Read That's Not English for Free Online Page B
Authors: Erin Moore
cursory look at
HELLO!
magazine in summer would show it was not wholly unrepresentative of what you’d see at a society wedding or Ladies’ Day at Ascot. This kind of audacity is one of my favorite things about England. Where an American might play it safe and go for “appropriate,” the English are bold with their fashion.
Those who are not indifferent to clothes move on from their natty uniforms to become some of the most flamboyant and imaginative dressers around. There is a brand of confidence that comes from knowing the rules well enough to flout them.English men, in particular, can be peacocks, fond of hats, uproariously patterned waistcoats (pronounced “weskits”), silk socks, and even the occasional ascot (“askit,” please, as if you had to ask it). The American analogue is the exception that proves the rule: the New England preppy. American men who grow up wearing prep school uniforms become the most likely to wear red trousers or needlepoint belts with whale motifs in adult life. Still, the preppy’s pink-and-green plumage has a youthful, carefree, and casual spirit about it, and it’s primarily an off-duty look.
In England, one can still buy shirts with detachable collars, a style that was invented in America by a housewife who wanted to cut down on her laundry but now is seen as foppish and retro in the extreme. Speaking of foppish and retro, I recently ran into a friend who was carrying a tall cardboard box. He told me he was on his way to drop off his top hat for refurbishment. This did not seem to be a euphemism for anything. It was, he informed me, the best of his top hats. He owns two more: a collapsible one that fits under his seat at the opera, and a “casual” one for outdoor events where he might be sprayed with champagne when someone’s horse, or boat, wins. He was frankly put out at the prospect of doing without it for any amount of time. One could not make this up. But believe me, if there is any place this would still be happening in 2015, it is England.
We arrive at Anne’s nursery, where most of the mothers are wearing near-identical skinny jeans, neutral cashmere sweaters, ballet flats, and long scarves, wrapped twice. When mufti itself becomes a uniform, we are right back where we started.
Gobsmacked
In which the English creative class appears to take over the American media, bringing new slang with it.
E very so often, a word comes along that means just what it sounds like. It may not be onomatopoetic, but even if you’ve never heard it before, you instantly get the idea.
Gobsmacked
is such a word. It means, figuratively, to be flabbergasted, amazed, or astounded. Literally, it means to be smacked in the mouth, as in the song “Gobsmacked” by Chumbawamba (“Outside the pub / Smack you in the gob / Get four long years / in Wormwood Scrubs”).
Gob
has been slang for
mouth
in the north of England since the late 1500s. There are few adjectives that make you look the way you feel quite like
gobsmacked
. People who say it have to drop their jaws twice, like large-mouthed bass. You can’t use it insincerely; it conveys a certain authenticity. Highly descriptive andirresistible to many, it is popular as a business name: GobsmackedMedia, Gobsmacked Records, Gobsmack.tv. It is also a nail polish color (charcoal grey with flecks of glitter from Butter London) and, perhaps most appropriately, a brand of sports mouth guards. It’s truth in advertising, mate. Wear it so you don’t lose your teeth when you get smacked in the you-know-where.
Not everyone approves of
gobsmacked
. It is a word some associate with cheap tabloid newspapers and oiks from the north. In
The
Dictionary of Disagreeable English
, Robert Hartwell Fiske criticizes it as “one of the least attractive words in the English language today.” Those who dislike it often come across as a bit priggish and sour. If there is something indelicate about this back-formation, Americans don’t care. They are too busy
HELLO!
magazine in summer would show it was not wholly unrepresentative of what you’d see at a society wedding or Ladies’ Day at Ascot. This kind of audacity is one of my favorite things about England. Where an American might play it safe and go for “appropriate,” the English are bold with their fashion.
Those who are not indifferent to clothes move on from their natty uniforms to become some of the most flamboyant and imaginative dressers around. There is a brand of confidence that comes from knowing the rules well enough to flout them.English men, in particular, can be peacocks, fond of hats, uproariously patterned waistcoats (pronounced “weskits”), silk socks, and even the occasional ascot (“askit,” please, as if you had to ask it). The American analogue is the exception that proves the rule: the New England preppy. American men who grow up wearing prep school uniforms become the most likely to wear red trousers or needlepoint belts with whale motifs in adult life. Still, the preppy’s pink-and-green plumage has a youthful, carefree, and casual spirit about it, and it’s primarily an off-duty look.
In England, one can still buy shirts with detachable collars, a style that was invented in America by a housewife who wanted to cut down on her laundry but now is seen as foppish and retro in the extreme. Speaking of foppish and retro, I recently ran into a friend who was carrying a tall cardboard box. He told me he was on his way to drop off his top hat for refurbishment. This did not seem to be a euphemism for anything. It was, he informed me, the best of his top hats. He owns two more: a collapsible one that fits under his seat at the opera, and a “casual” one for outdoor events where he might be sprayed with champagne when someone’s horse, or boat, wins. He was frankly put out at the prospect of doing without it for any amount of time. One could not make this up. But believe me, if there is any place this would still be happening in 2015, it is England.
We arrive at Anne’s nursery, where most of the mothers are wearing near-identical skinny jeans, neutral cashmere sweaters, ballet flats, and long scarves, wrapped twice. When mufti itself becomes a uniform, we are right back where we started.
Gobsmacked
In which the English creative class appears to take over the American media, bringing new slang with it.
E very so often, a word comes along that means just what it sounds like. It may not be onomatopoetic, but even if you’ve never heard it before, you instantly get the idea.
Gobsmacked
is such a word. It means, figuratively, to be flabbergasted, amazed, or astounded. Literally, it means to be smacked in the mouth, as in the song “Gobsmacked” by Chumbawamba (“Outside the pub / Smack you in the gob / Get four long years / in Wormwood Scrubs”).
Gob
has been slang for
mouth
in the north of England since the late 1500s. There are few adjectives that make you look the way you feel quite like
gobsmacked
. People who say it have to drop their jaws twice, like large-mouthed bass. You can’t use it insincerely; it conveys a certain authenticity. Highly descriptive andirresistible to many, it is popular as a business name: GobsmackedMedia, Gobsmacked Records, Gobsmack.tv. It is also a nail polish color (charcoal grey with flecks of glitter from Butter London) and, perhaps most appropriately, a brand of sports mouth guards. It’s truth in advertising, mate. Wear it so you don’t lose your teeth when you get smacked in the you-know-where.
Not everyone approves of
gobsmacked
. It is a word some associate with cheap tabloid newspapers and oiks from the north. In
The
Dictionary of Disagreeable English
, Robert Hartwell Fiske criticizes it as “one of the least attractive words in the English language today.” Those who dislike it often come across as a bit priggish and sour. If there is something indelicate about this back-formation, Americans don’t care. They are too busy