Quote Originally Posted by Medved View Post
Thanks Throbert.
I didn't know the case was so complicated and hard to unravel, because in Russian we have more or less constant tinges of these words which don't vary very much regionally.
"tinges" here should be "shades of meaning" or "connotations," probably.

Anyway, there are other examples that come to mind. The name "Pussy Galore" (from the James Bond novel/movie Goldfinger) has exactly the same sexual meaning in both the UK and the US -- but it sounds "более пошлый" to American ears than to British ears. And when the UK-produced film was released in the States (this was back in 1964, remember), some movie theaters refused to show it, at least in conservative Southern cities.

On the other hand, the title of the 1999 Austin Powers movie The Spy Who Shagged Me (which was a US production) was "censored" for television advertisements in the UK, where "shag" sounds more vulgar than in the US. Again, the title MEANS exactly the same thing in both countries (i.e., "The Spy Who Had Sex with Me"), but the slang term shag isn't as "dirty" in America.