OOP - US/UK difference spotted

helopookie helopookie at yahoo.com
Sun Jul 6 04:00:29 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 67728

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "serenadust" <jmmears at c...> 
wrote:
> I'm in the midst of my 3rd reading (this time the UK version) and I 
> came across something that stopped me in my tracks.
> 
> A
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> D
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> I
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> ?
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> On page 205, Fred and George are telling the trio about the horrors 
> of Fifth year and George says: "...If you care about exam results, 
> anyway. Fred and I managed to keep our *peckers* up somehow."
> 
> I immediately went to check my US version, since I was SURE that 
I'd 
> have caught that expression if it was there and sure enough it 
> reads: "Fred and I managed to keep our *spirits* up somehow."
> 
> I'm appealing to the British listmembers to tell me whether the 
word 
> *pecker* has the same meaning in the UK as it does here in the US. 
> If not, then is this an expression in common usage in mixed 
company, 
> say, in front of the vicar? Otherwise, I'll have to assume that the 
> Scholastic editors are protecting tender American sensibilities 
from 
> Fred & George's salty repartee.
> 
> Jo Serenadust, rather amused and VERY glad she got the UK version, 
> too

Even though I'm from Minneapolis, I know that "pecker" does not mean 
what we in the US think.  Though I'm not sure how common the use of 
this phrase is, I am reminded of a UK orange juice commercial that 
stated "Keeps your pecker up."  I also vaguely remember reading a 
phrase containing said word in a similar phrase in another novel 
(perhaps Douglas Adams?).





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