I don't know if I'm using this word correctly. Anywho a fortnight ago, after a big snortful of Skyping with cousin Bill in the UK, I decided to "ponce up" my vocab a bit and go all UK giggy with the colonists. Specifically I was gonna try to use the word "fortnight" in every day American dialogue.
Guess what? Totally lost in translation, un-doable, if not untenable in the U.S. First off, I cracked myself up every time I tried to use it. At the reference desk I'd say to a patron "if you request that article via inter library loan you'll get it within a fortnight" and immediately start laughing so hard, so as to put my head on the desk.
If a friend would say "hey you wanna go out for a drink?"
"Can't tonight, but let's pencil it in within the fortnight."
"WTF a fortnight?"
"Yea, we get paid in a fortnight or upon a fortnight."
"Hey Jane Austen you need to get outta your 'fortnight' more often, you're losing it, bitch."
Now I have had much more success with "Project Meat Raffle." Nobody knows what the hell it means. Just try peppering your daily dialogue w/a random allusion to a "meat raffle." Trust me Americans dig it.
The last time I heard someone use the term 'fortnight', it was an Aussie woman who told me how often she called her aunt here in the U.S. That was at the estate sale Duane and I went to last year where the aunt had died in her sleep.
ReplyDeleteMy personal favorite Brit slang that I've worked into my vocab and everyone seems to 'get it' is the word 'dodgy' -- as in the area around the university is a dodgy neighborhood. I love using that word. :P
I've thought about using 'kip' for nap or 'kit' for my clothes but I figured that might be pushing it.
Wank is working for me.
ReplyDelete:D That's another one that's pretty universal. :P
ReplyDeleteThanks to my Australian reader for contributing to cultural cross pollination, to wit:
ReplyDelete"Beast w/2 backs."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/58450.html
"Bumping uglies."
Hey, what happened to my comment? :P
ReplyDeleteGoggle Blogger went down on May 12/13. Restored blogs but not comments. Please recreate as they were as per usual stellar.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I got from Google. So it looks like all lost comments will be restored. Whew, cuz what's a blog without comments?
ReplyDeleteUpdate (5/13 7:46PM PST): Nearly all posts since Wednesday are restored, now bringing back comments from last couple days. We expect the comments to be back this weekend or sooner.
What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 hours. We’re nearly back to normal — you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored. Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation. We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.
Hey wee Claire. You stay up way later than even the Bitch.
ReplyDeleteI'm editing the last 2 chapters for my current audiobook. I'm paying the price today...
ReplyDelete