New Words from British TV

Vocabulary gained while watching British crime shows. I will only show the meaning from the context in which they were heard.

• Putrescible, noun or adjective: liable to decay; subject to putrefaction, “putrescible domestic waste”
• Summat, pronoun: a British dialect form of the word ‘something.’
• Kip, noun: sleep, a nap: ‘I might have a little kip’
• Egg sucking, phrase: used as an expression of anger or scorn, ‘go suck an egg if you don’t like it’
• Gaffer, noun: a person in charge of others; a boss.
• Scarpered, intransitive verb, to flee or run away.
• Minging, adjective: very bad or unpleasant.
• Parkour, noun: the activity or sport of moving rapidly through an area.
• Gutted, adjective: Very disappointed or upset.
• Bloke, noun: a man, guy or dude.
• Knackered, adjective: Worn out or tired.
• Bollocks, : nonsense or rubbish.
• Ta, : Thank you.
• To leg it, phrase: To run away.
• Daft, : A bit stupid.
• Gob, noun: Mouth.
• Cuppa, noun: Shorted version of ‘cup of tea.’
• To Crack on, : To get started or to finish something.
• Innit, : Short for ‘isn’t it?’

I like and would adopt most of these here in the US if others knew what they meant. My favorites are the words in orange.

Editorial

Let me say a few things about British television in general. We subscribe to both BritBox and Acorn TV found on Prime streaming service. First, in American TV entertainment, most of the actors tend to be very pretty and young- even the men. It’s a bit too saccharine. British TV has young and pretty people too, but with a large dose of people who ordinarily wouldn’t fit that description. Perhaps the talent pool there is small. My point is that the Brits use older folks to a larger extent than in the US. Another noticeable difference is the use of gun play in the cop shows. British TV uses far less shooting or even just the pointing of guns in their screen plays. There is some, granted, but far less than in the US. I like that. The Brits have a tradition of parlor murder mysteries where the killer is identified by deduction. On Brit TV, conflicts or apprehensions of suspects is frequently handled without excessive violence.

Another refreshing aspect of BritBox and Acorn TV is the availability of continental European programming. I’ve never been bothered by reading subtitles, so the authenticity of language and the drama is unfettered. Truthfully, the use of subtitles for English, Scottish and Irish programming is necessary when accents are too thick to understand, which is not infrequent.

One thing I have noticed is the adoption of American English vocabulary abroad. It is a bit sobering to see the extent of influence abroad by the US movie and television industry.