****** or ******?

[Bonzo 2000]

Why is it that in the US "******" means angry, but in the UK it means drunk?

[becks]

ah thinking know where you're going, p----- off means the same in england and lazt americans have probably just dropped the "off" off so to speak.

[Bonzo 2000]

Thanks, becks - the answerbank editing of the originl question has made for a bit of guesswork! But yes, the deleted parts sound like "pssst"!

[Quizmonster]

The word itself - meaning 'drunk' - first appeared in Britain in the 1920s. The word with 'off' - meaning 'angry' - first appeared in the USA in the 1940s...though the phrase has now taken root with that meaning in Britain, too. There doesn't appear to be any definite connection between the two meanings.

[andy hughes]

It's just a difference in languages. There are other examples - fanny and fag spring to mind as a couple of examples.

[IndieSinger]

*Tee hee!*

[Ouisch]

Becks, there's no laziness involved...p'd off has never meant "drunk" in the US. It's always meant angry or ticked off, and as a rule is not used in polite company.

[maxi29]

Ouisch, Becks didn't say that p-ed off meant drunk, he said that it meant angry - which it does. I must take issue with Quizmonster on his statement that p-ed (meaning angry) has now 'taken root' in Britain: I've never heard a Brit use it that way. I'm sure there are one or two Brits use it that way as an affectation but they're in a small, small minority.

[New Forester]

Maxi29 - Far be it from me to come to the aid of what seems to be an Americanism, but I'd regard "pi*sed off" as almost universal here, at least amongst those Brits who do use crude language. However, I'd not say it means angry exactly, more like depressed -- for example, one might feel pi*sed off at being sacked. I'm not so sure about a more direct "angry" meaning, such as "he was pi*sing me off, so I hit him" -- perhaps that's still an Americanism. Perhaps you only know polite people, Maxi? (Though I've also heard the genteel form of "peed off".) Or perhaps it's regional -- where are you? What I have never heard from a Brit is the American form without the "off". I'd also regard "pi*sed" as a universal Brit term in the meaning of drunk. Then there's the direct abusive "go away" phrase, "pi*s off!". This is usually said as a relatively mild or even jocular alternative to more graphic and cruder instructions, perhaps one step up from "push off" (which itself does sound like a euphemistic variation). Is "**** off" used in America in that sense?

[thewillow]

Prepositions seem to be disappearing. "It's alright, I'm sorted (out)." "We we're just hanging (around)."

[thewillow]

That should have been 'were'.

[Quizmonster]

Actually, Maxi - if you re-read my response - you will see that I didn't claim that p-ed meaning 'angry' had taken root here. The relevant sentence opens (quote): "The word with 'off'..." That is, I was not referring to the single word but to the two-word phrase. My opening sentence referred to the stand-alone word.

So, there's no need to take issue with me...we're in total agreement! Cheers