Brit Speak

[moonlettuce]

Dear writers who possibly are but probably aren't British,

The word is bollocks. Not bullocks. Bollocks.

Bullocks = young male cows

Bollocks = slang term for testicles, also used 'as a noun to mean "nonsense" or conversely to mean "top quality" or "perfection", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, and an adjective to mean "poor quality" or "useless".' (Thanks Wikipedia ::grin::)

For example:

"Stephen, I want you to have sex with Lester," said Nick.

"Bollocks to that!" replied Stephen.

or

"Ianto, you look like the dog's bollocks in that suit," Owen murmured appreciatively.

Please learn the difference

This public service announcement was brought to you by the fact that there have been so many times recently when I've just started giggling in the middle of a story because a British character has used 'bullocks' instead of 'bollocks'.

Comments

[dmarley.livejournal.com]

This has moved up to my Top Ten of peeves recently. Because, of course, it's the kind of thing that perpetuates, kind of like the conflation of "straight" with "strait" that was rife in Harry Potter fandom for a while.

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

I automatically Britpick in my head, but I think that's just natural. For some reason, though, I find myself doing it more with Torchwood than any other Brit fandom (I'm not in HP, but am in Primeval).

My next post will be about how Wales is actually a part of Great Britain and therefore referring to Ianto and Gwen as British isn't incorrect, that we use 'arse' instead of 'ass' and no, Ianto wouldn't have sent his mother flowers for Mother's Day on May 11th, because our Mother's Day was actually in March ::grin::

[hampden.livejournal.com]

Now play nice! If there's a sudden interest in bestiality in certain fandoms - each to their own!

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

If it was actual bullocks they were talking about, I wouldn't mind so much. At least they'd have the wording right ;)

[yorkybar.livejournal.com]

*ponders the idea of looking like the dog's bullocks*

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

Could be... interesting ;)

[shetiger.livejournal.com]

Hey, I have a question! There was a bit on a show where they were talking about how they arrived at a certain character's nickname. His name was Bo Lock, thus 'bollock' - which I get. But that somehow turned into Knacker. I'm not following how. The only meaning I was previously aware of was hearing 'knackered' used like tired. But I'm guessing it has another meaning?

[lost-house.livejournal.com]

'knackers' is more brit slang for testicles so it makes some sort of sense : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knacker

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

As lost_house said, 'knackers' is also a slang terms for testicles. We seem to have quite a few of them. Er, slang words that is, not testicles ;)

Also: yay, Eddie!

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Also, bullocks have no bollocks, otherwise they'd be bulls... ;)

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

::grin:: Just to confuse people more ;)

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

We used to get that a LOT in Spike fics written by not-British people :;g::

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

::grin::

"Bullocks to that, mate," Spike said, waving a young male bovine at the demon...

Although, for some reason, it never seemed to happen with the Giles writers, as far as I can recall. Not sure if that's because people never had Giles saying 'bollocks' or because it was just more prevalent in the Spike writers.

[fiareynne.livejournal.com]

At the risk of letting my ignorance show, for some reason I thought "ballocks" was also acceptable. Not that I use the term terribly often anyway...

[moonlettuce.livejournal.com]

I think 'ballocks' is more Irish and to do with how it's pronounced because of peoples' accents. I know I've never used it, and I've only ever heard Irish friends use it a couple of times :)