[Editors] British idiom?

[Teresa Hill]

Yes, of course. From my British grandmother and P.G. 
Wodehouse.  Until I happened upon Wodehouse, I didn't realize that an 
entire species (English people in the 1920s) talked like my 
grandmother.  Another term for formal dress (as worn at dinner) was 
"the old soup and fish."

At 11:39 AM 1/10/2007, Debbie Levey wrote:
>My Chinese houseguest relies heavily on an electronic translator
>device which seems to be programmed for British English, since it's
>full of words which I've learned from reading the Guardian  Weekly
>(toff, gormless). Yesterday we reviewed expressions using "soup" and
>it listed "soup and nuts" for what we'd call "tails" (men's formal
>clothing). Are you familiar with this term? I'd never heard it before.
>
>Debbie
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