Britishisms sneaking into American vernacular

[kiwilrdg]

I am happy to see British terms creeping into American speach. I wish that making proper British tea would sneak into American restaurants.

I have been in places that were called tearooms where the waitress brought a glass coffee pot around to put hot (really warm) water in to top off the metal teapots on peoples tables. I get tired of waitresses pouring coffee into my teacup because when they see milk in it they think I am drinking coffee.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We say "expiration", as in "check the expiration on that milk, it's stahtin' ta smell," and we say "wash ya hands" and "wash the dishes."

 

[esteban68]

we say " it's past it's sell by, an it's startin to stink" or " it's gone off" we say/ I used to say to the kids "wash thee hands before tha sits dahn" .....and " who's turn is it to wash t pots" or more often the coversation went like this....."Who's washin up?" kids in unison " it's not me dad, I did em last night" argument ensued " no yer dint"... " yes a did, tha lyin not me" ..... me....a dont care who does em as long as thee get dun"

 

[Louise Anne]

Ok another Britishism :- Spice

Can any one figure that out?

 

[LizzieMaine]

we say " it's past it's sell by, an it's startin to stink" or " it's gone off"

We have a corruption of "gone off" -- "That hamburg's all green, I think it's gone by." Anything can "go by" -- "She needs to dead-head them flowers, I think they've gone by." "The Sox need to get that pitcher outa there, he's gone by."

 

[overlord4215]

Maybe it's a New York thing, I myself have used "book a room" or "book a hotel" etc my whole life as well.

I myself have booked a room and booked criminals . I have only made reservations at restaurants ....now that i think about it it seems strange .

 

[esteban68]

Ok another Britishism :- Spice

Can any one figure that out?

That'll be ket, tuffees or sweets then!

 

[dhermann1]

That reminds me. I seem to be noticing the word "kit" seeping into our converation lately, in the British sense.

 

[esteban68]

it works both ways we have loads of Americanisms in common usage over here obviously due to shared TV/media, some I actually prefer like trash......
I was born in Derbyshire the son of a soldier/overseas security advisor/steel erector/steelworker my dad had a lot of jobs, mother a shop girl from Nottinghamshire and , the grandson of a Derbyshire Collier( maternal grandfather), Nottinghamshire jam factory worker/ crane driver(maternal grandmother) Gypsy-who knows where from as the family don't like to talk about it( paternal grandfather),Derbyshire paternal grandmother...............I left school at 15 was apprenticed into engineering and worked all over the Uk for the next 16 or so years so picked up most if not all accents... I often get mistaken for a Dee Daa( Sheffielder) accent is a mix but really is old Derbyshire, have a read of EYE UP MI DUCKhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Midlands_English that's sort of on the right track.... I was once in a bar in Spain (Nerja IIRC) and a chap picked out my dialect within 30 seconds of entering, it went something like this......"aye up serri where yo from Chesterfield?" " Ah! ow tha guess that ?" ..." cos yo said duck twice t waiter" the other chap was from Bullwell(Nottingham)....what the waiter thought when I said duck I'll never know...duck is a corruption of Duke and can be used to either sex.

 

[sheeplady]

"Reservation" is used in the same context over in the Albany area as well.

Our cold cuts from the local stores have "sell-by-dates" on them as well as the meat.

It's the same around here "wash up" is to clean yourself up, "clean up" would be to "clean up the dishes" after dinner.

Yeah, it's the same here (Syracuse) and where I grew up (Adirondacks). I wonder if that's the Canadian influence? I think I've also seen sell-by on local cheese and dairy. I don't think I've seen an expiration date in a couple years- I'll have to be more diligent in my checking. (I don't buy a lot of "processed food" but I'll check what I do buy.)

The way I understood them is the sell-by date is when the store has to sell an item. You then have a few days to a week to use the item (depending upon what it is). The expiration date is when it starts to "go bad"- although you probably have a day or two or even a week after that. But that could be my mind trying to make sense of why there are two different kinds of dates. Needless to say, food doesn't last that long around here to experiment.

 

[sheeplady]

I am happy to see British terms creeping into American speach. I wish that making proper British tea would sneak into American restaurants.

Or they serve you water that obviously was in a vessel coffee previously occupied.

The only place in my life I have been served a decent cup of tea in the states is in Seattle, WA (a little place called The Crumpet Shop) and when I was at a conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. When in Chapel Hill, they served tea for both the morning and afternoon break, but coffee was only offered in the morning. People complained and they brought out the coffee for the afternoon too, but darn was that tea good. That's also the only conference at which I asked for tea after dinner (rather than coffee) and I had a cup within 3 minutes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The way I understood them is the sell-by date is when the store has to sell an item. You then have a few days to a week to use the item (depending upon what it is). The expiration date is when it starts to "go bad"- although you probably have a day or two or even a week after that. But that could be my mind trying to make sense of why there are two different kinds of dates. Needless to say, food doesn't last that long around here to experiment.

Most of the stuff I have sitting around has "Best Before" dates, but everybody knows that's a racket to get you to throw it away so you can go and buy some more. I was always told to throw something out if the can bulged and not unless. If you open it and take a smell, and you don't pass out from the stink, it's good enough to eat. Unless it's canned fiddleheads, in which case it's never good enough to eat.

 

[Paul Roerich]

Most of the stuff I have sitting around has "Best Before" dates, but everybody knows that's a racket to get you to throw it away so you can go and buy some more. I was always told to throw something out if the can bulged and not unless. If you open it and take a smell, and you don't pass out from the stink, it's good enough to eat. Unless it's canned fiddleheads, in which case it's never good enough to eat.

It's the same with pharmaceuticals. A pharmacist friend once told me that most pills and capsules (when properly stored) tend to last many months, if not years, beyond their labeled "expiration date".

 

[Hemingway Jones]

My Girlfriend is British so my entirely vocabulary has been corrupted. Brilliant!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I notice a lot of British folk saying "wicked!" as an expression of delight. Please know that that's a New Englandism of great antiquity, and the proper construction is, in order of intensity, "Wicked Good," "Wicked Decent," and "Some Old Wicked Decent."

I theng yaw! (as Arthur Askey would say.)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Most of the stuff I have sitting around has "Best Before" dates, but everybody knows that's a racket to get you to throw it away so you can go and buy some more. I was always told to throw something out if the can bulged and not unless. If you open it and take a smell, and you don't pass out from the stink, it's good enough to eat. Unless it's canned fiddleheads, in which case it's never good enough to eat.

Provisions from Shackleton's first Antarctic Expedition, 1907-09

 

[randooch]

At first I thought that this thread wouldn't be my cup o' tea, but as it turns out, it's right up me alley!

 

[sheeplady]

Most of the stuff I have sitting around has "Best Before" dates, but everybody knows that's a racket to get you to throw it away so you can go and buy some more. I was always told to throw something out if the can bulged and not unless. If you open it and take a smell, and you don't pass out from the stink, it's good enough to eat. Unless it's canned fiddleheads, in which case it's never good enough to eat.

Food lasts that long in your house? It doesn't here.

With canned goods and dry goods, that stuff lasts forever. Raw meat, milk, and dairy I'm pretty suspicious of and freeze it before it reaches 3 days after the sell-by date. I don't trust the modern food supply enough.

I've had quite a few cans bugle and one that absolutely burst on me on both the top and bottom- that wasn't past the expiration date. We don't eat a lot of canned stuff, but we have a supply. I have to admit that after that can burst in my cupboard, I was freaked out about the quality of canned goods for a while. Since it was at the back of a lower cupboard, I only found it after a couple weeks or so, and it had rusted the other cans around it. In school they taught us that if it was dented, rusted, or bugling, it wasn't safe, along with the phrase "if in doubt, throw it out." So I lost about 5 cans that evening. I was upset. My parents have a huge stash of canned goods, and have never had one burst nor do they remember anything like that happening when growing up. It really makes me question how well the stuff is canned today.

 

[Louise Anne]

That'll be ket, tuffees or sweets then!

Yes your right, I have no idea where it comes from but Grandad use to open a paper bag and offered me some spice ( boiled sweetes)

 

[esteban68]

probably from the old days when spices were mixed with 'sweetmeats' to make small morsels of sweet food?
They'd be "boiled spice that gi thee goom boils"