[the_old_crowd] OOP - US/UK difference spotted

[Monika Huebner]

On Sun, 06 Jul 2003 01:39:49 -0000, "serenadust" <jmmears at ...>
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.
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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'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.

This is what Webster's Third New Dictionary says:

"chiefly Brit: COURAGE, SPIRITS - used chiefly in the phrase 'keep
one's pecker up'"

This is one meaning of "pecker", the one you had in mind was also
mentioned, but it seems to have a different meaning in that phrase.

Monika