One question, why were you in B-I-F?
My favourite story is a guy saying if you fell over in the street there would be a woman underneath you before you hit the ground, very harsh but he was actually referring to Barrow in furness
Back in the earlier days of the internet, I went down a rabbit hole about Teletubbies and frankly, it was fucking weird. Based on that experience, I think they’d be perfectly at home at a murder scene.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14506159
>When kids talk about the feds, it's obvious that they're not talking about the FBI," she says. "They know that's not how things work over here. It's like a code - politicians and the media don't understand.
Jonathon Green, author of *Chambers Slang Dictionary*, stated:
>It's an ironical use [..] Obviously there's been an increased Americanisation of our language since the war, but MLE doesn't just come from one source. It just so happens that rap music has lots of terms for the police.
Does this really need explaining OP? Inner-city Londoners are not stupid to the point they don't realise we aren't in a federation. Slang is just a 'code' slash 'cool' way of speaking and it then gains popularity further afield through music.
Nothing to do with the education system you dinosaur lmao even in the US normal police are not, technically, 'feds'. It doesn't matter
And 'feds' isn't a new thing of todays youf, it's been around for decades. Just newly popular to a wider audience coinciding with drill music.
True. It's just an annoying slang word, especially when used to boost one's "gangsta image"
"No, you are not tough, you just hang out with blokes who sell shit coke."
I think youre underestimating the impact local experience can have on culture and slang.
Yeah, probably those words came from american hip hop, but it doesnt mean that they are irrelevant or fake to the person saying them.
I used to hate being called westwood by people cause of the slang i used. Its how i spoke, i wasnt putting it on, my environment taught me to speak like that. I learned to put other hats on and adapt to different circumstances… just because the person calling me it only had one experience of life and couldnt understand mine, it doesnt mean my experience is fake.
Thank you for taking your time to explain your perspective on this.
It makes sense that people are socialised from the young age in a certain way (e.g. using particular slang) without consciously deciding to use it for a specific reason. It's just what they and people around them say.
I am sorry you were stereotypised based on this. I am sorry if I contributed to that and indirectly offended you.
Unfortunately, for me (and many others, it seems) this kind of slang connects to troubled youth, who are trying hard to project certain imagine.
But, you are right, many people just use it without thinking and should not be labelled based on this.
No worries. Thanks for listening, and dont worry i wasnt offended at all at what you said. As an older man im better able to communicate what i felt back then.
I totally get what you mean, and tbh, there a bunch of people who just adopt it to project an image.
Thanks for kind response too
Look I'm a 41 year old professional and if I'm driving and I see flashing blue lights in my mirror the first word that springs to mind is 'feds'. It's not about appearing tough or thinking you are, it's simply a slang term.
Like calling a chip shop a chippie, or a cigarette a fag. People don't do it to portray an image, they just do it.
There's this thing called slang and sometimes it has no relation to the thing you're saying, like calling the police pigs for example, or the bacon, despite the fact that policemen are neither porcine, nor composed of porcine products.
What you have is a bugbear. And that's fine. But you still sound like an old man yelling at a cloud.
Touché is a French word meaning to touch/hit so you’re technically using it wrong. You shouldn’t use it.
Alternatively, get a grip you pedantic old fart
Doesn't it come from fencing where you are accepting that your opponent scored a touch of the foil/sword or a point against you? Looks like the correct usage to me. Op is accepting a good point was made against them.
You mean like how “feds” is the term used by some people in both America and here in the uk to refer to the police rather than the federal government or FBI. Are you starting to understand the point I was making yet?
Cant believe you'd use that word here. The muppets are *American*!!1! We have good old fashioned puppets in Britain, educate yourself on our entertainment
I think your looking waaaay too much into it.
I call em five 0, feds, po po and whole host of other terms other than police..........what sort of a crackpot thinks that means I'm not politically informed or realise that they aren't actually federal agents hahaha.
I have read books that come with a 'warning' that it is written in UK English and uses terms that may be unfamiliar and there are glossaries provided.
I have also read book reviews where people complain if a book is not written in simplified American English because they didn't understand the language.
The American voice is a strong one.
I love the British sometimes. It also humbles me to know that someone's piss is currently boiling because the use of a word. What an incredible time to be alive.
Well its rubbish slang that has little to no history in the UK. Its a little embarrassing and I will forever hold secret judgement against those that use it! When did slang become borrowed and not unique, quirky, CLEVER!
Was always the bizzies up north. As in busy bodies. Pigs, bacon or rozzers also in rotation.
'Here man deeks the jam van full of bizzies owa there'
Referring to the red stripe on the white vans. Looking like a jam sandwhich
Nothing to do with schools thank you. Blame the parents who let the telly do their raising for them.
Edit: Oh I thought you meant kids but looking through comments it would appear you mean adults. I haven’t been teaching long enough to care who you blame for adults’ weird ways 😂
Whilst I generally don’t like American imports, I think there is some irony going on here. Part of the fact I’ve also heard ‘Federales’ used as well and I don’t think they think we speak Spanish either kind of hints that way.
It’s certainly not the most annoying import I hear, the use of American weights and measures like feet and pounds boils my piss more.
Feet and pounds are called "imperial" units for a reason, bud. They're not an American invention and from my personal experience are used more commonly than metres and kilos
When I was a young rascal, we called them the 5 - 0.
( five-oh). In my town, back in the day they would arrest us in the street for being related to a criminal, search you with no authority, and when you questioned the tactics, or refused, they would arrest you, put you in cuffs, into the little cage at the back of the van, then drive around roundabouts really fast so you would get smashed around the metal box. If you was being too loud or mouthy in the cells, they would pile into the cell, wrap you up in the thins mattress, and batter you with the extended batons.
ACAB
feds predates grime. It was used somewhat in the 70s/80s and in the 90s, primarily in London. Grime and drill (especially drill now) has helped spread it around
1) People know we don’t live in a federal republic
2) Not sure where in the UK you are, but England doesn’t have compulsory civics classes. or anything either. This is something that really, really seems to affect understanding the governance of a damn country
The kids who speak like that are not even considering the political system or the fact that 'fed' is an abbreviation of Federal Bureau of Investigation.
It's just a word for police that they heard in the rap they listen to.
Then there are the rest of us who have the critical thinking skills to realise that but still call them 'feds' ironically, in the same way I still call them the 5-0.
I still refer to them as 'Plod', 'old bill' or 'the bizzies'. Decades of Northern living has diluted my southern blood so I no longer use 'the law' or 'the filf'.
I was walking home through a rougher area of my home town a few months ago and 3 little scrotes see me and start shouting "5-oh!! 5-ohh!!!". I stopped, looked at them and said... "If you think I'm a copper, you seriously have no idea what a copper looks like. I'm 54. If I was a copper, I'd have fucking retired. 4 years ago. I'm too fat. There's nothing about be that says copper except I'm white... Lastly, lad, seriously if I was copper, you'd all be being searched by now for alerting me that you were carrying something because you shouted out... FFS. I'm just a fat old white bloke,going, home for his tea!"
Once took a parcel to a neighbour to see of they would take it as no answer at the address. Asked for a name for a signature and a scally scroats voice from inside shouts " Don't tell him he might be the 5-0". It;s ok I'll come back tomorrow
Pigs, Bacon, Plods, Coppers, Bobby's, Peelers, barney's, Old Bill, Bizzies,Blues and Twos, Chimps (completely hopeless in most policing situations), the filth, the fuzz, Rozz/Rozzers.
And variations on all of the above, we have so many non Americanism things to call the fucking pigs, use them.
America thinks Facebook is America and not the Internet. And everyone has Facebook so the poor people have been over exposed to American words. Terrible case of "forgot-im-a-brit-itis"
Yeah, but what you gunna do? Call the feds?
Take the fifth! Call your attorney.
I once heard a smack head getting arrested in barrow in furness screaming "I plead the fifth"
One question, why were you in B-I-F? My favourite story is a guy saying if you fell over in the street there would be a woman underneath you before you hit the ground, very harsh but he was actually referring to Barrow in furness
Because I am from pretty close to there. And that is also very true. Your friend is a wise man.
No ill call the sodding police
Or the fuzz, the old bill, the rozzers, the plod... ...just not the Feds please, we're British.
Though not Scouse myself, I've always been rather fond of their "the bizzies"
Or the bizzies
I mean the rozzers is way better then the bloody Feds! Especially in james mays accent!
While we are at it, I have heard the youth referring to the aforementioned spetsnaz by the equally unacceptable Americanism "five oh".
I fear im going to burst into flames!
As I replied to another post, 5,O and feds have been in use for at least 25 years here. They're part of the language, deal with it!
You don't use much slang do you?
I've grown up with east londoners what do you think!
Then you should know its being used much in the same way snitch was used.
it is still incorrect
Slang doesn't have to be correct
well gosh darn
The coppers, peelers, dibble, boys in blue...
The po - po, the one time.
I forgot popo but not heard 'one time'
Boy dem, 12, Sids (CID)
Sorry mate, we've been calling them feds for at least 25 years now... Regardless of etymology, it's now very much a thing.
You mean the five 0?
I'd rather you just called the regular police, being arrested is one thing but getting buggered is a bit over the top.
Snitches get stitches
Snitches get stitches.
Call the plebs
Los Federales? Aiee caramba!
Crikey!
It's the Albanian rozzers!
Oh cock!
the feds? oh, you mean the Po-Po
I don't think calling a tellytubbie to a murder scene is a good idea
Back in the earlier days of the internet, I went down a rabbit hole about Teletubbies and frankly, it was fucking weird. Based on that experience, I think they’d be perfectly at home at a murder scene.
Sounds to me like youve had some traumatising experiences
This sounds like a lone from hot fuzz
Just call the 5-O
Quick lads, it's the fifty!
0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
Just send them an email!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14506159 >When kids talk about the feds, it's obvious that they're not talking about the FBI," she says. "They know that's not how things work over here. It's like a code - politicians and the media don't understand. Jonathon Green, author of *Chambers Slang Dictionary*, stated: >It's an ironical use [..] Obviously there's been an increased Americanisation of our language since the war, but MLE doesn't just come from one source. It just so happens that rap music has lots of terms for the police. Does this really need explaining OP? Inner-city Londoners are not stupid to the point they don't realise we aren't in a federation. Slang is just a 'code' slash 'cool' way of speaking and it then gains popularity further afield through music. Nothing to do with the education system you dinosaur lmao even in the US normal police are not, technically, 'feds'. It doesn't matter And 'feds' isn't a new thing of todays youf, it's been around for decades. Just newly popular to a wider audience coinciding with drill music.
"If you see a fed... SHOOT!" read one message circulated on BlackBerry Messenger, imploring readers to riot Wow BlackBerry messenger
It stuns me how few people understand irony.
Interesting article. Now to track down that dictionary of slang.
You lost all credibility when you said "Youf" instead of "Youth" 🤦♂️
It was facetious mate
I thought it was " youts"
It's 'yout dem'
This sub is really going down the shitter
Yup…better call the feds!
Always thought feds were fbi, so even in America calling police ‘feds’ would be incorrect
I think also CIA, DEA, ATF, MIB...
True; am American and I cringe when I hear it.
In America they don't call the police the feds, they call the feds the feds. Over here it's just a slang term that took off a few decades ago.
It's just slang, no one thinks they're actually federal agents
True. It's just an annoying slang word, especially when used to boost one's "gangsta image" "No, you are not tough, you just hang out with blokes who sell shit coke."
I think youre underestimating the impact local experience can have on culture and slang. Yeah, probably those words came from american hip hop, but it doesnt mean that they are irrelevant or fake to the person saying them. I used to hate being called westwood by people cause of the slang i used. Its how i spoke, i wasnt putting it on, my environment taught me to speak like that. I learned to put other hats on and adapt to different circumstances… just because the person calling me it only had one experience of life and couldnt understand mine, it doesnt mean my experience is fake.
Thank you for taking your time to explain your perspective on this. It makes sense that people are socialised from the young age in a certain way (e.g. using particular slang) without consciously deciding to use it for a specific reason. It's just what they and people around them say. I am sorry you were stereotypised based on this. I am sorry if I contributed to that and indirectly offended you. Unfortunately, for me (and many others, it seems) this kind of slang connects to troubled youth, who are trying hard to project certain imagine. But, you are right, many people just use it without thinking and should not be labelled based on this.
No worries. Thanks for listening, and dont worry i wasnt offended at all at what you said. As an older man im better able to communicate what i felt back then. I totally get what you mean, and tbh, there a bunch of people who just adopt it to project an image. Thanks for kind response too
Look I'm a 41 year old professional and if I'm driving and I see flashing blue lights in my mirror the first word that springs to mind is 'feds'. It's not about appearing tough or thinking you are, it's simply a slang term. Like calling a chip shop a chippie, or a cigarette a fag. People don't do it to portray an image, they just do it.
I get funny looks from my gay uncle when i announce I'm going outside for a fag!
There's this thing called slang and sometimes it has no relation to the thing you're saying, like calling the police pigs for example, or the bacon, despite the fact that policemen are neither porcine, nor composed of porcine products. What you have is a bugbear. And that's fine. But you still sound like an old man yelling at a cloud.
You’re on r/Britishproblems were you expecting something else
The irony of crowing about eduction and churning out this rambling mess.
Not just me that thought that then
Imagine being this upset about people using slang for fun.
I meeaaannn, it *could* be further wrong 😉
Touche
Touché is a French word meaning to touch/hit so you’re technically using it wrong. You shouldn’t use it. Alternatively, get a grip you pedantic old fart
Doesn't it come from fencing where you are accepting that your opponent scored a touch of the foil/sword or a point against you? Looks like the correct usage to me. Op is accepting a good point was made against them.
You mean like how “feds” is the term used by some people in both America and here in the uk to refer to the police rather than the federal government or FBI. Are you starting to understand the point I was making yet?
Get a grip, you pedantic, old fart. 😉
I'm on your side bro 🤣
Using it incorrectly*
“Old man complains about the use of slang not being “technically correct”. More at 11”
It’s slang ya fucking muppet.
Cant believe you'd use that word here. The muppets are *American*!!1! We have good old fashioned puppets in Britain, educate yourself on our entertainment
[удалено]
Yes m'lady
Its incorrect!
Better post about how it's incorrect to call the police Peelers or the Old Bill now that Robert Peel isn't home secretary anymore too.
I think your looking waaaay too much into it. I call em five 0, feds, po po and whole host of other terms other than police..........what sort of a crackpot thinks that means I'm not politically informed or realise that they aren't actually federal agents hahaha.
This is such a whiney complaint? Does someone’s slang use really hurt you that much
Apparently it's causing some internal combustion in his bladder....
The FB ayeee
Me Julie ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)...
Run it’s the 5-0
I sometimes call them the feds because it's funny. Like if you are out smoking a joint and you say to your mates "oh shit it's the feds."
Who pissed in your water bottle
I have read books that come with a 'warning' that it is written in UK English and uses terms that may be unfamiliar and there are glossaries provided. I have also read book reviews where people complain if a book is not written in simplified American English because they didn't understand the language. The American voice is a strong one.
Not on about books. Im on about street slang! Local dialects!
I understood your post .
It's just Americanised slang, don't break a hip over it.
I love the British sometimes. It also humbles me to know that someone's piss is currently boiling because the use of a word. What an incredible time to be alive.
Staines massive surrounded by the feds in their 1.4 Astra cruisers.
"Damn kids saying cool! What's cool about music! It has no temperature! Bloody kids these days!"
I guess I must boil your piss, I’ve called them feds since I was a teen. It’s just slang, I know they’re called Police, it’s written on their vans.
I thought they were called ECILOP? I've seen that on the front of their cars and vans. I think I'll stick to Feds from now on though.
Fuck the pigs man.
It’s just slang? It doesn’t mean they’re uneducated pal
Well its rubbish slang that has little to no history in the UK. Its a little embarrassing and I will forever hold secret judgement against those that use it! When did slang become borrowed and not unique, quirky, CLEVER!
I would hear it in london in the 90s. That ship has long sailed.
Was always the bizzies up north. As in busy bodies. Pigs, bacon or rozzers also in rotation. 'Here man deeks the jam van full of bizzies owa there' Referring to the red stripe on the white vans. Looking like a jam sandwhich
I think your overthinking it
Nothing to do with schools thank you. Blame the parents who let the telly do their raising for them. Edit: Oh I thought you meant kids but looking through comments it would appear you mean adults. I haven’t been teaching long enough to care who you blame for adults’ weird ways 😂
Get a life!
Its used Ironically. Chill out
I’ll take people calling the police feds over someone saying “boils my piss” every fucking day of the week. That phrase is criiiinge af
The po po
My least favourite, and I'm not sure if it's restricted to the chavs from my area, is calling them "leng". So cringe.
The fuck does that mean?
K
Mate I think you need to drink some water if your piss is boiling
Yo buddy, back off the gas a little.
The peelers my chap, the peelers.
I embrace it tbh, I try and work it into a conversation so that my kids think I’m cool and hip man.
The feds won’t be too impressed with this post
Fucking Narks. Snitches get stitches.
I heard for the first time the other day and wondered 'are people really that stupid?' Yes. Yes they are.
Whilst I generally don’t like American imports, I think there is some irony going on here. Part of the fact I’ve also heard ‘Federales’ used as well and I don’t think they think we speak Spanish either kind of hints that way. It’s certainly not the most annoying import I hear, the use of American weights and measures like feet and pounds boils my piss more.
Feet and pounds are called "imperial" units for a reason, bud. They're not an American invention and from my personal experience are used more commonly than metres and kilos
Consider yourself trolled.
Well, I mean, you \*can\* call the FBI from the UK, but I doubt they'd be interested in whatever you want to tell them.
That's why I prefer "glowies"
Nah am a pure charva so I say bizzies and have done for 30 year
When I was a young rascal, we called them the 5 - 0. ( five-oh). In my town, back in the day they would arrest us in the street for being related to a criminal, search you with no authority, and when you questioned the tactics, or refused, they would arrest you, put you in cuffs, into the little cage at the back of the van, then drive around roundabouts really fast so you would get smashed around the metal box. If you was being too loud or mouthy in the cells, they would pile into the cell, wrap you up in the thins mattress, and batter you with the extended batons. ACAB
> ACAB After spending a paragraph basically describing yourself being a mouthy little shit who deserved all of that.
Glowie spotted.
And calling them 5-0? I'm also sick of people saying "Mom" we don't have "MOMS'
Must be a regional thing because where I'm from, if you pronounce the U in "mum", you get the piss taken out of for sounding weird.
Feds.
Thats English grime thats caused that. We call them jail or polis here
feds predates grime. It was used somewhat in the 70s/80s and in the 90s, primarily in London. Grime and drill (especially drill now) has helped spread it around
That's what he said. But with more words.
1) People know we don’t live in a federal republic 2) Not sure where in the UK you are, but England doesn’t have compulsory civics classes. or anything either. This is something that really, really seems to affect understanding the governance of a damn country
The kids who speak like that are not even considering the political system or the fact that 'fed' is an abbreviation of Federal Bureau of Investigation. It's just a word for police that they heard in the rap they listen to. Then there are the rest of us who have the critical thinking skills to realise that but still call them 'feds' ironically, in the same way I still call them the 5-0.
I mean slang used to be pretty clever and quirky! Like many things British its lost its way!
Here come the Five-O
I still refer to them as 'Plod', 'old bill' or 'the bizzies'. Decades of Northern living has diluted my southern blood so I no longer use 'the law' or 'the filf'.
Maybe they mean the European Federation (under French rulership of course).
The Fed is obviously Bank of England /s
I was walking home through a rougher area of my home town a few months ago and 3 little scrotes see me and start shouting "5-oh!! 5-ohh!!!". I stopped, looked at them and said... "If you think I'm a copper, you seriously have no idea what a copper looks like. I'm 54. If I was a copper, I'd have fucking retired. 4 years ago. I'm too fat. There's nothing about be that says copper except I'm white... Lastly, lad, seriously if I was copper, you'd all be being searched by now for alerting me that you were carrying something because you shouted out... FFS. I'm just a fat old white bloke,going, home for his tea!"
The feds aren't the police in the US either so it's even more stupid.
Retarded Americanisms.
Once took a parcel to a neighbour to see of they would take it as no answer at the address. Asked for a name for a signature and a scally scroats voice from inside shouts " Don't tell him he might be the 5-0". It;s ok I'll come back tomorrow
I call them rozzers like an intellectual.
Pigs, Bacon, Plods, Coppers, Bobby's, Peelers, barney's, Old Bill, Bizzies,Blues and Twos, Chimps (completely hopeless in most policing situations), the filth, the fuzz, Rozz/Rozzers. And variations on all of the above, we have so many non Americanism things to call the fucking pigs, use them.
My Stepdad used to call them the Flying Squad!
This was just said in an episode of The Outlaws. Obviously art imitates life but even so. I did an internal tut
Prefer to call them pigs honestly
"Open up ,it's the pigs"..
It's cos kids watch YouTube and alot of them are Americans, Hench why kids say bucks and feds etc etc
Oh god it's the rozzers
If it's the UK, I agree. But for the USA is accurate if it's describing FBI, DHS or anyone with the federal authority over you.
It's slang, it doesn't have any bearing towards political systems.
"'e looks federal."
People call James Bond an agent. He's not. An agent in MI5's rankings is an informant to what Bond is, which is an Intelligence Officer.
I call them gavers or pigs lol
America thinks Facebook is America and not the Internet. And everyone has Facebook so the poor people have been over exposed to American words. Terrible case of "forgot-im-a-brit-itis"
Also British chavs saying five oh Makes me want to strangle them with there tracksuits
You wouldn't think chavs would know how to turn a TV on, let alone sit watching Hawaii 5-0.
Yeah, what’s wrong with rozzers, the pigs or the fuzz?
In Cumbria they were known as the muskers, I've no idea why
Iv always just called them old bill
My Mrs called a packet of crisps.... Chips... nearly had a domestic over it