Britishisms

[jjimm]

@Giles

@APB

Did Nancy Mitford labour in vain? She was famously discussing whether it’s ‘serviette’ or ‘napkin’ as far back as 1956. (For the record, ‘serviette’ was the non-U one.)

“Non-U” being non-upper-class – so the nobility and gentry would talk about “napkins”, while the middle class and unwashed masses would talk about “serviettes”.

Indeed. My forebears were dead posh. My granddad talked about playing ‘goff’.

[SciFiSam]

@Elendil_s_Heir

When I was a semester-abroad student in London in late 1985, we were told quite emphatically that to Brits, “napkin” meant a sanitary napkin or tampon, and that a “serviette” was what we’d want to wipe our mouths and fingers with at the dinner table. Times change.

No, a napkin is just a posh word for a serviette. Everyone would be bemused if you said that you used napkins for your periods.

Hogarth’s right - Rowling’s indicating that Ron took some sandwiches from the table before they all disappeared, so that he could eat more later; it’s not the normal way to carry sandwiches around with you.

[Leaffan]

@jjimm

@Superhal

An earlier one, I forget which book: “He took a napkin out of his pocket that contained sandwiches.”

Are British napkins made out of wax paper or plastic?

British sandwiches contain a LOT fewer fillings than US ones. My American friends over here frequently laugh at the ‘one slice of ham and one slice of cheese’ kind of sandwiches we have. Unless it’s really sloppy, you can get away with wrapping your sandwiches in a paper napkin as the filling is in no danger of escaping.

:dubious: I’m pretty sure we have ‘one slice of ham and one slice of cheese’ kind of sandwiches here in North America too.

[Cunctator]

@APB

Did Nancy Mitford labour in vain? She was famously discussing whether it’s ‘serviette’ or ‘napkin’ as far back as 1956.

A tease on her part, and a source of humour and ‘in jokes’ to her friends, which, greatly to her surprise, was taken seriously by the public. Several of her earlier works were republished not long after the U/non-U essay. She was greatly annoyed that, as a result of the essay, she was forced to go through the earlier works and edit out all of the non-U usages from her characters’ speech. It was felt that her readers would not tolerate such linguistic solecisms.