The article didn't mention what is by far my favorite British lingo: "faffing about". It's just so damn useful! I know that there are other phrases which work, but for whatever reason none of them really hit for me like "faffing about" does.
The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
71–80 of 255 posts
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#72Am I going insane? I've seen this posted before in the last week and some of the comments here are identical to the comments from last time. In fact algolia search shows this was first posted 3 days ago: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
I read this exact reply N days ago... okay exact is stretching it but you get the point ;)
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#73Brit living in the US here. Despite being here 7 years now i'll every so often have an American point out how odd something I say is. Recently it was me saying "I'll need to head home and get my swimming costume before heading to the pool". To which the response was "wow wow wow, "swimming costume"? Really? A costume. Not a uniform but a costume; something you wear for halloween? OMG that's adorable" Turns out Americ…
On holiday in Whistler back in 2019, I had a brief conversation with an Englishman in the hotel elevator.
A few days later, he recognizes me outside the hotel but I am noticeably slow to recognize back and he mentions "we chatted on the lift". I fake remembering while desperately searching my memory for the event of riding the chairlift with this English guy.
An hour later I remember that in the UK, "lift" == "elevator". Me, being North American and having spent plenty of time in ski towns, always associates "lift" with "chairlift".
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#74Am I going insane? I've seen this posted before in the last week and some of the comments here are identical to the comments from last time. In fact algolia search shows this was first posted 3 days ago: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Yeah, the reply about the garbage lorry is word for word, isn't it? Did this get a second chance and it moved all the other comments with it, or...?
>Did this get a second chance and it moved all the other comments with it, or...?
Probably. When that happens the comments don't get moved, their timestamps get adjusted to match the repost timestamp.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
A better example for why regionality matters: what does "pants" refer to?
That's what a tired dog does.
No, they only pant.
-----------------
OK, at this point I really need to explain what on earth is going on here:
"what does "pants" refer to?" - pants refers to trousers and pants refers to underpants and of course pants refers to pants as a noun. Pants also refers to heavy breathing as a verb.
I have absolutely no idea how we ended up with this situation, where pant(s) is a noun and a verb and really odd. I'm going to blame Britain, US and Italy (via Latin) and not necessarily in that order.
"A dog pants when they are hot but they only pant when they are hot."
Note how I end up slapping an extra s in for no apparent reason - actually, it is when I don't put a verb in front of that word. So: "a dog will pant" ... "a dog pants". The extra s on the word seems to make it a verballish thing.
On the bright side this is why phishing emails always look a bit wank.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#76Am I going insane? I've seen this posted before in the last week and some of the comments here are identical to the comments from last time. In fact algolia search shows this was first posted 3 days ago: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Clicking the link to the comments on that post takes you to this comment section, so I think there's some by-hand deduping/merging going on
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#77Brit living in the US here. Despite being here 7 years now i'll every so often have an American point out how odd something I say is. Recently it was me saying "I'll need to head home and get my swimming costume before heading to the pool". To which the response was "wow wow wow, "swimming costume"? Really? A costume. Not a uniform but a costume; something you wear for halloween? OMG that's adorable" Turns out Americ…
Turns out they actually say swim suit ;)
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#78Brit living in the US here. Despite being here 7 years now i'll every so often have an American point out how odd something I say is. Recently it was me saying "I'll need to head home and get my swimming costume before heading to the pool". To which the response was "wow wow wow, "swimming costume"? Really? A costume. Not a uniform but a costume; something you wear for halloween? OMG that's adorable" Turns out Americ…
I'm not sure about other Americans, but I'll sometimes say "swim[ming] trunks" if I'm specifically referring to male swimming attire. Otherwise, yeah, it's often "swim[ming] suit" or "bathing suit" here.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#79Brit living in the US here. Despite being here 7 years now i'll every so often have an American point out how odd something I say is. Recently it was me saying "I'll need to head home and get my swimming costume before heading to the pool". To which the response was "wow wow wow, "swimming costume"? Really? A costume. Not a uniform but a costume; something you wear for halloween? OMG that's adorable" Turns out Americ…
I’ve lived in Australia for nearly 15 years and still say “swimming costume” - the locals ridicule me and call me for posh for not saying “bathers”.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#80Brit living in the US here. Despite being here 7 years now i'll every so often have an American point out how odd something I say is. Recently it was me saying "I'll need to head home and get my swimming costume before heading to the pool". To which the response was "wow wow wow, "swimming costume"? Really? A costume. Not a uniform but a costume; something you wear for halloween? OMG that's adorable" Turns out Americ…
On holiday in Whistler back in 2019, I had a brief conversation with an Englishman in the hotel elevator. A few days later, he recognizes me outside the hotel but I am noticeably slow to recognize back and he mentions "we chatted on the lift". I fake remembering while desperately searching my memory for the event of riding the chairlift with this English guy. An hour later I remember that in the UK, "lift" == "elevat…
Hah! But if you say “on holiday,” I would have expected you to know “lift.”
(or is there a region in the US where this is common? Everyone I know would say “on vacation,” but the US is very regional.)