Phrase For Phriday
These Phrases for Phriday are something that I started a while ago in response to a suggestion from one of my readers, the lovely PJ. They (I hope) provide examples of how Brits and Americans (and other English speakers around the world) are often, as the saying goes, divided by a common language.
I prefer to begin these light-hearted posts by admitting right here that I’m not at all sure if these are particularly solely British words and phrases. However, I have to start somewhere and that means making some assumptions… they sound pretty British to me, or to put it another way, these are instances when I believe those Americans and others I mentioned might be tempted to think, “WTF does that mean?”. But I’m providing nothing more here than my personal interpretation of the words in question. Of course, I could be wrong – nothing new there then, either!
~
Today’s phrase is…
Follow me home… which is an expression of surprise. Perhaps an example of that might be if a very ordinary and somewhat older man perhaps made an outrageous sexual suggestion as a joke to a very attractive and sexy young female friend. He would no doubt be gobsmacked (is that another Brit phrase?) if, out of the blue, she said, “Okay. Your place or mine?” The astounded man might well respond with, “Well, follow me home!” In which case, if she didn’t understand his vernacular, he could end up with a very hard time back home trying to explain the presence of the young woman to his wife!
Have a good weekend… 😉
December 12, 2009 at 07:21
That counts for two– I never knew what gobsmacked meant either. I like learning this stuff– Never know when I might run into a Brit 🙂
jj
December 12, 2009 at 07:50
That’s true – we get around in the darndest places 😆
December 12, 2009 at 23:05
Gobsmacked is indeed British…but I knew that one!
Here are a couple of old Mid-west American phrases that were popular when my mom was young:
Oh my stars and garters! (means ‘oh my goodness!’)
Cheese and crackers! (instead of ‘Jesus Christ!)
December 12, 2009 at 23:50
Thanks, PJ. That’s interesting because there are a number of Brit sayings that kind of have the same sounds or even the same number of syllables and rhythm to them as somewhat stronger expletives