MetaChat - UK Versus US Terms

I got them all right, probably because I've been so steeped in American culture in the last few years. I had to pause on 'canteen' though.

posted by Senyar 25 November | 04:07

I missed three as well.

posted by gaspode 25 November | 08:42

45/45 with 1:24 to spare. There are advantages to being Canadian.

posted by maudlin 25 November | 09:48

I got 27/45

missed all the food and clothing focused terms

Jam : Jelly (I thought 'jam' was pretty cross cultural)
Treacle : Molasses (at least I finally know what molasses means now)
Candy Floss : Cotton Candy (didn't know the UK term)
Plaster (band-aid), Ladybird (Ladybug), Draughts (checkers), Jumper (sweater), Tights (pantyhose), Waistcoat (vest)

estate agent : realtor (damn I would have got this one)
Aubergine (eggplant), Courgette (zucchini), Spanner (wrench), Wellington Boots (galoshes), Dinner jacket (tuxedo), polo neck (turtleneck), bun/fairy cake (cupcake)

I don't think I've ever heard of a 'fairy cake' or a turtleneck referred to a a polo neck

also, "Plaster (personal care)" sounds somewhat frightening

posted by Firas 25 November | 09:51

I got 41/45. Missed tights, aubergine, wellies and polo-neck. I vaguely knew them I think, but couldn't quite bring them to mind.

Pantyhose sounds sexier, but does it mean quite the same thing? What about the movie "Robin Hood: Men in Tights", that must have meant the same thing?

posted by TheophileEscargot 25 November | 10:01

I got 31. Pretty good considering my fear of foreigners.

Candy floss:cotton candy really twists my mind. Is the UK term for dental floss the same as in the US? Either floss means something different in the UK or cotton candy looks really different.

posted by mullacc 25 November | 10:37

oh yeah, I missed tuxedo/dinner jacket, cupcake/fairy cake and treacle/molasses, even though I know the latter, I just thought that they were completely different things.

posted by gaspode 25 November | 10:53

44/45! A lifetime spent reading British mysteries pays off!

I missed "canteen" completely.

I had trouble with "Wellies" only because I usually hear them referred to as Wellies or rainboots, not galoshes. "Galoshes" makes me think of 1950s children's books, or of decrepit, out-of-touch aunties instructing perplexed children to dress properly for the weather. I had to dig in my memory for the word.

gaspode, my impression is that treacle and molasses are similar but not the same. Wikipedia backs that up: "Dark treacle has a distinctively strong flavour, slightly bitter, and a richer colour than golden syrup, yet not as dark as molasses."

posted by Elsa 25 November | 11:19

I've always thought that galoshes came up just above the ankles and had buckles, while Wellies were knee high and sans buckles, but a quick Google images search shows lots of Wellies called galoshes. Meanwhile, these things, also labelled galoshes, were what my Dad wore over his dress shoes and which we called rubbers in Montreal.

posted by maudlin 25 November | 11:35

ah, yes, "completely" different things would be stretching it, but I was trying "syrup", "golden syrup" and such, which in my mind is closer to treacle than molasses. I think molasses has a very distinctive taste.

posted by gaspode 25 November | 11:39

There are advantages to being Canadian.

I only got 38 out of 45, so I feel like I'm letting the side down somehow. Missed: Jelly, Ladybird, Jumper, Waistcoat, Aubergine, Courgette, and Bun/Fairy Cake.

posted by FishBike 25 November | 11:54

That's more-or-less the same distinction I would make, maudlin: to me, "galoshes" are overshoes, a layer of rubberized whatever that either buckles or snugly fits over one's shoes; Wellies are shoes in their own right, a rubberized boot worn over socks. Is that about right, Wellies wearers?

I admit I only knew "fairy cake" thanks to the Hitchhiker's Guide.

posted by Elsa 25 November | 12:03

I'm a Canadian who has a sister living in England and I only got 34 lol

posted by rollick 25 November | 12:22

Braces. Never heard it before.

posted by ethylene 25 November | 12:32

I think molasses has a very distinctive taste.

Doesn't it, though? I have a Laurie Colwin recipe in which she carefully specifies that molasses IS NOT NO IT IS NOT a substitute for golden syrup. (I have bought exactly one tin of golden syrup, ever. Turns out I am a crass American who likes gingerbread with that brash molasses flavor.)

Braces. Never heard it before.

I learned that one young because Christopher Robin wears blue braces, and my father explained that they were suspenders, not dental braces or, as I was intuiting from the context, some sort of body brace to assist with a disability. (He may have learned it from his English cousins, who lived with his family for a while during WWII.)

Truthfully, that stuck in my head because, even as a child, I thought it was weirdly suffused with sublimated sexual energy. (I mean, as a child all I thought was "That makes me feel funny." And not entirely in a good way.) Tell me this passage isn't some sort of Piglet/Christopher Robin slash-fic. First, Christopher Robin proposes to remove his tunic, then:

But Piglet wasn't listening, he was so agog at the thought of seeing Christopher Robin's blue braces again. He had only seen them once before, when he was much younger, and, being a little over-excited by them, had had to go to bed half an hour earlier than usual; and he had always wondered since if they were really as blue and as bracing as he had thought them.

So when Christopher Robin took his tunic off, and they were, he felt quite friendly to Eeyore again, and held the corner of the tunic next to him and smiled happily at him.

Yikes.

posted by Elsa 25 November | 12:51

... or is that just me? DOUBLE YIKES.

posted by Elsa 25 November | 12:52

Oh no, it is just me. TRIPLE YIKES!

posted by Elsa 25 November | 13:14

Don't worry, FishBike. I had a Québecois dad who learned English from being stationed overseas during WWII. He came home a huge Anglophile, so our house was full of Coronation Street, Carry On movies, late night CBC broadcasts of the first season of Python, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding on Sundays, and a whole bunch of books by Alan Sillitoe and Enid Blyton. Not everyone has those advantages.

posted by maudlin 25 November | 13:37

Elsa: sounds fetishy to me.

posted by ethylene 25 November | 13:50

It does, right? Even as a kid, I thought that --- not that I had the vocabulary to express it in those terms, but if five-year-old me has known what a sexual fetish was, I would have immediately thought "Oh, like Piglet with Christopher Robin's braces."

As an adult, the preceding passage (emphasis mine) is what clinches that impression of an excitable, friendly sexuality:

"I'll take off my tunic and we'll each hold a corner, and then Roo and Tigger can jump into it, and it will be all soft and bouncy for them, and they won't hurt themselves."

I, um, well, er... that sounds like a familiar activity.

... No? Just me again?

posted by Elsa 25 November | 14:11

Heh, Elsa. No, not just you.

I also missed "galoshes" because I couldn't think of what the American term would be other than "Wellingtons" or "rain boots," which is usually how I actually think of them, and I missed fairy cake and draughts because I did not know what they were.

My closest friend in middle school had just moved to the US from England, so I think we hit most of the "You call that what?" issues at that point. And it just occurred to me that the American editions of Agatha Christie novels must make those changes, because the solution to one I just re-read hinged on someone going up to the house to get her "sweater."

posted by occhiblu 25 November | 14:33

your story reminds me to blame my mental makeup on practical pig's spanking machine

posted by Firas 25 November | 14:42

35/45 but I'm calling it 36 since I got molasses for treacle but spelled it wrong.

posted by Splunge 25 November | 15:44

My guess for Wellies was gumboots and got it right.

posted by deborah 25 November | 15:44

Oh, and I owe it all to Sherlock Holmes, Fawlty Towers and Monty Python.

posted by Splunge 25 November | 15:46

practical pig's spanking machine

HAHAHAHAHA yikes.

posted by Elsa 25 November | 15:55

I'm pretty sure Monty Python taught me what "braces" were. As well as what *they* meant by "suspenders," which was rather different from the usage to which I was accustomed. Rather.

I knew what aubergines were because for some reason a lot of equestrian stuff comes in "aubergine" color (which is a rather nice color). Did not have a clue what courgettes were, though. I guess none of the UK residents with whom I have spoken nor any of the media I've consumed has had any reason whatsoever to mention them. (Who'd've thunk.)

I could have *sworn* that fairy cake was angel food cake. Huh.

posted by galadriel 25 November | 20:18

I got only 29/45, partly because I'm just slow like that, partly because English isn't my first language. I would have never guessed that the US term for wellies would be "galoshes", though, because they're a completely different thing.

posted by Daniel Charms 26 November | 07:35

I got 42 out of 45 missing checkers, pantyhose (damn, should have got that) and tuxedo (likewise). Yes and I thought fairy cake was angel food cake too galadriel.

posted by peacheater 26 November | 15:36

Oh and a couple of times it filled things in for me even when I didn't get them completely correct - I typed gumboots and it filled in galoshes, and I typed real estate agent and it filled in realtor. Maybe it has some alternate terms allowed.

posted by peacheater 26 November | 15:38

Oh and a couple of times it filled things in for me even when I didn't get them completely correct - I typed gumboots and it filled in galoshes, and I typed real estate agent and it filled in realtor. Maybe it has some alternate terms allowed.

posted by peacheater 26 November | 15:38

35/45 but I spelled zucchini wrong in my haste.

posted by dg 28 November | 01:55

Dammit. I missed three: "Pavement" -I just didn't know this one; "fairy cake" - didn'tknow that either; but most aggravatingly, "realtor." We call them "real estate agents" here too and I just wasn't coming up with the shorter form "realtor." 42/45.

My boss is English and I usually pride myself on my English/American interpretation skills. Working in summer camps for many years, with many British people, you pick up a lot. One of my closest friends from those days schooled me pretty well.

posted by Miko 29 November | 09:40

I would have never guessed that the US term for wellies would be "galoshes",

Me either - I agree they're different things. I think of galoshes as being those thin pull-over-shoe boots. I kept trying "rain boots" for this one, which is what most people call them, and finally realized they were going for something more unusual.

Either floss means something different in the UK or cotton candy looks really different.

Well, floss doesn't just mean "dental floss" here either. There's embroidery floss, linen floss - anything thin and thready can be flossy. It makes more sense when you think of floss as being a broader category.

Literature really helped me learn English usage too - lots of kids' literature, Douglas Adams and also of course the English TV shows others have mentioned. That's one reason I was really peeved when they decided to Americanize the Harry Potter series. My rant was: "How are American kids supposed to learn Englishisms? That's half the fun of reading an English book!"

posted by Miko 29 November | 09:44

37/45. Need to hang out with Senyar more.

posted by danf 29 November | 11:21

I typed real estate agent and it filled in realtor

Me, too --- I'm surprised it dinged dg for misspelling "zucchini" since it clearly had some automatic corrections for other terms.

That's one reason I was really peeved when they decided to Americanize the Harry Potter series.

I remember being irritated by that when I was reading the first Harry Potter to my niece. I think there was a segment describing a car accident (?) early in the first book, and I got all jumbled up because I knew "pavement" should mean "sidewalk" but that felt wrong in context. Something like that.

A few pages later, there was some other Americanism --- maybe he ate some "fries" or wore a "sweater" --- and I realized they had changed some British terms to American terms. Not all of them, mind you: just enough to make me feel like there was no geographical voice. I never really warmed up to HP series and I suspect this is part of the reason why.

Wanting U.S. kids to hear and puzzle out those terms isn't just an Anglophilic frivolity: understanding someone else's lexicon, even one as seemingly similar as American to English, is a great introduction to the important idea that there is a big world out there with lots of mundane mysteries, different perspectives, and a whole lot to learn.

posted by Elsa 29 November | 13:39

What? They americanised the books - is that what you're saying? If so, that is totally fucked-up.

posted by dg 29 November | 17:30

dg - yes, they "Americanised" the US version of Harry Potter. That's the version I purchased because I like the artwork better than the Canadian version (which they did not fuck up).

posted by deborah 29 November | 17:49

I object. Wellingtons and galoshes are NOT the same thing.

posted by workerant 01 December | 11:24

25 November 2011