A whole new meaning for 'tardy'!

[edited because I had the wrong flair at first]

TIL in some parts of Britain ‘tardy’ is another word for the R-word and is almost as offensive. This year our school gained new colleague from Britain. For the first couple of weeks of school, he was absolutely horrified, thinking we were all just slurring our students all over the place, calling them tardy, giving them demerits for being tardy…even when they earned a tardy pass for doing something good, it was not a good thing. He's a great guy who has leaned in to learning a lot about American culture & schools, but he was not prepared for this!

Indeed we and our friends across the pond are separated by a common language.