The word "knackered" always reminds me of a couple of friends of ours. The wife was Israeli with first language being Hebrew; the husband, was a Londoner from south of the river. Although she could speak english, she did have to work at it to keep up, at least in the beginning. It was all the more difficult that she had to pick up the local vernacular. Remember also that the English don't really pronounce their Rs.
One time she decided to go home to Israel to visit family on her own but she sent her husband a postcard once she had arrived (this is pre-email times). He was puzzled when he read "I arrived safely but naked".
Re "close", I think this translates as humid rather than merely hot. I always thought it was quite a descriptive word.
Another word that just came to me is "peaky". People say this to you when you don't look well - as in, "ooh, you do look peaky" - but I'm not sure what it actually describes. Maybe a true native can explain.
Beebee
Posts: 1955 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
You may be right...not sure how the UK differentiate use of "knackered."
I never asked any person using the expression "knackered" if they were "very tired" or "exhausted" or just "tired" to differentiate the degree of fatigue...All I know is they use it to decribe some degree of being "tired."
Your comment, if correct, raises this question, though: Since UK also have the word "exhausted" in their dictionary, why wouldn't they use that word, instead of "knackered?"
For that matter, your comment raises this question, as well: since "exhausted" is in the US dictionary too, why do we use the word "beat" or "wiped?"
...colloquialisms are like that! We use them all interchangeably all the time on both sides of the pond.
Posts: 496 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: 12 September 2006
As a fairly frequent user of the term "knackered", I can say with some, confidence that it means "very tired". For exhausted, "absolutely knackered" does it.
The word is used a lot in the UK and even has a rhyming slang version - "cream crackered".
Ricardo
Posts: 560 | Location: Surrey, England | Registered: 18 May 2003
US: drunk (what degree, I don't know...could be "hammered" could be "soused" could be "wasted.")
NOTE: "Pissed" is "angry" in US (syn: "pissed off") and although we have other ways of expressing "angry," in our language we use "pissed" colloquially. What degree of anger? I couldn't say - depends on the user, I guess.
Posts: 496 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: 12 September 2006
Another word that just came to me is "peaky". People say this to you when you don't look well - as in, "ooh, you do look peaky"
I don't know about peakey, but people in the US do say "you look a bit peaked" to mean that you look sickly. I don't think it describes anything specific, but rather just as you said, not looking well.
-Krista
Posts: 1688 | Location: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: 21 May 2004
I don't know about the States, but here we sometimes say "He's piss drunk," though we'd never use "pissed" to mean "drunk". But, once again, I'm wondering whether "wasted" would be the equivalent of "pissed" or is "pissed" not as slangy? Or perhaps it's about degree? Wasted means pretty far gone where I'm from. We also use "trashed" in the same way, though not as commonly as wasted.
Pissed is definitely slang but very very commonly used nonetheless. And the rhyming slang for pissed is Brahms, as in Brahms & Liszt. Funnily enough you could use the rhyming slang more easily in polite company although it means the same.
Beebee
Posts: 1955 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
Peaky: I'd understand it to mean someone looking a bit pale but with a flush around the cheekbones and bags under the eyes, that sort of thing. There's a lovely Scottish word meaning much the same (though I think it might also be used of someone's permanent disposition, if they're the kind that "enjoys ill health") - it's "peely-wally" (pronounced as in 'alley').
Another local word I'm partial to is "nesh": sensitive to the cold or a draught. "Put 't wood in t'hole, love, I'm a bit nesh tonight".
Naomi, I should think "bastard" would fit most contexts, as it would in the UK.
While we`re on rude words, here`s one that is clearly not in the US, though I don`t suppose you`d have many occasions to use it.
I`m in Montreal at the moment, and last night (maybe Naomi saw it too) on a US PBS station there was a travel programme all about the Carolinas and Virginia. Apparently there`s a 60s dance craze still going on down there (in Charleston, was it), and we were treated to a sweet lil ol Suthuhn lady, with a wizened white-haired hubby grinning silently beside her as she told the world:
"We`ve been shagging for 40 years, and we mean to shag till we drop. We love it! There was a shag festival heah last month, and there were forty thousand shaggers shagging all over the beach. Now y`all get down heah and get shagging with us!"
There are UK TV programmes that would pay a fortune to play that clip, I suspect. If you didn`t already know, it`s UK slang for you-know-what.
Sorry I missed your PBS entry Patrick, sounds priceless. November in Montreal? Less frigid than January, I guess -- less sunshine as well, though that might not bother a Londoner as much as it bothers me...
I was wondering if I'd offend anyone with the "sod" reference, which wasn't my intention, of course. But, actually, I was thinking that I'd be more inclined to use the expressions "poor schmo" or "poor schmuck." Anyone else on the same page, here? New Yorkers perhaps?
1. Knackered- origin obscure, I think, but, your knackers are your testicles (assuming you're a boy person), So it'sa n expression to use with care.
2. Close- definitely means humid as much as hot.
3. We use Pissed off for angry and distinguish it carefully from pissed
4.Sod off is not very rude in current parlance, but it does derive from "sodomy". I fear that "poor sod" which is also not very rude in current use, comes from the same source
Posts: 14 | Location: Scotland | Registered: 24 September 2006
I don't know which came first, but I have always believed Knackered was a term derived from Knackers yard. A place where people took dead or almost dead, worn out, animals for disposal (I am sure it appears in the book Black Beauty, and more recently in the James Herriott vet books). Hence totally exhausted was ready for the knackers yard - or knackered.
As regards sod being derived from sodomy, this is correct, but then many swearwords are originally blasphemous - Bloody from "Gods Blood", Stewth from "Gods Truth". The reluctance of some in America to use Damn and Hell possibly reflects that there original meanings and context are still more relevant to a church going population.
Tim
Posts: 833 | Location: Hampshire, UK | Registered: 28 March 2005
That's interesting. I didn't know that about knackered/knackers. I did know about the sod/sodomy bit, but since I've heard it used everywhere I thought it might be safely "disassociated" at this point. Maybe only as a noun, though.
I think that in the US, both "pissed" and "pissed off" mean angry. Where I live, we use "pissed" to mean either "drunk" or "angry," and the context usually supplies the meaning. I should probably not post as an expert of American English, though, as I don't technically speak it.
My, My, this thread has gone down hill!!!! Actually the original definition of Knackered was/is.....sexually exhausted, so should probably be used with more care than it generally is!!! It has now passed into everyday parlance but would seriously offend your maiden aunt!!
Posts: 1222 | Location: UK | Registered: 12 June 2005
All right then, in an effort to scurry back up the hill a bit:
UK: Singlet, vest
US: Undershirt, tank top, muscle shirt and, in the case of one particular variety, "wifebeater" (sorry, I guess I'm going up the hill backwards, in this case).
In other news:
UK: The line's engaged (i.e. phone) US: The line's busy
Also, I would find it quite useful if someone could clarify some time-telling terminology. Does "quarter of 11 o'clock" mean 11:15 or 10:45, for example?
I'm pretty sure it means 10:45. My husband (who's from the north) used to use this expression a lot. I don't think he does so much now, but maybe because he's been lviing in London too long.
Beebee
Posts: 1955 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
