Britishisms used in American English

[Laura Corin]

Do you come across these?

 

Laura

[posybuddy]

Do you come across these?

 

Laura

 

We use some of these (wonky, queue, flat), but I mostly attribute that to our love of Harry Potter, Top Gear, Sherlock and Dr. Who. ;) I've always used the word "autumn" interchangeably with "fall", I'm not sure that's terribly uncommon.

 

Interesting!

[stripe]

A few, such as "roundabout" (which is what city planners and the signs call these things), wonky, and gap year. I like "sussed" and "gobsmacked" the best of all the words on the list. I never realized "autumn" was more British, but I don't hear many people say it. It sounds prettier, I think. As does "bum," but I have heard only a few people say this from time to time. Words like "frock" and "knickers" sound old fashioned amd not very fashionable to me, so I wouldn't use them.

 

I find using words like "flat" to be obnoxious.

 

To me, words like "cheers" and "queue" remind me more of French than British people. I used to hear a lot of French people saying "salut!"

 

Now, the next British thing I want to investigate is flapjacks. I keep seeing recipes for them, but a flapjack in American English is a pancake, so I think I need to try these.

[Laura Corin]

We use some of these (wonky, queue, flat), but I mostly attribute that to our love of Harry Potter, Top Gear, Sherlock and Dr. Who. ;) I've always used the word "autumn" interchangeably with "fall", I'm not sure that's terribly uncommon.

 

Interesting!

 

Were 'Fall' and 'Autumn' used interchangeably in Britain before America was colonised? Or is 'Fall' a later coinage?

 

Laura

[Bassoonaroo]

We use twit all the time at home: "DD you are being a twit in how you are talking to your brother."

 

And cheeky.

 

And gap year.

 

And loo. I went to a summer camp in Arizona once that referred to the outhouses as "loos" and it stuck somewhat.

 

Sometimes (thanks to CS Lewis) I might ask a DC to hoover the carpet.

 

Also, some Brit terms we use now and then are:

 

poorly (not feeling well, "Sally is poorly today.")

 

in a snit (worked up over someone)

[Laura Corin]

A few, such as "roundabout" (which is what city planners and the signs call these things), wonky, and gap year. I like "sussed" and "gobsmacked" the best of all the words on the list. I never realized "autumn" was more British, but I don't hear many people say it. It sounds prettier, I think. As does "bum," but I have heard only a few people say this from time to time. Words like "frock" and "knickers" sound old fashioned amd not very fashionable to me, so I wouldn't use them.

 

I find using words like "flat" to be obnoxious.

 

To me, words like "cheers" and "queue" remind me more of French than British people. I used to hear a lot of French people saying "salut!"

 

Now, the next British thing I want to investigate is flapjacks. I keep seeing recipes for them, but a flapjack in American English is a pancake, so I think I need to try these.

 

It's classically just made of oats, butter and syrup. It tends to be soft rather than crisp.

 

Beware of the word 'bum'. It's not very rude, but I was taught to say 'bottom' instead as being more polite.

 

Laura

[stripe]

It's classically just made of oats, butter and syrup. It tends to be soft rather than crisp.

 

Beware of the word 'bum'. It's not very rude, but I was taught to say 'bottom' instead as being more polite.

 

Laura

 

I grew up hearing Canadians saying "bum," and to me, it sounds much more polite than "butt." (I say neither.) Frankly I think most Americans would consider all of these polite, because what's now all the rage is "ass."

 

I have several British baking books, and these photos of flapjacks are looking tasty!

[Heather in Neverland]

I used almost none of them until I moved here. Since Malaysia was controlled by the British and this island is full of British expats, I have found myself saying:

 

Bum

Cheeky

Holiday

Queue

Wonky

 

Other words not included in that article that have wandered into my vocabulary that I am fairly sure are British:

 

Lift

Trolley

Lorry

 

 

.

[Parrothead]

I was surprised that "brilliant" wasn't on the list.

[elegantlion]

I use a lot of them, a few I had not heard. Many of them are due to British TV and movies, not any direct interaction with real Brits. Although I do generally read in an English accent (which would probably embarrass real English people). I also cling to my British heritage a little more than other nationalities - even though most of my family has been in America since before it was a country.

[UnsinkableKristen]

I've heard many of those words all my life and none of my family are British. Some of the words (particularly cheeky/twit/wonky/autumn/gobsmacked/muppet) I don't even think of as bring British at all.

 

That said, I have heard many more British type words lately. I would assume it's because of the growing popularity of BBC programming here and of a more connected world in general.

 

Although my favorite phrase I've heard is "A right stropping cow" that I would love to use if I didn't know it was rude :)

Edited October 18, 2012 by UnsinkableKristen

[Heather in Neverland]

I grew up hearing Canadians saying "bum," and to me, it sounds much more polite than "butt." !

 

:iagree:

 

Americans would find bum to be a polite way of saying butt. We would use bum and bottom interchangeably.

[posybuddy]

Were 'Fall' and 'Autumn' used interchangeably in Britain before America was colonised? Or is 'Fall' a later coinage?

 

Laura

 

Hmmm... I don't know the etymology myself, but the internets say:

 

fall (n.) c.1200, "a falling;" see fall (n.). O.E. noun form, fealle, meant "snare, trap." Sense of "autumn" (now only in U.S.) is 1660s, short for fall of the leaf (1540s). That of "cascade, waterfall" is from 1570s. Wrestling sense is from 1550s. Of a city under siege, etc., 1580s. Fall guy is from 1906.

and:

 

The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".

 

So it would seem that interchangeable use came into usage in Britain sometime in the 16th-17th century, right about the time of American colonization. Are the terms used interchangeably now? Or is "autumn" used exclusively?

[KAR120C]

Some of them I think I've always heard and used.... autumn, proper, cheers, pop over, sussed, twit, and wonky...

 

Some I'm hearing more, like roundabout (although I have to admit we didn't actually *have* roundabouts until recently... lol), some of them I hear only from the set that thinks it makes them sound cool (but teeter precariously between Michael Caine and Austin Powers.. lol), and some I've never heard at all. I only ever hear "knickers" when they're "in a twist" and not in any other context.

[MeaganS]

Well, we use autumn, roundabout, bum, gap year, and cheeky on regular basis and don't consider them weird in their use. Some of the others such as flat, or queue, and several others we use but know that they sound British. We also watch a lot of British television, so that may have something to do with it.

 

ETA: The only ones I've never really heard used are muppet (in that context), chav, kit, numpty, and skint.

[Lizzie in Ma]

As diehard Dr. Who fans, yup, we use a lot of Britishisms around here. :D

[nukeswife]

to me round about and my use of it has nothing to do with british influence. It has to do with the fact that they were everywhere when I lived in Rhode Island and now where my mom is they are putting them in everywhere in an attempt to cut down the costs spent to run traffic lights.

 

I've also always used autumn and fall interchangeably and never viewed that as british.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Oh, yes. We're all avid BBC watchers and major Harry Potter fans, so we say many of those things on a regular basis. We also say "Brilliant" (in a Ron Weasley accent) quite regularly. Another British thing we frequently say is "bits", as in "Will you remove those manky bits from the fridge?" or "Don't look at my wobbly bits (like Bridget Jones says to Colin Firth)".

[Desert Rat]

My grandmother is British. I grew up with lots of these words and have always used them. I do say bloody (and worse, bleedin') quite a bit. It was my go-to swear when my boys were little. And we use quite a few other British swears/low-brow words around here. I also use buggy for shopping cart. Flat, queue, twit are common here as well. I think twit came to us via Roald Dahl though.

[Kathryn]

I'd say I use regularly about 30%, have heard used and know another 60%, and am unfamiliar with about 10%.

[Lisa in Jax]

Do you come across these?

 

Laura

 

We use a few -- twit, wonky and roundabout, for example, but the rest aren't words I've heard often. One exception is "bloody," which ds learned from Harry Potter. I had to explain that it's not a polite word (especially the way he was using it!) so I haven't heard it in awhile.

 

I've been to England, Scotland and Ireland (and adopted two kids from India, whose limited English included quintessentially British English words like "frock" and "ta-ta,") but I've never heard "chav" or "numpty" here or in UK. ;)

 

Lisa

[mlbuchina]

My grandmother is British. I grew up with lots of these words and have always used them. I do say bloody (and worse, bleedin') quite a bit. It was my go-to swear when my boys were little. And we use quite a few other British swears/low-brow words around here. I also use buggy for shopping cart. Flat, queue, twit are common here as well. I think twit came to us via Roald Dahl though.

 

I always thought the buggy/shopping cart was a North/South thing. LOL I've always heard it called a buggy.

 

:iagree:

 

Americans would find bum to be a polite way of saying butt. We would use bum and bottom interchangeably.

 

My kids call bottoms bums after watching Nanny McPhee. I definitely think it sounds much more polite than butt.

 

We started getting roundabouts here, but they didn't call them that. They call them traffic circles. Ugh. I refuse. They are roundabouts.

 

I had no idea that Autumn, wonky, twit, row, or queue were Britishisms.

 

ETA: I clicked the link to the original story at the top of the article, and saw "sell-by date". I am thinking that the usage of that would tell you if it were a Britishism or not. The grocery stores here use both "sell-by date" and "expiration date", but they don't mean the same thing. "Sell-by date" is just the day the item must sell by before the store puts a cheaper price on it as it is getting close to going bad, not the date that it would be considered to be spoiled and needed to be thrown away. That is the "expiration date".

Edited October 18, 2012 by mlbuchina

[CalicoKat]

We're going to start saying Loo and loo-roll. :D

 

And muppet. What a great visual.

[Mabelen]

I lived in the UK for 12 years before moving to the US and many of my English as a foreign language teachers were British so I have gone through the reverse process. I had to train myself not to use Britishms!

 

The funny thing is I knew from the get go some of them were British usage only, but others I was unaware until someone would point it out.

 

The only two terms I have never used are chav and numpty. I have heard of chavs via Spanish expats living in the UK though!

[Jean in Newcastle]

A number of them are words that I've used for years and never knew were considered "British". I just considered them English - as in the language we speak in both the US and Britain. Autumn, cheeky, fancy, gap year, holiday (which has a little bit of a different connotation to me than just a vacation), and row are in that category.

 

I used gobsmacked as well. I picked that up from an Australian children's t.v. show. Other slang Britishisms I use on occasion as a joke or when I'm playing around with language.

[Cinder]

My mom has been using "bloody" for over 30 years and we're not British. We're from Hawaii, though, where we use a few words that are more British than USA-ish. When I went to college I got teased mercilessly for saying "rubbish" instead of "trash." There were several others, I just can't remember them right now.

 

We do use the words bum, wonky and queue. I learned "cheeky" from watching Mike Myers on SNL but it's not something I usually say. And we use the word "flat" only when referring to people's homes in other countries.

[Laura Corin]

I

 

Although my favorite phrase I've heard is "A right stropping cow" that I would love to use if I didn't know it was rude :)

 

Stroppy means bad-tempered.

 

Laura

[Laura Corin]

Are the terms used interchangeably now? Or is "autumn" used exclusively?

 

Laura

[Crimson Wife]

I'm surprised that "one off" (instead of "one-time") didn't make the list. That is the Britishism that I've noticed being used a lot more in recent years.

[Parrothead]

Oh, yes. We're all avid BBC watchers and major Harry Potter fans, so we say many of those things on a regular basis. We also say "Brilliant" (in a Ron Weasley accent) quite regularly. Another British thing we frequently say is "bits", as in "Will you remove those manky bits from the fridge?" or "Don't look at my wobbly bits (like Bridget Jones says to Colin Firth)".

I picked up "bits" somewhere along the way between Dr. Who and Top Gear.

[Laura Corin]

ETA: I clicked the link to the original story at the top of the article, and saw "sell-by date". I am thinking that the usage of that would tell you if it were a Britishism or not. The grocery stores here use both "sell-by date" and "expiration date", but they don't mean the same thing. "Sell-by date" is just the day the item must sell by before the store puts a cheaper price on it as it is getting close to going bad, not the date that it would be considered to be spoiled and needed to be thrown away. That is the "expiration date".

 

Laura

[dirty ethel rackham]

I've heard many of those words all my life and none of my family are British. Some of the words (particularly cheeky/twit/wonky/autumn/gobsmacked/muppet) I don't even think of as bring British at all.

 

 

 

:iagree: I never knew many of those were "British-isms" as I have heard them all my life. I am from the Midwest. My family didn't use them, but I had heard them in conversation. Maybe we all read so much children's lit by British authors that we didn't know we werent' supposed to use these:)

[mommymilkies]

We use most of them, but the kids and I are die hard British tv/book fans. :001_smile: some of them I've heard for years here in the US, thou. Like queue, wonky, bum, etc.

[Hwin]

I probably use about half of them.

 

We occasionally use "cross" as well.

 

I wish I could say it's due to travel or even the BBC but, alas, it's probably Thomas the Train.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Our family uses lots of them regularly but I've got a pack of Anglo family members and that may explain much.

 

Many of the terms are still somewhat common in parts of New England. Roundabout leaps to mind first but I did hear others as well. For those of us near the Canadian border-we hear more too.

 

I think they are becoming more widespread in the last decade or so due to Harry Potter. Not because Harry Potter was so popular (although that increased dissemination) but because Rowling insisted that all the elements of Brit English remain. (I think the famous exception was "jumper" since Rowling didn't want US kids thinking Ron's mom had sent all the boys dresses. Although it remains in the films where there is visual confirmation of the translation, if memory serves.) Ever since this point in publishing I think that more books haven't been "translated" and more TV shows are arriving in the US with their language unchanged and scripts written to contain these phrases. This is coinciding with an increase in British Film and TV hitting the US from sources outside PBS and their popularity.

[Nan in Mass]

Some of these I've never heard of, some we use so much I had no idea they were any more British than the rest of our English (like wonky, kit, innit, pop over, proper, twit, row, and fancy), and some I think of alternate ways of saying things, not particularly British (autumn, queue, cheers, cheeky, bum, gobsmacked, mobile, mate, roundabout, sussed, and holiday) and use randomly, and some I think of as British (flat, loo, bloody, frock, knickers). Although now that I think of it, we do occasionally say flat. I think of a flat as an apartment in someone's house and an apartment as a more general work that tends to conjur up images of brick buildings. Not sure why.

Nan

Edited October 18, 2012 by Nan in Mass

[Laura Corin]

Some of these I've never heard of, and we use so much I had no idea they were any more British than the rest of our English (like wonky and fancy), and some I think of alternate ways of saying things, not particularly British (autumn, queue, cheers, cheeky, bum, and holiday) and use randomly, and some I think of as British (flat, loo, bloody)

 

'Holiday' in Britain has no overtone of 'national celebration' or 'religious festival'. It just means time off work/school. Christmas is not called 'The Holidays'.

 

Laura

[LibraryLover]

I lot of those words are MA (or perhaps 'New England') words. I grew up with bum, not butt, for instance. Dinner for lunch, and Super for dinner. My grandmother always said 'frock'. Gobsmacked was common usage by my mother, and so twit. Roundabout was common, as was knickers. It took me years of college to stop saying dinner when I meant lunch, for instance. I still use twit and bum. Cheers was common, always, and still is. We have a whole iconic TV show (takes place in Boston) called Cheers, based on an actual pub in Boston. Oh, and my mother also said 'bits', and we've always said Autumn. My sister's cat is named Autumn, and it's a fairly common (or was) girl's name.

Edited October 18, 2012 by LibraryLover

[ondreeuh]

Autumn? Really?

 

My SIL is Australian, and I've picked up cheeky, clever, pop over. She also introduced me to Vegemite :)

 

My four year old declared he was clever the other day ;)

[Laura Corin]

We have a whole iconic TV show (takes place in Boston) called Cheers, based on an actual pub in Boston. Oh, and my mother also said 'bits', and we've always said Autumn. My sister's cat is named Autumn, and it's a fairly common (or was) girl's name.

 

We had the telly programme here too, but I always assumed that the name referred to clinking glasses and saying 'Cheers'.

 

Laura

[Meriwether]

These are all familiar to me but not necessarily commonly used in my area. The starred ones didn't seem as specifically British as the others.

Autumn*

Bloody

Bum*

Cheeky

Cheers

Fancy

Flat

Frock

Gap year*

Gobsmacked

Holiday

Kit*

Knickers

Loo

Mate

Pop over

Proper*

Queue

Roundabout*

Row*

Shag

Twit*

Wonky*

[LibraryLover]

Wonky. I didn't know that was a British word. Of course, I didn't know bum or proper or fancy were, either...not when I was a child, anyway. I know Flat is a British word, but it was also used In a Tree Grows in Brooklyn. When I was a kid, I thought it was a NY work. As for Cheers, I thought Cheerio! would be British, but not Cheers as in 'See you later'. I mean, I know now, but I did not back when.

[dangermom]

A holiday, in American-speak, is a day set aside for a certain celebration, like Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever. Ideally you would get the day off--St. Patrick's Day is only sort of a holiday. "The holidays" just refers from everything from Thanksgiving through New Year's. I think in most of the US if you called your two-week vacation a holiday people would not know what you meant.

 

A lot of those words are not ones I think of as specifically British--wonky or roundabout or twit. We refer to my 9yo's eye with Duane's syndrome as her wonky eye, and there are roundabouts here in town (I've never heard the term traffic circle) though everyone thinks they are unnecessary and possibly pretentious.

[LibraryLover]

A holiday, in American-speak, is a day set aside for a certain celebration, like Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever. Ideally you would get the day off--St. Patrick's Day is only sort of a holiday. "The holidays" just refers from everything from Thanksgiving through New Year's. I think in most of the US if you called your two-week vacation a holiday people would not know what you meant.

 

A lot of those words are not ones I think of as specifically British--wonky or roundabout or twit. We refer to my 9yo's eye with Duane's syndrome as her wonky eye, and there are roundabouts here in town (I've never heard the term traffic circle) though everyone thinks they are unnecessary and possibly pretentious.

 

 

Traffic circle? That's a new one on me. I do know rotary; having lived in CA for awhile, that's the word I use now. I remember my mother sewing, and when it was not done properly, she would say , 'It's all wonky, I have to take it apart and do it again." We also said 'bin' instead of garbage. Again, I now know that is a British word, although I am from an area where the natives were pretty much wiped out by the early British colonists, so it's not odd that our current language reflects that. I don't know the Wampanoag word for dumbarse or anything, although I certainly know the word twit.

Edited October 18, 2012 by LibraryLover

[Sahamamama]

Autumn = yes, all the time

Bloody = never hear it, except on BBC

Bum = sometimes

Chav = never

Cheeky = sometimes

Fancy = rarely

Flat = never

Frock = only in British books, as the article says

Gap year = yes

Gobsmacked = on BBC

Holiday = Chronicles of Narnia

Innit = never

Kit = yes

Knickers = yes

Loo = never, except in "

"

Mate = only when someone is trying to imitate an Australian ;)

Mobile = nope, it's "cell phone" here

Muppet = never

Numpty = never

Pop over = yes

Proper = often

Queue = I hear this only from people who have lived overseas, and I always wonder, "Can you spell it, too?"

Roundabout = We have those here in New Jersey. We properly call them "traffic circles." Roundabout is what you say if you are Christopher Robin. Or is that round about?

Row = never in this sense, only in reference to charts, gardens, seating, and parking lots

Shag = Wow, I can barely type that. Never. So vulgar. :001_huh:

Skint = Never

Sussed = Never

Twit = A teacher called me this once, many years ago. I never liked her.

Wonky = I think we use "wonky" in reference to political nerds who recite facts and figures. Think Paul Ryan in the vice-presidential debates. [Disclaimer: This statement is in no way political, and is intended only to provide a frame of reference for the OP].

[dangermom]

I know Flat is a British word, but it was also used In a Tree Grows in Brooklyn. When I was a kid, I thought it was a NY word.

 

You know, you're right--New York apartments were often called flats in the books I read. Especially if it was a "cold-water flat." (Which, for Brits, would be a dinky little apartment with no hot water laid on, probably only one sink, and no bathtub or maybe a tub in the kitchen next to the sink.)

[Susann]

My dds took a gap year so I can check that one off. I love gobsmacked and I live in the land of roundabouts. I've heard of the others but don't actually hear them in everyday use here.

[JFSinIL]

While I have indeed heard of, even used, most of them three stand out as being "normal" (as in I did not know they were British :D ): Autumn, holiday and twit.

[momofkhm]

Do you come across these?

 

Laura

 

Yep. But for us it has to do with my oldest dd's affection for British TV shows.

 

In fact there was once a conversation she had with her sister where she was talking about her flatmate and could not come up with the American equivalent - room mate.

[Belacqua]

You know, you're right--New York apartments were often called flats in the books I read. Especially if it was a "cold-water flat." (Which, for Brits, would be a dinky little apartment with no hot water laid on, probably only one sink, and no bathtub or maybe a tub in the kitchen next to the sink.)

 

And small apartment houses are two-flats, three-flats, four-flats, etc. I never heard "triplex" until I moved to the west coast.

 

I'm familiar with the terms on the list, but I also know (and occasionally use) some rather grittier words. My husband spent his youth in an English boarding school, and some of his vocabulary is accordingly colorful.

 

Some words, though, just sound silly coming from Americans. I've noticed it mostly in sports. Hearing a bunch of adult American men call each other "lads" and seeing e-mails closed with "cheers" does jar a little.