OOP - US/UK difference spotted

[shellebrownies]

No: HPFGUIDX 67978

--- 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.
> 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. 
> 
> Jo Serenadust, rather amused and VERY glad she got the UK version, 
> too

Jo~

I, too, am American, but according to my husband's Unabridged 
Webster's dictionary... the #5 meaning for the word "Pecker" is 
listed as: Brit. Slang ~ one's spirits or courage.

Seeing as it is only slang, one probably wouldn't use it in front of 
the vicar, but it clearly does not have the same meaning in Britain 
as it would here in the US. I would assume that the wording was 
changed in the Scholastic version because: a) American children would 
not understand the reference and b) the word's meaning in American 
slang is vulgar.

Michelle Romanski