Now here you know well I have no place, for not having any real experience with the language (as spoken) by which we are divided (to paraphrase Churchill)

For example:
Define the exact meaning and etymology of the phrase:
"COR, BLIMEY!" (Far as I know it means "I can't believe you did something or made an observation that was so 'Bloody' obvious...")

"THUNDER BOX" I figured out.

And I didn't know that "BLOODY" is actually considered a profane phrase in the UK - until I over used it. Why is that I wonder? Where does that word come from...

(I was told it is considered the same as the term (F) (IE: For Unlawful Carnal Knowlege) that it carries much the same connotation...)

This means actors portraying foul language have an older history in USA media than I thought... All British characters in American films say "BLOODY something" fairly routinely in American films. I think it's a general RULE they worked out in Hollywood - but no one has ever really complained about it. "If your character is British - you HAVE to use this word"


What else is different?

Parts of cars and trucks of course.

Trunks versus BOOTS
Vents versa WING WINDOWS (but you don't see those anymore much)

It's almost a game, thinking of them all.

If someone asks about a word - just for fun lets post it here!

IF YOU THINK OF SOME needless to say -

Them too, by all means


* I bet fully 80% of what I just wrote is considered a very strange point of view...

In Australia you have "Holiday Accomodations" that are what we call "HOTELS" and "MOTELS" (MOTEL is a conjunction of MOTOR and HOTEL, they used to be called "MOTOR HOTELS". As motoring grew, so did the businesses that catered to motorists...)


OH! And one of these days no matter what I have to do I'm going to get to Australia JUST TO TRY A PLATE OF "YABBIE"!!!

 

By the way, what is a "CHUNDER" exactly - I saw something about it somewhere....

 

Chunder is what you would call puke.
The word "thong" is a rubber completely open sandal, I think you call them flip flops, and we all know what a thong is in the USA. lol
One that gets me is your "cellphones" which we call mobile phones, which I reckon makes so much more sense.

 

hood=bonnet
trunk=boot
pink=ping
driver side=passenger side
passenger side=driver side
tranny=trans
wrench=spanner
box-end=socket
lug-nut=wheel-nut
gas=petrol
wreck=crash
park-brake=hand-brake
windshield=windscreen
tire=tyre
exhaust yourself=tire

 

^^ hahaha!!!

e-brake = hand-brake also.

Nobody says "Cor, blimey!" except in movies - and we don't always want to put another shrimp on the barbie lol. Most of the time they aren't shrimp anyway, they're prawns because shrimp are too small for anything but a pizza topping.

that's another one for you...

chunder = puke = lawn pizza

 

There is aline in the Men at Work song (I come from a Land Down Under) that says
"Where women blow and men Chunder" So I made it ChunderDownUnder.

And like Xran said most of the slang you hear In Australian movies made in the U.S went out the door in the 60's. It just a beat up for the Yanks.

 

Here's a couple; Chevrolet=Vauxhall, Garbage=Rubbish, therefore Chevrolet=Rubbish
Jim...& fat Monty

 

Now that was well done, and I love it to tears!

Can't agree more....

 

I didnt pick up on that. Very clever Simon

 

u bored ***

 

But don't you hate it when you're reading our state side brother's posts and they describe stuff as 'drivers side'. The descriptions should be more generic - FFS why can't they just say RHS and LHS. Do they think some dumb ar$e is going to be looking towards the back of the vehicle and go "I can't find this thing on the RHS" cause he's facing backwards and looking on the vehicle's LHS?
And the Poms are always saying 'near-side' and 'off-side' for LHS and RHS cause their lingo comes from the old buggy days. You still use near-side and off-side when talking about horse shoes FFS.

I should have also added:

tranny=cross-dressing pooftah (being from Canberra I have to add 'not that there's anything wrong with that as we don't discriminate based on sexual preference here').

 

If you really want to become quickly screwed up - try joining the NAVY.

You then have, on top of everything else - Red to PORT/ Green to STARBOARD. Old timers call PORT LARBOARD. RECRUITS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WRITE THE WORD PORT on their LEFT HAND, nor STARBOARD on their RIGHT

The back of the bloody thing is AFT, and the grill FOR-ARD. You shall find yourself seated AMIDSHIPS, and the floorboard is the DECK, whilst the "OVERHEAD" is just, well... UP THERE!

If you have any steps under your doors (Oh excuse ME: "HATCHES") they are now "LADDERS"

You will find that your motor conveyance suddenly HAS NO doors - the trunk(BOOT) and Hood(BONNET) are all HATCHES!

You are not allowed to refer to anything made out of glass that is intended for the purpose of seeing outside as anything EXCEPT a "PORT" or "Port Hole" and your expensive air conditioning and heating system will have AS OF THAT INSTANT become simply a "VENTILATOR".

You shall never again refer to Petrol or Diesel, Kero, or gas. The only thing you put in your "VESSEL" is "FUEL" - and don't you ever forget it!

Whatever Radio it came equipped with is now referred to as the "COM SYSTEM".

You must always inform the ENGINE ROOM well in advance of changing speed, and the steering wheel is now the helm.

Your front suspension by the by is now your RUDDER.

You can also throw away all of your old timing slips because they do not express your speed in KNOTS, nor mention any comments from the chief engineer as regards exactly how much STEAM you made...

However - I will give it this:

There have been times that I have been stuck in traffic when I would have given just about anything for a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile to get some grotesquely fat pokey bitch in a clapped out old pontiac station wagon the hell out of my way

 

Hahahahaha that's fantastic!! I'm sitting in my RACK at the moment with a mobile broadband dongle in my PORTHOLE talking to you! A few things I picked up on though -

overhead = deckhead, firewalls = crash bulkheads, wipers = clear-view, fuel... I wish I could remember what the Navy called their standardised diesel haha it's got some weird code name, ladder = campanionway, and you yankees use the IALA B system, so red isn't even red when you head into a harbour, red is bloody green so you've made it hard for yourselves there!!

Like I said though I loved that, it was great to read!

 

GET READY - Because THERE IS MORE!

(Lord help me - here I am, the Monty Python of NAVAL English...)

Remember STAR WARS? YODA?
"DO! - or DO NOT!"

Well, according to Supply:

"THERE IS NO GRAY!"
There is Deck Gray
Machinery Gray
Light Haze Gray
Equipment Gray
Haze Gray
*
*
*

You get the vision? There are probably FIVE BAZILLION shades of gray and beyond - but the US NAVY tried to catoregize them all for the sake of inventory purposes....

This is why I think of the NAVY supply system as "LOGISTICS", however the people who write the actual descriptions and regulations concerning it all are no less than the "DEPARTMENT of SCATOLOGISTICS" (and this includes above ALL "Repair Manuals")

I sincerely hope you don't have the same manuals...

DRINKING WATER from the "SCUTTLEBUTTS" (Water Fountain - if you are a normal person) was once classified by SUPPLY (because of a furor over publishing an "MSDS" (Material Safety Data Sheet) for every last thing they could think of that the NAVY Department could be potentially sued for the abuse of) was DETERMINED TO BE A SUBSTANCE REQUIRING AN MSDS ...
(You will laugh your behind off over this)


"BECAUSE IT CONTAINED NO MINERALS OR OTHER ESSENTIAL VITAMINS NECESSARY FOR HEALTH"

~ No kidding, it was distilled from seawater. DISTILLED FREAKING WATER is kinda like that - OKAY?

It is assumed that the average sailor WILL EAT FOOD ONCE IN A WHILE...


Or at least, the last time I looked

And thereby of course, acquire the rest of the necessary essentials from it...
Don't you think?

 

hahahahaha it's identical in the offshore oil/gas sector, greywolf. one of our guys spent 20yrs in the RAN and says the only difference is we don't eat as many hot chips as boys in the pus