British slang

Within days of moving to the UK I quickly adjusted many of our everyday terminology to the British ones. Words like; bin, nappy, and rubbish, were among the few that were instantly put into practise. I can't even remember the last time I used the word diaper...

But, of course, words and phrases continue to surprise us. At church yesterday, during our Sunday school lesson, our teacher used "gobsmacked" in a sentence. Using context clues I think I figured out the meaning of it, but our American friends and Tim and I were sitting in the back corner still left a little unsure.
At first I thought she said, "DOGsmacked" but when we googled "dogsmacked" on our iphones up popped YouTube vidoes of dogs being smacked by cats. Not it. So we typed in "gobsmacked" next. Bingo.


gobsmacked- utterly astonished or astounded


Pretty funny word, huh?
(Read with British accent): "I was literally gobsmacked to bits!"
hahaha. Brilliant.


Also, many times women have asked me if I was "broody". I had no idea what they were talking about, but again, I used context clues and kinda figured it out, but I still hesitated when anwering with a shy, "Yeah..." not exactly sure if I should be saying that or not!


broody- having a strong desire to have a baby


OH! Ok in that case, "Yes! Yes, I actually am!"


Here are a few more British slang we have learned along the way...

love- a friendly form of address (informal)

Brits use this ALL THE TIME. Even when a bus driver and I got in an argument he still addressed me as love. Ha.


knackered- exhausted


Tim said people at work use this a lot and he had no idea what they were talking about.
On the flip side, I would love to ask a Brit to say "Boo-yah" and "Ba-donka-donk" and ask them what they think it means.

I know there are many more examples of British slang, but these are the only ones that come to mind right now. I'll post some later I'm sure. In the meantime, "Mind the gap!"