Cotton wool - Um, fluffy white stuff you use to, inter alia, take off make up, apply calomine lotion, that sort of thing OK. We call them cotton balls
Beans on toast. Do you know what baked beans are? heinz 57? anyway they're beans in tomato sauce commonly poured over toast - yummy Not exactly Adkins, is it?
Go pear shaped - go wrong
Are you sure it wasn't posh totty? Probably. However, like Lucy, I'm an American. I don't speak "English"
What's up with Essex? I am so not going to attempt that one - I'm new and don't want to get slung off the board. Now you've got me scared. I don't want to start some sort of war on here.
How do you do that copying from another post? I wanted to copy the I'm American I don't speak English bit Shouldn't worry about it - most English people barely speak it.
Gomerels is really annoying me - know I know it.
Sorry about the Latin - i swear I don't speak like that but I'm obviously still in work mode.
Still letting someone else come in on the Essex thing
How do you do that copying from another post? I wanted to copy the I'm American I don't speak English bit Shouldn't worry about it - most English people barely speak it.
Gomerels is really annoying me - know I know it.
Sorry about the Latin - i swear I don't speak like that but I'm obviously still in work mode.
Still letting someone else come in on the Essex thing
To copy with the quote, just look at the bottom of where you are reading. There is a little "Quote" button there.
Ceud mile failte is Scottish Gaelic for 'a hundred thousand welcomes'. A chuisle is Irish Gaelic, something to do with love, 'my love' or 'my darling' or something like that. Where on earth did you hear these??!
I'm not sure if you're still confused about the posh totty bit, but that's someone who is hot but kinda posh, like Kate Winslet or Nigella Lawson (hope I haven't just listed people you haven't heard of!)
Ceud mile failte is Scottish Gaelic for 'a hundred thousand welcomes'. A chuisle is Irish Gaelic, something to do with love, 'my love' or 'my darling' or something like that. Where on earth did you hear these??!
I'm not sure if you're still confused about the posh totty bit, but that's someone who is hot but kinda posh, like Kate Winslet or Nigella Lawson (hope I haven't just listed people you haven't heard of!)
Thanks!!!!
I'm reading the last book in the Outlander series.
cead mile failte - Irish for welcome (note, not for 'you're welcome'/thanks but welcome to my house/greetings). exact translation = a hundred thousand welcomes.
Mo cuishle - My darling (frequently heard in film 'Million Dollar Baby')
Can't figure out the first one...maybe the spelling is incorrect?
What's up with Essex? The guys on there seemed to have a bit of an attitude about it.
Ooh I love these, being a former student of English Lang. And also having lvied in the US and been stumped by their words, too, so know how you feel.
First of all *Inter alia* is simply Latin for *between all* (everyone). So a letter/email you copy to everyone involved - goes inter alia.
Go pear shaped is go wrong.
Beans on toast is a British delicacy - baked beans on toast. (Canned beans but they're not at all like the ones you have in the US - your's are brown things, right?) I'm guessing Gordon would use it as an example of really crap food that even a moron could make.
Posh toddy - you'll have misheard him. Posh totty - means a posh sort of tarty woman, usually youngish. Quite derogatory.
Cotton wool is those fluffy balls of cotton in the tops of tablet bottles. Forget what you call them... lint?
As for Essex - it's a bit of a joke nationally. County to the East of London. Many Brits think of Essex girls as wearing no tights and white stilettos, being over made-up, and..er...thick. Essex Boys are football hooligans - have backwards baseball caps, type thing and again, a bit thick. Wear lots of bling bling and tacky designer clothes like Burberry. And fancy themselves. My ex was an Essex boy - and it's all true.
I'm back for more lingo lessons
"F" word. 
