Americanisms that will never, ever cross over into the UK

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (792 of them)

"So co on the rocks"!

Sarah, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link

I have used it, but I'm married to a yank, so I probably don't count.

xpost to douchebag!

Colonel Poo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link

I think *the stereotype of* Kelly Osbourne might have something to say about that.

'Erbs
Flat
Sneakers
Rush Limbaugh

ectect

CharlieNo4, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:15 (sixteen years ago) link

"So cos for everyone!!" argh argh (Tom said there had been a thread on this already but those adverts STILL annoy the bejaysus out of me).

Sarah, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:16 (sixteen years ago) link

oh god not the soco thing

ghost rider, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link

"Flat"

Do you mean like an apartment? Because that's your -ism.

Ms Misery, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link

'Erbs
Flat
Sneakers
Rush Limbaugh

^^wtf are the first two??

ghost rider, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link

brittishes will never shralp

ever

jhøshea, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link

vegetables

sexyDancer, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:20 (sixteen years ago) link

dentists </stereotype>

Ms Misery, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:20 (sixteen years ago) link

You guys drop the H on herbs, whereas we pronounce it, unless we're lovable cockney chimney sweeps.

Colonel Poo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:21 (sixteen years ago) link

oh

ghost rider, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link

ALRIGHT ALREADY

g-kit, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link

Possibilities:

(a) the two syllables of time some Americans save by not saying "Southern Comfort" will translate into increased economic productivity, eventually allowing us to crush the British economy

(b) the relative difficulty of not saying "SoCo" when drunk will cause British people to forgo the night's last drink, causing them to be marginally more productive at work the next day, eventually allowing the UK to crush the American economy

(c) nothing will happen and nobody will care

nabisco, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link

P.S. dropping the H in herb has allowed us to develop a very important pronounced-H form, used to refer to teenagers in the 1980s New York area who are lame and don't know enough about rap music

you guys have NO WORD FOR THAT, i don't know how you get through the day

nabisco, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link

waht?

onimo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:26 (sixteen years ago) link

The main problem with "SoCo" in the UK is that its plural "SoCos" contains the British spelling of the shortened form of "because," so it looks like "so-cuz."

jaymc, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:26 (sixteen years ago) link

very important pronounced-H form, used to refer to teenagers in the 1980s New York area who are lame and don't know enough about rap music

I don't know this fuckin' word!

G-kit, what has upset you so?

Ms Misery, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:26 (sixteen years ago) link

It's pretty easy to avoid pluralizing a liquid, though.

nabisco, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:27 (sixteen years ago) link

erb halpert?

CharlieNo4, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:28 (sixteen years ago) link

The "Herb" thing has to do with a TV show, I think? My ex from Rockland County knew it, but I didn't, and I'm pretty darn sure it was never in use in my particular school community.

Laurel, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:29 (sixteen years ago) link

I'm not sure that people in the UK drink enough Southern Comfort to be bothered about an abbreviation for it.

to be pissed at someone rather than pissed off at someone: the British resisted that for decades, but now I've heard teenagers say it.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:30 (sixteen years ago) link

The correct plural of SoCo would be SosCo

sexyDancer, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link

Yes, 'erbs will never catch on. Neither will pronouncing Aunt as Awhhhhhhhhnt.

Tom D., Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link

... or however you spell it

Tom D., Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link

Herb = like the short version of a guy named Herbert = 80s-era NYC hip-hop slang for a lame person who would have a name like Herbert = so far as I can tell, used largely by white and Jewish middle-class teenagers from the Upper West Side and Brooklyn. (Or anyway these are the only types of people I encounter who might still say "herb" or know what it means.)

nabisco, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't know this fuckin' word!

Have you killfiled Ethan and deej?

(Um, I didn't actually know about it until reading ILX and, like, Tom Breihan.)

jaymc, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link

I can see douchebag taking off tho

Tom D., Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link

But douchebag has been around forever without taking off. It just sounds so... American!

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:35 (sixteen years ago) link

"psyched"

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:35 (sixteen years ago) link

"cheeseburger deluxe"

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:36 (sixteen years ago) link

"delicious pizza"

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:36 (sixteen years ago) link

I think I've heard UK people say "psyched". Or at least written it on the Internet.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:36 (sixteen years ago) link

Saying "the longest time" for "a long time"

Tom D., Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:37 (sixteen years ago) link

Herbert is used as an insult in the UK.

I don't think g-kit was upset, I think he was giving an example of an Americanism.

onimo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:37 (sixteen years ago) link

Druthers. Don't think I've ever heard a British person say druthers.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:37 (sixteen years ago) link

Do you mean like an apartment? Because that's your -ism

Since flat-as-apartment is British, perhaps he means "horizontal"? Or "without bumps"? "A deflated tire?"

kingkongvsgodzilla, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:38 (sixteen years ago) link

xpost But "druthers" sounds so British!

jaymc, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link

to be pissed at someone rather than pissed off at someone: the British resisted that for decades, but now I've heard teenagers say it.

"pissed off at"? "pissed off with", surely?

ANYWAY.

"write me". that'll never catch on.

xpost oh yes, i meant "flat" as in "flat tyre".

CharlieNo4, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link

onimo otm, sry

g-kit, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link

Druthers. Don't think I've ever heard a British person say druthers.

OTM. I remember the first time I heard someone say this!

"For sure".

Tom D., Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Americans don't really say soco, do they? Do you? Guys?

There are plenty of brand name things I can think of. I remember having a great argument in a pub in Dublin because an American woman I knew was complaining about not being able to order a seven and seven, until it turned out to be some drink based on brand names that the barman was in fact perfectly capable of making.

Channel four has started saying "season finale" about its own, home-produced programmes now.

accentmonkey, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:40 (sixteen years ago) link

"For sure".

Souness/Penis

onimo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Unfortunately "on the weekend" is beginning to creep in over here

Tom D., Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link

"do the math"

onimo, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link

OH WE HAD HERB IN BOSTON TOO GUYS

jhøshea, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link

<i>"do the math"</i>

"World's Champion"

Tom D., Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:43 (sixteen years ago) link

Milquetoast. See this often enough in American journalism. Never see it in Britain. Actually I don't even know what it means exactly.

Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:43 (sixteen years ago) link

Yes, people say SoCo, get over it. You people say "pressies" and "soz," you have no business being amazed by our shortenings.

Most Americans don't say "druthers" in any kind of organic way -- older rural people might say it for real, but most everyone else is using it as a knowingly folksy handed-down expression.

Americans say "over the weekend."

nabisco, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:43 (sixteen years ago) link

Now that Herb has been illuminated, I recognize it. But from Nabisco's definiton I had no clue what he was talking about. I thought maybe he meant some slur against Jews.

I've never said SoCo in reference to a drink.

Ms Misery, Thursday, 28 June 2007 15:43 (sixteen years ago) link

i use all three, but 'on' seems the wrong-est

HOOSy woosies (history mayne), Monday, 29 August 2011 11:57 (twelve years ago) link

I don't remember starting this thread or any of my posts on it (/early_onset_alzheimers)

Zelda Zonk, Monday, 29 August 2011 12:48 (twelve years ago) link

We had "Commencement" at Trinity College Dublin. Also OED on this:


a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 259 By a statute of the universite of Oxenford‥he schal not spende at his comencement passynge þre þowsand of grootes turonens.
1587 W. Harrison Descr. Eng. (1877) ii. iii. i. 75 In Oxford this solemnitie is called an Act, but in Cambridge they vse the French word Commensement.
1593 T. Nashe Strange Newes 74 Shewe mee the Vniuersities hand and seale that thou art a Doctour sealed and deliuered in the presence of a whole Commensement.
1689 London Gaz. No. 2496/2 (Cambridge) An extraordinary Commencement being held on this signal Occasion, for conferring Degrees on persons of Worth in all Faculties.
1714 J. Ayliffe Antient & Present State Univ. Oxf. II. iii. i. 131 There is a general Commencement once every Year in all the Faculties of Learning, which is called the Act at Oxford, and the Commencement at Cambridge.
1858 D. Masson Life Milton I. 163 Three days before the close of the academic year‥there was held at Cambridge the great public ceremony of the ‘Commencement’.
1890 Academy 5 July 12/2 Dublin University‥The recipients of honorary degrees at the commencement are, etc.

dubplates and monster munch (seandalai), Monday, 29 August 2011 23:58 (twelve years ago) link

"all that good stuff"

"oftentimes"

kinder, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 01:43 (twelve years ago) link

"different than"

Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 02:01 (twelve years ago) link

I'm surpised at the number of baseball/American football expressions that have crossed over given that the vast majority of British people have no clue as to the rules of these games. I used "left field" myself in an email today and yet I have no idea why it means what it does.

Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 02:16 (twelve years ago) link

eight years pass...

ROBERT FROST'S poem LODGED

The rain to the wind said,
'You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged - though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.

"Lodged" -- to be flattened by wind and rain -- is not a UK usage (via sistrah becky, who encountered it in a movie last night and was startled and looked it up)

mark s, Sunday, 1 December 2019 12:47 (four years ago) link

Ooh, that's a good one.

'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:07 (four years ago) link

I don't think it's especially common in North America either?

No language just sound (Sund4r), Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:35 (four years ago) link

Black Friday, that'll never cross over, we don't even have Thanksgiving

éminence rose et jaune (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:39 (four years ago) link

Indeed, a lot of the stuff mentioned itt has crossed over - I overheard someone talking about their sister's baby shower last week.

'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:41 (four years ago) link

fucksgiving

mark s, Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:43 (four years ago) link

as in zero fuckgiving

mark s, Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:43 (four years ago) link

the one true holiday imo

mark s, Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:43 (four years ago) link

the one true holiday imo

mark s, Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:43 (four years ago) link

'Fratboy' doesn't have any equivalent. Or 'High School proms'. Or 'jock'. And for most people 'college' doesn't mean 'university'

High school proms have been here for a while now.

'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Sunday, 1 December 2019 13:44 (four years ago) link

LOL. Harry Lauder harms New York.

'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Sunday, 1 December 2019 14:09 (four years ago) link

I hope it’s a better pressing than the Merced solo record from a couple years back, which was pressed off-centre & v poorly mastered. Always loved t

📹
📹

They're a funny bunch, aren't they?
*ROBERT FROST'S poem LODGED*

The rain to the wind said,
'You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged - though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.

"Lodged" -- to be flattened by wind and rain -- is not a UK usage (via sistrah becky, who encountered it in a movie last night and was startled and looked it up)
I don't think it's especially common in North America either?

Nevereardavit

Una Palooka Dronka (hardcore dilettante), Sunday, 1 December 2019 16:14 (four years ago) link

Whoops, ignore 1st para, a vestigial orphan

Una Palooka Dronka (hardcore dilettante), Sunday, 1 December 2019 16:16 (four years ago) link

north american cropfarmers absent from the thread, ilxor bubblemind strikes again

mark s, Sunday, 1 December 2019 18:03 (four years ago) link

My children say line instead of queue; I've heard them say boardwalk instead of pier; they rarely use the perfect tense. Unless I want to do the annoying parent thing I've given up mentioning it.

Child (looking in cupboard): "Do we have ketchup?"
Annoying parent: "Yes"
C: "I can't see it"
AP: "That's because we haven't got any at the moment, but generally we do have it. I'm sorry, your meaning was unclear to me"

fetter, Monday, 2 December 2019 10:56 (four years ago) link

As someone who works in the sector: UK farmers do say lodged, it’s p common to hear about eg wheat lodging

For how much longer do we tolerate trashed purdah? (wins), Monday, 2 December 2019 11:04 (four years ago) link

blimey and indeed cor

mark s, Monday, 2 December 2019 11:18 (four years ago) link

what's this about ketchup?

☮ (peace, man), Monday, 2 December 2019 12:24 (four years ago) link

Yeah I don’t see what’s wrong with the ketchup thing?

Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Monday, 2 December 2019 12:35 (four years ago) link

fetter has just triggered literally everyone on ilx including me, kudos

imago, Monday, 2 December 2019 12:37 (four years ago) link

i believe the correct queen's english would be 'hath we red sauce, papa?'

imago, Monday, 2 December 2019 12:38 (four years ago) link

Is he saying that have should only be used meaning to consume so yes we consume ketchup but we are not currently in possession of it? Jesus. Anyway I’m tired of people pointing out when I say things weirdly. I’m just going to talk even more American from now on.

Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Monday, 2 December 2019 12:39 (four years ago) link

having (owning) ketchup is where i am a viking fyi

imago, Monday, 2 December 2019 12:40 (four years ago) link

have we ketchupped, daddy?

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 2 December 2019 12:47 (four years ago) link

lmao this phone trying to autocorrect me, don’t even try

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 2 December 2019 12:48 (four years ago) link

are we having catsup ?

L'assie (Euler), Monday, 2 December 2019 12:52 (four years ago) link

'Has we gots catsup' surely?

'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Monday, 2 December 2019 13:20 (four years ago) link

annoying parent is just incorrect in that example

deems of internment (darraghmac), Monday, 2 December 2019 13:22 (four years ago) link

In my day, annoying parents would say that annoying children like my former self should never say "got" and should always use formulations like "do we have" instead

a passing spacecadet, Monday, 2 December 2019 13:31 (four years ago) link

do we have ketchup?
do we put it on pizza?
do you eat meat?
do we go to church?

kinder, Monday, 2 December 2019 13:39 (four years ago) link

hath we red sauce, papa?
everyone imagine this is my new display name pls; I can't be bothered to change it

kinder, Monday, 2 December 2019 13:41 (four years ago) link

how high's the ketchup mama?

éminence rose et jaune (Noodle Vague), Monday, 2 December 2019 13:43 (four years ago) link

i can has ketchup?

andrew m., Monday, 2 December 2019 15:59 (four years ago) link

Any UK ILXors using "gotten" as the past participle of "got" yet? That's historically been distinctly American English.

the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:07 (four years ago) link

how high's the ketchup mama?

0.9144 meters high and rising

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:13 (four years ago) link

(xp) Not since the 16th century.

'Skills' Wallace (Tom D.), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:29 (four years ago) link

not a uk ilxor, but gotten is valid

dont ask me how or why the specific usage vs "got"

also football talk, id say gotten is in there

deems of internment (darraghmac), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:34 (four years ago) link

I've found myself saying 'gotten' a lot. I hear 'douchebag' a lot too

YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:35 (four years ago) link

everyone in my office says 'skedule' and that affects me more than it should

YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:42 (four years ago) link

I agree, 'skedge' is vastly preferable.

War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:45 (four years ago) link

Did 'Git-R-Done' ever cross over into UK parlance? Never too late imo.

War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Monday, 2 December 2019 16:46 (four years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.