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The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

theguardian.com

31–40 of 255 posts

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#31

As an Aussie I get a kick out of seeing Australianisms get picked up in the global vernacular. No worries seems to be increasing common outside of Australia, and cooked (to describe something that's fucked up) also seems to be prolific on social media these days.

It's not occurred to me in ages that "no worries" could be Aussie in origin, thought it was just a degradation of "don't worry about it" here in Canada, or picked up from the Lion King, but we do have a ton of aussies here, at least on the West Coast, so it seems plausible enough. I guess we just don't add "mate" as commonly.

I would guess it was popularised by "Crocodile Dundee" in the 80s, so that's long enough to feel native to a lot of people.

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#32
post #14

The article starts off with "run-up." What's the origin of that? I have heard of run-up in cricket.

As an Aussie cricket comes to mind, you run-up from a standing start before releasing the ball.

I think equivalent for US would be "Wind-up" (at least I think pitchers in Baseball performs a wind-up before releasing the ball)

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#33

iunno, the last time I asked if I could bum a fag, it was made very clear to me that UK lingo has NOT conquered the US

Same when I asked my neighbor to “knock me up in the morning.” That was a very weird morning…

> It was early in April in the year ’83 that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed. “Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,” said he, “but it’s the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.”

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same when I asked my neighbor to “knock me up in the morning.” That was a very weird morning…

> It was early in April in the year ’83 that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed. “Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,” said he, “but it’s the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.”

[deleted]

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#35
post #27

Having grown up in the US with what I would consider a higher than average exposure to the early 2000s internet, at least compared to other peers my age, much of my ability to read and write actually came directly from social media, instant messengers and online games rather than books. This meant I often found myself struggling with spelling errors in English class which sadly resulted in deducted points from my ess…

> Unfortunately my teachers were a little unreasonable about this and would still deduct points when I pointed this out...

I can see the teacher's perspective here. I don't think it's unreasonable for teachers to mark this down, though I don't think your request to get back the points was unreasonable either.

Communicating effectively with your particular audience (the local American audience one in this case) is arguably a skill they're trying to teach you. Using language constructs that are unnatural for your audience can distract them and disrupt their flow. You don't want your reader to see "enrol" and spend the next 5-10 seconds pondering if you're illiterate or unable to run a spellchecker instead of spending that time digesting your actual point. This friction gets in the way of your point, thus ultimately hurting your own cause in addition to wasting their time. So when you keep doing that on your assignments and exams, you're effectively showing that you haven't mastered this skill -- and so it's not unreasonable for your grade to reflect that.

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#36

As an Aussie I get a kick out of seeing Australianisms get picked up in the global vernacular. No worries seems to be increasing common outside of Australia, and cooked (to describe something that's fucked up) also seems to be prolific on social media these days.

For real life?

(Bluey. The single greatest contribution to exporting Australian culture.)

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#37
post #27

Having grown up in the US with what I would consider a higher than average exposure to the early 2000s internet, at least compared to other peers my age, much of my ability to read and write actually came directly from social media, instant messengers and online games rather than books. This meant I often found myself struggling with spelling errors in English class which sadly resulted in deducted points from my ess…

> Unfortunately my teachers were a little unreasonable about this and would still deduct points when I pointed this out... I can see the teacher's perspective here. I don't think it's unreasonable for teachers to mark this down, though I don't think your request to get back the points was unreasonable either. Communicating effectively with your particular audience (the local American audience one in this case) is arg…

its also entirely inconsequential after school, so do your job and follow the district mandates

but for the rest of us, the point of language is to convey a shared concept, and if the sender and receiver are doing that then mission accomplished

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#38

How curious! (I feel that I've observed the Britishization of the word "curious" in my lifetime. As a child, it meant only interested, intrigued. Now it also means strange or bizarre.)

The meaning of strange-comedic-unusual-interested is... curiously... conflated in several languages (even being a false friend in some to others).

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same when I asked my neighbor to “knock me up in the morning.” That was a very weird morning…

> It was early in April in the year ’83 that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed. “Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,” said he, “but it’s the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.”

See also: "ejaculation" used to be synonymous with "exclamation" and it's used heavily all across the Sherlock stories eg

"The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had framed himself in the aperture."

For a list see https://thetaleofsirbob.blogspot.com/2013/07/watson-and-othe...

If you mentally insert some commas some of them are really funny.

Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US

#40

As an Aussie I get a kick out of seeing Australianisms get picked up in the global vernacular. No worries seems to be increasing common outside of Australia, and cooked (to describe something that's fucked up) also seems to be prolific on social media these days.

Juice Media's "honest government ads" are a goldmine for Aussie-speak, "colossal shitfuckery" so perfectly nails the dank machinations of Australian tech and politics.
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