British English Words & Slang

For the most part, my characters are British, and my books are set in the UK, so I use British spelling and grammar in my stories. Below is a list of BrEng words I use and their meanings - some of it may be British slang. I don't always use these words, and we also use a lot of Americanisms here nowadays with the influence of modern pop culture, but hopefully you'll find this list useful. I add things as I think of them, in no particular order, and it may be that you are already familiar with some of them as you use them across the pond too :)

NOTE! You may find a few rude words in the list below!

TIPS!
If you'd like to know if a word is listed below, click Ctrl + F on your computer and type the word into the search box that appears.

British English	American English Equivalent
trainers	sneakers
bedsit	efficiency apartment / studio
smelt	smelled ("Smelt" is not just a fish, or a way to extract metal by heating; in the UK it is commonly used in writing and every day language, as the past particular of the word smell. That's right folks - most of us say smelt, and not smelled. However, the two variations are inter-changeable for us.)
​foetus	fetus (spelling variation)
learnt	​learned (We say "learnt" and not learned. "Learned" more often than not, for us, is actually Old English to mean someone who is learned - pronounced learn-ed. He was a learned man.)
burnt	burned
dreamt	dreamed
earnt	earned (This one's controversial. We say earnt all the time, but it is seen as more correct to write it as "earned" - not sure why, when all the others (as shown above) have remained correct usage in BrEng spelling).
jumper	jersey
tracksuit bottoms	joggers
​"ise" endings (realise, materialise, polarise, idolise, etc.)	​"ize" endings ([1]"ise" is, surprisingly, from the French/Latin, and "ize" is from the Greek. Technically "ize" is correct  in BrEng spelling, but it has become known as American spelling because of their adoption of it. Some British presses still prefer to use "ize" whilst others prefer to use "ise".) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#-ise.2C_-ize_.28-isation.2C_-ization.29
poxy (slang)	crappy / not nice / a dump
​slacker (slang)	​lazy person
bunking off / bunk off (slang)	playing truant
skiving off / skive off (slang)	playing truant
radiator	general term for indoor heater
wanker (slang)	​derogatory term for a male - i.e. dickhead. Originally, it literally meant "one who masturbates", but has since become a general insult.
knickers	panties (we do say panties too, but not as often)
gobsmacked (slang)	speechless
bollocks	​bullshit (unless it's the dog's bollocks. If it's "the dog's bollocks" then it means it's fabulous - don't ask me why!)
pants (slang), as in "that's pants"	shitty / "that's shitty" (obviously, "pants" in the non-slang context, also means trousers. Some people say it to mean "underpants", but you'll rarely see it written that way.)
waistcoat	vest
​vest	sleeveless undergarment
aluminium	aluminum (spelling variation)
colour	color (and you'll often see "our" instead of "or" in BrEng - harbour, honour, humour, etc.)
grey	gray
car bonnet	car hood
car boot	[car] trunk
purse	woman's wallet
wallet	man's wallet
bag [handbag]	purse
orientated	oriented
pissed off (slang)	very annoyed / angry
pissed (slang)	drunk (having said that, in the UK, it's just starting to become acceptable to use "pissed" to mean "angry" as with our American friends - and I occasionally use it in my books to mean angry as well, when it flows with the sentence that way - but that's still really uncommon here. "Pissed" mostly just means "drunk".)
arse / arsehole (slang)	ass / asshole (slang)
​ass	a type of donkey (from Asinus, a subgenus of Equus that includes the donkey and other asses)
gutted (slang)	distraught
nutter (slang)	crazy person
git (slang)	derogatory term for a male (rarely used for a woman); callow / rude person
blond [male with light hair]	male with light hair
blonde [female with light hair]	​female with light hair - I have seen in [mostly] American, commercially published books, "blond" used to indicate both the masculine and feminine. Certainly in the UK, it is still correct that the two different spellings be assigned to the two different genders. I actually thought this was still a worldwide rule, and personally feel it's a shame it's not implemented professionally any more.
parcel shelf (the shelf behind the back seats in a car)	rear dash

More terms to come as I think of them. Feel free to email me if you'd like me to add any specific ones.