Also useful for reporting how many furlongs you’ve traveled.
I get your reasoning; but – as told of in my previous post – probably because of long acquaintance, “macaroni cheese” just feels to me, totally right for the dish concerned.
I have never before this moment, heard of this thing. Am I fortunate?
And how many hogsheads of petrol your lorry used in doing so.
At the age of 70, I at last understand why this item is called a “dummy” (an “imitation” something) – had always before, just taken it that “it’s called a dummy because – well – that’s what it’s called”.
(I prefer the UK word to the US one here: “pacifier” strikes me as a rather absurdly pedant / professorial word for an object which is very much to do with the basics.)
Again – long-time “failing to get it” (though I worked this one out earlier than “why is a baby’s dummy so named?”). “Stag party / hen party” long baffled me – creatures not even in the same biological class (mammals vis-a-vis birds), for heaven’s sake. At last I discovered by chance, that old-time poultry-keepers – maybe even some present-day ones – called a male bird in full sexual working order, a “stag”: chicken, turkey, or whatever.
It has been observed since way back, that US words rather often tend to be long and orotund, compared to their UK equivalents (apartment / flat, elevator / lift, faucet / tap, etc.). Nearly a hundred years ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote a medium-length comic poem on this theme.
One of my own: the rather colloquial word meaning “fussy and over-particular, about trivial things”–
US: persnickety
UK: pernickety
The following on my part, is utterly without logic or sense; and a ridiculous distinction to make over a single letter – however, I find the British version splendidly expressive; but the American one, babyish and cringe-making. Absurd, I know…
On the topic of lorries and trucks - are we allowed to bring in Australian terms? Don’t much care, am doing it anyway!
Aus: Ute
US: Pickup truck
Clearly Australia wins because ute is so much more fun to say.
I’m pretty sure Australia wins on everything if that reasoning’s allowed.
It also permits such eloquent pseudo-bowdlerizations as “trouser sausage”.
And I’m from the U.K., and I’d say overalls, although I understand boiler suit.
UK: Railway
US: Railroad
Let me see: Railway = wedged standing into some godawful commuter train; Railroad = the howl of that mournful whistle lost in the sultry night.
Now* that’s* a US win.
j
Slight tangent, if British-Canadian is allowed…
CAN: Project (“PrOH-ject”)
US: Project (“Prah-ject”)
Result: Point for Canada and the Crown, as it makes it easy to identify the Canadian on the project team.
I only need to remember ‘Forward March’ - and the other change is easy to figure out.
‘Spring forward, Fall back’ still parses if you misremember it as “fall forward, spring back”. It’s like the “30 days hath…” rhyme - not really useful unless you remember the thing it’s supposed to help with already.
But “falling forward” isn’t really a thing as much as “falling back”. I mean, people use it occasionally when talking about physically falling, but the phrase “falling back” is used a lot more IMO.
In New York, a ute is a young person.
You are not wrong.
Wonder where precisely that one came from. I kind of like it.
UK: corporation dustbin
US: garbage truck
Clearly a US win. I have to admit I heard the UK one only in Scotland where I overheard someone telling the “What has four wheels and flies?” joke and that was the answer.
There is at least one dialect in the US in which “pavement” has the UK meaning of sidewalk, illogical as it may be. I can still hear my mother saying (it would have been 75 years ago), “Stay on the sidewalk” (and don’t go out into the street).
I think Mac 'n cheese is a fine name. And “spring forward” is no longer accurate since we do it before the vernal equinox. But we ought to abandon the whole thing.
A garbage truck is a dustcart.
A garbage can is a dustbin.
A corporation dustbin is a dumpster, not a truck. The term you are looking for is dustcart.
a what?