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.

[hampden.livejournal.com]

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

[yorkybar.livejournal.com]

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

[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?

[graculus.livejournal.com]

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

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

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

[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...