by Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Although Merriam-Webster is a dictionary of American English, it contains a range of words rarely heard outside Britain. Here are some of our favorites:
Prat – a stupid or foolish person
Prat has been British slang for the sort of person with whom you’d rather not share a long train journey since the middle of the 20th century. Prior to this the word served a number of other useful functions, with such meanings as “the buttocks” and “to nudge or push (as a person) with the buttocks.” A pratfall, now commonly used to mean “a humiliating mishap or blunder,” originally meant “a fall on the buttocks.”
Whinge – to complain fretfully: whine
Whinge and whine may look like simple variants, but the two words are fairly distinct, with meanings and histories that are independent.
Whinge comes from an Old English word, hwinsian, meaning “to wail or moan discontentedly,” whereas whine comes from the Old English hwinan (“to make a humming or whirring sound”). Whinge, in use since the 12th century, has always had a meaning related to complaining; whine, on the other hand, did not begin to have its now-familiar meaning until the 16th century.
Knackered– tired, exhausted
As is the case with many of the other Britishisms on this list, the “tired or exhausted” sense of knackered is fairly recent, in use only since the latter portion of the 20th century. The word has been in slang use as a verb, meaning “to kill,” since the 19th century, and is possibly related to an earlier noun form of knacker meaning “horse-slaughterer” or “saddle-maker.”
Jiggery-pokery– dishonest or suspicious activity; nonsense
The English language has hundreds of reduplicative formations such as jiggery-pokery. A number of these, such as hocus-pocus, flimflam, and claptrap also have meanings related to “nonsense.” Jiggery-pokery comes from the earlier joukery-pawkery; both joukery and pawkery are English regionalisms for “trickery.”
Blimey – used to express amazement, surprise, or perplexity
Blimey is labeled chiefly British in our dictionary, which is one way of saying ‘mainly used by the British, but occasionally used jocularly by Americans who put on a bad Cockney accent and pair it with words such as guvnor.’
Blimey is a shortening of Gorblimey, which itself is a euphemism for “God blind me.”
Chunter – to talk in a low inarticulate way: mutter
Chunter, like bebop and bisbigliando, is a word of imitative origin. In use since the 16th century, it is one of a fine number of synonyms the English language possesses for “mutter.” Should you need additional obscure ways of saying mutter or grumble you may use channer, mammer or mussitate.
Twee – affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint
Twee may look as though it is related to tweet , but the latter word is imitative in origin and the former is thought to be a kind of baby talk variation of sweet. Other English words which probably come from baby-talk are mama, nanny and cockyolly bird (a pet name for any small bird).
Gormless – lacking intelligence: stupid
If one can be gormless, does that also mean that one can be gormful?
While the temptation is very strong to tell you that you can be anything you want to be if you wish hard enough, we would be doing you a disservice if we said you could be gormful, for we have no record of such a word ever seeing use.
Gormless comes from the dialect word gaum, which means “attention” or “understanding.”
Boffin – a scientific expert and especially one involved in technological research
Boffin is a mysterious word, one which—although it entered common use but recently (around World War II)—has an etymology that is unknown.
Although the word’s roots are unclear it does appear to have begun being used largely in reference to scientists in the RAF (Royal Air Force). Shortly after entering common usage boffin began to broaden somewhat, and to be applied next to scientists in general, and thereafter to academics of many varieties.
Pip-pip— used to express farewell
Pip-pip, that particularly cheery of old-fashioned British farewells, is said to have been formed in imitation of the sound made by a car horn.
Pip-pip should not be confused with tata, toodle-oo, toodle-pip, or any other largely British modes of saying “good-bye.
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