From divvy to dinlo: index of insults aims to record Britain’s diverse dialects

Rachel Riley put the letters HGTOIBYES on the board during an episode of Countdown, from which Susie Dent formed the word ‘gobshite’. Photograph: Channel 4/PA

An idiot wandering the British Isles is sure to be greeted with a colourful volley of insults, each a signifier of the place in which he finds himself: “divvy” in Merseyside, “pillock” in Leeds or “dinlo” in Portsmouth.

But with parochial phrases increasingly being lost to the homogenisation of the English language, experts are worried that soon, the wandering idiot may just be called an “idiot” wherever he goes.