What springs to mind when you hear the term ‘mufti day’? What about woggle, knapsack or ice pole? With 48% of the UK disagreeing on what they call bread, the nation continues to prove its diversity in language is one of the defining features of being British. Looking at the different memorable terms relating to going to school in the UK, what are the most unique terms used for the various things we all remember?
- London refers to ‘own clothes days’ as ‘mufti days’.
- Liverpool calls ice lollies ‘lolly ices’
- Belfast knows soft drinks as ‘minerals’ and a backpack as a ‘knapsack’.
- Nearly half of the UK disagrees on the name for bread.
The names for well known things from UK school life differ across the nation. VideoScribe has conducted a study using search data surrounding the top terms remembered by those who went to school in the UK, analysing what words are most frequently searched for within the top 20 most populated UK cities and how they are referred to within each.
London is unique in the fact that it calls ‘own clothes days’ mufti days, a term that has those from anywhere else in the nation turning their heads. The average monthly search volume for this term tops the lot in the capital, with an average 500 searches per month. People from Birmingham have been shown to use ‘free dress day’ just as much as any other term, a name you’re very unlikely to hear in Glasgow, Southampton, Portsmouth, Liverpool, or Newcastle Upon Tyne.
