What does that even mean…

American and English seem so similar but I often hear American clients baffled by some English words.

When I started compiling this glossary for the US tongue I did not fully appreciate how difficult British English could actually be.

An American client pointed out to me that some of the fantastic things in Harry Potter’s school are not as weird and unexpected as some of the real school traditions we have. Interesting.

And so I set to work ever more earnest to help with the words.

Bap

A king-size bread roll. As in bacon bap. An English breakfast sandwich. Check out Brown’s Cafe in the Covered Market.

Fully licensed - Means licensed to sell alcohol including spirite

Pissed - drunk

Porter - College porters do not carry the suitcases in a college although they might. college porters have a huge range of responsibilities which may vary between colleges but essentially the greet people going in, bid goodbye to people going out, field enquiries from callers and know the college rules. That’s abasic description.

Porter’s Lodge - this is a really tricky one. The lodge ins not a mountain home. It is what Americans would call a gate house. This is where porters dwell and is where to a great extent access and departure from a college is restricted to. Bigger colleges will have a number of posts for porters. In Christ Church there are three: At the Meadow Building, and the gate house, and on the East side of the college where it is possible to visit the very special and lesser known Christ Church Picture Gallery.