Various words

I have various words that have come up in conversation that I'd like to point out...

1) People often say something like "She gave out to me all day," or "There will be no giving out while I'm here."

To "give out" means to ridicule or complain about someone to their face, basically to give them a hard time.

2) A mother might ask her child to do the "hoovering," or one might hear teens complaining about having to "hoover" when they get home.

Hoovering means vacuuming. I guess folks use Hoover vacuum cleaners here, in the same sense folks use Kleenex in the US. :)

3) I've had friends ask if they could "call on" me, or suggest that I "call in" on so-and-so.

This does not mean to ring someone and has nothing to do with phones. It refers to stopping by someone's home, to visit them in person. It's like the old-fashioned speak...makes me think of Andy Griffith and Barney Fife "calling on" their girls.

4) Calling someone "Love" is extremely common--strangers will call you that in the stores or in whatever random interaction. Startled me at first, but now it's kind of cute, makes us all seem like a tight-knit community. In the post office, the person will ask, "What can I do for you, Love?" or "To post that will be 1 euro, Love." Or in a shop when someone needs to squeeze past you, they'll say, "Excuse me, Love."

5) I got the following text on my phone from a girl at work:
"Morning Love, I forgot that I was invigilating today, so I won't be seeing you until tomorrow."

I don't know about you, but I had no idea what it meant to "invigilate." I had to look it up.

It is what we would call in the US to "proctor"--basically, to supervise students taking an exam.

6) This is isn't a word, but a pronunciation: "r" is pronounced by the Irish as "Oh-are." Very obvious. As a mathematician, often using variables including "r," it definitely took me time and effort to interpret some of the talks. I had already anticipated the use of "zed" instead of "z," but "oh-are" was unexpected.