good one. My father used it all the time. He's a proper berk etc. It sounds quite tame until you discover that it is rhyming slang.
Berkshire Hunt.😂
@@cleoldbagtraallsorts3380exactly!!
MY DAD ALL WAYS CALLED SOME ONE ,,, A SILLY BOY ,, IF THEY WERE BEING CRAZY
I've used berk all my life and didn't know that. Thank you. I'm still going to use it though. I'll just save it up for particularly special people. 😂
What's it rhyme with?Berkshire hunt😅
A word of warning. Never call a nutter a nutter if you don't want a black eye.
or are prepared to put his arse in reverse !
😂😂😂
So calling them escapees from the funny farm should be fine, Ya?
Ohhhh... My favourite subject. British English Insults... "Spanner" and "Dipstick" absolutely top of my list.
dimebar
😆
Isn’t Dipstick another Del Boy saying from Only Fools And Horses?
@@jennyaldridge4186 possible. English is not my first language, but my colleagues are making sure I'm well versed in insulting 🤣🤣🤣
Or...dipshit!!!
Jenny, yes it is used in only fools and horses
Really good. We have fun using these terms and laughing at the same time.
These are insults? I thought they were terms of endearment. I’ve been called most of them by my mum !
MUM ALLWAYS AND DAD CALLED ME A SILLY BUGGER IF I WAS BEING SILLY MUM DIDNT KNOW THE REAL MEANING TILL YEARS LATER
@@ThomasPrior-wv6zn 😂, I had an uncle who called my cousins and I little buggers too!
@@lisabayliss3524 LOL YEP NOT HURTY WORD LOL
Well if you're British what others would consider the worst insult they know (usually whats politely called the C word) is often used as a term of endearment between friends even husbands and wives. When I sometimes disagree with my wife and she knows that I know I'm wrong she'll tell me to stop being such a C and if my best friend does something dumb I'll call him a silly C 😂
@ThomasPrior-wv6zn yeah bugger was considered pretty tame but back in the victorian days the word was buggered which apart from being an insult suggested you were doing something legal and could lead to a charge of slander. Australians use it in a much more lighthearted way "bugger me sideways Bruce is that time" 😅
In Scotland we say “you’re not as green as you’re cabbage-lookin”.
A favourite saying of my mum
And 'bampot'. LOVE that one!
Also say that in the North of England
@@jennyaldridge4186my grandmother used to say it about herself whenever she thought someone was trying to pull the wool over😅
But not an insult or one word.
"You great useless spawny-eyed parrot-faced wazzock"
He had a way with words, me father
He'd been to college, you know
Ha, ha....obviously a highly educated gentleman!
Tony Capstick . 😃😃😃
I’m old enough to have heard all of those and forgotten a few more. Thanks for reminding me. 😂👍
'Muppet' was a slang insult my son used to use a lot. When someone was being clueless or stupid.
The word was coined by Jim Henson, he conjoined Marionette and Puppet for the character in the TV show he developed.
The word did not exist before that - what a brilliant man JH was.
I grew up with "bonkers", "off your rocker", "twit", and "daft". I grew up in Oregon, but my mother was raised in Vermont.
I grew up with those too in California.
People I knew in Massachusetts used "bloody."
Use those in Maryland all the time
I grew up in Australia and manky is still a favourite word that I used often. Sometimes to describe a dirty oven or usually to describe a revolting human pile of garbage, but I put the word slag after it, so that the person is a manky slag (used for females only). My mum when we were kids used to tell me that I was a pill, which meant that I was annoying, and I use that still. A lot of these have crept into the Australian vernacular and we enjoy using them immensely if we can’t swear 😂
I learned “twit” from Monty Python, a classic!
Others are “Who knitted your face and dropped a stitch?” or “Do you want to wake up with a crowd around you?”.
Scally is just a contraction of scallywag.
And from the Black Country, comes one of the best imo, YAMPY.
My favourite insult is: if brains were ink, you wouldn't have enough to make a full stop
Ah. If brains were dynamite you wouldn't have enough to blow your hat off/part your hair
And insult I remember hearing to describe a numbskull was, "If we put your brain on the edge of a razorblade, it would look like a pea rolling down a 10 lane highway!"
Quality insult
I like "if you had half a brain it'd be lonely"
If brains where dynamite, you wouldn't be able to blow your nose. He has a memory as long as a dime is thick.
You missed barmpot you barmpot!
Or Bampot.
You put them together and say them in your best Yorkshire accent for extra effect and then string them out 'Tha gorm-less waz-zock!'
For those who have done something silly 'Tha daft clarthead ! Or tha daft bat!
big girls blouse, daft bugger, silly sod, one sarnie short of a picnic, ; its endless.
@@HopeVReason I love "big girl's blouse," for someone whingeing about their situation.
From a LeedsLass now a Pom in Australia . Daft apeth ,Gormless Twit .Here however they always seem to have either a B or F preceding the insult .
"Rotter", from the Billy Bunter books (if you are old enough to have read them). "Wet", from MaggieThatcher.
Terry Thomas was a good "rotter"! 😁
Steve Jones and pistols . Bill Grundy . You rotter
A rotter and a blighter😆
A Scally (abv. Scallywag) means Scamp. A mischievous young person. A child misbehaving. Not just in Liverpool, but was once widely used.
In Soth Africa we have the wird " skollie "... meams the same as scally.
Yeah it would be nice to know more about how old these words are, and scallywag I'm betting is very old. As below, the guy saying it's basically in South Africa still, your going way back when there were sailing ships and all, colonisation happening, for that to be embedded in the language. I grew up with it aswell, 63 today!
I've heard lots of them before. I wish people stopped calling me that
42 seconds 'Some of them are rude and could offend people', surely when insulting someone being offensive is an element of the process.
You could damn them with faint praise; he has over simplified things here. Sometimes the insulted person is the only one who doesn't understand the insult. English is a flexible yet insidious conveyor.
When I was a kid, we use "pranny" and I hadn't heard it for years until the late Paul Ritter used it on Friday Night Dinner to insult his kids.
Heard most, but a few new ones! I’m gonna opt for PLONKER! Love it! It’s officially in my vocabulary as of now. Thanks!
I always felt that calling someone a "nutter" was describing more of a permanent rather than temporary state of mind.
It can be a matter of how you place the other words. "don't be a nutter" can mean a warning but "you nutter" is the permanent condition.
@@kensmith5694 Got it!
You missed out all the Scottish ones! Scunner, eejit, bampot, aff yer heid, oot the game, mingin', heid banger, and many more. And we have more words for 'drunk' than eskimos have for snow. Stotious, steamin', fu', oot the game are just a few. You haven't been insulted properly till you've been insulted by a Scot!
Mingin' is used in Lancashire a lot too but an older expression less heard now is "mon ehy" or man high in standard English and also could be for effect "stinks to high heaven".
Tube/choob and my favourite, radge
Yesss....Bampot. So happy to see that one. Another one that was used in our Scottish home was "dolt" and I always liked the statement "daft as a brush" or "you look like you've been dragged through a bush backwards". Hilarious.
@@HopeVReasonMingin' is used in London too (at least in SW).
The Irish ain't bad when it comes to insults either. He's away with the fairys
You can put such feeling into the word pillock.
Yes love pillock😂😂😂😂
@@barrypooley3192
Me too, but I can't use it in the US. Most wouldn't understand. They would think I was calling them a pillow.😆
I like, 'Go forth and multiply you pudendum'.
I think you just described the new Labour government....
Fair enough - save the swear words for the Tories 😂
Gormless 'apeth....got that off the old man a fair bit
'apeth meaning "half-penny-worth"?
@PhilipBurton-dn3ce
Often preceded by Tha' in our family. Love it!
Daft apeth is the one that I grew up with!
what is an apeth exactly....ive used the expression but have forgotten its meaning
@
A'porth...ha'penny worth, meaning small fry!
Sally/Chav/Billy no-mates.- They are new ones for me. I appreciate it dear Roy.
Chavs usually wear a baseball cap and a tracksuit. They are really common people. Also they very often wear gold necklaces as well.
Chavs = antisocial ones dressed in baseball cap, hooded top and tracksuit bottom (or what they call "designer jeans"), wearing eyesore trainers or just slippers with woolie socks in any season, also covered in cheap-looking colourful tattoos, not to mention the lack of personal and dental hygiene.
They also tend to drive modified cars, use/sell drugs and live off the dole.
Their female versions are "single mums" out of teenage pregnancies, the kids never knew daddy or he's in the nick.
@@TheTimeProphetAli G? Lol😅
As in “council-housed and violent”?
Love themall and would hate see some of the old expressions lost!
"You Nimrod!" always makes me laugh... Pranny is one I haven't heard for a while.
To describe a complete numpty......"as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle".
To describe a complete nutter....."as mad as a box of frogs".
Or as much use as an ejector seat in a helicopter 🤔👍🏻🇬🇧
My dad used to say "as much use as a screen door on a submarine".
I think " yob", boy spelled backwards, is a scream. That's my personal fave. I was surprised you didn't include it.
Others that have been used are: Burke, drip, Einstein (used as a sarcastic/derogatory term at someone when they suggest an idea or slow to work someth'g out/pick up on a sound idea/suggestion made by others). Dope, Prawn,
Is Bell/Knob end acceptable?
😂😂
Also (sarcastically) 'No shit, Sherlock'
From the antipodes the following are used: dropkick, as in dropped and kicked; spaz, a short form of spastic; and, no hoper, as in has no hope and never will - and may lead to an all in brawl if one is not careful.
The term "spaz" is considered highly offensive now. It is equating a medical condition with stupidity.
@@BGC-gp2in it wasn't polite in my childhood, but I was alerted by a friend that spaz had regained playground currency. Children are nasty and don't care about adult sensibilities.
Gordon Bennett!
And Bloody Nora. Two of my favorites 😂😂
@@denisepurcell4031 I prefer -- and have hard more often -- "Bleedin' Nora!"
@@blackwoodrichmore4531 ……but who was he?
@ninamoores James Gordon Bennett Jr. (1841-1918). An accomplished polo player, tennis player, & yachtsman.
There's an author called Alan Gordon Bennett wrote sci-fi.
I am an Australian here and I grew up with nearly all of these, although they seem to be less prevalent now. A couple of slight differences - scally was a scallywag; prat had a bit of stronger meaning - almost like a cad or like the other tw*t word you mention (which we also use, but it not considered so bad as prat.); and instead of Billy-no-mates we have Nigel no-mates, Nigel for short. Had not heard chav before. I agree we should bring back all these phrases - so much more colourful and fun than swearing.
Pom here. Heard and used Billy Nomates but I thought I was the first to use Nigel Nomates a few years ago when I used it to describe my neighbour Nigel who came over as, well, a Nigel.
As an American watching that lighting rod of controversy, George Galloway from across the pond once in a while, I have heard him use "Nutter" quite often and "Brass neck" to describe one's arrogance.
I rolled my eyes last Spring when he returned to The House of Commons as an MP and declared that Donald Trump would be returning to the US Presidency, but,"son of a gun," he was correct.
Very sweet video! We call this 'Granny swearing'! Personally I prefer more 'anglo-saxon' language myself! 😂😉
Scally is contraction of scallywag. Scallywag is not confined to Merseyside.
Hey Roy.
You forgot to add my favourite one ^ Mug *
It's one of mine too!
😂
Haven't heard that one (I'm American). What's it mean?
@@jeremyfrost2636 Mug is a very intersting word when it comes to it's use by the English speakers of the British Isles. It is a drinking vessel firstly but also is a word used for an Aggravated Robbery or to describe someones Face or even their mouth. But in this particular instance it means a gullible person, someone who is easily deceived or a fool. For example, "He's such a mug, he believes everything she tells him". And when you feel as if someone has taken advantage of you and you've let them get away with it you have been "Mugged off"
@gibjamie That's interesting, thanks for explaining. For some reason here in the US we use the first three definitions but not the last one.
"Space Cadet" was used by a couple of folks I knew
Hundreds of years ago, the Brits could call someone addle-pated, from the word "addled", rarely used now, and "pate" (head).
My mother used addle-pated. She would be 96.
From the US
Another one : Naff.
If I remember rightly, this was the one invented by the writers of a sitcom set on the bin lorry where the men would have sworn more than the BBC were happy with.
Naff all = nothing
Naff off
It's a bit Naff
.......
I thought it was from Porridge written by Clement and La Frenais?
@@andyrushfan You're right. I knew it was invented for the purpose, there must have been another invented for the one about the bin men.
"naff" or "naffball" meant a weakling, one who complains a lot, is fearful, excessively precautionary, risk-averse and uncompetitive. A synonym is "fart" and the US equivalent would probably be "chicken".
Princess Anne: Naff orf!! 😅
Princess Anne was known for using Naff off because royals can't be seen swearing in public. Never actually heard anyone else use it in real life it's for people who really want to swear but for some reason are afraid to😂😅
even better when you combine them, eg . 'ee, ya daft wazzock' .. ' yer off yer rocker, ya manky chav' 😁
😂😂😂
So descriptive it's almost poetic!
@@irenemarcus967 a good one from an episode of Doctor Who was something like " you're the perfect example of the inverse ratio between the size of the brain and the size of the mouth" 😁
@@andygozzo72 love it!
The writers of "Only Fools and Horses" very famously tried (and managed) to slip in several rude slang words that they thought they could get past the higher-ups at the BBC. Several of the insults used in the show are quite rude if you know what they mean. An interview with David Jason and other people involved with the show confirmed as much several years ago.
The word "plonker" has several meanings, but one is definitely "the male appendage". Even the OED gives the example: "to pull one's plonker." Dipstick - another insult used on the show - can also be taken to mean that, and don't even think about looking up what berk means (yet another insult used on the show).
So, "plonker" might not be as safe as the video suggests. 😆
As for "chav", that one doesn't get used much north of the border. The Scottish equivalent is "ned".
Saved me a bit of typing .
Scally is a shortened form of scallywag - a mischief maker, from the Oxford English Dictionary
Thanks for the laughs.
I've always loved the line in Pride and Prejudice where Dame Judi Dench says Madame you have a very small garden 😂
Silly Billy😂
I recently heard an Englishman call someone a bungalow, meaning they have nothing upstairs. There are levels to British insults!
I presume "scally" derives from "scallawag" which is a pretty British word in itself.
An American woman from the south can tell people off and it only does the insulted thank her for time, they won’t realize they’ve been insulted for at least several minutes. RIP Katty, my MIL. She could pull off the whole, “Iron fist in a velvet glove”.
Bless your heart can be an insult too😊
At 4:40 the way you were saying the sentence, my brain completed it with the "twit-with-an-i" word. 😮😂 Also, I always giggled when Malcom Tucker (The Thick of It) would call the opposing party the nutters.
Wooly back was used in the 80s mostly in Liverpool, referring to people who wore unfashionable clothes and from outside of the area .
EVERTON GIRLS LOL OOOOPS
I was called that by my cousins in Liverpool.i grew up just outside of there. I think it relates to my small town still having some countryside sheep.
Just ‘wool’ now apparently.
"Get knotted" is one of my favorite insults.
My favorite is numpty 🧚♀️
I actually used the word 'numpty' in a UA-cam comment I posted earlier today!!!
I am a Canadian, with parents from Scotland and England, and I watch much British Television. Therefore, I have heard all, but two words. I hadn’t heard scally or chav before. My favourite of these words is pillock. I shall try to interject these words into my discussions in the future. Thanks
That last line cracked my face and made my arse jealous Mary!😂👍🏻
☮️🩵🖖🏻✝️♾️🕉🪬⚛️
From🏴,🇬🇧.
Benny hills Chinese character saying "siree pirrock" used to crack me up😮😮. Ps what about twerp
"Why you no rissen!" 😂
I saw him playing a Chinese Travel Agent....Can't understand why he didn't recommend Sri Lanka for a holiday?
The best non swearing insult is calling someone 'WOKE'
Well if you consider it an insult to be called sensitive to other people’s needs and considerate an insult…..
Chris-mf1rm
You are so woke.
I explained to my wife that "twit" is a term of endearment. Only when you use the adjective "f••••••" with it does the meaning change to an insult 😁
Roy, wazzock never went out of fashion in Yorkshire.
Yes, I believe this word started life in the north of England, spread everywhere, but seems to have become less common in recent times on a national level. While I think its origin was earlier, it especially seemed to become a mainstream word in the 90s, possibly spread by a number of bands the originated in the north and north-west at the time. I'm glad to hear it's still alive and well in Yorkshire.
@@EnglishRightNow Is there a band named The Wazzocks, by any chance?
I use "Muppet" or "you tealeaf" as well as "numpty". Not to mention "sandwich short of a picnic"
Isn't tealeaf a thief ?
@@mariontanner7557 I just use to say you're being a bit daft
Nine Bob note was used a lot or the lights on but nobody is home 😂😂😂
@@barrypooley3192 The one about the lights is popular in the US too.
Though never heard in the US, I love the classic British euphemism 'work-shy', and the simply perfect description of anyone who does the absolute bare minimum at work: a 'jobsworth'. They're not really insults, per se, but they're so funny and *perfectly* descriptive.
I asked someone once why they weren't working.. they said they had heart and kidney problems .. i said I'm sorry to hear that then he said... aye heart lazy 😮and kidney be bothered
I think you have the wrong idea of jobsworth. They are the people who get in the way. Defending their little bit of power to prevent you doing something. Come from the usual comment "it's more than my jobs worth to let you do that"
An insult local to Portsmouth is squiny, meaning someone who moans and complains all the time.
In the army we called it "Ticking" which got elongated to "Ticking like a time bomb" or "More ticking than skippy"
I am quite taken with your trinkets in the case behind you. Love them! Thankyou...♥️
A few more...
Berk - short for Berkshire Hunt - Cockney rhyming slang for the C-word, but means a foolish person.
Mardy - from Yorkshire/Lancashire meaning sulky
Muppet - a foolish, ineffectual person.
Twazzock - for when wazzock isn't enough.
Grockle - a West Country term for a tourist.
In Cornwall a grockle is an emmet (ant).
Cambridgeshire we used all of them pillock and mardy are good 😂😂😂
Thanks for enlightening me on the berk meaning...I love it when I learn new things at 61!!😂
OR NOW DAYS IT WAS USED IN A HARRY ENFIELD SKETCH ,,,, SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY , MATE , BUT BE CAREFULL WHO AND HOW YOU SAY IT
In South Wales, particularly Porthcawl, tourists were called trogs, short for troglodytes!
Here in New Zealand we would say 'Nigel no mates'
Dame Jacinda?
I use wazzack all the time. I'm from Manchester, but my kids grew up down south, and they think it's a Manc word.
I'm glad to see it's not and I'm right 😊
The Canadian insults can last a long, long time and cut really deep. Love 'em all. Don't I, UA-cam censors?
UA-cam censors are a bunch of gormless wazzocks.
Scally is just a shortened version of scallywag ya dunderheid.
I love the inclusion of twit as it reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch Upper Class Twit of the Year. And of course NewWhovians know chav thanks to the (supposed) last human, the Lady Cassandra ("Oh my God... I'm a Chav!"). 😂
Don't forget that "insult" (noun) is not pronounced the same as "insult" (verb) -- when you inSULT someone, you are using an INsult. Most of these monikers/pejoratives are known to South Africans of my generation, btw.
I am 76 and know all these, I spent 40 years in the Royal Navy, my favourite gentle insult it to call someone a ‘wank stain’ !
Wank stain😃😃😄😄😃😙😂😂😂😂😃😃
Hi, many of these are used in the land down under. We have a very English culture.
"bloody hell. sodding, blimey, shagging, knickers, bollocks. oh god, i'm english." - spike, 'buffy the vampire slayer'
spke is a british vampire, played by an american with a first rate english accent - generally accepted as one of the best for an american.
his swearing & insults towards buffy & her friends are top notch, must have gone right over the heads of the american audience & i think he was allowed to be ruder than usual because of that.
brilliant writing, there are quite a few british characters in the show which really stretches the language for your average US teen show.
I loved that episode. 😂
@@jeremyfrost2636 one of the best 🤩
I remember wazzock from childhood t v such as Last of the Summer Wine. Also "gert wazzock"
My gran was Welsh, she used 95% of these words. Hello from Canada
Oh.. div. I use that quite a bit too.
This to me is a Liverpudlian word. I taught in Liverpool in the 70s and the kids used div or divvi a lot.
Love this video going to have to watch it again and again so I can memorize all these insults
My favourite is "Pillock", I often add "uttter" before "nutter", another is dip-stick and "tosser or toss-pot". Is that rude ? How about "apeth" added to daft?
Very rude . A tosser is an exponent of the " hand shandy " or " five knuckle shuffle " and a " toss pot " is a receptacle for the result , similar to a spittoon..... Often one would call a tosser in very simple terms and in polite company , a " W " .
Apeth is short for one eighth of a penny , a totally useless sum of money .
Actually toss-pot is from the 16th century, and means drunkard or heavy drinker. Ale was served in pots, and if you drank it quickly you tossed it down your throat.
@@JudithAtyeo-xn6tm Yes the archaic meaning from Middle English, but for many decades now a tosser has become associated with a wanker and both have been linked with the performing arts although relating to an obnoxious individual. The Great Bard himself and other playwrights of the period like Beaumont and Fletcher are a great source of comical English insults .
@@georgerobartes2008 True, but “Toss-Pot” itself has nothing to do with a receptacle for collecting semen as the previous comment suggested.
I've heard it as a kid. I think daft followed by 'aperth. I think the 'aperth is a saying 'halfpenny' Ya daft aperth. Any other idea?
😅Your channel is great... I congratulate you from Jordan... Really a rare and successful work
'Twit' is my favourite, followed by its saltier version! I also like 'pleb' lol
The best put down I've heard, is about someone bragging to impress, "what do you want? A medal, or a chest to pin on?" It stops them every time.
Awesome session ..
I loved your video. Most of those insults have made their way to Australia. There were a few new ones. There are variations like ‘Nigel no mates’ and ‘Nancy no friends’. I’m going to watch it again to learn the unfamiliar ones.
I was thinking "one insult short of a UA-cam". Sounds about right
Good one!
'one X short of a Y' is a common and fertile source of insults. 'Two cans short of a six-pack'