Name: How well do you know your British terms? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 2 - BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2025-11-28T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 2 min 49 s
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Adverbs of manner

Britishism, a term denoting a word or phrase that only functions properly and without footnotes in the United Kingdom, but

which has begun to spread across the globe like a cup of tea spilt over a map of the world.

Numpty - for a person you consider to be not as clever as you.

Muppet - for a person you consider to be not as clever as you.

Gobsmacked - for being startled or amazed.

I'm gobsmacked that you fancy that numpty would have been unfathomable a few years ago,

but even Obama has used the word gobsmacked, and he's no numpty.

A British person in that vast area of the Atlas that he calls abroad.

Someone behind a counter in a shop says, "How are you?"

And the British person replies,"Fine, thanks. How are you?"

Which, of course, the person behind the counter wasn't expecting.

To the British person, it's a genuine question.

To the rest of the world is just a little flag in the foothills of the day's conversation.

Although the word Britishism was first uttered in the 19th century,

it's become more prominent in recent years for reasons that are hard to fathom, but

which may have something to do with the international spread of Englishers and the way that when they rub against each other, sparks can fly.

Every country, every region will have its own isms, of course.

There'll be Frenchisms and Australianisms, and Canadianisms, and

they begin, I guess, with the micro languages within national borders that don't travel too far, or didn't travel too far before we all began to travel.

Within Britain, there are various local words that are their own postcode versions of Britishisms,

not moving far across what linguists call an isogloss, a place where language use changes over a small geographical space.

So in the British Isles you could say, "Come in, pal, mate, mucker, lovey."

Sit down on the sofa or the settee in the front room, the sitting room, the living room, the other room, the lounge.

The essence of the Britishism is perhaps the essence of the British psyche.

Eccentric, self-effacing, gently poking fun at itself.

To be a train spotter with your notebook scribbling down the numbers of the engines as they trundle by is a very British thing.

Spotting last one with an open notebook is a numpty.