hoover = vacuum both as a noun and a verb.
StG
I think that is insurance details…
I’m not sure if this fits here, but what the heck.
What’s a “milk float?”
It sounds to this Yankee like some sort of beverage, but I gather from context that it’s a type of vehicle.
Would it be a milk truck like a big 18-wheel tanker, or a delivery van? Or maybe something else.
A milk float is a small open-backed vehicle, often electric-powered and sometimes three-wheeled, which is used for delivering milk to people’s doorsteps. The back part is for the milk bottles (and cream and yogurt and whatever). They don’t go very fast at all.
If you’ve ever seen the “Speed 3” episode of Father Ted, Dougal is driving a milk float. And if you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out.
Just thought of a good comparison: a milk float is like a golf cart with a short flatbed area in the back. Definitely not for highway driving.
how about a football pitch vs. a soccer field?
A parka is worn in the Western Arctic of North America, while an anorak is worn in the East. I suppose British (or UK ;)) explorers picked up the latter word in Greenland or Hudson’s Bay.
And I’m surprised nodody has mentioned “I’ll knock you up in the morning.”
We Americans don’t often use the words “bloody” or “bugger” to express contempt like our British friends do. I don’t think “bloke” (gentleman) has been mentioned yet, either. We rarely say that one here.
Nobody’s said that for about fifty years. Thanks for the info about parka/anorak.
Don’t be too grateful, yet. I’m in the east, and I’ve never heard anyone use the word anorak. Perhaps that’s a Canadian/American difference. I’ve seen it in catalogs, and in novels, but that’s it. They’re parkas, here, when we’re ambitious enough to name the style. Usually, they’re just coats.
And, I’m sorry to say, I wasn’t kidding about Robin Hood. Perhaps it was just me and my friends, but I was a teenager before I realized that Robin was his name, not his title. And, that was after years of watching movies and cartoons in which he was always called Robin Hood. It could be my leaky memory at fault, but I believe the first time I ever heard it pronounced Robin Hood was in the Kevin Costner/Alan Rickman movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. That may also have been the first time I ever saw him portrayed wearing a hood. Generally, he was portrayed wearing a “Robin Hood hat”, like this. I initially thought the “Hood” part of his name was his last name. When I found out, again as a teenager, that his actual last name was Locksley, I assumed the “Hood” came from hoodlum or “a gang of hoods”.
Here’s a few more:
American / British
truck / lorry
Camping trailer / caravan
Bus (as in long haul Greyhound bus) / coach
4 lane divided highway / dual carriageway
phone booth / phone box
cell phone / mobile
movie theater / cinema
bun (as in hamburger) / bap
dump (where you take your trash) / tip (where you take your rubbish)
Thanks for the milk float explanation, jr8.
We don’t have anything like that here.
I’m sorry, Davebear, but I think it pretty much is just you and your friends. I don’t know anybody who was confused in the least by the Robin Hood thing.
“Hoodlum” is more or less uniquely American, as is “hood”. I’m having trouble coming up with an exact equivalent on this side of the pond - “criminal” is a bit formal and “wide boy” doesn’t really have the same connotations. “Bum” used in reference to a homeless person is also not in use over here. “Tramp” is probably the most common term.
I often see “DUI” used on the Boards. The equivalent here would be “drink driving”. The terms “felony” and “misdemeanour” are also more often found in common use in the states as far as I can make out.
Slang and sexual terms also differ greatly. “Giving head” is not really in use here - “blowjob” is much more common. To “make out” is “get off with” or “cop off with” or, for a uniquely Irish term, to “shift”. Americans “get wood”; Brits get “a stiffy” or are “on the horn”. The list is endless.
Curiouser and curiouser. My desk dictionary claims that the word itself is of Eskimo origin (are we not supposed to use that word?), but doesn’t give any other advice. Anyhow, I believe the slang use referring to a nerdy person with an intense interest in a peculiar hobby is much more common here than the garment name these days.
He’s a semi-legendary character so it’s difficult to find hard facts about who he was or what people really called him, but mentioning Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is amusing because they made so many obvious errors in that film that they might as well have called him Eliot Ness.
That’s an odd one. Big burger chains have popularised the use of bun to such an extent that I’ve seen supermarkets selling them here under that name (especially if they’ve got sesame seeds on top). The traditional meaning of bun here is a sweetened bread roll containing raisins etc. and perhaps a sugar-glazed top (= sticky bun). Small bread items have numerous regional and local names, of which bap is only one. Where I grew up (Liverpool) they are called balm cakes, where I went to university (Sheffield) they are called bread cakes and there are lots more names for them. There’s also a place called Loxley near Sheffield and a local legend claims that that is where Robin Hood was from, not Nottingham.
Whilst we are talkign about wood, Brits say “Touch wood” when Americans would say “Knock on wood”.
On the subject of bread buns, I’ve called them that all my life, and I’m somewhat older than the widespread popularity of American burger chains. But then, I live in the North East of England. The names for baked products can be very local indeed, since until recently, they were always produced and sold locally.
Also, the earliest references to Robin Hood that I’ve seen use Hood as a surname. The “of the hood” construction seems to have been a later invention, as is the connection with Loxley (and for that matter, Nottingham) – he was originally said to come from Barnsdale in Yorkshire.
goodness, i’ve found out that i speak and write a strange mix of uk and us english.
if your house is burgled in the states they will dust for prints. if you are burgled in the uk they will polish for prints.
i enjoy using the word whilst, i don’t think it is archaic.
No, I get it. I just think it’s funny.
First I’ve heard of it, and a Google search drew a blank. Where did you hear that rocking chair?
Could be. But, I should point out that I’ve never even been to Hollywood, and they all pronounced it Robin Hood, until quite recently. So, that leaves us without any explanation for the mispronunciation, again. What’s yours?
Wouldn’t that be ironic! 
Particularly since you probably never would have heard of Elliot Ness, had it not been for the outrageously false movies and TV shows that have been made about him. But, who cares? It’s just entertainment. It would be nice if they could at least get the hero’s name right, but apparently there’s some disagreement as to what “right” actually is, in this case.