Terminology: US vs. UK - 1942

[Capesofwrath]

I didn't like them much or butcher's made ones if it comes to that. But I did like that ad.

Actually I don't think that Brains still exists. They used to have their main factory in Bristol at one time. Though Mr Brain's faggots are still sold I think but they aren't the same.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

[video=youtube;pVHbWHGVYaU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=pVHbWHGVYaU&NR=1[/video]

 

[Capesofwrath]

Floyd pissed again.

 

[galopede]

Floyd pissed again.

Remember going to his pub in South Devon many years ago when my daughter was around 8 years old. She grabbed him when he was wandering around doing the chef bit and told him his chips were almost as good as McDonald's!

He walked off saying something about you can't get the customers these days.

Gareth

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Carnival (US) -- Fun Fair (UK)

 

[Dave E]

Circle (Cul de Sac) (US) = Close (UK)
Main Street (US) = High Street (UK)
Field (US) = Pitch (UK)

Not entirely, a Close is a cul de sac in the UK as well.

Main street is used in the UK, but more often as a descriptive. For instance, the longest road in the village I grew up in was known as main street colloquially, but it had a different name on the sign.

We also talk about playing fields in the UK, although an area dedicated to a particular game would be a pitch as you've said.

 

[Dave E]

A Prep School in Britain is for kids up to around 11/12 at the oldest.

A college is usually part of a university, especially in Oxbridge which are made up of several separate colleges.

We used to have quite a few "Technical Colleges" which have mostly become universities over the years.

Gareth

Isn't a Prep School also a private (ie fee paying, non-state) school?

There were also 6th Form Colleges, I think those are still around? When I was at school in the 80s, college was something you'd head off to between 16 and 18, especially for vocational subjects. Presumably I'm thinking of Technical Colleges?

Mind you, as you say, it's also the constituent parts of Oxford and Cambridge, particularly. Asking where someone went to college usually means the questioner went to Oxbridge, or they assume that you did. There can be a level of implied snobbery in the question (I went to Oxford and I've heard it used that way).

 

[Doc Average]

Not entirely, a Close is a cul de sac in the UK as well.

To confuse things further, in Scotland a close is the ground floor hallway in a block of tenements, or a small passageway between buildings and courtyards. Think Edinburgh Old Town.

 

[Dave E]

To confuse things further, in Scotland a close is the ground floor hallway in a block of tenements, or a small passageway between buildings and courtyards. Think Edinburgh Old Town.

Aah! That would probably have stopped some headscratching on my part when reading a Rebus novel a few years ago.

 

[Doc Average]

Aah! That would probably have stopped some headscratching on my part when reading a Rebus novel a few years ago.

My partner, who's Spanish, has been reading the Rebus novels recently. Most of my evenings over the last few months have been spent translating lots of Scots (and English!) words and phrases for her.

 

[Hal]

Isn't a Prep School also a private (ie fee paying, non-state) school?

Indeed it is, and it caters for children not yet in their teens as noted above.

There were also 6th Form Colleges, I think those are still around?

Very definitely yes - and their pupils are 16-19 years of age.

When I was at school in the 80s, college was something you'd head off to between 16 and 18, especially for vocational subjects. Presumably I'm thinking of Technical Colleges?

Yes, in this context, though I don't know whether they still exist in the form they did.

...it's also the constituent parts of Oxford and Cambridge...

And of other federal universities, such as Durham, London and (until recently) Wales.

Carnival (US) -- Fun Fair (UK)

I'm not sure that these terms mean the same thing. A carnival is an event; a fun-fair a place of amusement.

 

[vitanola]

Ring off vs. hang up (the phone).

"Ring Off" was commonly used in much of rural America until the 1960's, generally by folks who grew up with local battery (magneto) telephone service. At the end of a conversation, one would hang up the receiver and the give the magneto crank a spin (which would ring the bells on the 'phone) to acutate the annunciator which would instruct the operator to take down the connection. Remember tha that local battery service was general in areas of rural Britain well into the 1970's. Local Battery systems allow an acceptable level of service with even lightly built and indifferently maintained outside plant.

 

[vitanola]

I always used to call 'dampers' 'shocks' until my mechanic told me [off] stating the correct term is dampers, as its the springs that absorb the shock, and the dampers 'damp' the bounce

The correct term would, of course, be "Snubbers", for so they were named by their inventor, Claude Foster, of Cleveland.

 

[Shangas]

Carnival (US) -- Fun Fair (UK)

I think it's more likely - CARNIVAL - FESTIVAL / AMUSEMENT-PARK - FUN-FAIR.

 

[Stormy]

we say "damned" - they say "bloody"
we say "get along" (in reference to friendships and/or relationships) - they say "get on"

 

[MikeBravo]

"Ring Off" was commonly used in much of rural America until the 1960's, generally by folks who grew up with local battery (magneto) telephone service. At the end of a conversation, one would hang up the receiver and the give the magneto crank a spin (which would ring the bells on the 'phone) to acutate the annunciator which would instruct the operator to take down the connection. Remember tha that local battery service was general in areas of rural Britain well into the 1970's. Local Battery systems allow an acceptable level of service with even lightly built and indifferently maintained outside plant.

Up until about 1973 in the small town I grew up in in rural Australia we had the phones you cranked to get the operator who would place the call for you. And if we rang my mother's parents in Melbourne (the state capital) we had to book a "trunk call" and the lovely operator would put us through. Our number was '445'.

I remember once a friend rang the operator and asked to be put through to the number he was calling from, she said "I'll put you through", then called him a silly bugger when she realised what he was doing. Funny.

I remember when the automatic exchange was being installed in around 1973 and with a Scout group we went into the exchange where the operators were working and they had the fabric covered chords which they put into the appropiate connector hole for the number being called (just like on the movies).

We then went to look where the new exchange was being installed and they showed us the racks where the solid state electronic parts would be placed. Any problems and the part would be sent overseas for repair by the manufacturer and another part slotted in. This was the beginning of the end for our local electronics industry!

When the automatic exchange kicked in (of course the operators were out of jobs) our number changed to '(058) 721 445' with the number in brackets being the area code and we could call the grandparents direct. By the mid 90's there were so many phone numbers in the country the number was changed to eight digits to become '(03) 5872 1445'

Sounds like a new thread idea

 

[Ticklishchap]

There are a lot of American imported words which I really don't like, but the one I detest most is not American at all but an English slang word soccer. It was invented by Victorian university sportsmen to differentiate the game of rugby football which is mostly a handling game, from the game played with the feet since both laid claim to being called football. The games were called rugger and footer in contemporary slang terms. So association football to give it its correct name, started to get called assoch by rugby types, then asoc, and finally soccer.

There are a lot of types of football in the world so in countries like the US and Australia where they call their mostly handball versions football, the name soccer took off. As it already had with middle class rugby and cricket followers in the UK in a slightly derogatory way. Most of the world does call it football though. Or versions of it like fusbal, or fotbal or some such, and no British football fan would let the word the word soccer pass his lips.

I have just come across this and read it with interest. At school we talked about Rugger and Footer (I played the former) and we used those terms at my (very traditional) university as well. At school sport was referred to as Eccer (short for exercise).