I blame YouTube, how many more Americanisms are we going to have to suffer ?

[Stan]

There's a place near here called 'Shitterton'. And it's on the river Piddle .

I think "piddle" used to mean a stream or a spring of water. It became a euphemism for urination, and after a time the concept of it being a euphemism was lost.

Doctor Foster who went to Gloucester originally stepped in a piddle right up to his middle. But after the change in meaning, it had to become a puddle.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I live in Carharrack, pronounced by locals pretty much as Crhrrck.
I heard Vanessa Feltz one morning refer to Tintagel as Tint a jel .................. twice in the same programme.
There was an Irish road sign that apparently had been stolen some years ago 300+ times before it occurred to the local council to have them cast and sell them.

 

[Inspector]

I'm wondering if you have people with the annoying habit of greeting you as though you aren't there and they are talking to someone else about you? "How's Peter today?" "What's Peter doing?" Where has Peter been?" I first remember it starting on TV with a character in a 70s US sitcom show. Bugged me then and drives me up the wall now.

Pete

 

[Gogsi]

I have great little anecdote from when I lived in Texas for almost 30 years. In my first job, which was in a factory, way back in 1979, I asked the supervisor, who was a short squat woman,
"Can I borrow a rubber?"
I just really wish I had a video showing the desperate look of shock on her face.
To clarify my request, I said, "You know, to rub out a mistake i made using my pencil."
The look of relief on her face was epic.
She thought that i wanted to borrow a condom ! ...........and since I used the word borrow, I expect she thought I was going to bring it back : )

 

[D_W]

I have great little anecdote from when I lived in Texas for almost 30 years. In my first job, which was in a factory, way back in 1979, I asked the supervisor, who was a short squat woman,
"Can I borrow a rubber?"
I just really wish I had a video showing the desperate look of shock on her face.
To clarify my request, I said, "You know, to rub out a mistake i made using my pencil."
The look of relief on her face was epic.
She thought that i wanted to borrow a condom ! ...........and since I used the word borrow, I expect she thought I was going to bring it back : )

Rubbers here when I was a kid (other than the obvious definition) were rubber booties that you would wear over nice shoes so that you didn't have to have two pairs of shoes - one for crappy weather, and one otherwise. My generation fell out of interest with them, but I had a relative who used them to the end, and references to putting away "dirty rubbers" were fairly common, as were comments like "don't leave without your rubbers"

 

[D_W]

I think "piddle" used to mean a stream or a spring of water. It became a euphemism for urination, and after a time the concept of it being a euphemism was lost.

Doctor Foster who went to Gloucester originally stepped in a piddle right up to his middle. But after the change in meaning, it had to become a puddle.

I'm sure there's regional uses for it, but my mother (and a lot of PA germans) would've used it for less urination than normal - like when you have a dog that meets someone new and they leave a few drops, or when someone misses the toilet with some but not all ("piddled over the edge"). I'm guessing it's unused now. My kids get a great charge out of grandma saying that she will soon "tinkle".

Piddling is also a term used when it's raining really lightly. Like between nothing at all and a steady rain.

"is it raining?"

"not really, it's just piddling".

If this is more than just regional in the US, I'd be surprised. "It's just pissing rain" is also used more widely". The wee references are interesting because one of the rural things I've heard is "like a cow peeing on a flat rock" when it's raining hard. Most people in the US haven't seen a cow pee, though, and suburban politeness really doesn't allow for any references of the sort to begin with. The language here is almost magical sometimes - with explanations that someone is headed to the john that involve no mention of a bathroom nor the reason for getting up. I can never remember them.

The only English fellow I know here uses the term "have a slash", which sounds relatively violent to me.

 

[Cabinetman]

Rubbers here when I was a kid (other than the obvious definition) were rubber booties that you would wear over nice shoes so that you didn't have to have two pairs of shoes - one for crappy weather, and one otherwise. My generation fell out of interest with them, but I had a relative who used them to the end, and references to putting away "dirty rubbers" were fairly common, as were comments like "don't leave without your rubbers"

Strange isn’t it, we call those rubber overshoe things galoshes and if somebody says it’s piddling down it means it’s really heavily raining and of course we have raining like stair rods which is sort of equivalent to your cow peeing on a flat rock, most of those places you mentioned are in County Lancaster I think, I’ve been to several of them all good Amish places as you say. There is an interesting secondhand woodwork equipment place in Blueball by the way.

 

[D_W]

Galoshes would be recognized here as the same thing, too.

Yes on lancaster - perhaps one or two of those trickles into an adjacent county. Lancaster is interesting not just due to the amish (which people recognize), but also the mennonite. There are a few things one will notice around there:
* the lawn crews instead of being hispanic are often mennonite women
* when you see a large property being mowed by someone and it's mennonite owned, it's always the wife, and they don't waste much time mowing (I like to point this out to my spouse)
* small businsesses that involve electricity (yard equipment, appliances, etc) are absolutely dominated by mennonites as they're honest businessmen/women, and they don't have a lot of vices, so they tend to work very reasonable and they don't ask for a whole lot of time off, and they do a good job. Conscientiousness is high
* between the amish and mennonite folks, there is still a large amount of woodworking going on, and in some cases, there are amish owners with "english" employees

They do have a sense of humor, but it's simple and appropriate, though some don't have any at all. Someone like the folks on here (including me by a mile) who like snark and quick jokes - well, no reason to make jokes when nobody gets them.

Most of the longer term amish eat like it's 1850, as do the mennonites. They can destroy a buffet that provides unlimited food, but will go out and bust their hump later and work most of it off, and as one put it to me "work hard during the day so that you can leave your worries behind and sleep well at night".

No electricity for most orders, and no wasting of it for the mennonites who are allowed to have it, so in summers, the windows are open and the laundry is on a line. Amish who heat with oil here always have an exterior tank that is above grade (makes the shops and houses easy to spot when an oil tank is up on a riser above the first level) to create some feed pressure for the fuel lines.

they are always nice folks. One of the guests at my best man's wedding was an amishman - a bachelor, too - which is rare. He critiqued my car as being not that great, told me how big of a waste air conditioning is and got into a verbal spat with the bride about wearing deodorant He was a trim carpenter, probably still is. One of the joys of that wedding was seeing my buddy's wife call his shop (phone in the shop is OK, in the house, no) and have a brief discussion that went like this:

"Abner?"

....."yes"

"before you come to the wedding tomorrow, take a shower and put on deodorant".

"click." (abner was in the middle or some kind of retort when she hung up - I don't think he wore deodorant).

hah

 

[Cabinetman]

Yes you can always tell the farms because there is no electricity cable to it, and then there is the other lot who are allowed cars but they have to paint over the chromework with black paint. Lol, It was explained to me that the Amish have their own variation of Swiss German and English is actually a second language to them – I thought that was why they didn’t appear to have much of a sense of humour but I suspect you’re right.

 

[Stan]

The only English fellow I know here uses the term "have a slash", which sounds relatively violent to me.

lol

I have heard of British soldiers causing American soldiers some concern when they say they are going outside "to smoke a ***". In Britain, this means just having a cigarette.

Re the Dr Foster thing:

Years ago I read that this children's rhyme was once allegedly a piece of insulting doggerel. The story was that some English churchman was intending to go to Wales to show them how to do religion the right way ( whatever that is?? ). He reached the town of Gloucester, which is on the River Severn. At that time Gloucester was the first crossing point over the river from the sea, making it an important point on the way to Wales. When he got there the river was in flood making it impossible to cross, so he went home. The verse mocks his lack of determination being held up by a mere "piddle". In reality the Severn in flood would have been deadly.

Is this story true? I have no idea. I have heard an alternative version of King Edward I falling off his horse.

 

[Amateur]

From next doors teens I would say everyone on here, "Smashed it" with the comments....
NB
Did you manage a walk?
I smashed it....

 

[JobandKnock]

There's a place near here called 'Shitterton'. And it's on the river Piddle .

Is it near Piddle Trenthide, perchance? Years (decades) ago I went out with a lass from the area who told me that the river was originally called the Piddle and that the river and some places like Puddletown had been renamed just prior to a royal visit (Charles II?)

 

[selectortone]

Is it near Piddle Trenthide, perchance? Years (decades) ago I went out with a lass from the area who told me that the river was originally called the Piddle and that the river and some places like Puddletown had been renamed just prior to a royal visit (Charles II?)

Yes, that's the place. Lovely part of the world.

 

[D_W]

From next doors teens I would say everyone on here, "Smashed it" with the comments....
NB
Did you manage a walk?
I smashed it....

The kids here "smash" and "destroy" mundane things all the time, too. For a while, and perhaps still, everything was "amazing", and some younger kids say "it was the best ever" to everything they do. I have attempted to rain on that a couple of times by saying "it seems fairly low odds that every time you do something, it's better than every single other time you did the same thing", and they'll say "yeah, well, that's not what I mean - it's not the best ever like that".

OK. It's the best ever if "ever" was only the last time? I guess it's the positivity thing, which goes along with complimenting people when you really don't mean it. I kind of despise that - it certainly isn't the old german tradition that I grew up in, and my grandmother had a term for overly positive people "gusher" or "lady gushy-poo".

I got us in trouble at one point by asking why my grandmother called her friend "gushy" because I thought it was a nickname, and this was unfortunately overheard. But a truly gushy person blows that off and goes right by it, and that's just what her friend did (I'm sure it hurt feelings, but I didn't know...that could be a whole other thread - the rottenest thing you ever did or said without intending anything mean - I've got at least a dozen of those, but a coworker topped me by saying "don't be sad, it's not like your mother died or something" to a girl whose mother died the prior week (and he didn't know -actually, he didn't know the girl that well at all, but I'm sure she remembers who he is and what he said because she burst into tears).

eek.

 

[D_W]

Yes you can always tell the farms because there is no electricity cable to it, and then there is the other lot who are allowed cars but they have to paint over the chromework with black paint. Lol, It was explained to me that the Amish have their own variation of Swiss German and English is actually a second language to them – I thought that was why they didn’t appear to have much of a sense of humour but I suspect you’re right.

The black astro vans and other vans with black hubcaps would be mennonites. Same anabaptist traditions as the amish, but allowed to mingle with "the english" (amish aren't supposed to talk to the "english" unless there's a purpose, like work, etc). This is further muddied by the fact that there are sects of mennonites known as "horse and buggy mennonites".

Mennonites can also have electricity in the house - some amish can for certain things (washing machines), but everything amish is set at the ordnung (the local bishop presides) so there aren't that many hard and fast rules that you can say are for all. Old order in some places, no sunglasses and no color in shirts. Others have things like bright yellow buggies and shirts with patterns.

Abner gave me an ear full about how much better amish clothes were made than English clothes, and I hassled him about the fact that his shirt had no buttons (not allowed - they have hooks instead) - you can create endless discussion with someone like Abner (who is breaking the rules in the first place by hanging out with us) because everything is literal. When he was busting on my car (which was a relatively new volkswagen), I asked him what kind of seats his horse had (he thought the leather seats in my VW were lacking compared those in some other cars), and he went right on to the construction of the buggies.

I hate to say it, but some of this has gotten passed on to me from the german background (not remotely like german in germany at this point), and yes, they do speak german in the house and not english. My wife's relatives are lutheran dutchies (came from same region, but protestant and "modern") and many of them also still speak german in the house, and to each other at things like funerals. I thought it was kind of a ruse at first "wie gehts?" until I answered "gehts gut" and that's about the extent I can speak - full fledged conversation follows. My last name matches a common mennonite name, apparently

 

[Cabinetman]

It’s a strange old World isn’t it Doug.

 

[Yojevol]

There's a place near here called 'Shitterton'. And it's on the river Piddle .

The genteel set have tried on occasion to have it renamed 'Sitterton' but have had no luck so far. They've had to engrave the name onto a massive lump of rock because souvenir-hunters kept stealing the sign at the entrance to the village.

There is, of course, the other Piddle in Wor-cester-shire which urinates into Shakespeare's Avon at Wyre Piddle.

S(h)itterton reminds me of the spoonerism uttered by my friend's mother, Conny, who was prone to such faux pars. She was driving along a narrow lane in the Welsh hills when she had to stop because one of the 'locals' was blocking the road. Another car drew up behind and after a few minutes of waiting the now irate driver started blasting his horn. Conny jumped out of her car and shouted back "I can't move, there's a seep sh1tting on the road"

@D_W , Your reference to Shartlesville had me flummoxed. I've led a sheltered life and haven't come across the offending word before. A quick search on the urban dictionary bought me up to speed. However I have heard the phonetic version of it many times, mostly by John McEnroe when commentating at Wimbledon. Usually he uses some superlative adjective in front of it to describe a point winning stroke. Which raises the question in my mind - if John pronounces shot as shart, how does he pronounce shart?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercourse,_Pennsylvania

I presume this place wasn't founded by the Shakers
Brian

 

[D_W]

I presume this place wasn't founded by the Shakers
Brian

probably not!! The amish are prolific, though, but probably not recreationally.

AS far as shartlesville, someone from germany (given the area) probably had some german name that was close in german pronunciation to "shartles". Which means that a quick white pages google would maybe find such a thing (or perhaps that's doxing these days). That'd be a tough last name to have in high school.

I have to track down John Mac now. I'd call it a "shot" if it was really good, and a shart if the shot was bad enough to cost a match. I can't imagine a shart ever being welcomed.

 

[Brill88]

I once worked with a chap from Nuneaton (all of approximately 14 miles away), that, at the end of speaking used to say, "What, eh?". Every time he said this, I would reply with, "Pardon, excuse me?"
He eventually (remember, he was from Nuneaton) twigged that I was extracting the urine, so instead of "What, eh?" he would say "Pardon, excuse me?"
Imagine what it must have been like from someone hearing us speak!!!!! LOL.

I was born in Nuneaton but didn’t spend much time there can honestly say the term treacle town doesn’t go amiss there

 

[stuart little]

Towcester and Bicester are good ones also.

Leominster, another. How about Lyme Regis? A friend was once asked, by an American tourist, the way to LYMEE REG-is. My friend told him that was where the original 'Limeys' came from!