|
Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: Is English really swimming both ways?
|
|
|
Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
|
Posted
Bubbler is a new one on me. Drinking fountains, water fountains (And we still have them in schools. Kids use them to fill up their water bottles).
On the subject of water, carbonated water. I used to call it club soda, but have discovered that soda water works just as well and is understood worldwide. Except in the US of A.
--------------------
Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
I don't know where you get to in the USA, Pete. Here if I ask for soda water at a restaurant they know exactly what I mean.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
|
Posted
quote:
mousethief: I don't know where you get to in the USA, Pete. Here if I ask for soda water at a restaurant they know exactly what I mean.
Maybe PeteC could point out where he went in the USA on this map.
--------------------
I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
I think it might have flown Southwest to LAX.
Interesting. Didn't try talking about 'bubblers' down in southern California...
I did have a lot of fun with my friends and their extended family, though, occasionally mystifying them with my speech patterns. The best one was when I said something about a 'power point'. I think I should have said 'outlet'. Clearly they wondered why on earth I was talking about Microsoft software.
The other gem was my friend's excited adoption of the term 'witch's hats'. Previously she had called those cones used to mark roadworks 'orange pylons', which I found utterly bizarre (orange, yes, but pylons?!?). She decided that 'witch's hats' was far more evocative. Don't know if she stuck with it. There could be a small patch of southern California where that term has really caught on!
--------------------
Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
They do look like witches' hats! We call them "traffic cones." "Pylon" seems a bit overstated.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
The best one was when I said something about a 'power point'. I think I should have said 'outlet'. Clearly they wondered why on earth I was talking about Microsoft software.
Now that would be a (plug) socket where I come from.
--------------------
Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
AIUI a bubbler is a drinking fountain where the water goes straight up and then falls back down; it's a specific type of drinking fountain.
What other type of drinking fountain is there? One where the water goes up, and doesn't come back down?
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
--------------------
Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Latchkey Kid
Shipmate
# 12444
|
Posted
Where it doesn't go straight up. If you get the angle.
--------------------
'You must never give way for an answer. An answer is always the stretch of road that's behind you. Only a question can point the way forward.'
Mika; in Hello? Is Anybody There?, Jostein Gaardner
Posts: 2592 | From: The wizardest little town in Oz | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:
mousethief: I don't know where you get to in the USA, Pete. Here if I ask for soda water at a restaurant they know exactly what I mean.
Maybe PeteC could point out where he went in the USA on this map.
It is awkward to pinpoint - I was on an US airline between Ottawa and Charlotte (forget state, but big naval base) for a library conference. Layover in Philadelphia. They called it seltzer water. I tried various other permutations, but we finally clicked on carbonated water.
eta - this was over 20 years ago.
[ 11. October 2012, 20:49: Message edited by: PeteC ]
--------------------
Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mama Thomas
Shipmate
# 10170
|
Posted
Now, is "spot on" an idiom of British origin? I heard a fundy type preacher with a Texas drawl use it today.
--------------------
All hearts are open, all desires known
Posts: 3742 | From: Somewhere far away | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
Maybe PeteC could point out where he went in the USA on this map.
Strange the change of usage at the Arizona/New Mexico border. I'd have expected consistent use within the Navajo Nation.
--------------------
Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
|
Posted
I think the most vivid "idiom problem" I've ever heard about it is something that wouldn't be a problem nowadays, because it had to do with the 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch disks we used to use for computer files.
In Australia, both kinds would be called a "floppy disk".
Now, over in South Africa, they not unreasonably observed that when 3.5-inch disks came along, they weren't actually 'floppy' like the 5.25-inch ones. So they called the new kind of disk a 'stiffy'.
Unfortunately, here in Australia a 'stiffy' is a term for a male's genitalia demonstrating his arousal... So needless to say, in the story I heard, when a new male South African employee asked a female office assistant about getting him a stiffy, it did NOT go down well...
--------------------
Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
They do look like witches' hats! We call them "traffic cones." "Pylon" seems a bit overstated.
We call them bollards if we're being formal. Otherwise witches' hats, and I may have heard traffic cones too.
One appeared on top of a very tall pine tree near here – not sure whether it's been brought down yet, let alone how it got up there.
I recall being told that 'half five' meant 5.30 in the south and 4.30 in Scotland – or vice versa. Any info on that?
I thought galoshes had ceased to be worn – here anyway. And we don't have wellies, we have gumboots.
We heard a newsreader recently advising motorists to take an alternate (should have been alternative, of course) 'rowt' because of road works. On the other hand, we do call our internet connector a 'rowter' and haven't heard it called 'rooter'.
How far has the word 'shout' meaning to treat travelled? Back in the day (or I would say 'Back in the days when I was doing my OE')it was understood that if a Kiwi in an English pub said 'I'll shout' people expected a bellow unless that they knew it meant the friendly fellow was going to pay for a round. Some time later it was noticed in English TV shows as a regular expression.
GG
--------------------
The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
Maybe PeteC could point out where he went in the USA on this map.
Strange the change of usage at the Arizona/New Mexico border. I'd have expected consistent use within the Navajo Nation.
Maybe the Dine word for soda/pop/coke threw them and they decided to stick with English answers. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
--------------------
"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:
Where it doesn't go straight up. If you get the angle.
Both of the ones on the right hand side of the Wikipedia page are angled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbler
--------------------
Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
I recall being told that 'half five' meant 5.30 in the south and 4.30 in Scotland – or vice versa. Any info on that?
News to me: I've lived in all four countries of Britain and never heard half five used to mean anything other than the mid point between five and six o'clock.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
bib
Shipmate
# 13074
|
Posted
I tried to order fruit salad in USA to follow my dinner, only to find that I should have ordered fruit cocktail to eat before my dinner. Also, I found that the entree is the main course in USA whereas it precedes the main course where I live. All very confusing for the traaveller.
--------------------
"My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring"
Posts: 1307 | From: Australia | Registered: Oct 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by bib:
I tried to order fruit salad in USA to follow my dinner, only to find that I should have ordered fruit cocktail to eat before my dinner.
Wha..????
--------------------
Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Unfortunately, here in Australia a 'stiffy' is a term for a male's genitalia demonstrating his arousal... So needless to say, in the story I heard, when a new male South African employee asked a female office assistant about getting him a stiffy, it did NOT go down well...
There is, or was, a similar misunderstanding between Ozzies and Brits about Durex. There it means adhesive tape (what we would call sellotape); here it means contraceptive.
--------------------
Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Taliesin
Shipmate
# 14017
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mama Thomas:
Now, is "spot on" an idiom of British origin? I heard a fundy type preacher with a Texas drawl use it today.
I think so, I would have said, definitely, spot on.. but as a result of this thread I'm no longer so sure of where anything came from!
Posts: 2138 | From: South, UK | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Chapelhead
I am
# 21
|
Posted
Further to the subject of wellies, there is another significant (in the UK at least) colour that hasn't been mentioned. Yellow wellies are traditionally associated with the yachty and boaty types, and has connotations of poshness (because the well-heeled are more likely to own substantial boats). Consequently yellow welly imagery gets used by organisations such as the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a largely volunteer-based charity which runs lifeboats and search-and-rescue services) and "the yellow welly brigade" shorthand for the boating community (especially on the south coast of England).
On the subject of matters nautical, although there may be considerable exchange of pronunciation (especially where picked up from TV or movies), one UK/USA difference I can't imagine changing is "buoy". I believe in the USA this is pronounced "boo-ee", which to this Briton just sounds weird. In the UK it is pronounced the same as "boy" (or the first syllable of "buoyant", which I think has pretty much the same pronunciation both sides of the pond).
--------------------
At times like this I find myself thinking, what would the Amish do?
Posts: 9123 | From: Near where I was before. | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
|
Posted
The New York Times must have been following our discussion -- they've just published an article, Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms.
--------------------
"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
|
Posted
Americans, according to the above, quote:
absorb the Queen’s English through televised imports like “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares”
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
[ 12. October 2012, 13:39: Message edited by: Angloid ]
--------------------
Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
The New York Times must have been following our discussion -- they've just published an article, Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms.
Boy is he a derisive little snob or what? There is no good reason for an American to say "cheers" or "fortnight" -- it must be because you are pretentious or lazy or stupid or a puppy-kicker. What an arse. Sorry, ass.
--------------------
This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
|
Posted
Tally ho? You'd get odd looks using that over here in most contexts - it's from hunting which has never been a particularly mass market sport.
--------------------
Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
The New York Times must have been following our discussion -- they've just published an article, Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms.
Boy is he a derisive little snob or what? There is no good reason for an American to say "cheers" or "fortnight" -- it must be because you are pretentious or lazy or stupid or a puppy-kicker. What an arse. Sorry, ass.
Perhaps we should all learn a bit of Xhosa and observe his reaction...
--------------------
I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Fr Weber
Shipmate
# 13472
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
I think the most vivid "idiom problem" I've ever heard about it is something that wouldn't be a problem nowadays, because it had to do with the 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch disks we used to use for computer files.
In Australia, both kinds would be called a "floppy disk".
Now, over in South Africa, they not unreasonably observed that when 3.5-inch disks came along, they weren't actually 'floppy' like the 5.25-inch ones. So they called the new kind of disk a 'stiffy'.
Unfortunately, here in Australia a 'stiffy' is a term for a male's genitalia demonstrating his arousal... So needless to say, in the story I heard, when a new male South African employee asked a female office assistant about getting him a stiffy, it did NOT go down well...
Now *that's* what I call a boner.
--------------------
"The Eucharist is not a play, and you're not Jesus."
--Sr Theresa Koernke, IHM
Posts: 2512 | From: Oakland, CA | Registered: Feb 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
|
Posted
See, I had NO idea that "fortnight" wasn't universal!
Whereas some of the others I recognise as Britishms, precisely because they didn't travel to Australia.
--------------------
Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
|
Posted
A few years back I was teaching some German students, and they asked me to explain where "fortnight" came from. Having never thought about it, I did my best, and could come up with nothing better than a fortified / strengthened / extra long night. Later I asked colleagues in the English department, who looked at me pityingly, and pointed out it was a contraction of fourteen nights!
--------------------
Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
|
Posted
In old novels I have also come across sennight, meaning a week.
Moo
--------------------
Kerygmania host
---------------------
See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Chapelhead
I am
# 21
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Now, over in South Africa, they not unreasonably observed that when 3.5-inch disks came along, they weren't actually 'floppy' like the 5.25-inch ones. So they called the new kind of disk a 'stiffy'.
Unfortunately, here in Australia a 'stiffy' is a term for a male's genitalia demonstrating his arousal... So needless to say, in the story I heard, when a new male South African employee asked a female office assistant about getting him a stiffy, it did NOT go down well...
As well as the 'male genitalia' meaning, in the UK 'stiffy' is also a slang term (although not widely used) for an invitation to a formal, usually posh, event - so called because the invitations are sent on stiff card.
It is a common, but unfortunate, sign of vanity to display a stiffy on the mantelpiece.
--------------------
At times like this I find myself thinking, what would the Amish do?
Posts: 9123 | From: Near where I was before. | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
It is a common, but unfortunate, sign of vanity to display a stiffy on the mantelpiece.
Especially using the previous definition!
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
--------------------
"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cod
Shipmate
# 2643
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by BessHiggs:
On the topic of British, or British sounding, accents: My business partner is from NZ, and while his accent has become very americanized, he still sounds foreign and apparently very sexy to the local female population. It's like catnip. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Or "kitnup" as people here pronounce it.
--------------------
"I fart in your general direction."
M Barnier
Posts: 4229 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Printer-friendly view
