Punctuation & Abbreviations

A.N. Other

miscellaneous (unknown) person

brackets

parentheses (rounded brackets), square brackets are [

BR

British Rail

BT

British Telecom (the phone company)

DHSS

Dep't of Health and Social Services: the dole office

DIY

do-it-yourself (``home handyman'', etc.)

full stop

period. Also used idiomatically the same way as period (``I don't want any more, full stop.'')

inverted commas

single quotation marks (also called quotation marks: double quotation marks are also called speech marks)

MoD

Ministry of Defence (see MoT under "Automotive")

nought

zero.

OAP

old age pensioner

OTT

over the top (q.v.)

PBAB

please bring a bottle (BYOB)

PC

police constable (or personal computer, or (recently) ``politically correct'')

plc

public limited company (Inc.)

PTO

please turn over

SAS

the Special Air Service; a SWAT/commando group (equiv. Green Berets, SEALs, etc.)

stroke (``shilling mark'')

/ (slash)

UB40

an Unemployment Benefit form - for proving you're entitled to unemployment benefits,

VAT

value-added tax; 17.5% sales tax

zed

zee (the letter Z)