[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Briticisms

[Katherine Coble]

On Jul 30, 2005, at 11:49 AM, slytherin_dragoon1 wrote:

>
>> Well it seems to be one of those extremely irritating words that can
>> mean both.  I personally would only use it in the positive as in "I
>> was really chuffed with the flowers you gave me", but have noticed
>> that a much older man at work says "So and so really chuffed me off"
>> where I would use "so and so really p***ed me off".
>>
>> Karen
>
> "Chuffed" sounds very close to "huffed", and in the US to say that
> someone "left in a huff" means they were rather perturbed or peeved.
> So, to an American, "chuffed" would suggest irritation.
>
>

I've also seen American writers (Dean Koontz and James Rollins) use 
"chuff" to describe the noise that horses and dogs make when they 
expell air through closed mouths.  (I'm not describing the action well, 
but if you have a dog and have ever had him do his version of snorting 
at you...this is what they mean...)

Dictionary.com gives 3 meanings for Chuff--1. A very rude person, 2. A 
noisy puffing or explosive sound, 3. blow hard and loudly.

I suppose that given these three concrete definitions the word can go 
either way.

If you are ticked off, you would be blowing hard and loudly.  So you 
could say you were "chuffed". (Slang often consists of reapplying a 
known word outside of its concrete meaning.  Using a standard verb as a 
noun or adjective, for instance. )

If you are pleased, you could say that you were "Chuffed" in the same 
way you would say "I was blown away."  Idiomatically, "blown away" does 
mean 'pleased', although the concrete definition of 'blown away' is 
hardly a pleasing thought.

In the books Hagrid says he's "dead chuffed" at a point when he is 
obviously pleased about something.  Literally, both 'dead' and 
'chuffed' are at best neutral in connotation, and at worst negative.  
Although idiomatically it appears that they can be used to express joy. 
  (Like people saying "D--n" when they're pleased, or to throw back to 
the 80's, 'Gnarly').

Katherine the Word Geek