‘What’s the UK version of ‘the Inuit have 50 words for snow’?’ – 21 things so British we named them multiple times

Languages tend to reflect the speaker’s experience of the world, so Inuit people have a lot of words for snow because they see a lot of snow.

So how does this apply to the UK? You can tell a lot about our experience of frozen water falling from the sky given that the only other word we routinely apply to it is ‘slush’, but what about other things that we use multiple words for?

Over on the Casual UK subreddit, user pineapplecharm asked this:

What’s the UK version of ‘the Inuit have 50 words for snow’?

And lots of people chipped in with their excellent thoughts, like these…

1.

‘Bread roll, bun, bap, cob, tea cake, barm. I grew up in the East Midlands and I hadn’t heard half Of these until I moved up north.’
–mrshakeshaft

2.

‘Rain: drizzle, mizzle, sprinkle, shower, downpour, drenching, battering, pouring, buckets, beating down, cats and dogs, heavens open.’
–Happy-Engineer

3.

‘Lashing it down, pissing it, spitting, torrential, deluge.’
–Time-Mode-9

4.

‘And pishing it doon here in Scotland.’
–Fine_Cress_649

5.

‘Getting drunk.’
–Gepetto83

6.

‘In true British form though adding the phrase “I got totally” and finishing it with something in the past tense, implies drunk.’
–ChessingtonSurrey

7.

‘I’m absolutely fucking Ikea help desked. Mike’s utterly car parked. And my wife’s a bit door-hinged.’
–schofield101

8.

‘The word for a small alley, just about wide enough for one person, that perhaps goes in between houses – snicket, ginnel, etc.’
–Ok-Departments

9.

‘The Welsh have 26 words for rain:

Bwrw glaw – it’s raining (lit. throwing rain), Dafnu – spotting, Pigo – spotting Glaw mân – drizzle, Gwithlaw – drizzle, Brasfrwrw – big drops, Sgrympian – a short sharp shower, Cawodi – showering, Arllwys – pouring, Tollti – pouring, Dymchwel – pulling down, Brylymu – pouring, Llifo – flooding, Towlud – throwing, Taflu – throwing, Hegar law -fierce rain, Lluwchlaw -sheets of rain.’
–Dolphin_Spotter

10.

‘People from Yorkshire have 50 different ways to tell you why Yorkshire is the best place in England.’
–squigglyeyeline

11.

‘Application of the word ‘piss’.’
–bbbearrr

12.

‘See also, ‘bollocks’.’
–Lufc87