American English

[rose_in_shadow]

When I was in England this past June, our British tour guide Angela greeted us with this remark: "You may have been told that Americans and the British speak the same language--they lied

Comments

[modernelegance]

The word "bloody" is in the HP movies, I am not sure if it's in the first one, but I believe that Ron says it in the rest of the movies.

Also, the word "bitch" here in America is a curse word, there it is a word for female dogs. It doesn't help when we're reading British written novels you have to do a double take to see if they're cursing or not. (I had to do that with Wuthering Heights)

Maybe there's a British dictionary we can check out terms, because I don't want to have to delete my "bugger" icon! :(

[izhilzha]

Technically, "bitch" still means a female dog, even here in America where has also become a curse word (actually, I'm fairly sure the original meaning is what inspired its use as an insult).

And "bugger" is refering to sodomy, so it's at least as obscene as "fuck." (Wow, I have a really hard time typeing the f-word if it's not for a character in a story....)

[modernelegance]

Yes, I worked with a lady who entered her dog into dog shows, so it's still used in it's original sense. Sadly most of mainstream America doesn't realize what it really is supposed to mean.

I guess I will have to delete my icon!! I am sure all of the brits are laughing at we yankees for accepting and saying their bad words and censoring those that are less on the "bad words scale".

[rose_in_shadow]

"Bitch" is used as a swear word in Britian too. At least, it used to be. I just finished reading a novel where a severely perturbed butler calls an annoying housekeeper this rude name, and he definately wasn't referring to any dogs. *lol* (The scene's actually very funny, because this butler is usually the stoic nothing-will-ever-faze-me type.)

[kalquessa]

Yes, this fact is used to great effect by Joss Whedon with the character Spike in the Buffy/Angel shows. Spike's vocabulary is absolutely inexcusable by British standards but it sails right over American censors. You occasionally get the sense that Joss Whedon thinks that this is hugely funny, and that he's trying to see how many expletives from across the pond he can work into one episode.

[rose_in_shadow]

Now that I think about it, I remember a big stink about the Austin Powers movie "the Spy who Shagged me" because "Shagged" is very inappropriate across the Pond and they wanted to change the title for its UK release.