As an American, I still get hung up when hearing about a government "scheme" [0] in Britain without any negative connotation whatsoever.
The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
81–90 of 255 posts
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#82Brilliant!
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#83> Children who in the US would be deemed “smart” or “bright” or “gifted” are called clever in the UK.
It's interesting the way that words sometimes seem to have nuance that doesn't seem to be strictly within the definition.
For no reason I can remotely explain, I'd divide these into clever/bright and smart/gifted.
I've met several autists that I would readily describe as smart or even gifted, but I wouldn't describe as clever or bright.
(Although the distinction might just be that I'm an arsehole.)
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#84I once was talking wit some british people whilst in california and said "oh you can throw that garbage in the trash". They laughed and said it sounded really coarse, what did you do with it after? "It goes into a truck which takes it to the dump. Why, what do you say?" "We say you put your rubbish in the bin and the lorry takes it to the tip" which did sound more pleasant.
That reminds me of a phrase I've seen on signs in both the UK and in Aus/NZ (IIRC): "No fly tipping".
I'm not sure if this is actually correct usage in those countries, or slang, but it certainly feels much more like slang, and felt virtually impenetrable, even to someone who's been exposed to a fair but of UK-isms in his life.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.)
Yeah, but in a ski town I could see making the same mistake.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#86How about the spelling of the word aluminium?
Fascinating story behind the origins of the naming of that element. Davey, the British scientist who first isolated it, originally suggested it be called alumium. Somewhat ironically, he referred to it as aluminum in his papers, while it was a Swede writing in a French journal that spelled it aluminium.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#87As an American patriot who mists up when I hear The Star-Spangled Banner...
UK slang, like their humor, is just objectively better.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
On top of Outback Steakhouse’s (fake-Australian U.S. restaurant chain) old tag line: “no worries, just right.”
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#89For many people of my rough age and hobbies (cars/motorsport), Top Gear and other British motoring shows and podcasts have had a massive impact. We had virtually nothing good in the way of TV shows about cars in the 90s/2000s, which meant that anyone watching World Rally Championship and F1 were downloading clips or torrents of them. That, in turn, led straight into finalgear.com in the mid 2000s, before the BBC finally had the sense to bring Top Gear to BBC America, which led to another huge uptick in popularity.
Re: The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
#90The 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.
I like using it to say something is a waste of time or too much trouble; it’s a faff…