Tag Archives: Fraser’s Phrases

The British Are Invading (Again) And This Time They Want Their Language Back

By | Posted on September 27th, 2012

Thanks largely to the influence of TV, music, cinema and now the internet, the general assumption among a certain (and rather huffy) segment of the British population is that the English language is becoming swamped with Americanisms, ...

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The Brit List: 10 Stinging British Insults

By | Posted on August 27th, 2012

I should start with a confession. When compiling this list, I assumed it would be a gadabout stone-skim along the top of the English language, each new bounce a perfectly formed (but firmly NSFW) gem.

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Fraser’s Phrases: Five British Sayings to Live By

By | Posted on May 9th, 2012

There’s more to life than the wisdom imparted within these five expressions, but not much more. Consider this a British lesson in time-worn (but still very modern) etiquette:

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Fraser’s Phrases: The Greatest Hits of the Uxbridge English Dictionary (Part 2)

By | Posted on April 19th, 2012

As the last skim across the hidden delights of the Uxbridge English Dictionary proved to be such a hit (it’s here, if you missed it), here’s another dip into the vat of eternal delights. This time we’ve focussed our ...

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Fraser’s Phrases Gets Its Knickers In A Twist

By | Posted on April 16th, 2012

By rights, we should have started Fraser’s Phrases with this, because no single turn of phrase better illustrates what a mutual appreciation society the American and British versions of the English language are.

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Fraser’s Phrases: Men Are From Mars, Blokes Are From Prison

By | Posted on March 22nd, 2012

Bloke has got to be one of the most well-known of British slang words, not least because it tends to find its way into the mouths of anyone who wants to have a crack at a English (meaning cockney) accent. Bloke (often wrongly pronounced ...

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Fraser’s Phrases: Take A Shufti

By | Posted on March 15th, 2012

Although today’s term has an official dictionary definition, and approved spelling, the fact that it can been found written as shufty and even shoofti, is a reflection of how it came into being.

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Fraser’s Phrases: Mothering Sunday

By | Posted on March 12th, 2012

Its easy to make cross-cultural assumptions about traditions which share a similar name. After all, if there’s a Mother’s Day in the US, which falls on the second Sunday in May, and there’s a Mothering Sunday in the ...

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Fraser’s Phrases: The Curious History Of ‘The Hokey Cokey’

By | Posted on March 8th, 2012

We all know the song, and we all know the lyrics. There’s the thing about your left arm, it goes in, it comes out, you repeat, there’s a bit of business with a funny name and a turn around, and that’s basically what it ...

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Fraser’s Phrases: Five Slang Terms For The Head

By | Posted on March 5th, 2012

Note the definitive article in that title there. This is a list of British slang terms for the cranium, not a list of euphamisms for a sex act, no matter what you may have assumed.

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