Crapspatula: Again, a terrific onomatopoeia. We have never heard this word, either–and in fact, as far as we can tell from Google, not many other people have. It’s clearly a general denunciation of a person and his or her character. But, hearing it in proximity with Brexit, we can pick up its emotive depth. Such as when David Tyler, a London-based producer of TV comedies, used it to describe Nigel Farage, the leader of the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party.

Image for article titled The best Brexit Britishisms: How a gormless crapspatula Cameron left the UK in omnishambles

Witless cocksplat: This bit of self-explanatory profanity may be the best Britishism of the day, so designated by Twitter admirers (see comments below the link). It’s the handiwork of Tim Footman, a UK music writer who delivered the riposte to Donald Trump after the appearance of this later-deleted tweet (right) on arriving in Scotland the day of the referendum. As Footman so wickedly noted, there was no cheering in Scotland, which voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU.

Square root of bugger all: Bobby Friedman, a journalist and playwright, fired out this tweet when it became clear that everyone–including in this case the hallowed financiers in the city of London—guessed the completely wrong outcome. The definition of this extraordinarily succinct expression is nothing. But in order to express the correct outrage at the obliviousness of Britain’s best minds, it was not sufficient to say, “You don’t know squat.” Nope, that wouldn’t have been sufficient at all.

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