Viking Tea Party

Hey Matt, What Does This Mean?

It's time for another installment of Hey Matt, What Does This Mean?

Today it's all about the teenagers that, as adults, we hope we weren't like when we were younger.  I've mentioned before that we live on a fairly busy street just a block from at least one bar and not far from several others so we're plagued with these definitions almost nightly - definitely Thursdays through Saturdays.

chav: working-class or lower middle class teenagers are are uneducated, uncultured and prone to antisocial or immoral behavior.  Chavs are all about the "bling" and designer clothing - imitation or otherwise.  Vicky Pollard is my favorite chav. 

yob: closely related to "chav" - a young, obnoxious, aggressive young man.  It's Thursday so the yobs will be out in droves tonight, yelling and banging on the trash bins outside.

We use the term "yob" much more than "chav" and usually as an adjective as in "those yobby kids."  

Tune in next time for more "Hey Matt, What Does This Mean?"!

Hey Matt, What Does This Mean?

 One of the great games we played at my wedding shower (thanks, Ginny!) was the British Equivalent Matching Game with words like plaster, postman, chemist, torch, lift and hoover.  Mom won that one but, strangely, not because she's familiar with anyone British but because her best friend is Australian.  Anyway, the US and the UK do speak the same language but every once in awhile there have been phrases that I've had to ask Matt about.  One that I came across recently stuck in my head so I thought it might be fun to make these new to me words a reoccurring feature here at Viking Tea Party.  Those in the US might learn something and I know my friends here in the UK will get a good laugh at words that sound strange to me but that they use every day.    

That said, I give you the first installment of

lurgy: an illness or disease, especially one that is not serious

I first heard this one when Karen used it in a thread on Ravelry about our next knitting meet up. "Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to make it as I have the lurgy, again."  (Not that your lurgy wasn't serious, Karen!)

doddle: an easy task

I first heard Nigella Lawson use this one in a commercial that Good Food runs about a million times a day.  "Delicious and a doddle." Google "doddle" and "Nigella Lawson" and you'll get a good grip on how to use the word properly - it seems everything she makes is a doddle.  

I haven't incorporated either of these words - or any others - into my daily vocabulary because they feel large and awkward in my mouth.  Hopefully, some day soon, I'll be casually saying things like "Ah, getting over that lurgy was a doddle."  Or, um, something like that....

Tune in next time for more strange - to me, anyway - words!