I can only speak for England, personally.
There’s plenty of phrases that seem outdated now. My parents are cockneys, so I picked up a lot of rhyming slang growing up… that is definitely dying out 😅
But, simpler words have changed too - mainly nouns. For example: cinema (used to be the pictures), phone (used to be mobile phone). I’m sure there’s plenty more… but it makes you realise just how much has changed.
I love the term "pictures" for cinema! Might try and bring it back...
Go really old school and call them the talkies.
Old school cool. The flicks.
Or even older: the magic-lantern show.
Hm, I guess when you think about it, movies are older than talkies!
In some places it’s never dropped off! Have personally never used any phrase for the cinema other than “the pictures” lmao
I’m actually happy to hear that
I live in Leeds, Headingley area, there is a very lovely old Picture House called Hyde Park Picture House. Still operational and shows new movies. in fact, they just got a grant to upgrade their building and has become sort of a popular cafe/movie place, i'm really happy to see it's thriving
Is that the one that has an old fashion pause halfway through and they serve ice cream at the front of the theatre itself!? 'Gas lamp' replica's at the sides too?
They don't usually have an intermission anymore. Those are actually genuine gas lamps (supposedly the only UK cinema that still has them)
It's still a thing up here in scotland anyway
There is an old cinema not far from me called “The picture house”. Always thought it sounded sweet in an old fashioned way.
Back in my day, there was a cinema called The Picture House where I used to live. I saw Jurrasic Park there when I was around 8yrs old. It's now a Whetherspoons. Where I live now, the old cinema here is a Whetherspoons too.
I always called them the flicks
I still say the pictures I'm from Scotland and seems to be quite common, my gran in her 80s says A picture even if watching a film on TV she says she watched a picture lol I always found it funny.
I think nobody calls anybody a tart anymore.
I usually hear it in the context of pet owners describing their pet as a tart for the number of times they'll go up to a stranger and beg for cuddles and snacks.
That’s hilariously true hahaha
I call my (male) dog a slag for the same reason
My girl dog gets called a slut for the way she lays, absolutely no shame 😃
My cat is a slut for every tradesman that does work at ours
My cat is a lap slut and he loves a guest lap!
I sometimes call our cat Tarticus when he’s rolling around showing his belly
It is definitely dying out in younger generations, but hear it all the time from older family members
Also, using cow as an endearment is definitely dying out. "Poor cow" isn;t something someone would like these days
“Daft cow” is on my list of moderate road rage insults
Always been a fan of, "Daft bint" but very much out of fashion. Along with the normalised misogyny I suppose
A former work colleague realised how much he was ranting whilst driving when he exclaimed "stupid cow" after someone did something stupid, and his toddler in the back bellowed moo.
Old McDonald sing song from play group blending seamlessly with driving
I used silly cow this morning!
My mum uses cow a lot, but it is definitely not endearing.
I quite often call my daughter (23) a soppy tart.
Misread as "Sloppy tart" and was momentarily taken aback
As did I. What a statement 😂
recently revived the use of tart when referring to my cat being sociable with anyone new she meets
With the exception of your Mum, the saucy Tart.
“Wind your neck in”
I've got preteens, I say "wind your neck in" and "knock it off" quite regularly.
Knock it off sounds American
My exceptionally cockney nan was forever telling us to “knock it off”
Definitely old school British, in my childhood it would've been accompanied by a thick ear
Wind your neck and stay in your own lane are widely used here too for my 6 year old twins. So much so one of them told their Grandma to stay in her own lane the other week.
Stay in your lane is relatively new and American FYI. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't use it, just pointing it out due to the topic set by OP
At da endada day yeh, yous can all jog on
Still a very common saying in Northern Ireland
How’s you’re father
Pretty much all Cockney rhyming slang
“Man United are having a good season”
I've never heard someone actually use 'apples and pears' ingenuously.
But some cockney rhyming slang such as "I'll grass you up" is pretty much here to stay.
I think a surprising amount of rhyming slang has been integrated so much that we don't even think about it anymore.
I'm not even from London (my granddad was, but he died when I was 10) and I regularly say barnet, butchers, barney, brass tacks, china, dicky bird, half-inch, Hank Marvin, loaf, porkies and seppo. Ruby and syrup are another two I wouldn't bat an eyelid at, even though I rarely have any need to use them myself lol.
Likewise. Let's scarper, have a butch at this, not heard a dicky bird, get down to brass tacks, bloody septics. Brown bread. Dodgy syrup, and more recently, catching the Mileys or Billy Ray (virus, ie Covid...)
Many more will be used by my very south London neighbours, without irony - I got on the dog and i called the Duchess. Sometimes my neighbour puts it on thick for effect, saying 'I was off down the frog to the rubble, told this geezer to take his titfer off'... A fiver is still a lady, things are still half-inched.
Let's scarper
It was right now o'clock when I realised that "scarper" is from Scapa Flow (to go).
Another one that comes to mind is "brassic", from boracic lint (skint). I don't know if the young 'uns still use it, but it's quite common with us oldies around these parts.
have a butch at this
Butcher's, not butch.
Butcher's hook = look.
I know. Shortened phrases in getting even shorter shocker!
Is grass cockney rhyming slang? I thought it was just from snake in the grass
Apparently so. Grasshopper, copper. Doesn't make much sense, mind.
Also to 'cream' your opponent. Cream cracker, knacker. That's the theory anyway.
Presumably Americans using 'dough' for money is bread and honey, money, dough. Again, not confirmed 100%
My dad has been known to say "up the apples and pears to Bedfordshire". He's not the least bit Cockney he just says things like that
Pillock
James May has been keeping ‘pillock’ alive for a while. Bless that man.
I also enjoy using that word.
Made me think of Martin.. ‘YOU PILLOCKING PILLOCK’.
Basically the entire Yorkshire dialect. There was a post on the front page either yesterday or the day before, some girl complaining about ice cream prices (and she was absolutely right). Many people struggled with her words, nobody with her dialect.
When I was a lad, you had to consciously change the way you spoke when you were talking to anyone outside of Yorkshire - or even to some people from different parts of Yorkshire.
It's people like me who are to blame though. I only use full dialect when I'm speaking to people my own age now. I even use (nearly) standard English with my own kids. Also yesterday, my son dropped a scone on the kitchen floor, which was covered in mud and grass he'd just walked in, picked it up, and ate it. I told him he was scabbier than a Cleethorpes donkey, and he had no idea what I was talking about. That's why it's died out. We didn't pass it on. At least we still have the accent, though.
When I WERE a lad. 😑
This were all fields
cue Hovis music and young lad on a shopping bike going past on the cobbles
I bet they say "the other" too
Yknow, it’s not difficult to bring it back - I speak with a fair few Scots words littered throughout my vernacular (compared to a lot of my friends), and I noticed I had stopped using them.
This actually made me feel really sad, because a lot of it came from growing up with my Nana who passed in 2019. I kinda felt like I’d lost part of her.
I just started actively trying to use words I knew my Nana would use (so instead of saying “let’s get comfy” I’d make the conscious decision to say “let’s coorie in!”).
It’s a bit weird and unnatural at first, but it’s amazing how quickly it becomes second nature and you stop thinking about it.
So if you are sad about it going, it’s not too late. And it leaves something nostalgic for your kids even if they don’t pick it up themselves.
I feel like I got part of my Nana back.
I do my best to keep the dialect alive but it's sadly on its last legs. Folk are either above it or don't know it.
One thing Scots had that English dialects don't is that it had some level of standardisation. Obviously there isn't a dictionary but people have s better sense of how to write it. It's also get the sense that it's more culturally important to a larger percentage of the population.
It's also get the sense that it's more culturally important to a larger percentage of the population.
I'm sure it will swing in the other direction and future generations will start to bring it back as a trendy way to stand out. It's not fully dead as long as video evidence of it being spoken exists.
Basically the entire Yorkshire dialect
followed by
When I was a lad
scabbier than a Cleethorpes donkey
If i'm hungry I still say "I could eat a scabby horse between two bread vans"
I refuse to let my yorkshire accent die. My mam lived in teesside till she was 16 so my accent will lean into that if I'm at work (I live on the yorkshire/teesside border) My partner is scottish and he gets so confused when I say things like: - mafting - mizzly - snicket - paggered - jiggered - hacky - up street instead of off t'shops (as that's his go to phrase along with ey up) - sithi
He said if I ever lose my accent he'd be gutted. My ex hated that I dropped my h's even though we grew up together.
Working 9 while 5 today, only stopping for me snap!
I used "while" instead of "until" in a meeting a few weeks back and people looked at me like I had two heads. Completely slipped my mind that people outside of Yorkshire don't say this.
No from Yorkshire, but close. Determined to keep allive some of the quintessentially northern phrases my dad would use.
"Put wood in'th hole" usually directed at the Mrs, to get her to stop leaving the door open.
Or
"Tek the air outa that" when handing my mug to someone on their way to make a brew.
A lot of vocabulary is becoming Americanized, e.g. youngsters say hood and trunk instead of bonnet and boot.
My youngest said ‘trash can’ instead of bin yesterday 😔
My barber, who is in his very early twenties, referred to his friends being "911 operators". I was too shocked to even challenge him on it. I know you can dial 911 and still reach our emergency services, but still...
you can dial 911
Wait, what? Is this true?
This, mainly because of YouTubers. My little cousins say things like “sidewalk” for pavement and “elevator” instead of lift. One of them called the bin the garbage a few months ago. The internet is killing off British English quickly.
They'd need to be watching an awful lot of Youtube if references there overtake how much they hear adults talk about pavements and bins. I have heard a few accents from kids that seem to verge on American, especially those without parents with a regional accent or in an area without much of one though.
YouTuber is a great term in itself - sounds like someone being accused of being a potato.
Yes! I noticed that too…not around me they don’t! 😂 I have a much younger sister and I give her a good lecture anytime she uses the American term.
My son says 'pissed' instead of 'pissed off'. As a dad my duty is always to ask why he/she was drunk
"I'm so pissed"
Get him a kebab!
I have a foreign partner who's learned English from a young age but from all sorts of different sources. When she uses an Americanism, I point it out. Slowly but surely, I hope to eradicate them all from her vocabulary.
Doing gods work
It still sounds un-British to me when I hear "frunk", as in the second storage area on electric cars.
Still sounds better than "fruit", I suppose.
Still sounds better than "fruit"
I see where you've gone wrong, it's supposed to be pronounced "froot"
I don't even know what this means.
They call the police "feds", which is particularly fucking stupid because the FBI is American, although I suspect the actual police like it because it sounds far cooler than "pigs".
I don't think anyone still calls them Peelers though. It's been a while since I heard that.
Is using a ‘Z’ to spell Americanised instead of an ‘S’ an Americanism?
"Have it off" aside from reruns of Bottom I think it's basically gone.
A good boinking. Some might even say a jolly rogering.
Having lived through the 80s, I'm not convinced that "bonk" or indeed "romp" were ever used widely outside the circles of tabloid newspaper sub-editors
My parents always said bonking I guess as a more kid friendly term.
Note: not talking about their own bonking I wince to add
A bit of the old how's your father
Slap and tickle
Getting your end away
It was used in Alan Partridge a few years ago in some episode where he was trying to be one of the lads: "Ooh, I'd like to have it off with her!". It was funny exactly because nobody says that any more.
Ooooohhhh sex.
She was certainly at the front of the queue when god was handing out chests...mammary glands
“Getting a leg over”
I remember a colleague asking for some annual leave at Christmas because she hadn't had it off in years
"You'd make a better door than a window"
"It's like Blackpool Illuminations in here!"
Usually said when you've left a singular light on somewhere in the room.
Ye born in a barn?!
Because you left a door open by accident/that doesn’t need to be closed.
I still use this 😅 it’s a goodun
I know you're a pain but I can't see through you .
"Pack it in" to misbehaving children
I say this frequently to the dog!
I also say it to the dog, and I catch myself and I remind myself of my mother 😂
This is said daily in our house, Usually me to my partner...
Nobody under 40 says "Cross" meaning angry anymore
I do enjoy using the word "cross" as it's one above annoyed, but one below angry. It has it's own place!
I'm not sure they ever did, except to small children.
Anyone saying "I am very, very cross" immediately sounds like a teacher or parent trying not to swear.
Primary school teachers love the word Cross
I love cross it’s funny asf
I recently asked someone "what side" a programme was going to be on the other day, he had no idea what i meant
"programme" is getting rarer too. I stick with it but everyone seems to say "show" now.
As in "turn the tele over, will you?"
No one ever calls anyone a "berk" any more.
Berk is great because it hits all the right noises of a harsh swearword (you can really spit that K out) while also being considered mild enough for polite company.
Which is funny, as it's rhyming slang for cunt
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. The enunciation of such words can really alter the meaning. Like I’ll use the soft c when calling someone a cunt in good faith. But I’ll use the hard c (as in stress the k sound) if I’m angry.
Noticed this doesn’t translate well over the pond when I called my brother a cunt in the US. My god, the way peoples head turned, I’m surprised they didn’t get whiplash.
I heard (read) the phrase "Knocking shop" last week, realised I'd not heard that for decades.
I haven’t heard ‘snogging’ in about 15 years.
Is it because you haven't been snogged?
When I was in primary school (pre-2000) it was ‘snogging’
Then at the start of secondary school it was ‘have it off’
Then maybe we realised that meant actual sex to a lot of people and it was changed to ‘got off with’
Then it inexplicably changed to ‘get in’
It was a nightmare to keep up with
Slag. My cousin said it the other day and I realised how long it’s been since I’ve heard it haha
And Slapper. Probably becuase its not really an insult these days.
‘I didn’t become a little bit of a slag, I became a TOTAL SLAG’
This is still quoted so much though hahaha
“That’s good value!”
I’m laughing so I don’t cry
Gordon bennet!
I don't use but I still love the phrase. When my granny was a nurse they had a Gordon Bennet come in with a fishook up his bum
I've noticed kids don't say 'going out' or 'asked out' anymore to refer to high school relationships.
Y'know like 'Joe asked Becky out and now they are going out.'
Now it's 'Joe and Becky are dating'
Bloody americans
“Dating” ugh, don’t like that one 😅 saying that, I think it’s the same for saying you “fancy” someone
people my age definitely still say going out or asked out, I'm a teenager lol
'Courting'
When I was a teenager 30 years ago my Nan would always ask: "Are you and your lady friend still courting?"
That’s interesting. I feel like when I hit my twenties I switched to ‘dating’ because I associated ‘going out’ so heavily with being a pre-teen/teen and therefore it sounded juvenile to me. But you’re right, ‘dating’ is just the American alternative.
"Man United are doing well", hasn't been uttered for a while
“I’ll marmalize you” I still use it as I love the word.
I'm sure I saw in another thread somewhere, but in any case it bears repeating here, referring to young women as 'birds' seems rare now. And that wasn't just a local dialect thing, I think it was widespread across the UK in the 50s/60s/70s (see any episode of The Sweeney, for example, or Carry On films).
Got to be careful with that one. Mostly hated these days but some lasses love it.
Working class south east, the phrase bird is alive and well, I heard it all the time, like “where’s Steve”. “At his birds”
My nan used to say "five and twenty past" and "five and twenty to" when giving the time. You definitely don't hear that very often.
These are very alive and well in Nottingham!
They must have missed out on a true childhood experience then. No childhood is complete until you are told "no, we have choc ices in the freezer at home"
Oh my god, the choc ice. Was usually forgotten about, squashed in the bottom of the freezer and - despite great efforts - would end up eating the paper as well…good times.
I was thinking earlier about how the Radio used to be called the “Wireless,” due to having no wires to the transmitter, whilst being called a radio because it transmits sound by radio waves.
But I was thinking the times are moving on now where a lot of radio is transmitted digitally through the internet now. Especially with new services like “premium” with no ads.
Of course people still listen to FM and DAB but I was wondering if the term radio would ever drop out. “Wireless” is slowly phasing out with the older generation
Interesting. True, not much is labelled “wireless” nowadays, as it’s already expected.
Basically all regional slang is dying and getting replaced with silly sounding roadman/MLE speech.
You're from fucking Derbyshire, why are you speaking like you're from camden?
People not from London speaking MLA doesn't sit right with me for some reason. It's like Americans adopting a hood accent.
All of these phrases are still used you ninnies
Bonk
I think this has only ever been used by Sun readers.
Bonk and Boink made me feel physically Ill
You're doing it wrong
"Gannet" - someone eating a lot +/or eating fast
"I'm not as green as I'm cabbage-looking"
I wrote the term “Willy-nilly” down the other day in a paper and then I thought, that sounds mad, do people still say that? I have lived outside of the U.K. for years and think I have lost a lot of British expressions from my daily vernacular so I’m never sure.
You bloody pillock!
That's a load of codswallop!
I'm fairly old but I still call it "the pictures". They are still "films" to me too, never "movies".
‘Tosser’
Not where I’m from haha
Everyone in my family still says "normal telly" when referring to BBC / ITV / Channel 4. I think it was to distinguish between the main channels and the sky box, no idea why we still use it!
I also still say "wind it back" like I'm talking about VHS tapes when asking someone to pause and rewind a programme. Ah the good old days!
Nobody goes for a Jimmy any more. I remember my grandmother would say "Oh I must have a Jimmy" when she needed a wazz.
Avocado Pears. They just get called Avocados now.
French stick.
We're so cosmopolitan now that everyone calls it a baguette!
Big girl's blouse. Used in a demeaning way to describe someone (male).
My Grandma used to say things like:
Stop being a Mary Ellen
You're like a man made of band
No idea what they meant, other than being vaguely insulting 😅
Also:
I'm not capped
Saying happen instead of maybe, as in 'happen they'll do this?'
Daft haporth
My partner who is 43 (I'm older)had never heard the phrase "I've got your number" used in the context of not being fooled by someone.
Mingin[g] - when something is disgusting or gross.. very rarely hear people use that anymore but I know I do and so do my sisters.
Edit: another would probably bc cac for 'shit', mostly used to say 'bird cac'..
I feel the way we speak is so different than it was even a decade ago. I keep hearing British people refer to a fringe as ‘bangs’ and even Autumn as ‘fall’! These aren’t ones that are dying out but it doesn’t bode well. I wouldn’t mind if it was a more natural language change, but instead it’s just every other country in the world becoming heavily Americanised.
"There's many a mickle makes a muckle"
Wazzock.
Randy. I refuse to use horny, too American.
I've been bringing "bellend" back
Put wood in't hole! Something my great grandmother used to say. She also used to tell her dog to 'ger'under't table' as an instruction for it to get out the way. She was from Glossop if anyone knows that area.
“I’ll have your guts for garters” was common when I was young, but in hindsight is a pretty grim phrase
I’ve not heard “I’ll knock your block off” for about 20 years
No one seems to say boffin anymore.
"You plonker"
Gordon Bennet!
I’ve always love saying ‘no! Shan’t’ in a very posh accent. I guess it’s dying out because it sound like shart
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