English-American Translation

I would like to make this post bigger. I know people have told me in the past that they had to work around the English slang in my posts - my only problem is I don't know which words they referred to!

Blogzilla has asked me what a pinny is.

I propose to update this post for every UK word my American (or other) friends don't understand, until we have a handy reference list. It doesn't matter where you saw the word - here or on any UK blog/website.

(If the translation makes no sense either, then I trust someone to let me know!)


Jumper - traditional name for a woollen knitted sweater. If it has long sleeves, no front fastenings and is made of machine or handknitted wool (ok, or cotton, or acrylic wool) its a jumper.
Pinny - shortened form of piniafore - apron.
Plimsolls / Plimsoles canvas topped flat trainers, almost always black. Very like deck shoes, but softer. Worn by every UK schoolchild for PE. Fastened with laces or velcro crossover, but traditionally worn as a slip-on with elasticated inserts either side of a tongue shaped central section.
Raspberry#1 - shortened form of Cockney rhyming slang, raspberry ripple - nipple.
Raspberry#1a - shortened form of Cockney rhyming slang, raspberry ripple - cripple. Apparently.
Raspberry#2 - a strange quacking or fart like noise made by pursing or twisting the lips before blowing, or by blowing out with the tongue out.
Snooker - a classy version of pool - one white ball, a few red balls and one each of several other colours. There are no numbered balls, but you pot a red then a colour, then a red and so on to clear the table. Different colour balls score different points. Every time a colour other than red is potted it comes back on the board until all the reds are gone, then you have to pot the colours in strict sequence ending with the black; the white cannot be allowed to clip the wrong colour. The game is named after the way you can leave the balls at the end of your move. If the next colour your opponent has to pot is positioned right behind another ball, so that there is no way at all for them to hit the right one, then thats a snooker. They have to have a go, and when they hit the wrong one it opens the table back up for you.
Snookered - screwed, basically; set up, stitched up, stuck, unable to move, damned whatever you do, forced into giving the advantage to the opposition - named after the same situation in the game.