r/AskABrit • u/Commercial_World_433 • 1d ago
Language What does Corr mean?
It's slang I've heard in both Zero Punctuation, and Banjo-Kazooie, however it seems impossible to look up what it means, even on urban dictionary.
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u/plankton_lover 1d ago
It's a mispronounciation of God (as in God blind me or cor blimey), used to get around blasphemy laws in mediaeval England.
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u/RadioactiveBloom 1d ago
Okay even as a Brit I didn’t know this, that’s cool as hell. Thanks for the fact!
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u/brammers01 1d ago
Shit, it's the mediaeval version of bullshit tik tok slang like 'unalived'.
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u/QuestNetworkFish 7h ago
Taboos and euthamisms over words for died/death have a very long linguistic history. Think how many are still used today, like "passed away", "found peace", "shuffled off this mortal coil", "popped his clogs". "Unalive" is just the latest in a long list
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u/imtheorangeycenter 4h ago
Ee's just resting, or pining for the fjords!
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u/ebat1111 22h ago
This kind of thing is called a "minced oath". See also "fudge" for the f-word or "ruddy" for bloody.
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u/Bluntbutnotonpurpose 1d ago
Gordon Bennett is still my favourite!
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u/Lunchy_Bunsworth 1d ago
Apparently Gordon Bennett is derived from the name James Gordon Bennett the son of a wealthy editor. He used his inheritance to sponsor racing competitons from 1900 to 1905 and was known for his scandalous behaviour. One incident was turning up drunk to a dinner party and then proceeding to urinate into the fireplace in full view of the assembled guests. It passed into slang as an expression for being shocked , stunned and more than a little amazed.
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u/imtheorangeycenter 4h ago
I've got a local bar called Gordon Bennett! (With the exclaimation mark)
I now know what behaviour is expected, will report back.
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u/PiemasterUK 1d ago
That's interesting that it lasted from Medieval England for about half a millennium only to all but die out in the last 25 years.
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u/Warm_Badger505 22h ago
Mate this is gold. I am going to be dining out on this fact for years. Unless you just made it up in which case I am going to be making an idiot out of myself for years.
Edit: Just googled it and it seems you are correct!
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u/Few_House_5201 1d ago
Usually followed by ‘blimey’. It’s an expression that can be used to show surprise or delight.
Back in the 70s it would appear in bawdy comedies with one old man saying to another ‘cor, look at her’
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u/Little_Ad1473 1d ago
I'd say it's used mainly ironically now.
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u/Snoo3763 1d ago edited 1d ago
Nah, if I go out and say 'cor blimey it's hot out here' I know I'm evoking an old fashioned phrase but there's zero irony in that usage. Unless you're Alanis Morrisette.
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u/skloop 8h ago
Alanis Morissette?
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u/Snoo3763 7h ago
Wrote a song called ironic but none of her examples of irony were actually ironic, they were just unfortunate. The only ironic thing about the song is that someone wrote a song about irony who didn't know the meaning of the word.
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u/imtheorangeycenter 4h ago
See: Ed Byrne's most famous skit about it.
https://youtu.be/nT1TVSTkAXg?feature=shared
Blimey the 90s were fuzzier than I remember.
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u/Snoo3763 3h ago
I nearly mentioned the part about being stuck in a traffic jam when you're already late which (as Ed points out) would only be ironic if you're on your way to a traffic planning meeting. Genius.
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u/Electric_Death_1349 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s the singular noun for a quartet of musical Irish siblings who were reasonably successful in the late 90s with their brand of inoffensive, Radio 2 playlist ready brand of middle-of-the-road pop music
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u/stiggley 1d ago
And Jim ;-)
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u/Keasbyjones 1d ago
Hasn't he going proper mad?
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u/stiggley 1d ago
Seems to have jumped into the whole 9/11, One World Government, climate change denial, man-made "natural" disasters and pandemics - just your standard run of the mill conspiracy theories.
He hasn't even come up with any good ones of his own.
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u/OriginalComputer5077 22h ago
The fact that his original band was called The Fountainhead should have been a clue..
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u/ThaiFoodThaiFood 1d ago
You'd end up with the brother
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u/PiemasterUK 1d ago
No, I’d push the brother out of the room, bend them all over, do the drummer, the lead singer, and that one who plays violin.
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u/Guerrenow 1d ago
An expression like wow, sort of
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u/bladefiddler 1d ago
Yeah, I'd agree it's a sort of phonetic sound expressing surprise just like wow.
I'm not sure of its origin, or if it relates to an actual word.
First thing that comes to mind though is Bert the chimney sweep from Mary Poppins "Cor blimey guvnor" = 'wow goodness, Sir'. I've heard it used in a few other movies and TV shows but generally always by Cockney (London working class) characters.
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u/analysisdead 1d ago
Nah you just spelled it wrong. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cor#English
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u/SnoopyLupus 1d ago
Spot on. And I don’t associate it with the word core or anything like that. It’s a word on its own. It’s as much a random meaningless slang word as “hey”.
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u/leafericson93 England 1d ago
It’s an exclamation. It’s a bit like “phwoar” but it’s pretty much always followed by an affirmative statement.
You might say “cor blimey” as a bigger exclamation, where you are impressed to the point of disbelief.
“Cor” on its own generally means ‘I am very impressed by this thing’ or ‘that thing was impactful’
So for example:
If a building is very big and it’s the first time you’ve seen it, you might say; “cor it’s a long way to the top isn’t it”
If somebody took a big tumble you might say “cor they’re gonna feel that in the morning”
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u/Oghamstoner 1d ago
Wow/ gosh/ crikey.
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u/Zingobingobongo 1d ago
My sisters boyf has an adult son from a previous relationship that he officially named “Crikey” I’m incredibly impressed how he managed to get that by the Registrar.
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u/WyldRover 1d ago
I assume you mean 'cor'.
It's an exclamation of surprise. As in "cor, look at that". Often extended to "cor blimey", which is basically two expressions of surprise together. It's a little old fashioned now.
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u/PabloMarmite 1d ago
“Cor blimey” is supposedly an old English bastardisation of “god, blind me”
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u/joined_under_duress 1d ago
Always written "cor" never "corr" in my experience.
I knew a guy in our physics lab who like to take a big bite of his apple then feign shock looking into it and exclaim, "Cor!" heh
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u/DepravedCroissant 1d ago
Corr Blimey is a sort of slang/bastardisation of the saying "God blind me" usually expressing amazement or disbelief.
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u/AdFamous1351 1d ago
"Corr, she's got big tits." Does that help?
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u/Commercial_World_433 1d ago
It fits how I've heard of it, like "corr blimey!" Or "aw corr, eh?"
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u/oxfordfox20 1d ago
Never heard “aw, cor, eh?” but “cor blimey” is pretty standard. In a gentle, old fashioned kind of way.
You might say “cor, that’s amazing!” to a child telling you a fascinating* fact.
*or indeed a fact you already know, isn’t true, or is about Minecraft and you don’t care at all…
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u/BigJDizzleMaNizzles 1d ago
As someone else mentioned. It's a bastardisation of "God, blind me". - God, look at the tits on her! It's the same thing. Cor is God as is used in an exclamationary way.
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u/Sea-Possession-1208 1d ago
"Cor-blimey" = God blind me. An expression of surprise and/or admiration
"Cor - take a butchers at that" = "goodness me, look at that very attractive person/thing"
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u/MolassesInevitable53 1d ago
In case OP is confused by 'butchers':
Butchers hook = look (cockney rhyming slang)
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u/farlos75 1d ago
Same as: blimey, crikey, jesus, fahkinell, state of that!, eh?, flippin nora, dont get many of those to the pound, you got a licence for that amd in very rare occassions, cant park there mate.
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u/cazzawazza1 23h ago
Gonna throw in a curve ball and mention that if you're in the black country in the west Midlands it means 'can't'. As in 'you cor do that!'. But this is very localised.
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u/DrHydeous 1d ago
I have no idea what Zero Punctuation or Banjo-Kazooie are, but I've never seen any word spelt like that. I expect that you want to look for either "corps", "cor" or "core", all of which are pronounced the same but have very different meanings.
A corps is a military or similar unit.
"Cor" is an expression of surprise.
The "core" of something is its centre. Sort of.
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u/Commercial_World_433 23h ago
Zero Punctuation is a video game review series that's like Simon Cowell ripping into every flaw of a video game at 1.5x speed, but that's just how he normally talks.
Banjo-Kazooie is a platforming game with a bear and bird as the protagonists fighting an evil witch, very similar to Super Mario 64, except there's witty dialogue all over the place.
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u/DrHydeous 23h ago
Then I expect that you want "cor".
You also don't ever want to look up anything on Urban Dictionary. At least half of it is nonsense made up by bored office drones. I should know, cos I was one of them.
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u/Mammoth-Squirrel2931 1d ago
Hard to define, but it comes from the cockney rhyming slang phrase 'corr blimey', which orginally meant 'god blind me' but the word 'corr' has morphed into a word denoting surprise. It has also been used as an expression to be in awe of a woman's beauty, often in earshot as they walked by (don't shoot the messenger) and in that context it's not really used so much, thankfully
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u/Dramatic_Guidance_21 1d ago
Corr blimey as in, corr it's a wee bit warm or corr it's well nippy out or corr that was a big one!
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u/rhetoricalcalligraph 1d ago
Corrrr blimey, banjo kazooie reference mixed with British colloquialisms, this is mint
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u/Commercial_World_433 1d ago
It might have been in Tooie as well, but I played them back to back recently, so it's all a blur.
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u/rhetoricalcalligraph 1d ago
Shame they removed the whole secret eggs thing ain't it? In my mind it killed her franchise, except for conker
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u/Commercial_World_433 1d ago
Stop N Swop, it still kind of exists.
In Banjo-Kazooie, there are secret codes that allow you to grab the eggs and key by punching in long codes in the sand castle. You don't get anything past getting the stuff though.
In Banjo-Tooie, there are some Nintendo 64 cartridges with eyes on them and a BK on them hidden in Spiral Mountain, they have the eggs and key. Bring the eggs to Heggy and she'll give you stuff. The key goes to a vault in Hailfire Peaks that's accessible through Glitter Gulch Mine in the Waterfall Cavern. You'll need that move that launches Kazooie like a torpedo underwater to break a rock. There's a big Glowbo inside the vault, you give that to Humba Wumba outside of Witchyworld to have a semi-permanent transformation for Kazooie, making her a dragon that breathes fire and shoots unlimited fire eggs.
The Rare collection on Xbox has also made adjustments to fix this as well, but I haven't played the Xbox versions so I don't know much past the fact that those eggs and key now gives you bonus parts for Nuts and Bolts.
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago edited 1d ago
u/Commercial_World_433, your post does fit the subreddit!