clarification of british slang

[martha]

> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "phoebesophia" <
> phoebesophia at y...> wrote:
> > what, please, is a jammy cow?

...and Martha de-lurks to say:

"Cow" is usually a fairly derogatory term for a woman, in the sense 
of - for example - "stupid cow". This is a fairly unpleasant thing to 
be called if it's used in a nasty way - say you knocked over a cup of 
coffee and someone said, in harsh tones, "you stupid cow" and gave 
you a dirty look - this implies you're slow, stupid, clumsy and so 
on. It can also mean something along the lines of "bitch" - in the 
sense of "We don't care what that Skeeter cow wrote about you". Rita 
Skeeter is a "cow" because she's rude and manipulative and generally 
unpleasant, she causes unnecessary trouble. It would make sense for 
Hermione to call Pansy Parkinson a cow (and she may well do, although 
I have not my books with me, and cannot remember. I don't think she 
does, but it would make sense). However, it's not always used in that 
sense. Between friends it's much less harsh, if used in jest. If a 
friend tickled you or hit you with a pillow, you could shriek "you 
cow!" and not cause offence.

"Jammy" means, in a roundabout way, lucky, but in the sense that you 
probably didn't deserve the luck (if that makes sense). For example -
 "I thought I was going to mess up that statistics exam, but all the 
topics I crammed last night came up." "You jammy cow!" [both grin.] I 
remember being told at primary school that the term "jammy" was 
originally something said by working-class kids to other working-
class kids when the latter had managed to get jam for their bread 
without doing much.

Anyway, I hope that's helpful, and I'm headed back to Lurker's corner.

Martha la punk house-elf