Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

observablehq.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 84 posts

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#61

Post by wink »

rascul wrote: post #59
HKH2 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aspirin is an NSAID, whereas paracetamol/acetaminophen/Panadol is not.

Tylenol is perhaps what was meant instead of Aspirin.

No I meant it exactly as I wrote it, without any judgement. Aspirin is just used as a generic term for painkiller by a lot of people, and until like 10-20y ago it was also the most common thing. I'd say most people are migrating to Ibuprofen these days for stuff like "I have a headache that's not killing me" but people still say Aspirin, usually followed up by a question if whatever is available is ok...

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#62

Post by OJFord »

dagw wrote: post #20
gattilorenz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Provolone seems to be a fairly 'American' cheese. It's definitely quite common in Italy (together with the smaller "provola"), but not so much in other EU countries. > I've also noticed that at least some cheese sold as "Provolone" in the US isn't actually from Italy This doesn't surprise me... I hear that there is also plenty of "Parmesan-like" cheese sold in US supermarkets too (not sure how good or bad it resemb…

"Muenster" Cheese in the US is another one that surprises people. Tastes nothing like real "Munster" cheese from Alsace. Which is making me wonder if Provolone in the US tastes anything like Provolone in Italy.

Cheddar isn't PDO even in the UK, but I'm (unusually I think for me/other views) all for more of it - otherwise you get this: https://www.qisofreshtohome.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/K...

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#64

Post by tagoregrtst »

elevaet wrote: post #4

I was surprised that 'kebob' isn't a well-known word in the UK. I believe it's a 'kebab' in the UK, which seems so close. As a Canadian I was disappointed to find my familiarities sided more on the US side than the UK. Now excuse me as I go look up 'gazump' ...

Why were you surprised? Aside from the government mandated minimum CND content the majority of media Canadians consume is American.

Then consider that that, percent wise, the number of English speaking Canadians in Hollywood are over represented wrt non California (again, English speaking) North Americans.

Then the family mixing between Canadians and Americans is huge. Most famously the families of the draft dodgers, but Im always surprised by the number of Americans who tell me they had a Canadian grandparent.

Finally, like my uncle (who also lived in and travelled extensively in the USA and CND) told me when I first arrived to the US from Canada: there’s a larger difference crossing North America East-West than there is North-South. Look at MN. They sound like they’re from Thunder Bay.

In short; Canadians help make US media, Canadians consume US media, Canadians are intermarried w/ Americans and demographically its as hard to distinguish an urban Canadian (Vancouver, GTA) from an urban American (Seattle, Jersey) as it is to distinguish a flyover Canadian from a flyover American.

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#65

Post by [deleted] »

wink wrote: post #61
rascul wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tylenol is perhaps what was meant instead of Aspirin.

No I meant it exactly as I wrote it, without any judgement. Aspirin is just used as a generic term for painkiller by a lot of people, and until like 10-20y ago it was also the most common thing. I'd say most people are migrating to Ibuprofen these days for stuff like "I have a headache that's not killing me" but people still say Aspirin, usually followed up by a question if whatever is available is ok...

[deleted]

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#66

Post by [deleted] »

wink wrote: post #61
rascul wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tylenol is perhaps what was meant instead of Aspirin.

No I meant it exactly as I wrote it, without any judgement. Aspirin is just used as a generic term for painkiller by a lot of people, and until like 10-20y ago it was also the most common thing. I'd say most people are migrating to Ibuprofen these days for stuff like "I have a headache that's not killing me" but people still say Aspirin, usually followed up by a question if whatever is available is ok...

[deleted]

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#67

Post by rascul »

wink wrote: post #61
rascul wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tylenol is perhaps what was meant instead of Aspirin.

No I meant it exactly as I wrote it, without any judgement. Aspirin is just used as a generic term for painkiller by a lot of people, and until like 10-20y ago it was also the most common thing. I'd say most people are migrating to Ibuprofen these days for stuff like "I have a headache that's not killing me" but people still say Aspirin, usually followed up by a question if whatever is available is ok...

In the US, Tylenol is the term commonly used instead of acetaminophen (Tylenol has been a major brand name for acetaminophen for many decades and is quite prevalent) and I thought perhaps you had Aspirin and Tylenol mixed up. I've never actually heard someone refer to Tylenol as Aspirin, and I've never heard of Aspirin being a generic term for painkiller, so I attempted to come up with what I had thought might be a more plausible explanation based on my experiences.

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#68

Post by HKH2 »

wink wrote: post #61
rascul wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tylenol is perhaps what was meant instead of Aspirin.

No I meant it exactly as I wrote it, without any judgement. Aspirin is just used as a generic term for painkiller by a lot of people, and until like 10-20y ago it was also the most common thing. I'd say most people are migrating to Ibuprofen these days for stuff like "I have a headache that's not killing me" but people still say Aspirin, usually followed up by a question if whatever is available is ok...

Sorry I read your post kind of annoyed that people were conflating two different painkillers and didn't read the last sentence properly.

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#69

Post by HKH2 »

rascul wrote: post #67
wink wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I meant it exactly as I wrote it, without any judgement. Aspirin is just used as a generic term for painkiller by a lot of people, and until like 10-20y ago it was also the most common thing. I'd say most people are migrating to Ibuprofen these days for stuff like "I have a headache that's not killing me" but people still say Aspirin, usually followed up by a question if whatever is available is ok...

In the US, Tylenol is the term commonly used instead of acetaminophen (Tylenol has been a major brand name for acetaminophen for many decades and is quite prevalent) and I thought perhaps you had Aspirin and Tylenol mixed up. I've never actually heard someone refer to Tylenol as Aspirin, and I've never heard of Aspirin being a generic term for painkiller, so I attempted to come up with what I had thought might be a m…

Yeah as an Australian it seems bizarre to me too.

Re: Words known better in the US than in the UK, and vice versa

#70

Post by wink »

HKH2 wrote: post #69
rascul wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, Tylenol is the term commonly used instead of acetaminophen (Tylenol has been a major brand name for acetaminophen for many decades and is quite prevalent) and I thought perhaps you had Aspirin and Tylenol mixed up. I've never actually heard someone refer to Tylenol as Aspirin, and I've never heard of Aspirin being a generic term for painkiller, so I attempted to come up with what I had thought might be a m…

Yeah as an Australian it seems bizarre to me too.

I guess it's just very localized for some meds.

Took a while until I grasped what Sudafed is because afaik it's not even on the market here and never has been. There was some sort of Pseudoephedrin pill I actually took against hayfever a while ago, but not the standard "clogged nose because cold thing" (please excuse if I described Sudafed poorly, but see above) :)

Post reply on HN