british-isms revised

It's been a while since I've devoted an entire post to British English words. We've been here for nearly 18 months now and, most of the time, we understand what someone is saying to us. We do, however, get the occasional new phrases.

For example:

1) Last week, when I was having difficulties replacing -- okay, if truth needs to be told, stealing -- my non-moving computer mouse to a new optical one in my office. Okay, it wasn't really stealing because the good mouse was with a non-occupied computer and that silly mouse I was working with was hindering my productivity. Before the swap-over, I was the noisiest mouse-user in the room trying to get my cursor to go where it was supposed to go. The change-over should have been easier than it actually was, and my officemate, sensing my troubles, asked, "Are you having any joy with that?". I nearly burst out laughing, cause I would ask someone, "Are you having any luck with that?".

2) Another time, when I brought some home-made treats to share, someone commented, "this is really scrummy". I was offended for a split season until I remembered its definition. Although it rhymes was crummy, scrummy is short for scrumptious.

3) Now chuffed should be easy to grasp when used properly in a sentence. But when a fellow grad student comes in after a supervision meeting looking drained and says, "I am chuffed". It's hard to decipher if he means he is happy or unhappy with the outcome of the meeting. It's happy, by the way.

Now test your British English knowledge here and here.