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..

How about 'conflate'.

A word only seen on MN and more often than not confused with... err... 'confuse'.

Durex - my grandmother spent a year in Australia as a nanny, she was quite disturbed when the father of the children she looked after asked if she knew where the durex was
A bit like when we were driving through deepest Georgia and OH had gone in to pay for petrol. Daughter, about 9, went over to the pay shack and called from the door, Daddy, ask if they sell rubbers you've worn mine out. Got some very odd looks from the locals in there.

I had to google capsicum when I visited Oz a few years back - that might just be me being a bit thick though?

HRTWT but has anyone mentioned Penis beaker ?

In Colorado recently we met a woman who had been in a restaurant in the UK with her family and one of them asked a waiter where loo was. He was surprised to be pointed in the direction of the Gents, when Lou, his wife, was coming back from the Ladies.

"Conflate is a pretty common, everyday word."

So why do I only see it used on MN?

"Entitled"

"Virtue Signalling"

I have literally never heard anybody in real life use this terms.

grog exists (or existed) in the UK - go and read a book by Arthur Ransome and the protagonists go and buy bottles of grog.

Darked on Washing is one of my all time favourites on here that and the accompanying Spiders willies

Also the huge amount of time and energy wasted on washing items used or worn only once that are basically clean Towels, Jeans, sweatshirt, jumpers......but maybe I'm just a slattern

I initially thought you'd never heard of Australia until joining here...

*Maybe not just an Aussie word for a field?

In my experience, an oval is specifically a cricket pitch both in Oz and the UK.*

That's what I meant, just didn't explain it very well

Re: the use of 'conflate' on here, it seems that once a word is used on MN people will pick it up and it will be used more often.

Ditto with expressions.

Dry Boak is sick noise
Boak is sick and noise

I was going to say exactly the same. Although in my part of N Ireland it would be spelt 'boke'. And 'she was bokin' rings round her' means 'she had a very bad stomach bug indeed, such that the vomiting didn't cease for quite some time'

Just to contradict the poster that said pants means trousers in he North West. Nope... pants means underpants or knickers. Never trousers... and I speak as someone who has lived. In the NW for nearly ever - Cumbria, Merseyside and Lancashire (east and west).

Mssmith. I beg to differ. My dad's a scouser and my family are from the Wirral and pant definitely means trousers. Maybe it's a bit more area specific than I thought

@Thurmanmurman Well I'll go t'bottom of our stairs.... and it's rainy over Wendy's mothers....

... I love language

... and the Wirral isn't really Merseyside.... it's rather naice and poesh (joking obvs). I spent a year on Hilbre Island just off the coast of West Kirby in the 1980s doing research - at a time when you needed a pass to get there.

now come on, if you're a scouser, surely you say kecks, not trousers

Stunning and brave.

After years on here I still haven't met anyone who to my knowledge uses a menstrual cup or discusses this with people

Here they seem hugely popular and openly discussed.

I openly discuss my Mooncup! I've got quite a few people onto them (proud)