Queen’s English: RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K. Contestants Explain Their Slang

The first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K. has brought a few new things in to the Drag Race Universe. In addition to the 10 competing queens, we have a Brit Crew of seven hunky guys. And then there’s the Ru Peter Badge. But, like in the case of the original Drag Race who popularized words like “shade,” “reading,” and “realness” — to be fair, the shows did not create these slang terms but instead, helped to bring them to a wider audience — there are a few words and phrases being used on the show that some viewers might be unfamiliar with.

Here, we will ask the queens themselves what the phrases on the show mean. This glossary/dictionary of sorts will be updated every week after new episodes, and in that way, will include small spoilers. But at the end, hopefully you’ll be able to head to a local pub, order a pint, and fully enjoy whatever gobshite of a queen happens to be onstage! And yes, we’ve defined a few of the easy one ourselves.

Chav - On episode one, during her entrance Gothy Kendoll is asked to explained her purple, translucent jumpsuit. "So, I'm a bit of a chav," she says to everyone's laughter. A what? “How can I be nice about it?" Gothy tells Out. "So chavs are like working class people that wear track suits and trainers.” 

Gobshite - On episode one, Baga Chipz said, “Well I’m known on the UK scene as being a bit of a gobshite; everybody knows me,” while introducing herself. But what exactly does that mean? “A gobshite is someone who is really loud, swears a lot, got a bit of a motor mouth,” Gothy Kendoll says. “Sort of like a loud mouth.”

Knickers - Underwear.

Tuppence - On episode one, Baga Chipz said “Sorry if you can see me tuppence,” while posing in a dress for the mini challenge.“Tuppence is like a polite way of saying vagina,” Gothy Kendoll explains.

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