loren ,
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

wait are somersaults called roly polys in the UK?

ian ,
@ian@mastodon.radio avatar

@loren I would use "roly poly" for a roll on the ground, whereas I think a somersault can be in the air?
We avoid confusion with the woodlouse in the traditional British way of making up 100 other weird-ass names for that. (Where my wife grew up they are called cheesy-bobs.)

coprolite9000 ,
@coprolite9000@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@loren
My knowledge is 30+ years old - a roly poly is a forward roll? A somersault being the much more difficult thing with arms stretched out.

British English is also very regional, East Midlands / Derbyshire in my case. One word used in the school playground was 'scraiting', or 'crying' - years later I discovered it to be a leftover from the 9th-10th century Norse / Viking Danelaw.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/eastmidlands/series7/dialect_voices.shtml

(I really don't have a regional accent, which I am VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH. Ahem.)

loren OP ,
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

@coprolite9000 yeah i just heard it on taskmaster and had never heard it before! i've only ever heard pillbugs be called that! but i love it hahah

coprolite9000 ,
@coprolite9000@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@loren
Heh. Language is great!

(My technique for discovering that words aren't known in American English is when US colleagues start looking at me strangely, then have to ask what the heck I'm rabbiting on about...)

infernusgoatus ,
@infernusgoatus@kvlt.zone avatar

@loren I grew up calling them roly polys in Arizona

loren OP ,
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

@infernusgoatus i only ever heard pillbugs called that, never the roll. strange

anniegreens ,
@anniegreens@mstdn.social avatar

@loren we call them roly polys here

loren OP ,
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

@anniegreens what?? i have never heard that before

anniegreens ,
@anniegreens@mstdn.social avatar

@loren or potato bugs

loren OP ,
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

@anniegreens hahaha a forward roll?

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