A while back, Bernard Shaw quipped that the United States and the United Kingdom are “two nations divided by a common language,” which was his witty way of quipping that his countrymen are prone to using really vile-sounding idioms for commonplace pleasantries.

Each week on National Review Online, John Derbyshire narrates an audio segment called “Derb Radio.” Near the very end of his latest 15-minute broadcast (dated July 28), he advises his listeners to, and I’m quoting here, “keep your peckers up.”

Listen for yourself. You can go to the link above if you want to enjoy all 15 minutes, but if you just want to hear the dirty part, I made this handy excerpt:

Derb’s inbox must have been quickly flooded, because it was not long before he felt the need to make this clarification:

This is a Britishism. It means: Keep an optimistic attitude and mien — shoulders back, head up, nose (that’s the pecker) in the air. I hope that is clear.

Well, of course it ain’t clear, Derb. That’s because most Americans have not read my handy “Guide to Innocent Britishisms That Sound Obscene in English.” (In fact, as of this writing, no Americans have read it, not even me, because I’m still writing it.) This guide will serve a dual purpose: to aid in understanding our British cousins when they visit our shores, and to supply the traveling American with a stock of useful phrases if he should find himself on the Sceptred Isle. And I should give fair warning, that I’m making almost all of this up as I go.
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