what's a British English word from your region that no one else understands?

Canny in Geordie just means good, doesn't it? That's how my mum, who's from Northumberland, uses it. I've also heard it used as 'kind of' in the north east as in Scotland.

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rice_fish_and_eggs@reddit

Yeah can do if your talking about an object I always took it to mean nice when used about a person.

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Hoisty : hoisty car is a stolen car Snide : imitation brand a copy Tab : cigarette Paraffin budgie : Liverpool helicopter Rozzers : cockney for police Bizzies : Geordie for police Radgie : someone who is from a rough area of Town and is considered lively. Charver not chav : dresses in tracksuits Nike Bergahaus jacket cap socks tucked
In socks, always wears nikes.

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Equal_Emu6152@reddit

Canny : you good mate "aye am canny you" Bairn : she's a canny bairn "she's a good girl" You can also refer to bairn as some Thing you love very much. It's mostly used for kids. Clem: av scranned a load of key today must be 50 Clem " I have ate a lot I feel 50 stone" Ket : sweets "In dying for some ket" Chucky : got mesel a car on Chucky " I have purchased a car on finance" Can also be used in the context of She mauled the Chucky "my lady friend made me feel 🤘😝🤘 fantastic. L There are loads more that's the most popular.

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realglasseyes@reddit

So I know ket as something gooey, sugary and white, and a bit nasty, like the artificial cream you used to get in cheap pastries, and so by analogy also used to mean seagull shit. or maybe it's the other way round.

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Equal_Emu6152@reddit

Ket is also ket amine yeah different context 🙃

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realglasseyes@reddit

Aye just a bit

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OMITN@reddit

Though I’m not from there and don’t live there, I’m amused that in St Helens (Merseyside/Lancashire) men call other men “love”.

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TwoPlyDreams@reddit

You alright duck?

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karen_the_ripper@reddit (OP)

I heard this in Nottingham once and genuinely looked around for an actual duck. Nobody warned me that strangers in the Midlands call you duck as a term of affection. In Italy we use "tesoro" (treasure), which at least makes you feel valuable. A duck just makes you feel like you're at a pond.

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Emotional-Raise3967@reddit

This is a remembered fact so may not be 100% accurate but the Midlands ‘duck’ is an old Saxon word ‘duca’ which means ‘duke’ and so is a term of respect. It’s not a reference to water fowl.

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Mother_Ad7869@reddit

Stoke?

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Illustrious_Bus8440@reddit

No. Mi Bacon Cob was cawd.

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psychopathic_shark@reddit

Ay up Duck

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VignetteRacecarBlues@reddit

Ya ariiighhht ducky?

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No_Recording_369@reddit

Before Arctic Monkeys it was 'mardy' for Sheffield

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Emotional-Raise3967@reddit

There’s some rate mardy buggers in Derbyshire too.

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notneb56@reddit

And Birmingham, although I haven't heard it for quite a few years.

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AdGroundbreaking3483@reddit

Mardy also used in Manchester

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ScotlandisThrowAway@reddit

I was pretty shocked to hear that outwith isn’t really used outwith Scotland.

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Active_Definition_57@reddit

I frequent an online forum where an English poster who lives in Scotland uses "outwith" a lot. I would probably use "outside of" or "other than" myself. However, it is quite easy to work out what it means.

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RBisoldandtired@reddit

Why use two words when one will suffice

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Active_Definition_57@reddit

Because I don't want to sound 200 years old.

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RBisoldandtired@reddit

It’s a word very much used in the modern day

“I’m too cool to use words”

Nerd

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Chevalitron@reddit

You can always tell a Scot when they use it nonchalantly without realising it sounds like a Game of Thrones character to everyone else.

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maceion@reddit

"wiersh" The specific sharp-sweet taste of a ripe strawberry.

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realglasseyes@reddit

I wonder if that's related to 'wheyish', like something that tastes of neither nothing nor something. A bit watery and tasteless.

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sully-_-420@reddit

Blowing a hooley (Really windy) had a few random looks after saying this over the years

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RBisoldandtired@reddit

Blawn

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SpaceWomble64@reddit

I like this one but I’m not sure where I picked it up from

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NaaNaaRitRit@reddit

I use it in SE England, and a few mates / colleagues do too.

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Prestigious-Age-3644@reddit

Me mam says that, as do i

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MeatGayzer69@reddit

North East?

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Prestigious-Age-3644@reddit

Indeed

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sully-_-420@reddit

I'm in Cornwall so always thought it was a cornish thing but clearly not

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DTH2001@reddit

I must have missed that episode of Balamory

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Alternative-Emu2000@reddit

It's why Archie wasn't invited back for the new series.

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imtheorangeycenter@reddit

I was always under the impression this originated from Isle of Man, but I hear it everywhere

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IAMACiderDrinker@reddit

Not something I say as I’m not from round here, but colleagues of mine use ‘nesh’ to describe someone who is always cold

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DaddyK3tchup@reddit

Stoke?

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steveakacrush@reddit

I use nesh (as in someone acting soft because it's a bit cold - yes, that specific). I'm from the wilderness between Manchester and Sheffield.

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Commercial_Reward_78@reddit

Flat-shared with a Bristol lad at college. Boiler broke down, I bitched about washing my face in freezing cold water, he called me “nesh”. I’d never heard the word.

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Maus_Sveti@reddit

I’ve always heard nesh to mean soft (of character) in general, not specifically cold, but looking on google, it seems the cold association is more popular.

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Practical-Cup-4365@reddit

Wazzock - obviously critical of someone (Midlands)

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Aben_Zin@reddit

Commonly used by Dwarves in Warhammer (the Old World)

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Grunn84@reddit

Well thats just because unlike most of pop culture warhammer dwarfs are Yorkshiremen rather than Scots.

Aside from the accents the character is spot on too.

One is a bunch of belligerent boastful grumbling miners and engineers constantly downplaying others achievements to talk about how much tougher things were "back in their day", and the dwarfs are even worse.

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Active_Definition_57@reddit

I associate it with the comedy collective The Grumbleweeds.

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m1bnk@reddit

That's a lot more widespread than you think, common army slang

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moofacemoo@reddit

Also used in the North , possibly other areas too.

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realglasseyes@reddit

None that I'd say without thinking but from when I was a kid visiting grandma:

winnet, clarts, ket, vennel

cracket, howk, sneck, cuddy, By! Eee!!!

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branniganfringe@reddit

Chickypig - woodlouse

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Caveman1214@reddit

Red sauce- Northern Ireland. Mention it in England and you’ll get blank stares, I thought yanks were thick for trying to give us chopped up tomatoes once but when an English waitress tried to give us salt and vinegar instead we were gobsmacked

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thecraftybee1981@reddit

Red sauce and ketchup are interchangeable in Liverpool, with red sauce used more commonly, I think.

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miggleb@reddit

I think the waitress was just a bit thick tbh.

Not only is it common, it's easy enough to decipher

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MacViller@reddit

I don't think this is an across the board thing. I'm from the Midlands and I grew up using red sauce.

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Caveman1214@reddit

Fair, I was in the southeast

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Competitive-Chest438@reddit

Used it growing up in the north west too.

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Grunn84@reddit

Stop your squinnyin, you sound like a right dinlo.

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branniganfringe@reddit

Pompey represent mush

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Leader_Bee@reddit

Ginnel

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Prestigious-Age-3644@reddit

Cowp ya creels is to fall head over heels also, my mam just reminded ne of that one

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prustage@reddit

The words "mither" and "mard" don't seem to travel well. They were commonly used words in the north of England when I was growing up but when I came to live down the south-east I was met with a total lack of comprehension.

[mither - to annoy by constantly pestering, asking questions, begging; mard - human trait of being over sensitive, risk-averse, easily upset or in constant need of attention]

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Cha_r_ley@reddit

In North Wales, ‘mither’ becomes ‘moider’. Someone said it to me when I was in uni up there and I legit thought they were saying “murder” in a hilarious old timey movie accent.

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Aben_Zin@reddit

That’s gurt lush!

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papayametallica@reddit

Cwtch. A warm hug

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Aben_Zin@reddit

Literally just Welsh

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C2BK@reddit

English accents and word usage is very much regional. It's becoming less so, but my father, born in the early 1930s, could identify differences between villages that were less than ten miles apart.

My favourite, though it may be a bad example as it covers rather more than our immediate area, is "obbly onker" meaning conker (seed of the horse chestnut).

Interestingly, "Obbly onker / Conker" is a similar construction to Cockney rhyming slang, even though we're 100+ miles from the sound of Bow Bells!

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miggleb@reddit

I thought "kecks" was more widespread than it seems to be

It's trousers

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Aben_Zin@reddit

Do you not remember the song “all the little kids with their pumped up kecks…”?

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carljpg@reddit

Kecks is underwear..

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JackyRaven@reddit

It's from Hindi & came over during the Raj. Wearing them is one of the 5 Ks of Sikhism.

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miggleb@reddit

Ahh no way TIL

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CouchAlchemist@reddit

That's new. Never heard it in the south. Keck's just sounds right for trousers which itself sounds like machine rather than a garment.

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Cliver84@reddit

Coatening

Tek no gorm

Oo’s benna skrike

What’s tha skennin at?

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Redgrapefruitrage@reddit

East Anglia -

“On the huh” means wonky.

Billywitch is another name for a May bug / cockchafer.

Shew instead of show. E.g, “let me shew you.”

“What a gannet” means what a greedy person.

There’s tons. The accent is wild but I love it nonetheless!

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prustage@reddit

We used "gannet" in the North too. Whenever my Mum invited her family round to eat my Dad would ask "when are the gannets coming?" (they ate a lot).

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Redgrapefruitrage@reddit

I was (and still am) the family gannet! I’ve always had a big appetite.

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Sea-Still5427@reddit

Also addressing people as bor/buh (pronunciation varies between Norfolk and Suffol). Nothing to do with bro/bruh or even boy as it's related to bauer in German or boer in Dutch, meaning farmer.

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GinatheGiraff@reddit

Old boy meaning any male of any age. Frequently heard in Norfolk. Young old boy for child and old old boy for old man.

Probably why in the past NFN was often seen in medical notes of the more intellectually challenged. Normal For Norfolk.

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captain_crackerjack@reddit

While instead of till to denote a period of time, eg nine while five.

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Conscious-Rope7515@reddit

There's a story that British Rail put up a sign at an unmanned level crossing in Yorkshire reading "Do not cross while the light is flashing". Nearly caused a fatality or two.

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Cliver84@reddit

I heard that one too

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Unhappy_Spray_7127@reddit

Does that mean you're saying "nine till five"?

In which case that's equally as bizarre 😂 who says 9 till anything?

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captain_crackerjack@reddit

Well, if people are talking about a work shift, they might say nine while five, for instance.

Or we might say “I’m here while eight” if they’re planning to stay until eight o clock. It’s not really that hard, tbf

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Unhappy_Spray_7127@reddit

I'm not saying it's hard 🤷

I was asking if it means "9 minutes until", because that seemed really weird. Not many people would say "9 minutes till 5" rather than just saying "10 to 5".

I understand now, thanks to the work context, that you mean 9-5 etc.

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captain_crackerjack@reddit

Gotcha, sorry. We wouldn’t say it’s five while nine to mean 8:55, no :)

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Scary-Zucchini-1750@reddit

I thought the same to be fair. I thought you guys were just being really specific about the time 😂

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DPropish@reddit

Also ‘wait for me while I come back’

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karen_the_ripper@reddit (OP)

Wait, so "nine while five" means nine UNTIL five?? That would confuse me so badly. In my head, "while" means "during", so I'd read that as "nine during five", which means nothing. English is already hard enough without regions secretly reassigning words.

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jrw1982@reddit

Yep, it was only about 5yrs ago I first heard this (and im 40s and from the midlands) and it still baffles my brain now (I work with someone who lives in Dewsbury who says it all the time....and I mock him every time he says it!)

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captain_crackerjack@reddit

Yep. That’s Sheffield for you. If you’ve grown up with it it’s second nature though.

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TwoPlyDreams@reddit

OMG. Or the brummie brought instead of bought.

Makes them sound illiterate.

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OldChorleian@reddit

Klempt

!Ahm suh klempt, ah cudd ayt a flock bed.!<

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jennywren72@reddit

Parky in Yorkshire, meaning it's a bit cold or chilly.

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Motown_Junk@reddit

Corsey - pavement Nottinghamshire.

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Palealedad@reddit

Lots of rhyming slang, especially when compound or truncated. Most people don't use it all the time, just the odd word, but it can be confusing.

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AdGroundbreaking3483@reddit

Moider

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Dizzle85@reddit

Op says British English. Loads of people start saying Scots or Scots English words.

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Slightly_underated@reddit

Prentley - my great non used to say this meaning she will be there soon or do something soon.

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Single-Aardvark9330@reddit

Slippery fish

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Professional-Test239@reddit

I’m in Wales and we’ve got an entire other language on the go.

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Stefgrep66@reddit

Giyus a paggy. Doo mayat the bobbyll ay us!

This is Lincolnshire for

Give me a lift on your bike.

No mate the police will have us!

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CptCave1@reddit

Glaikit

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Geordie-1983@reddit

I've learnt enough Scottish swearing from listening to Alestorm. Don't think anyone else would come up with the lyric: "Now haud yer wheesht ya glaikit c**t or else he'll pump yer maw!"

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Rare-Grocery-8589@reddit

Howay!

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WanderWomble@reddit

Shan. Meaning rubbish or fed up.

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Whocares1846@reddit

Buff and peng in London, though it's London so those further afield might have heard of it due to the media, I don't know

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TSC-99@reddit

Gadgees

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Inevitable_Stage_627@reddit

Somewhen

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crystalballbreaker@reddit

Bairn for baby/child. Confused my Londoner ex so much the first time we visited my North Yorkshire family wit' bairn.

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seven-cents@reddit

Twitten

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prustage@reddit

Sorry, its "X"en now.

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wilsonthehuman@reddit

Sussex? If so hello fellow Sussex person!

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seven-cents@reddit

🙋‍♂️

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Illustrious_Bus8440@reddit

I worked in Rotherham for a few years and one of the blokes said 'Im of t'shop some Spice anybody want owt?'

I thought how open are they about their drug use? Openly advertising it at work, asking if others want any, BUYING IT AT THE SHOP.

Apparently it means sweets. Like cola cubes and fried eggs.

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baggsie_42@reddit

IIRC in Hull they eat ‘chips and spice’.

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FlossieAnn@reddit

Not quite, we season our chips with chip spice. Skinny fries, chip spice and mayo is a god level post pub/club snack!

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Fit-Fault338@reddit

Yes,heard that amongst the old ones.

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PootMcGroot@reddit

Glaikit/glaikered

My Scottish grandmother's favourite work for someone with glazed eyes and not much going on upstairs.

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Equal_Training_6924@reddit

Dreckly is most commonly known one from Cornwall, or Cormwall, as it’s often called by locals. Dreckly really means at some stage, if you’re lucky, as in, “I’ll do it dreckly”, just not right now. We don’t aim to confuse you, it just happens, because you’re all “forriners,” and we like to speak to you, and really try to make you comfortable.

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BitIntelligent4486@reddit

Bangin

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ClaryClarysage@reddit

My mate from Lancs drives me up the bloody wall every time he says (to mean a few) 'quite a couple.' Dunno if its a Lancs thing or he's just an inbred though.

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BG3restart@reddit

When I was at college in the Midlands, our Welsh friend said she was going to get her daps and we all just looked at her blankly.

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shlebee@reddit

'as a bad fettle'
'it's owa yonder'
'garn yam marra'

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gerrineer@reddit

Bobbo .

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No-Daikon3645@reddit

Holiday makers are called grockles.

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DPropish@reddit

Siling - raining really hard (East Midlands)

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Dancinglemming@reddit

Bungeroosh.

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baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab@reddit

Don’t be such a meff

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karen_the_ripper@reddit (OP)

I have absolutely no idea what this means, and I don't think context would help. Is it bad? It sounds bad. It sounds like something you'd say right before a fight or right after someone ate your lunch from the office fridge.

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JohnLennonsNotDead@reddit

In Liverpool it’s another word for scruff

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miggleb@reddit

"you're a ming, you're a mong, you're a meff gone wrong"

Often followed by

"You're gay, you're queer, been bummed right through the ear"

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JohnLennonsNotDead@reddit

Hahahaha haven’t heard that for years.

Yer ma shops at Netto

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miggleb@reddit

At least she's not selling Avon to ye nan

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baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab@reddit

Yeah just means a scruffy person but can be applied generally as a very low level soft insult.

No idea why I’m downvoted for answering your question 🤷🏻‍♂️

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sillyquestionsdude@reddit

Brouse

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ShowerAlarmed5397@reddit

Cheesy bug

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majortintin@reddit

Saft, A cross between daft in the head and soft in the head. Blackcountry saying. (North of Birmingham)

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RufusBowland@reddit

Skriking.

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captain_crackerjack@reddit

Also roaring (but pronounced rewerring)

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RufusBowland@reddit

Not heard this one! I'm from (east) Lancashire, btw.

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captain_crackerjack@reddit

Sheffield here :) skriking is probably less common but particularly older people would understand it

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RufusBowland@reddit

My mum's from Yorkshire (small village near Huddersfield) but she never told me to stop roaring as a kid. I can imagine my nan saying it at some point though!!!

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Fizl99@reddit

I used to work with someone who used outwith, and I still am not 100% sure on how its used

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Fellsy8@reddit

Snap

Chuffing

Nesh

Clarty

Mardy

Crozzle

Loppy

Breadcake

Give us a love

It's black over Bill's mother's

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JBEqualizer@reddit

It's hard to know exactly which words aren't used outside your own region, unless you regularly use them in other parts of the country.

How about...

Snedge

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thelastword4343@reddit

Cha....

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Prestigious-Age-3644@reddit

I swear down on me nanas baccy tin mate.

No but seriously knackered, can mean tired but a similair word with different meaning is knacked, if you have beaten someone up "I knacked them" or of you are in pain from being beaten up "that knacked that". It can also mean to break

Hoy in place of throw and pyet in place of face, "am gonna hoy a dart in his pyet thatl knack him"

I'm not a violent person really but I do use the words in different context of course "I hoyed the ball for the dog and it hit him right in the pyet thr poor thing I bet it knacked" for instance.

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jayphelps57@reddit

Mardy-

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Glywysing@reddit

Togs - meaning football or rugby boots.

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faa19@reddit

Slippy fish = punched pocket. Common across Sussex, gets you a concerned look elsewhere.

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jamwash1979@reddit

Mon

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jamwash1979@reddit

As in "alright Mon"

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imtheorangeycenter@reddit

I got a new pair of magic daps for my kid the other week

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Seanacles@reddit

Nesh maybe I got quizzed about it down south once

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Pessimus_Breath@reddit

Spelk = splinter

Steep the dishes not soak.

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Wide-Challenge-4874@reddit

Spoggy

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spikewilliams2@reddit

Sprag, laik, lyg, flit, and loads of other good old Norse words used in Yorkshire. Some are used further afield.

https://www.viking.no/e/england/e-yorkshire_norse.htm

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Fit-Fault338@reddit

Loppy= dirty

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you_aint_seen_me-@reddit

"I goes and he goes" = I said and then he replied with.

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A-Willow-Wand@reddit

Ah guz an ‘e guz

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Moron-with-a-drill@reddit

A Beauty = someone who's a bit of a longstanding and annoying clown/character.

As in "What a right fucking Beauty!" or "She's a proper Beauty that one!"

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david4460@reddit

I work 30 miles from home and I’ll very occasionally say ‘I’ve got a yedwarch’ as a sort of half joke in that it’s old fashioned but there’s still old people round here that will legitimately use it. People look at me like I’ve grown a second nose.

(Yedwarch = headache)

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RufusBowland@reddit

I'm from Lancashire and knew this one!

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karen_the_ripper@reddit (OP)

Yedwarch for headache is amazing because it sounds like the headache itself. like the word IS the pain. 30 miles, and people look at you like you've grown a second nose, though, that's a brutal radius. Italian dialects at least get you maybe 50km before they stop working. Yours doesn't even survive the commute.

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Spottyjamie@reddit

Jeer

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A-Llama-Snackbar@reddit

On the one hand, Squin/squinny.

On the other hand, Sparcher.

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