A few choice words from across the pond

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, April 28, 2007

Better brush up on your English. Queen Elizabeth II will be in the U.S. this week, and her biographer, Robert Lacey, has a few pointers for Americans on how to speak to her (http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/04/30/100wir_a2queen001.cfm).

In honor of the royal visit, here are a few choice bits of British English that we found in an online dictionary of U.K. slang (http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang):*

Bat a sticky wicket: “To put oneself in a difficult and unfavourable position,” much like the one you’d probably wind up in if you asked the queen whether Wills and Kate will get back together or if Harry really smoked pot.

Big white telephone: The toilet. Of course, you never know who you might reach when calling on a direct line to the sewers.

Face fungus: “Facial hair, such as a moustache or beard.” The one Al Gore was sporting circa 2001 sort of leaps to mind.

Salad dodger: Derogatory term for a fat person, but also useful for describing small children during the phase when they can’t be persuaded to eat anything other than Cheerios.

Chuck it down: “To rain, often heavily,” a term that, despite today’s sunny forecast, will probably remain useful here well into July.

* Fair warning: Unsurprisingly, the slang dictionary includes a number of, uh, colorful terms for a number of, um, colorful things, so peruse with caution.

— Katie Mayer, Herald staff