U.S. vs. U.K. common terms

geordief said:
I have always heard them referred to as rubbers or rubber jonnies so I didn't quite get it.(didn't know the US only called them erasers)
I wonder if a "rub of the relic" has the same meaning in the USA as here..
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Never heard that one. Is that the same as "polishing the bishop"?
 
exchemist said:
That last one is just ignorance, surely? Like "the proof is in the pudding", or "I see no ships". I don't think it is specifically American.

Though a weird one I do recall from my time in Houston was "honing in" on something, as opposed to "homing in". Honing is a process in metalworking of abrading a metal surface to leave a fine but matt, rather than polished, finish. (A typical example would be the finishing process for the inside surfaces of cylinder liners in engines, i.e. the running. surface against which the piston slides.) So "honing in" is quite meaningless. But I heard it quite often.
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A hone is apparently also a kind of whetstone, used to sharpen razors or knives.

I originally heard the term used in a context such as "hone the blade", which referred to sharpening a knife or similar cutting tool. A sharp knife or sword could be described as "finely honed".

"Honing in" on something is an ignorant error. It seems like, for some reason, lots of people have a vague idea of what "hone" means - it implies the idea of bringing something to a sharp point. Hence, "honing is" is used to mean getting to the point of something. On the other hand, to understand "home in", one needs to know something about homing pigeons and the like. For whatever reason, it seems that more young people know about knives than pigeons, these days.
 
Maybe not a "UK v US"ism, but in the vein of misused words, I've just heard a sports commentator talking about how a goal (in a football/soccer game) has put "a whole new complex on the game". This was a UK pundit, and I know they meant to say "complexion" (pundits rarely being the sharpest tools in the shed), but was wondering whether this has come over from the other side of the pond? Anyone else experienced the jarring phrase?
 
I did a search on "new complex on the game" and another on "new complexion on the game" and got 1 result for the former (a Brit) and 33 results for the latter.

Maybe it is not that common a misuse?

I thought it was interesting that one of the only instances I could dig up seems to relate to a Donald Bradman innings in 1931

"but Bradman soon got into his stride and put a different Complex on the game. Mccabe partnered Bradman and the pa4r put 6n Ruha a......."

https://www.google.com/search?q="different complex on the game"&client=ms-android-samsung-rev2&sca_esv=1b590d2ad2d1828a&source=android-browser&sxsrf=ACQVn0_Qfs8mxCNJioQoBznnaouavZJFDA:1712696233922&ei=qasVZsnnN4O-hbIPvK2niAY&udm=&oq="different complex on the game"&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIh8iZGlmZmVyZW50IGNvbXBsZXggb24gdGhlIGdhbWUiMggQIRigARjDBEieiQFQjD1YgYIBcAF4AJABAJgBjQKgAfoMqgEGMTEuNC4xuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIOoAKyDMICChAjGMsEGLADGCfCAgsQABiJBRiiBBiwA8ICCxAAGIAEGKIEGLADwgIKECMYywQYsAIYJ8ICCBAAGIkFGKIEwgIIEAAYgAQYogTCAgwQIRgKGKABGMMEGArCAgoQIRgKGKABGMMEmAMAiAYBkAYDkgcHNS44LjAuMaAHoiU&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

https://newspaperarchive.com/rockhampton-evening-news-dec-08-1931-p-12/
 
Another pair of expressions that has come to my notice as a result of my recent foray into the world of compression stockings...

A ladder in the UK is something that you get in a pair of (compression or ordinary) stockings.

In the US this goes by the name of a "run".

I gave also learned that you can repair such a ladder ,or a run by means of the application of (clear) nail varnish on the damaged area.

Presently so occupied , as they cost a bit to replace.

See how they hold up.Apparently washing them doesn't destroy the repair ,and they are supposed to be washed daily (by hand and not in detergent -I use washing up liquid)
 
Sarkus said:
Maybe not a "UK v US"ism, but in the vein of misused words, I've just heard a sports commentator talking about how a goal (in a football/soccer game) has put "a whole new complex on the game". This was a UK pundit, and I know they meant to say "complexion" (pundits rarely being the sharpest tools in the shed), but was wondering whether this has come over from the other side of the pond? Anyone else experienced the jarring phrase?
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Sports commentators have always been notorious for malapropisms, mixed metaphors etc. Private Eye has for years run a column called “Colemanballs” , publishing examples sent in by readers, named after the BBC sports commentator David Coleman. I remember one of his best was “…..and Juantorena opens his legs and shows his class…….” during a race involving a Cuban runner of that name. Another was Bill McLaren’s “That ball took off like a meteorite.”

But a sports expression that has always had me baffled is “early doors”. WTF does that mean? “Early bath” I understand, as a bath was what football players traditionally had after the match, so if they were withdrawn early and substituted, they got an early bath. But early doors? Beats me.
 
Always thought "early doors" was a pub metaphor, referring to how soon after the doors were open you would arrive. Somewhat lost that reference with all-day opening, though. ;) But why "early doors" rather than just "early on (in proceedings)", even in relation to the pub...??
 
geordief said:
I thought early doors was a pub thing too.It also puts me in mind of the double swing doors in Western movies and in the entrances to sauna rooms.

Susie Dent has done a small piece on the BBC website

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09fv1w9/us-english-why-do-brits-hate-it-so-
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Much as I love dear Susie, I could not make it to the end of her clip because of the bloody music. (Why the fuck the BBC has to contaminate radio pieces with this distracting junk is beyond me. It adds nothing, adds to the production cost for licence fee payers and gets in the way. It seems to be a recent fad.) The bit I did hear seemed to say much the same as my post 29 on this thread, about different approaches taken on opposite sides of the Atlantic when spelling came to be standardised, something that did not occur until the c.18th.
 
gmilam said:
Doing me crust in"
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"me" is "my".
"Crust" is from cockney rhyming slang: "crusty bread" = "head".
So this means "doing my head in" - i.e. to frustrate.
"khazi"
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Khazi means "toilet". It comes from an old cockney word "carsey" meaning "toilet" (possibly originally from the Italian "casa" meaning "house"). As to why the "khazi" spelling, this may have been from one of the many colonies of our old Empire, possibly one of the African ones.
 
sculptor said:
flogging a dead horse?
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Flogging could mean "selling" as in trying to get water out of a stone or convince a very sceptical buyer.

Or ,maybe whipping a horse in a race that is never going to win or arrive at its destination because its forces are spent.
 
Sarkus said:
"me" is "my".
"Crust" is from cockney rhyming slang: "crusty bread" = "head".
So this means "doing my head in" - i.e. to frustrate.
Khazi means "toilet". It comes from an old cockney word "carsey" meaning "toilet" (possibly originally from the Italian "casa" meaning "house"). As to why the "khazi" spelling, this may have been from one of the many colonies of our old Empire, possibly one of the African ones.
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Spike Milligan, in one of his books, possibly "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall", claimed Khazi, or Karzi, comes from the Swahili word m'karzi, meaning, er, karzi. However, this being Milligan, I'm not sure it was entirely serious. :biggrin:
 
exchemist said:
Spike Milligan, in one of his books, possibly "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall", claimed Khazi, or Karzi, comes from the Swahili word m'karzi, meaning, er, karzi. However, this being Milligan, I'm not sure it was entirely serious. :biggrin:
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It's quite possible, although whether Swahili or Zulu, perhaps? That may be where the cockney derived from, albeit a change of spelling. Possibly mixed two similar influences: Italian and swahili/Zulu.... And that's part of the joy of English... words can originated from anywhere! ;)
 
Sarkus said:
It's quite possible, although whether Swahili or Zulu, perhaps? That may be where the cockney derived from, albeit a change of spelling. Possibly mixed two similar influences: Italian and swahili/Zulu.... And that's part of the joy of English... words can originated from anywhere! ;)
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Well it's certainly the case that the British Army from imperial times has imported slang from other languages, "bint" for a young woman (feminine of "bin" = son of, i.e. daughter of) and "shufti" for to have a look at something from shuf or shoof, to see, both coming from (probably Suez canal) Arabic, as I realised during my time in the Gulf.
 
exchemist said:
Well it's certainly the case that the British Army from imperial times has imported slang from other languages, "bint" for a young woman (feminine of "bin" = son of, i.e. daughter of) and "shufti" for to have a look at something from shuf or shoof, to see, both coming from (probably Suez canal) Arabic, as I realised during my time in the Gulf.
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Are loanwords more common with English than with other languages? I've always gotten the impression that this is the case--it certainly seems to be more true for Germanic languages than for Romance languages, at the very least. And American English is certainly more prone to bastardizing pronunciations than British English, typically in a very ugly fashion (that's entirely subjective, I suppose, but c'mon, we have a particular knack for making words and names sound really, really stupid).
 
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