Do one

[Bassim]

I'm wondering if "do one", meaning to go away, can be used in my sentence.

Clive went into an expensive restaurant wearing a blue tracksuit but was told by the owner to do one and come back when he was properly dressed.

 

[jutfrank]

No. Although do one is used very informally by some British English speakers, it is completely inappropriate in the literary register of your sentence.

Apart from being used to exhort somebody to 'go away', it can also be used to signal one's imminent departure. My good friend (from the South London area) uses it frequently.

Dave: I'm gonna do one. See ya later.

 

[Rover_KE]

Have you recently acquired a list of British slang words and phrases, Bassim?

This is about the fifth you've tried to incorporate into your normally quite formal texts.

 

[Bassim]

I was listening this morning on the BBC 4 Extra the BBC presenter Babita Sharma reading her book "The Corner Shop" about her growing up with her parents who had come from India to the UK and had for many years owned corner shops. She wrote how once when her father was in a pub, he was threatened by a group of skinheads, and he was told to do one. Luckily, her father could escape unharmed. This was the first time I heard "do one", and I just tried to see if I could use it in my sentence.

 

[probus]

It must be a fairly recent coinage. I never heard it when I lived in England. Is it perhaps short for do a runner?

 

[Bassim]

probus,

It is not short of "do a runner". It is to tell someone who is making you feel upset or angry to go away.

 

[jutfrank]

It must be a fairly recent coinage. I never heard it when I lived in England.

I'm not sure what you consider recent. It's been about for as long as I remember. I'm not greatly surprised you never heard it, though—it's commonly used by only a small minority of a certain class of speaker, typically in the London area, I'd say.

For all you fans out there of the London grime scene (you know who you are!), I can't resist posting a link to this track entitled Do One. For those who are unfortunately too busy to listen to the piece in full, go to 1:04 to hear the phrase in question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uOkpjPmjG4

 

[probus]

I'm not sure what you consider recent.

You might say my defenition of recent is expansive. I last lived in London in the mid-70s. I was working as a pilot for a long-defunct skydiving club on the Kent coast. The jumpers came from all walks of life, so I was exposed to everything from cockney to RP.

Thanks very much for the link. Pete and Bas are hilarious. And having listened to them I still think do one is short for do a runner.

FYI Bassim, do a runner means depart speedily.

 

[jutfrank]

Probus,

I would very much assume that do one was in use at that time in the 1970s. I can well imagine Regan and Carter of TV crime drama The Sweeney using it.

As I vaguely hinted at, it is more likely to be used by a person who, at least to some extent, or in some loose way, identifies with the London underworld, whether they be the hard-men personas of Pete and Bas's work, Babita Sharma's skinheads, or Regan and Carter's flying squad detectives. Skydiving in Kent doesn't seem to me to be an activity that would be especially popular with any of these groups.

As to whether it's a substitute of do a runner, I suspect that it may well be. I can't think of anything else that one could stand for. Pragmatically, however, it is basically a euphemism for f**k off. In so far as that means 'depart speedily', then yes, you're right.

 

[GoesStation]

For those who are unfortunately too busy to listen to the piece in full, go to 1:04 to hear the phrase in question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uOkpjPmjG4

For any learners in the forum feeling anxious because they can't understand the video, relax. I'm a native speaker of American English who watches a lot of British television; nevertheless, I understood less than one word in ten.

 

[Bassim]

This reminds me of a Scottish woman who once went to the US. When she spoke to an American man he told her he understood nothing and asked her what language she was speaking. She said, "English." He said, "No, you don't speak English."