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This is the Keep Your English Up-To-date Podcast from BBC Learning English.com.

In this week's program, John Aetto explains the origin, meaning and use of the word chugger.

Once upon a time in Britain, when people wanted you to give money to charity in the street,

they just stood modestly in shop doorways, perhaps looking at

passers-by with a meaningful glance, but doing nothing more threatening than

rattling their collecting boxes. Then in the late 20th century things changed.

Ernest young men and women started coming up to you, clipboard in hand as you were walking

along and giving you a lengthy verbal presentation on the cause they wanted you to support.

They rounded this off by asking you to sign up for an ongoing series of donations to their charity.

How did we feel about this?

Well, to judge from the word we in Britain invented for such people we weren't too impressed. We call

them chuggers and accuse them of trying to chug us. Those are blended words made up of the chuh of charity and the ug of mug and mugger.

Now a mugger is someone who attacks and robs you in a public place.

So chugger is really quite a hostile word for a person who after all is just trying to do a bit of good in the world.

But since it first appeared in 2002 it seems to have

established a place for itself in the language. Are we Brits too mean or just generally grumpy. Either way we don't like being chugged.

That was the Keep Your English Up-To-date podcast. For all the latest downloads and quizzes, visit our website, BBC

learning English.com.

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