Q for Brits on British vernacular

[GroobySteven]

I'm from Newcastle which is the coal mining area ... and I've never heard that saying - which movie was it from?

It could have been Welsh of course and not English ... which would explain everything.

Don't think they talk like that in Guy Richie movies, even cheeky Cockney chappies don't do that.

Flabby - it's unlikely someone would say "blow" a fag unless they were joking with a Septic. They may say, "smoke a fag" or have a "puff on a fag".

seanchai

[Prospero]

I am english and live in London and have been all over the country and i have NEVER heard that expression before. Could be youth slang but i doubt it.

[muttley]

Im new to UK myself and the other day, I had a customer come in and ask if we sell faggots. I had no Idea what he was referring to. I thought maybe he was old fashioned and wanted something for his BBQ. Afterwards the manager showed me what a faggot was. Its apparently some kind of meatball.

[Odelay]

I'm from Newcastle which is the coal mining area ... and I've never heard that saying - which movie was it from?

It was a chick flick that a friend insisted I watch called "Possession" from a few years back. Gwyneth Paltrow and all that. Anyway Aaron Eckhardt is trying to get the skinny on Paltrow's character from a British guy who uses that phrase to describe her as a ball buster.

I, of course, could have misheard it, but I went back and listened to it a couple of times and the guy's enunciation was pretty clear.

Again, probably some clever turn of phrase that the screenwriter thought would be witty.

[emmettray]

I agree with Seanchai. I'm from Liverpool and we definitely have our own accent and vernacular as do many regions in England and I have travelled coast to coast North, South, East and West but I've never heard that expression any time or anywhere.

MerriCait Please don't think that people actually speak like they do in guy ritchie shite drivel. This affected, exaggerated vernacular is referred to over here as 'Mockney' and I think is mostly for the purposes of entertaining overseas viewers. If someone actually spoke to me like that I'd consider it an insult and would be inclined to land a 'Right-hander' on them.

[TT BOY]

i'm from the north of england, where we have
loads of local sayings and that's a new one on me.

[mattavs1]

Maybe you misheard it. "She makes men's blood run cold" sounds more likely. On the topic of mishearing there was an article about mishearing song lyrics. Eg in Purple Haze "Scuse me while I kiss this guy" was how some people heard "Scuse me while I kiss the sky"

[Tomfurbs]

^^ That's true, but when Hendrix cottoned on to the fact that people were hearing 'kiss this guy', he started singing it to take the piss. On some live recordings it is really clear.

[Belgie]

The script for Possession can be found online here:

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_s...il-labute.html

I checked it, and the lines were :
- Yes, but I'd be careful.
- Why? What's she like?
- She thicks men's blood with cold.
- Great.

[Belgie]

The line comes from Samuel Taylor Coleridges epic poem, "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"

The relevant verse was:

Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.

It's not Shakespeare, but it would be well known amongst, shall we say, certain classes in England. People who've had a classical education, Oxford graduates, etc...