Websters

Those of us who have spent some time in the Taps have slowly become exposed to the strange idiomatic sub-language which many of the girls behind the bar regularly use. And so for the purposes of both showing off my newly attained knowledge and so that people can correct me where I have anything wrong, I share with you.

For instance:

Bear/or Bare – translation: lots of, many, multitudinous. Example: “there were bare men in Rattlers last night”. Translation: there were lots of men in Rattlers last night.

Fresh: - translation: good-looking/fit/quality. Example: “that man is fresh. Translation: that man is good-looking”.

[I have to admit that I don’t precisely understand what it means when fresh is used in the abstract, for example.

 Irena: Are you coming out tonight?

Jade: Yes.

 Irena: Great, me too.

Jade: That’s fresh].

Butters – translation: ugly. Example: “Urrgh, that man is butters”: Translation: urrgh, that man is not good-looking.

Long – translation: boring, tedious, lengthy. Example: “leave it, it’s long.” Translation: leave it, I can’t be bothered. Or, leave it. It will take too long.’

Dry – translation: boring, dull, tedious (normally used when talking about a person or an event). Example: “Rattlers was dry last night.” Translation: Rattlers was boring last night. Or, Example: “Richard is so dry.” Translation: “Richard is so boring.’

[It is quite easy to confuse Dry and Long, but you can see that they’re context and intonation dependent].

Fresh Pieces: translation: new good-looking men or women. Example: “there were bare Fresh Pieces in here last night.” Translation: there were lots of new good-looking men/women [delete as appropriate] in here last night.

[You will also note that in the last example I used both bare and fresh pieces in one sentence].

Crisp/Chris – translation: to look good/hot: Example, “I looked Crisp/Chris.’ Translation: I looked really good.

It is all a bit confusing and sometimes I feel a bit like I’m trying to communicate with Ewoks.