Guest nickcornaglia Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 I originally thought it was a play on words for "Piece of Sh*t" but I see it more and more.
Guest ajb3000 Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 it's hard to explain, it's like an object, for example a top of the range computer might be referred to as "a nice piece of kit"
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 Yep, the "kit" is a set of apparatus, car, computer, tools, whatever. Its a compliment. His car is a "nice piece of kit". :)
Guest nickcornaglia Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Strange...but okay!
Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 Originally, I think, "military" slang. Mass-conscription ended in 1963 (the stone age for most Modaco members) but when a high proportion of the male population spend time in khaki, military expressions tend to creep in to everyday use. Some of the expressions that were common when I was just a lad seem to have been forgotten by the civilian population - like "Shufti" and "Bint" (as in "I'll go and have a shufti", or " A really shufti bint" - from the Arabic meaning "look" and "girl". My father spent HIS military service in Egypt.) "Kit" was the equipment with which you'd been issued - as in "kit inspection". The equipment carried on your person into battle (but not in your pack) is "belt kit"... and so on.
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 Heh, as Ron kind of points out. It's usage does depend on age and dialect... :)
Guest Chronos Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 I had the same question when I started working for a UK firm a few years ago. The worst was when a british colleague told a SRO group meeting here in the US "time for me to go suck on a fag." You could have heard a pin drop! :oops:
Guest nickcornaglia Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 Up until now...my only exposure to British lingo was from TV like "Are you being served", "Absolutely Fabulous" and "The young ones" and movies like Snatch and Lock Stock....among others. These are probably my favorites. Then there's my irish favorites as well. I have to get over there one of these years.
Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted June 29, 2003 Report Posted June 29, 2003 You should watch more Red Dwarf ;p
Guest nickcornaglia Posted June 30, 2003 Report Posted June 30, 2003 Is that the guy from Mr. Bean? Oh yeah...I watch that too but he doesn't really talk so that doesn't count! :)
Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem Posted June 30, 2003 Report Posted June 30, 2003 No... it's the guy who presents the UK version of "Robot Wars".
Guest nickcornaglia Posted June 30, 2003 Report Posted June 30, 2003 Okay...I'll watch it for the babes!toaster_talking.jpg
Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem Posted June 30, 2003 Report Posted June 30, 2003 Other standard confusion is over the word "brew". Here it's likely to mean a mug of tea - in the USA, it's a beer. One of the funniest is another bit of military slang - kit that doesn't work any more and is "FUBAR", will be marked "Unfit for Service".... Or just plain "US". Back in the old days when people couldn't afford alarm clocks, they paid a guy to walk down the street early in the morning with a long pole, rapping on bedroom windows to wake people up in time for work. This was known as "Knocking people up". I like the way words change their meanings over time. Words like "Sex" and "Making love". Between the wars, "sex" tended simply to mean "the human courtship ritual" - and had no particularly pornographic connotations - it just meant "the attraction of male to female and vice versa". "Making love" meant "chatting up". Hearing that a guy was "making love to your wife" was thus no particularly big deal in the 1920's.
Guest nickcornaglia Posted June 30, 2003 Report Posted June 30, 2003 Or like at the end of the Flintstones Theme Song..."We'll have a GAY old time!" WILMA!
Guest nickcornaglia Posted June 30, 2003 Report Posted June 30, 2003 By the way...I resent the fact that you call things that are unfit for service...US! Is that why your PM is always snickering when he says, "We'll be going into Iraq alongside US soldiers...and US tanks...and US choppers."??? :)
Guest Rob.P Posted June 30, 2003 Report Posted June 30, 2003 Is that why your PM is always snickering... No, it's cause he's a dickhead :)
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