new meanings for old words

hey!!! how come fuckwit got past the poobum filter, but mother*f*u*c*k*e*r and w*a*n*k*e*r didn't?

where I come from a "botley" is a severely stupid person, the term is derived from the local mental hospital "Botley Park" . I have discovered that using such an institutional name as an insult is common all over the country. Mentalist is used a lot down in estuarine land also. Apologies to any Norman's and Nigel's out there but I have heard both these names to describe a geek.

In the U.S. the phrase "to go postal" mean to throw a huge temper tantrum, perhaps even to the point of physically injuring/killing someone. It derives from the unpleasant tendancy of postal workers in America to bring firearms into work and kill their bosses/co-workers from time to time. Keeps everyone alert, though.

In Portugal a "Beef" is an English or European tourist. It's derived from the term "Bifesteak" which means steak, of course. Beef is the colour of rare steak - the colour tourists turn after their first day in the sun. The Portuguese wil openly call tourists Beef to their face and the tourist has no idea he's being insulted. A favourite insult of the Portuguese fishermen is Montineiro, which means Mountain Man. And if you're a big bloke you might feel a tad complimented at being referred to as a man mountain. No need to be. To the fishermen of the Algarve it means literally "man who came down from the mountain." In other words man who couldn't tie a knot any more complicated than a bow, or who couldn't roll his own cigarette one-handed in a force-nine gale while keeping control of a small fishing boat with the other hand. Man who can't read the sea. They're a breed apart, Portuguese fishermen.

I think foreigners in any land have a term. I've often been called a "grockle" when staying with my Auntie julie down in Devon. In the West Country they'll call anyone not from those parts a "grockle" to their face and there's no malice in it

The word greb is used (or used to be used) quite a bit up North, Aridayle, meaning "spit". To greb, to greb on, to be grebbed on etc etc. I remember people used to think it was weird when I (or people I know) said they'd "tapped" with someone - meaning to snog them.

My 11-year-old boy's prime put-down word is "speng", as in "What are you - deaf, daft or stupid - you speng". It must have come from the playground, but God knows how or why.

greb - patchouli smeared person of dubious personal hygeine, wears denims and tour t-shirts. or used to. term of offence. was briefly appropriated by the NME as 'grebo' to describe a group of Leicester bands (Crazyhead, Gaye Bykers on Acid, Bomb Party, etc.). was most often used as in, "I felt like a right ****in' greb...."

Judith, you're right about grockle's. I was born and raised in Devon, but the fact that I havn't come form 9 generations of pure local folk and I'm not related to everyone in town in some way means I'm also a grockle I'm afraid. (But on the other hand I've only got the one head so that's a bonus....)

Judith, when I seasoned in Bournemouth we called all the holiday-makers grokels. In Benidorm we called them wallys. Yet strangely in Portugal they have always been known - amongst the English ex-pat community - as "holiday-makers," which certainly shows a lack of imagination.

Dubious personal hygenie, yup, them's my grebs