Slanguage And Quirks In The King’s English

November 1990
Musings 1991

My readers probably think that I OD on vignettes and persons of English history – an observation I cannot refute. I do have an affectionate attitude toward the U.K. and am a little sad that the relationship of the American dollar to the British pound probably precludes a fourth visit.

Three slanguage stimuli provoke my meditative gnawings on words and phrases:

1) The hilarious (to us) of the phrase for awakening guests.
2) A book given to me by John and Renee.
3) The Elephant and Castle.

(Let me inject that I feel no condescension in these observations. Our American slang is just as amusing and confusing to the Brits as theirs is to us. English is our Mother Tongue and one does have both love and respect for one's parent along with accepting differences.)

1) Numbers of Yanks have chuckled or leered at the British phrase for a morning wake-up call: “What time shall I knock you up in the morning?” In the U.S., as Norman Schur puts it, “knock up” is “an indelicate expression for getting a lady in a delicate condition.” Another British usage for the expression is, “I’m quite knocked up,” meaning all tired out, physically or emotionally.

2) BRITISH ENGLISH A TO ZED, Norman W. Schur, lives up to the jacket blurb, “wickedly witty and eminently useful collection of nearly 5000 Briticisms...”

Examples:
bumble – A pompous bureaucrat, frequently a clerk
bum-freezer – a short jacket
de-bus – get out of an automobile
the never-never – pay on installment plan
night on the tiles – night on the town
(the) Old Bill – (the) Cops
toad in the hole – sausage in batter
all my eye and Betty Martin – hogwash, baloney
tupenny one – sock in the jaw
wowser – fanatic puritan, spoilsport
yobbo – lout, bum
zebra – pedestrian crossing

Schur’s book also gives derivations of the expressions. I strongly recommend the book be with you as you board for Heathrow or Gatwick.

3) Elephant and Castle. This is a stop on the underground (tube). It is also a well-known pub which I missed. I speculated that maybe in the days of the British Empire, some nabob of the East India Co. returned wealthy, bringing an elephant to roam his castle grounds. I could not have been more wrong.

One of England’s more beloved Queens, the beautiful Eleanor of Castile, was the first wife of the warrior-king, Edward I (1239-1307), who was constantly at war with Scotland, Wales, and France. He captured the Stone of Scone, which is still beneath the Coronation Throne in Westminster Abbey. But his remarkable life is not the focus here.

Eleanor of Castile traveled with him on his campaigns giving birth to 15, perhaps 17, children. In 1290, she died in Nottinghamshire. The funeral cortege to London was solemn and memorable. Each time the procession stopped for the night, Edward I erected an “Eleanor Cross” in her memory.

In Chester, an “Eleanor Cross” was pointed out to me. Later in my reading I learned that this was not the original. Of the 12 crosses erected, only three are original. Even the most famous, Charing Cross, is a reproduction.

Eleanor was also known by her Spanish title, “Infanta of Castile.” It is from this title that “Elephant and Castle” is derived. Thus the transformation (how many centuries did it take?) from accuracy to idiom.

But these comments are not intended to demean, but enhance the lore, lure, and love of our English language. Quite apart from Briticisms, how much we owe to our Mother Tongue! Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Locke, Wordsworth, Auden, Yeats, Churchill are but brief tastings of our heritage of story, drama, poetry, rhetoric and song.

The heritage migrated here. The Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address are but two shining examples of innumerable inspirational words written by descendants of the English.

The written and spoken word may be the prime distinction between humans and other creatures. Be glad that we have these treasures.