Just reading through the last page of the retarded errors thread and noticed "bloody starkers" and "barking mad". Was wondering if the citizens of Britain would donate the words they use that are "slang". A nice little dictionary for anyone not from the U.K.

 

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/

There you go. Google is your friend.

 

You're a sweetheart, Heather. If only the link worked.

 

Works fine for me. Thanks, btw.

 

Pro tip about British slang in fanfiction: Don't bother.
British slang is such that every town has its own lexicon and that changes every ten years anyway. Stick to what slang in in canon, or just use normal words (that means no American slang either).

 

Generally speaking the slang used in canon is that of the upper class, the kind you would have heard more commonly back in the 1940s.

 

I've heard very little British slang since actually being in Britain, the only noticeable thing being referring to bathrooms as toilets and saying 'cheers' instead of 'thank you'. I think a lot of people want to add local color and end up overdoing it.

I'd advise just ignoring it.

 

I wouldn't really call "toilet" British slang so much as the proper word for the room. A Britishism, not slang. Like the tap/faucet thing. "Loo", "the shitter", etc. these are slang words.

 

I've always wondered: wouldn't "W.C." be more appropriate than toilet? Toilet is what you use, and one of the things you'll find in a W.C. or bathroom - not an actual room.

EDIT: Ahh, clears that up then. Thanks Taure.

 

Except that the "W.C." (Water Closet - the small closet in which you would dry your clothes, often containing a house's boiler) isn't really where toilets are any more.

Plus, you're assuming that when people say "I'm going to the toilet" they're referring to the room and not the device Which seems to me to be not the case. For example, if I was going to have a shower, I would say "I'm going to have a shower" not "I'm going to the toilet". And if I was referring to the room in general, it would probably be bathroom.

 

My experience is the opposite: people who use "bathroom" tend to be of younger, more Americanised, generations.

 

Another slang I always found funny was "fag." While I doubt it gets confusing when heard contextually, I always wondered if there was a period in England's history where people were like "...Why the hell is he calling me a cigarette?"

 

So you British folks don't actually use canon slang like wotcher, barmy, barking, starkers, blimey, prat, etc.? I've only known three or four British people really well, and I can't recall them ever using the slang we see in the books.

 

Lawl. He's lucky y'all weren't in Louisiana; your field trip might've included some gay-bashing with over-eager Southerners who thought you were looking for some fun.

 

As I said, upper class toff types are more likely to use these.

Prat is pretty common though. Wotcher I've never heard outside HP. Blimey is pretty common among the kind of social groups that are too polite to swear.

Barmy, barking, starkers is usually said in an ironic way.

 

I can swear you're from Essex? If you are, then you just proved Taure right. Can't get anymore posh than Essex really.

Seriously, there are way to many dialects in Britain who all, over time make new words they use regularly. What's norm in some places will make people from others think 'wtf is this dick on about'.