Talk:Alternative words for British

"Ukulele"?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! What do you think we are, a nation of George Formbys??? Ee, turned out nice again. Ha ha, never touched me! Lee M 02:03, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Mentions of these words have been around since the early days of the United Kingdom

The early days of the UK are a lot earlier than those of the US... (amused) Martin 01:43, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Btw, British isn't a demonym. You can't say "A british went into the bar". That's what a demonym is... Martin 01:53, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Were the terms Limey, Pom, Pommy, and Brit really coined as attempts to establish less ambiguous terms for United Kingdom nationals than the adjective British and the demonym Briton? Somehow I find that hard to believe... -- Oliver P. 05:23, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

No they are not. DJ Clayworth 14:46, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I've always thought that "Briton" was a slur on us Angles, Saxons, Normans, Danes and Jutes who also live in Britain....

I don't know where the writer of this got his information. We already have a word for UK nationals, as opposed to people living in Britain. It's British. The others are, well, people living in Britain. DJ Clayworth 14:46, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

What's "this" in this context? Martin 19:46, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I find the section on Proposed Alternatives hard to understand, and what I do understand appears to be wrong. 'British' in modern usage now pretty much refers to Citizens of the UK and its colonies. The colonies are few and far between, and many of them would be insulted if you implied that they were not British. Even in Northern Ireland I have never heard of a suggestion that British not be used to include all UK Citizens. Plus 'British Citizen' is used pretty frequently in official language to mean a citizen of the UK. DJ Clayworth 22:56, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

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This article is on a UK topic and so should be called Alternative words for British (see List of words having different meanings in British and American English) Andy G 00:23, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

...Done it. (It was "Alternate words for British"). So call me pedantic. Andy G 18:02, 6 Jan 2004 (UTC)

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I removed the claim:

Although common, [pommy] is deemed highly offensive, the most offensive term that exists for a British person.

because it certainly isn't true here in Australia, where it is no more offensive than, say "Yank" for Americans. Where is it supposed to be "highly offensive"? Securiger 08:10, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Although now a Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic colloquialism for the English, Sassenach (sometimes Sassanach) was a Pictish word to refer to a Saxon. The Welsh equivalent is Sais (plural Saeson). Anothern Scottish term was Southron from Middle English, also used during the Confederacy to refer to Southerners, and by J. R. R. Tolkien (see Southrons).

I removed that because the Scottish and Irish Gaelic words are not colloquial at all. And the word didn't come through Pictish. All the Celtic peoples call the English "Saxons" for some reason or another.

It doesn't really make sense in the Southron bit that it ever referred to British (people of the United Kingdom as whole), either.. Sounds like it refers to the English from the viewpoint of the Lowland Scots.

Alternatives for (Great) Britain etc...

I've written a proposal for an article to give a clarification of terms like (Great) Britain, the British Isles, the UK and England (and whether Ireland has anything to do with any of these), including a section that deals with different names for the peoples of these regions, partly taken from the information contained here, so I thought I should point that out. User:DirkvdM/British Isles - Clarification of Terms DirkvdM 17:20, 2005 Apr 28 (UTC)