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Even among native speakers, "bum a fag" means truly very different things depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on.
by vore 3y ago
Even among native speakers, "bum a fag" means truly very different things depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on.
- qup 3y agoNo it doesn't. I've never heard "bum" to mean the verb you imply, in America. It can still mean borrow. "fag" obviously has different meanings, but the phrase just wouldn't parse for most Americans.
- Twisol 3y agoI've heard "bum a ride" here in America, although it's a rare word in a rare phrase.
- qup 3y agoSure, that's what I mean. We use it the same way (to borrow) and not the way he implied. I'll disagree about it being rare; I hear the phrase at least a few times per week (I work in a place where people frequently ask other people for rides, so perhaps that's relevant)
- vore 3y agoIf you've never heard the phrase before as an American, it would sound extremely vulgar! What else would you infer the meaning as in context?
- qup 3y agoI don't think you could infer any meaning, that's why I said it wouldn't parse.
- Twisol 3y agoAh, sure. Well, I've asked to "borrow a tissue" many times, and neither interlocutor expected the tissue to be returned. Maybe it's regional.
- asveikau 3y agoI feel like it's very informal, I heard it in high school in the DC area, mostly when kids were talking about cigarettes. I haven't heard it much in adult life.
- chucksmash 3y agoThat could also come from changing peer groups. The other day I realized I hadn't eaten basic tier fast food in 15 years. That could be anecdotal evidence for some general trend ("fast casual! increasing consumer health consciousness!"), or it could just be me.
- chucksmash 3y agoIt really depends on who you're talking to and where you're talking. I'd be willing to bet a totally irresponsible amount of money that if I went out to bars in Atlanta tonight, I would hear someone say "bum a cigarette" before closing time rolled around.
- nerdponx 3y agoIf someone with a British accent said it, I wouldn't think twice about it.
- silisili 3y agoAgreed. Bum as a verb in USA means borrow, I've never heard it mean anything else, and I've lived everywhere except the far west coast...
- qup 3y agoI've heard it in another context, something like: "I was broke, so I bummed around Oklahoma for a few weeks..." Kerouac's On The Road might be a good example. But 99% of the time I hear "bum a ride" or "bum a smoke" and I have never heard a third (verb) meaning in America.
- silisili 3y agoAh you're right! I completely forgot about 'bum around the house', though uncommon, I've heard that a few times.
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago> I've never heard it mean anything else, and I've lived everywhere except the far west coast... At least you've lived around. One of the things that amazed me when I first came to and was traveling the US is seeing Americans in one state say some phrase, only to go to another state and have those Americans claim it was never said in America. People really like to absolutely generalize based o their ow necessarily limited experiences.
- silisili 3y agoAgreed. Linguistics and etymology are fascinating to me, so I try to pick up what I can. Some things are hyper regional, especially accents. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sound nothing alike, for example. I didn't intend my comment to mean it doesn't exist, more that if it does, it's probably a very regional thing, based on not having heard it in the various cities I've lived in.
- astrange 3y agoAn opposite case of this is "nah, yeah" "yeah no" "nah yeah nah" etc, which is English slang in maybe 200 different places, all of which claim they're the only ones who say it.
- fsckboy 3y ago"verbification" is a real thing in English (and not all languages), the point of which is that you needn't have heard it before to use it yourself that way, or understand it if you hear it, it follows rules and as a noun, that's what makes it a verb; which is why you had no trouble understanding what GP meant. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verbification https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verbification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation)#Verbification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation)#Ve... and also, though it is attributed to UK https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bum https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bum Verb: bum (present participle bumming, past participle bummed) (UK, transitive, colloquial) To sodomize; to engage in anal sex.
- londons_explore 3y agoUnfortunately any mention of that phrase on the internet tends to get removed by moderators for being offensive... In British English, the phrase means "have you got a cigarette (fag) you'd be willing to give me for free (bum)?"
- wenc 3y agoAmerican folks: it’s British English for “ask for a cigarette”.
- ch4s3 3y agoProbably more like “bum a cig”, which is the nearest colloquial equivalent.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- NoNameHaveI 3y agoEven better is the Britishism "Blowing a fag".
- scubbo 3y agoI'm a native English speaker and I have no idea what this is supposed to mean (other than a reference to performing fellatio on a homosexual)?
- userbinator 3y agoGiven the other clues here, perhaps smoking a cigarette?
- GloomyBoots 3y agoI once got very confused by some guy telling me all about his bird. Dude seemed obsessed. Which is cool, but at times it seemed like a very strange relationship with a pet. It took me around twenty minutes to put it together.
- solardev 3y agoWhat is it? To me a bird is either an animal or an app based scooter
- GloomyBoots 3y agoSlang for a woman
- solardev 3y agoA bird is a woman? How odd