Stuff I’d never heard before I joined mumsnet.

[TotalRecall]

Disclaimer: I’m not from the UK!

“Grim” - I’ve heard of the word obviously but I’ve never ever heard anyone actually say it to describe anything. It’s a favourite here!

“Naice” - I’m still scratching my head over this one. What does it mean?

“Pants” - I’m going to assume these are undies/knickers? Otherwise some conversations I’ve read really don’t make sense

Also, what is half term please? I’m gathering it’s some sort of holiday half way through the school term, how long do your terms go for? Ours are only 8-10 weeks (4 terms per year) so obviously don’t need holidays in the middle..

Teach me all the UK things!!

I had a whole list, I’ll be back when I remember the rest..

I used the word oval in England to describe a cricket ground / cricket oval. Here it is the school / a playing field.

When I lived in England I was a southerner and even then i got confused with different sayings from tup north.

My new Californian neighbours baffled by our mince pie bake and rang apologetically to say their dd was vegetarian. They thought it involved beef (we get Waitrose veg mincemeat anyway) . They were blown away they had never had a mince pie !!

An oval is the same thing in Aus and UK, no? A playing field in both? Or have I missed something?

Just to confuse matters half term does indeed occur as a week in the middle of the term but lots of people are now erroneously referring to the Eaater and Christmas holidays, which happen between terms and are longer, as half term. This irritates me.

OP I get the pants confusion When I first came to the UK 14 years back, I used to refer to trousers as pants. Only realised the UK meaning of pants after an embarrassing conversation with a colleague where I was saying how I only wash my pants (trousers) after I've worn them a couple of times

MsTSwift I first time I had a mince pie, I was expecting to taste beef and was pleasantly surprised

Don't the three terms originate from the legal/parliamentary world?

@DappledThings - me too.
Half term - 1 week off in the middle of a longer term, around - end of October; middle of February; end of May.
Christmas holidays -2 (+?) weeks off, around Christmas.
Easter holidays - 2 (+?) weeks off, around Easter (although some places just have the first 2 weeks of April to maintain some consistency in term lengths, regardless of where Easter actually falls).

We have a lot of BYOB (bring your own booze) restaurants in Midlands - mainly curry / Balti restaurants where they are unlicensed (but have also seen BYOB Italian).

MsTSwift

As a child I used to think to think mince pies had mince meat in. I never asked so nobody told me they hadn't.

Grim is a very good word.

But significantly overused on Mumsnet

I was confused by ordering drinks in Australia.
Here you drink beer in a pint, or a half (pint) or a bottle.
Oz has midis and schooners and I have no idea what they are.

Mind you, I'm from Northern Ireland and there's a language barrier between there and mainland UK

@MsTSwift
My new Californian neighbours baffled by our mince pie bake and rang apologetically to say their dd was vegetarian. They thought it involved beef (we get Waitrose veg mincemeat anyway) . They were blown away they had never had a mince pie

www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/mincemeat-tart-recipe-photo-mix-up

I'm foreign. "CF" (Cheeky Fucker) amuses me.

Many English people can be too polite to refuse a request, regardless how outrageous it is. Saying no is deeply uncomfortable. Instead of just saying no to unreasonable requests and forgetting about it, they oblige and then seethe quietly for days at the shocking rudeness of the person who asked. Or they gather all their courage and say no, but need to go have a lie down afterward to recover. Then they come here for moral support.

It's an oval in the footy (Aussie rules) states usually, I think - victoria, Tasmania and South Australia mostly. Because Aussie rules is played on cricket ovals (and began, formally, as the winter sport for those grounds).

Other football sports - rugby union, rugby league and soccer (aka football in the rest of the world) - have typical rectangular pitches. So kids in those states - NSW, Queensland, WA - are more likely to play on the field, or footy field.

Beer is weird - pot in Vic, midis and schooners elsewhere. Also pints. Don't ask me which is where 🤷‍♀️, I drink Sauvignon Blanc 😉. Although, in Queensland you get a choice of a small glass of wine or a large (double size) one.

Also grew up in NZ, but have spent 25 years in Victoria, so can translate quite well these days.

Oh yes... I also use pants for trousers/bottom half coverings. That had caused more than the odd bit of consternation on some threads on here.

Jocks/knickers for underwear 😁

‘Naice’ is a usage inextricably entwined in class joke.
It’s a way of describing someone saying nice with an affected ‘posh’ accent (thereby betraying, in an instant, that they are not posh). Someone for whom it is socially essential that others know they buy ‘nice ham’ - a type of posh signalling.
This is mercilessly ridiculed in British humour (hyacinth bouquet search will give an example) as a rueful truth. Mn can at times be full of those signalling ‘poshness’ and so it becomes a joke we all ruefully identify.
Good god - sorry for discourse but it’s an interesting one. I have American family and am often explaining things like this to relatives who are bemused. Don’t get me started on ‘chav’.

'Naice' was nicked from Jolly Cooper novels, where the word is used by the over-enunciated social climbing Valerie Jones, as a marker of trying too hard and getting it wrong (her husband, who was unapologetically himself) was the much more popular character with the established rich/aristocratic characters.

So the shopping list that found its way on to MN was using that trope, and all the Jilly readers here just knew it meant 'overpriced ham of a brand trying to be posh' and those who weren't cottoned on easily.

It's not solely the preserve of MNetters

Ohhh thanks PP, Chav was another one! What’s a Chav? Is it like a Bogan? 😂

Its ovals in WA.

When my eldest came home from kindy asking for Textas i had no idea what he was going on about, he was asking for a marker.

"What’s a Chav? Is it like a Bogan.?"

Basically, yes.

A friend of mine grew up having 2 week tattie holidays in October and it was literally for bringing the crops in.

Yep, the October week/two week (depending on your local authority area) is still referred to as the “tatie holidays” in our house. It was traditionally timed so kids could help with the potato harvest.

In Australia, people go to hotels to get pissed. I know this from my endless obsession with true crime podcasts. I'm not sure if the hotels in question actually have rooms upstairs or if it's a licencing thing or what.

Yes, chav is definitely bogan

I feel like chav is a bit nastier than bogan. You can affectionately call someone a bogan. I don't know if that's possible with chav?

So summer holidays in the uk? Do the kids get the summer off? In Oz we get 2 months.