The other day I was talking to a friend and asked her a question that veered into “nosy” territory. I immediately apologized for being a nosey parker, and she looked at me like I was talking a foreign language. I guess I was: British English.
I come by the language honestly, having grown up in Canada in a WASP family in a WASP neighborhood in a WASP town. The Anglo- Saxon part of that sits heavy.
The origin of “nosy parker’ eludes me, but for illustration purposes, imagine in days of olde, a matronly Eleanor Parker who was, in fact, quite nosy, to such an extent that her neighbors began to call her Nosy Parker. An example to us all.
I first heard that idiom from my mother, who used it all the time. Like most kids, I thought everything my mother said originated with her. It was a long time coming before I realized the error of my ways.
“Bob’s your uncle!” is another one of those British idioms that comes from who knows where. It translates loosely as “See, that was easy!” For example, you’re teaching the person beside you how to do the A&W squish: “First, you put all the condiments you want on your hamburger. Then you stand up, place one hand on top of the burger, palm down, then place your other hand on top of the first hand, then push down. Bob’s your uncle!” Again, I’m not sure of this one’s origin, but I’m thinking Bob might be Ms. Parker’s uncle?
And no, the A&W squish is not another British idiom. This one is all Canadian. I think my brother made this one up, based on the neighborhood A&W drive-in hamburger joint, where their hamburgers always came out squashed.
Back to Britain. “A spanner in the works.” Imagine tossing an iron rod into the cogs of the wheels of an assembly line and the disaster that would cause. That’s a spanner in the works. Like when my husband calls at 6:30 to say he’s bringing his boss home for dinner. And I say, “Well, that puts a spanner in the works. All I’ve got is mac & cheese.”
A couple more from my mother’s lips: “Not my cup of tea,” as in “The Beatles are not my cup of tea.” The Brits love their tea, as did my mother, so I think what she was saying was she wouldn’t be inviting the Beatles over for tea, either to perform or to sip. And another: “Spend a penny.” Which is what you have to do if you drink too much tea, with or without the Beatles. Apparently, this idiom originates from when one paid a penny to use the public toilets.
The last one I’ll leave you with never passed my mother’s lips, at least not in my company. Rather, I first heard it from one of the denizens of the Van Morrison fan group, many of whom are British and are fond of speaking in idiom. “Anorak” is the word, and it means dork or nerd, of which there are many who fit the bill within that group. One of those anoraks might write on the Van fans’ page, “For the anoraks, I have downgraded the quality of the recording from December 19, 2007, from A+ to A because of the degradation.” And the other anoraks among us all run to our collection of recordings and change the rating. Anorak. It should become part of the American lexicon. As for the word’s lineage, it’s a real word, used to describe a certain type of British raincoat. Objectively speaking, it’s a dorky-looking coat, and thus the origin of the idiom.
Cheerio for now. Don’t forget to bring your brolley with you today. It’s raining cats and dogs.
This morning’s pick, The Four Tops …
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