APPENDIX II GLOSSARIES AND TABLES A. Currency Up to August 1, 1969, British coins in regular use were the halfpenny (pro- nounced HAY'PNY), penny, threepence (pronounced THRUH PNY, THRUPPENNY, THRUPPENCE, sometimes THREPPENCE; sometimes called THREPPENNY BIT), six- pence (nicknamed tanner, sometimes bender), shilling, florin (2 shillings), and half-crown (2V 2 shillings). Twenty shillings made a pound; 12 pence (plural of penny) made a shilling. Thus there were 240 pence in a pound. The farthing (V4 penny) was discontinued years ago; the halfpenny was demonetized on August 1, 1969; the half-crown on January 1, 1970. The guinea existed only as a convenient way of denoting 21 shillings, i.e., one pound, one shilling. The symbol for pound is £, placed before the number, like the dollar sign; for shilling (or shillings) it was s., for penny or pence d.; but there was also the oblique line and dash meaning shilling(s) written after the number; thus: 15/- meant 15 shillings. If there were pence as well, the dash was omitted; thus 15/9, orally fifteen and nine, meant 15 shillings and 9 pence. But on February 15, 1971, the British decimalized their currency, eliminating shillings as such, leaving only pounds and pence (now abbreviated to p), with 100 new pence to the pound. What used to be a shilling is now 5 new pence, a florin is now 10 new pence, and so on. (The new soon began to be dropped.) The old shillings and 2-shilling pieces (the same sizes as the new 5- and 10-pence pieces but different designs) have become collectors' items. What was one pound two shillings (£1-2-0) is now written £1.10. With the coming of the 100- pence pound, it became the fancy of some merchants, after adding up a column, to announce the total in terms of pence alone; thus: "111 pence" for £1.11 or "342, please," for £3.42. This custom is undoubtedly a hangover from the prac- tice, in the old shilling days, of stating prices in shillings even when they exceeded a pound; thus: 102/6 or 200 s. Apparently, stating the price in smaller units is thought to make things sound cheaper. On decimalization day ("D-Day") the remaining old coins all became a thing of the past or did they? Although the mint thereafter turned out only the new halfpennies (now discontinued), pennies and 2, 5,10, and 50 pence pieces, lo! the old pennies, threepences, and sixpences were nevertheless at first allowed to cir- culate alongside the new coins for a year and a half (the old pennies and three- pences were later excommunicated and the sixpences "restyled" 2V2 p, as of September 1,1971), either because they went into the old telephone and vending machine coin slots, or out of sentimental attachment to relics of the old regime, or because the British cannot resist the attraction for introducing into almost any sit- uation a bit of amiably maddening confusion or something to grumble about. With sixpence temporarily worth less than threepence, there was bound to be a fair amount of consternation, indignation, error, high amusement, cries in Par- 382 Appendix II.C 383 liament of "Resign!," and general hilarity. Despite all this streamlining, how- ever, things will go on not being worth a farthing and ladies will go on spending a penny albeit a new one. Pee is now the familiar pronunciation of p (penny), and 2 pee and 3 pee are heard in place of the old tuppence and thruppence. B. Financial Terms For the benefit of those who follow the financial news, stocks are called shares in Britain, and stocks in Britain are government bonds. Stock prices are quoted in penny denominations, as are increases, decreases, averages, and the like. Thus, a stock quoted at 150 would be selling at 150 pence, or roughly around $2.25 per share (as of June, 2000). A bonus issue or share is a stock dividend. Preferred stock is called preference shares. Scrip means a temporary stock certificate, not a certificate for a fraction of a share, as in America. C. Units of Measure 1. Dry Measure a. Barrel A barrel is a varying unit of weight (or other quantitative measure). It depends on what it is a barrel of. It works this way: Commodity Weight in lbs. soft soap 256 butter 224 beef 200 flour 196 gunpowder 100 Be careful: Applied to beer and tar, barrel is a unit of volume expressed in gallons and works this way: Commodity No. of gals. beer 36 tar 26 V 2 And remember, a gallon is an Imperial gallon, equal to approximately 120 per cent of an American gallon (1.20095 per cent is a little closer). And to make things just a bit less certain, a barrel of fish is 500 fish! For other examples of the British deter- mination to keep things flexible, or doggedly inconsistent, see e and f below. b. Hundredweight 112 pounds in Britain; 100 pounds in America. c. Keel Weight of coal that can be carried on a keel, and still used as a wholesale coal mea- sure. Since a British ton is 2240 lbs. and a British cwt. (hundredweight) is 112 lbs., a keel is, in American terms, 47,488 lbs., or a sliver under 23 3/4 tons, all of which is about to become totally immaterial under the fast-encroaching metric system. d. Quart 1.20095 American quarts. See also 2.a below. e. Score i. 20 or 21 lbs, in weighing pigs or oxen. If you should happen to be in the British countryside and want to buy some pigs, don't think £2.99 a score is the bargain it 384 British English A to Zed seems: score doesn't mean 'twenty' in this usage. It is a unit of weight, regional, and applies especially to pig and cattle raising. ii. 20 to 26 tubs in dispensing coal. Tub, incidentally, in various trades (butter, grain, tea, etc.) is a flexible unit of measure, depending on the commodity. This flexibility seems peculiarly British. f. Stone Generally, 14 lbs. British bathroom scales, as well as those in railroad stations and similar public places, are calibrated in stones, half-stones, and pounds, but Ameri- cans find it rather difficult to translate stones into pounds because 14 is a hard number to handle in mental arithmetic. To make things worse, a stone of meat or fish is 8 lbs., a stone of cheese is 16 lbs., etc. Eight 14-lb. stones make a hundred- weight, which is 112 lbs. in Britain (more logically, 100 lbs. in America). Perhaps a table of terms used in the trade would help, showing the meaning of stone applied to various commodities. Commodity hemp cheese potatoes iron wool meat fish glass All of this is becoming history with Britain's Weight in lbs. 32 16 14 14 14* 8 8 5 adoption of the metric system. g.Ton 2,240 lbs.; an American ton contains 2,000 lbs. Note that a British hundredweight contains 112 lbs. (not 100) so that 20 of them make up a British ton. It may be interesting to note that the Americans adopted British weights and measures in the early years, and then the British upped their "Imperial" standards in the early 1800s. See also gallon (2.a, below). h. Windle Approximately 3 bushels. An agricultural measure, used for grain. 2. Liquid Measure a. Gallon The standard British gallon is the Imperial gallon, equal to 277.420 cubic inches. The standard U.S. gallon is the old British wine gallon, equal to 231 cubic inches. Thus, the British gallon equals 1.20095, or almost exactly I 1 /5 American gallons. This ratio follows through in liquid measure terms used in both countries for parts of a gallon, to wit: quarter (V4 gallon); pint (Vg gallon); gill (V32 gallon except that a gill is not uniform in all parts of Britain). And as to terms of dry measure, look out for the British quart, which equals 1.0320, rather than 1.20095, American dry quarts. b. Gill (The g is soft). When gill is used as a liquid measure in Britain, it usually means V4 pint (i.e., V4 of Vs of an Imperial gallon) and is therefore 1.2 times as large as an * Caution! 14 lbs. in sales to outsiders, but 15 lbs. in the case of sales to other growers or dealers. Appendix II.D 385 American gill; but be careful, because in some parts of Britain it means V2 an Imperial pint, or exactly twice as much as in other parts of Britain. c. Pint. See under gallon, above. See also pint under alphabetical listing. d. Quart. See under gallon, above. D. Numbers Billion One followed by twelve zeros (called noughts or ciphers in Britain). An American billion is only one thousand million (1,000,000,000), which is called a thousand mil- lion or a milliard in Britain. There are wholly different nomenclature systems in the two countries for numbers big enough to be stated in powers of a million. This is important to mathematicians, astronomers, and astronauts, for whose benefit the following partial table is submitted: English million milliard billion thousand billion trillion thousand trillion quadrillion thousand quadrillion quintillion thousand quintillion sextillion (sexillion) septillion octillion nonillion decillion centillion American million billion trillion quadrillion quintillion sextillion septillion octillion nonillion decillion— Number 1,000,000 1,000,000,000 l,000,000 2 1,000 x l,000,000 2 1,000,000 s 1,000 x l,000,000 3 l,000,000 4 1,000 x l,000,000 4 l,000,000 5 1,000 x l,000,000 5 l,000,000 6 l,000,000 7 l,000,000 8 l,000,000 9 l,000,000 10 l,000,000 100 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Formation with 6 zeros "9" " 12 " " 15 " " 18 " /, 21 „ " 24 " " 27 " " 30 " " 33 " " 36 " » 42 " " 48 " " 54 " " 60 " " 600 " Warning note: see the following from The Times (London) of November 14,1974: How the Treasury Confuses Billions The Treasury seems to be trying to make a significant change in the English lan- guage in a footnote to the Chancellor's Budget speech. This defines the word "billion" as one thousand million—though since the philosopher John Locke first used the word in the late 17th century it has meant a million million here. The United States, of course, uses the definition favoured by the Treasury. But the traditional English usage was confirmed in the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary published only two years ago. Asked to explain, the Treasury confused things further. Informally within the Department, it seems, the word means a thousand million, "but the fact that offi- cials use the term does not necessarily mean that it has been officially adopted." And "it is probably safer to talk about a thousand million or a million mil- lion" — which of course is precisely what Locke and his contemporaries were trying to avoid when they coined the word in the first place. Supplementary warning note: to confound the confusion and enhance the fun, see the following, from The Times (London) of October 29,1975: 386 British English A to Zed Complaint over 'Billion' Dismissed Exercise in pedantry, the Press Council declares To uphold a complaint about the misuse of the word "billion" would be no more than an exercise in pedantry, the Press Council said in an adjudication yesterday. Mr. J. T. Anderson, of Rugby, complained that The Times misused the word "billion", having reported remarks by an MP and captain of industry showing "illiteracy and innumeracy." Mr. A. D. Holmes replied that The Times agreed that billion in English meant a million million. However, the Business News section of the newspaper preferred to use the American style (a thousand millions) on the grounds that it was now general and that to translate it into British terms would be misleading. The Times was anxious to establish a uniform practice which would be acceptable to scien- tists, mathematicians, economists and financiers. Mr. N. Keith, for The Times, wrote further to Mr. Anderson saying it was incor- rect to say that the business section preferred the American style. In fact it invari- ably preferred "X,000m", except when reporting a speech or when the term was used figuratively to mean large numbers. The Financial Times had formally adopted billion and informed its readers. The Times might be forced to do the same if inflation carried on at the present rate. Mr. Anderson replied with a request that The Times should publish his letter but the newspaper replied that it regretted that it had not been possible to find a place for it. The Press Council's adjudication was: "The tongue which Shakespeare spoke (although in justice to him he did not employ the word "billion") has been, as some think, much mutilated in the cen- turies which have passed. The editor who chooses to use a word in a sense dif- ferent from that accepted by others can hardly be accused of impropriety unless his use of it is calculated to mislead. No doubt the word "billion" as employed in England (but not in America or in the Continental languages) means, in a classi- cal sense accepted here, a million million. In America it means a thousand mil- lion and the word is now increasingly used, like other American expressions, in this latter sense in economic and business matters. "The Press Council notes that the editor of The Times seeks to establish a uni- form practice, and considers that to uphold this complaint would be no more than an exercise in pedantry." But wait: see the following, from The Times of November 19,1975: Billions and Trillions From Mr. R. H. Ramsford Sir, Whether or not you were right in refusing to publish a letter criticiz- ing the misuse of the word billion, the Press Council was certainly wrong to dismiss the criticism as pedantry. Regrettably, this misuse is widespread and can—and does—lead to doubt and even outright misunderstanding. What is particularly disquieting is that a body of the status of the Press Council is apparently so ill-informed that it has no hesitation in stating that billion is not used to signify a million millions in the continental lan- guages. No extensive research would have been needed to reveal its mis- take. The oldest edition of Le Petit Larousse I have at hand, the 1962 edition, already defines "billion" as "Un million de millions (10 12 ) ou 1 000 000 000 000/Autref., et encore aux Etats-Unis, syn. de MILLIARD". And its Spanish counterpart in 1972 simply defines "billôn" as "Millôn de millones". Appendix II.D 387 The two main European countries that formerly used billion in the American sense were France and Portugal, but at a postwar International Conference on Weights and Measures, in 1948 if I remember rightly, they agreed to fall into line with Italy, Germany, England, and other countries that had always used it, even in common speech, to mean a million squared—and tril- lion to mean a million cubed, and so on. There is no need to perpetuate the abuse, when we already have an unam- biguous word for a thousand million: "milliard", which has long been widely used in Belgium, France and Italy at least. Alternatively, since the metric sys- tem is becoming more familiar, why not make use of its prefixes? "Megabuck" was in vogue some years ago, I have seen "kF" (for "kilo-francs") in official French writing, and I understand that "kilopounds" is beginning to be used in English. So why not adopt the prefixes giga (G) and tera (T) to signify the American and European billion respectively? I hope The Times will decide to set the lead and popularize the use of one or other of the methods suggested above. Your sincerely, R. H. Ransford, 11 Grovewood Close, Chorley Wood, Hertfordshire. October 29. And what's more (Times, same date): From Dr. G. B. R. Feilden, FRS Sir, In the current controversy over the misuse of the word billion it might help to note the dispassionate advice about the use of such words which is given in British Standard 350 Conversion factors and tables. Part 1 of the standard, pub- lished in 1974, states: "In view of the differences between European and USA practice, ambiguities can easily arise with the words 'billion', 'trillion' and 'quadrillion'; therefore their use should be avoided." It is thus encouraging for us to know that The Times prefers the form X,000m and will continue to use it except when quoting less accurate sources. Yours faithfully, G. B. R. FEILDEN, Director of General British Standards Institution, 2 Park Street, Wl. October 29. The Economist weekly adopted the American usage years ago, to the annoyance of some readers. One wonders how long it will take for the British public to be won over to this adoption. As recently as December 7,1979, the following letter appeared in The Times: Billion Dollar Blunder From Senor Francisco R. Parra Sir, Reference my letter "No 'ulterior motive' behind Venezuelan oil announcement" (November 29), we erroneously addressed you in American and said "billion" dollars. Understandably believing we were addressing you in English, you wrote out three more zeros (oops, "noughts"). Correct capital cost figures should be $3,500m to $4,000m for 125,000 barrels per day by 1988, and $20,000m by the year 2000. 388 British English A to Zed Yours truly, FRANCISCO R. PARRA, Managing Director, Petroleos de Venezeula (UK) SA, 7 Old Park Lane, London, Wl. November 29. Philip Howard, in Chapter 4, entitled 'Billion/ of Words Fail Me (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1980), favors ending "the dangerous confusion by conform- ing to the American style of billion." And the BBC is having a hard time forcing Centigrade on its listeners and the die-hards are still counting money in shillings and old pence (see Appendix II.A). So much for Progress! The British always put an and between 100 and a smaller number, as in a/one hundred and twenty, or a/one hundred and ten thousand. This and is normally omitted in America. E. Automotive Terms The British equivalents of automotive terms in common use, such as boot ('trunk') and bonnet ('hood'), appear in the alphabetical listing below. For the benefit of car buffs or technicians and other specialists concerned with scientific automotive terminology, this list, supplied by British Leyland Motors, Inc., may be of interest. The usual order followed in this book (English-American) is here reversed, on the theory that in this case the American reader knows the American equivalent and might thus more readily locate the relevant pairing. American Body Parts bumper guard cowl dashboard door post door stop door vent or vent fender firewall hood license plate rear seat back or backrest rocker panel skirt toe pan trunk windshield wheelhouse or housing Brake Parts parking brake Chassis Parts muffler side rail British overrider scuttle fascia panel door pillar check strap quarter light wing bulkhead bonnet number plate rear seat squab valance apron toe board boot windscreen wheel arch hand brake exhaust silencer side member Appendix ILE 389 Electrical Equipment back up light dimmer switch dome light gas pump or fuel pump generator ignition wiring parking light tail light spark plug turn indicator, blinker voltage regulator Motor and Clutch Parts carburetor clutch throwout bearing engine block hose clamp pan piston or wrist pin rod (control) bearing reversing light dip switch roof lamp petrol pump dynamo ignition harness side light tail lamp or tail light sparking-plug trafficator control box Engine and Clutch Parts carburetter clutch release bearing cylinder block hose clip sump gudgeon pin big-end Rear Axle and Transmission Parts axle shaft half shaft drive shaft propeller shaft grease fitting grease nipple ring gear and pinion crown wheel and pinion Steering Parts control arm king pin pitman arm steering idler steering knuckle tie bar or track bar Tools and Accessories antenna crank handle lug wrench wheel wrench wrench Transmission Parts counter shaft emergency brake gear shift lever output shaft shift bar transmission case Tires tire tread wishbone swivel pin drop arm steering relay stub axle track rod aerial starting handle box spanner wheel brace spanner Gearbox Parts layshaft parking brake gear lever main shaft selector rod gearbox housing tyre track 390 British English A to Zed F. Musical Notation In musical notation the British have rejected common fractions, as will be seen in the following table of equivalent terms in everyday use in the respective coun- tries: British American breve double whole note semibreve whole note minim half note crotchet quarter note quaver eighth note semiquaver sixteenth note demisemiquaver thirty-second note hemidemisemiquaver sixty-fourth note The semibreve is the longest note in common use. How a half note got the name of minim is a great mystery to many people, especially since another (non-musical) British meaning of minim is 'creature of minimum size or significance/ and its non-musical American meanings have to do with aspects of minuteness. The answer is that at one time it was the shortest note in use. Crotchet is another funny one: it is derived from the Old French crochet, meaning 'little hook/ and every- thing would have been quite neat and tidy if the quarter note had a little hook, but it doesn't, and little hooks don't start until we get to eighth notes. Quaver is used in music in both countries to indicate a trill, and one can see a connection between trilling and eighth notes. A final mystery is the connection between breve—derived, of course, from breve, the neuter form of brevis (Latin for 'brief')— and a double whole note, a note no longer used in musical notation, which is the equivalent of two whole notes, and that makes it anything in the world but brief. The explanation is that in the Middle Ages there was a note even longer than the breve, something apparently called a long, compared with which a double whole note would seem brief. G. Slang 1. Cant Terms No attempt is made to include cant terms in this book. These are terms peculiar to particular groups. The taxi-drivers of London have their own code: Charing Cross Underground ('subway') Station, recently renamed Embankment, is the Rats' Hole; St. Paneras Station, the Box of Bricks; the Army and Navy Store in Victoria Street is the Sugar Box; the St. Thomas' Hospital cab-rank ('taxi stand') is the Poultice Shop; the one at London Bridge the Sand Bin; Harley Street (where doctor's offices clus- ter) is Pill Island; Bedford Row (where lawyers' offices proliferate) is Shark's Parade; and the Tower of London is Sparrow Corner. London busmen have a lingo of their own: The last bus is the Ghost Train; to slow up (because of exceeding the schedule) is to scratch about; passengers on their way to the greyhound races are dogs; a busful is a domino load, and a stone- cold bus is an empty one; a plainclothes bus inspector is a spot and he can book ('report') a driver; passengers are rabbits; a short one is an unfinished trip; an acci- dent is a set; to arrive late for duty is to slip up; a cushy road is an easy trip, and a busy one is known as having a road on. In the days when trolley cars competed, the British term tramcar became the rhyming equivalent jam jar. Sports talk is another matter. Any newspaper report or broadcast or telecast of a cricket or rugby match would be as unintelligible to an American as an Ameri- can sportswriter's commentary on a baseball game would be to a Britisher. To Appendix II.G 391 understand these categories of terminology, the reader must refer to technical works on the respective subjects. 2. London Slang London slang is almost a language of its own, and to complicate matters, it keeps shifting all the time. George Orwell in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) gives a list of cant words in this category, including the following: gagger moodier clodhopper glimmer split flattie clod toby drop slang the Smoke judy spike lump deaner hog tosheroon sprowsie shackles chat beggar; street performer beggar street dancer car watcher detective policeman policeman tramp money to a beggar street-peddler's license London woman flophouse flophouse shilling shilling half-crown sixpence soup louse 3. Rhyming Slang Rhyming slang is a type of cant that has developed from the peculiarly cockney game of replacing certain common words with phrases ending with a word that rhymes with the replaced word. Thus: boat race daisy roots German bands loaf of bread mince pies Mutt and Jeff north and south plates of meat tit for tat trouble and strife Uncle Ned whistle and flute face boots hands head eyes deaf mouth feet hat wife head suit And many more. One doesn't run into these expressions very often, but when one does meet them, they can be pretty puzzling, especially when the cant phrase itself becomes truncated or otherwise corrupted through cockney usage. Thus loaf of bread is shortened to loaf mince pies becomes minces, tit for tat turns into tit- fer, whistle and flute loses the flute, German bands winds up as Germans, and so on. The results: loaf for head, minces for eyes, whistle for suit, etc., come out as quite arbitrary substitutes miles removed from the words they stand for. One often [...]... twitten allocated line, spare line allowance, table money all set?, fit? all set, nailed on almond taffy, hardbake alongside, at the side of also-rans, ruck alternately, turn and turn about alumnus/alumna, old boy/girl amateurish, prentice ambulance, chaser, accident tout among, amongst anchorman, linkman And how!, Rather! and salad, salad A (B, C etc.), alpha (beta, gamma, etc.) abandon, abandonment abandon,... around, about around, round arouser, knocker-up arrange for, lay on arrest, detain; take in charge arson, fire-raising articulated lorry, trailer truck arty, twee as a matter of fact, actually as bright as a button, as bright as a new penny as dead as a doornail, as dead as mutton as easy as pie, as easy as kiss your hand as follows, as under as it turned out, in the event askew, skew-whiff as nice as pie,... dispatch mailman, postman mail order buying, postal shopping main road, arterial road Main Street, High Street maintenance man (road), lengthman (lengthsman) major in, read major league, first class make a booboo, drop a brick make a case for, make out a case for make a decision, take a decision make a fourth, make a four up make a fuss (row), cut up rough make a gaffe, drop a clanger make a killing,... Kurfurstendamm, the Italian locating a scene on the Via Veneto or the Piazza San Marco are all using place-names to create a backdrop, an atmosphere As for the English, the following might well perplex an American reader unfamiliar with Britain and British life: Albany A most exclusive apartment house (block of flats) in London, whose occupants always include many distinguished names Belgravia A fashionable district... marriage certificate, marriage lines marriage clerk's office, Register Office mashed potatoes, creamed potatoes; mash mass-media public, admass master-at-arms, jaunty master of ceremonies, compère masturbate, toss off mat, mount materials appraiser, quantity surveyor 416 British English, A to Zed math, maths mathematics honor graduate, wrangler measure, dry 383 measure, liquid 384 meat-pie, pie mechanic,... alphabetically in the book; boldface listings indicate sections on specialized terms and discussions of British usage adoption of metric system, metrification / metrication advance, sub advantage, pull adversary, adversarial affair, palaver affirmative action, positive discrimination afternoon tea, set tea agate, bonce ages, moons ages, yonks aggravation, aggro aggressiveness, aggro agitate, fuss agree, accept... past, half ham, gammon hamburger, Wimpy hamburger roll, bap handball, fives handle, manhandle handwriting, hand handyman, jack handyman, odd man hang around, mouch/mooch hang up, put the 'phone down hanky-panky, jiggery-pokery happy as a clam, happy as a sandboy hard, shrewd hard-boiled, hard-baked; hard-cooked hard candy, boiled sweets hard labor, hard hard liquor, spirits hard-luck guy, lame duck hard... as nice as ninepence as of, as from ass, arse ass-backwards, arsy-tarsy assistant maid, tweeny assistant professor, senior lecturer associate professor, reader as soon as, directly assortment, mixed bag at bat, on strike at full speed, flat out at hand, to hand at one's disposal, in hand; in one's gift at the market, best offer attic, loft attractive (very), dishy automatic airplane pilot, George Automobile... scone ballot counter/inspector, scrutineer ball-point pen, biro balls, ballocks balls, goolies balmy, barmy baloney!, all my eye and Betty Martin!; codswallop; rats! Band-Aid, Elastoplast; plaster bang (hit), bash bangs, fringe bang-up, slap-up banked, superelevated bank loan, overdraft bankroll, sheaf banned, warned off Bar Association, Law Society barber shop, hairdresser's a bargain, snip barge,... scullery back of car seat, squab backside, fanny back to business, back to our muttons backwards, arsy-versy bacon, streaky bacon bad egg, bad hat bad end, sticky finish bad form, not on; off badger's burrow, set bad-tempered, liverish; stroppy bagful, shopping-bag baggage, luggage baggage car, van baked, cooked baked potato, jacket potato bakery, bakehouse baking powder, rising powder baking powder . of fact, actually as bright as a button, as bright as a new penny as dead as a doornail, as dead as mutton as easy as pie, as easy as kiss your hand as follows, as under as it turned . aggro agitate, fuss agree, accept agree to, agree airfield, aerodrome airfield, tarmac airplane, aeroplane airs, side aisle, corridor; gangway ale and stout mixed, half-and-half alert,. pull adversary, adversarial affair, palaver affirmative action, positive discrimination afternoon tea, set tea agate, bonce ages, moons ages, yonks aggravation, aggro aggressiveness, aggro agitate,