British English Slang – Plonker.
(noun) A silly or foolish person.
You meant to send a quick message to one colleague. Instead, you hit “Reply all” and two hundred people at work can read it. Hand on forehead, you groan: “I’m such a plonker!”
A plonker is someone who does something silly or daft. It’s a mild, friendly insult. Brits use it to tease friends and family, and very often about themselves. Say it with a smile and nobody will be offended.
Del Boy, Rodney and Only Fools and Horses
If you want to understand plonker, you need to meet Del Boy. Only Fools and Horses is a BBC sitcom about the Trotter brothers, two market traders from Peckham in south London who live in a council flat in a tower block called Nelson Mandela House. It ran on BBC One from 1981 to 1996, with Christmas specials until 2003, and every one of its 64 episodes was written by John Sullivan.
Derek “Del Boy” Trotter (David Jason) is a loveable wheeler-dealer, always chasing his next get-rich-quick scheme. His younger brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) is tall, gentle and usually the one who gets things wrong. Whenever Rodney messes up, Del shouts the line every British person knows: “Rodney, you plonker!” (or often just “You plonker!”)
Del’s insults for Rodney, like plonker, wally, twonk and dipstick, became catchphrases, and the show made plonker famous across the country. It did the same for two of Del’s favourite words: cushty (great, easy) and lovely jubbly (excellent), which was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003.
It’s hard to overstate how much Britain loves this show:
- The 1996 Christmas episode Time on Our Hands was watched by 24.3 million people, the biggest UK audience ever for a sitcom episode.
- In 2004, a BBC poll voted it Britain’s Best Sitcom.
- The scene where Del Boy leans on a bar and falls straight through the open bar flap (from the episode Yuppy Love) is one of the most famous moments in British TV comedy.
- The Trotters’ yellow three-wheeled Reliant van is now in the National Motor Museum, and a yellow Reliant van even appeared in the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.
Decades later, Brits still quote it all the time. If someone calls you a plonker in a cheeky London accent, they’re almost certainly doing their best Del Boy impression!
Where Does “Plonker” Come From?
Plonker is 20th-century British slang. It comes from the verb plonk, meaning to put something down heavily and clumsily (“He plonked his bag on the table”). A plonker, in other words, is a bit of a clumsy idiot.
Don’t confuse it with plonk, British slang for cheap wine. That word has a completely different story: it comes from soldiers mispronouncing the French vin blanc.
How to Use It
- To a friend: “You plonker! You’ve locked the keys in the car again.”
- About yourself: “I’m such a plonker!”
- With a bit of a: “He’s a bit of a plonker, but he’s got a good heart.”
- As advice: “Don’t be a plonker. Take a coat, it’s freezing!”
Similar words: twit, numpty, wally and prat. Plonker is one of the gentlest. Keep it for friends and family, not your boss.
Is plonker fading? It’s used a little less than in the 2000s. See Are Brits Still Saying “Marvellous”? For more words like this, see our 50 British slang words and expressions.
Example:
- “I just replied to everyone at work. I’m such a plonker!”
- “You plonker! You’ve locked the keys in the car again.”
- “Don’t be a plonker. Wear a coat, it’s freezing!”
- “Was I being a bit of a plonker at the party last night?”
Learn More
Look it upOnly Fools and HorsesWikipediaWhat is slang?
Slang is very informal language. It’s usually spoken rather than written, and is often used by a particular group of people or in a particular place. Slang changes over time, and using it well is a great way to sound more natural when speaking English.
Frequently Asked Questions
Plonker is British slang for a silly or foolish person. It’s usually friendly teasing, for example “You plonker!” when a friend does something daft.
It’s a mild insult. Brits use it with friends and family, and about themselves (“I’m such a plonker!”). Don’t use it with your boss or with strangers.
Del Boy, played by David Jason, says it to his younger brother Rodney in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. The show made the word famous across Britain.
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