# What Britishisms most baffle Americans? What Americanisms most baffle Brits? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2024, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941 "2024-10-18T08:53:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/41 "2024-10-18T13:17:31Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > “Lie-Low”: an inflatable mattress that you put on the floor for guests Usually “lilo” and more commonly seen at the [beach or swimming pool](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inflatable-Swimming-Lounger-Mattress-Assorted/dp/B0D5R1P88G/ref=asc_df_B0D5R1P88G/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12364585549312449804&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9044965&hvtargid=pla-2281435176698&psc=1&mcid=b15a409bdf1c3441963cbab61e44b2ce&hvocijid=12364585549312449804-B0D5R1P88G-&hvexpln=74&gad_source=1) ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/42 "2024-10-18T13:18:56Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > For what it’s worth, this isn’t just the UK, it’s the practice everywhere in Europe. So it’s the Americans who are the weird one on this. I’m Canadian, so I guess it’s at least English-speaking North America (never been to Mexico). The pronunciation of “clerk” as “clark” is also weird to me. I remember a Remo Williams book (hey, I’m cultured! sigh) in which Remo was in London and at one point while pursuing someone stopped in a pub in The City and asked “I’m looking for someone named Clark.” and when everyone put up their hands, just asked “You make this up as you go along, don’t you?” ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/43 "2024-10-18T13:21:14Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > And what they call bacon doesn’t look like bacon I am used to Which is, I believe, what we know as ‘streaky bacon’, whereas what you describe would be sold as ‘back bacon’ ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/44 "2024-10-18T13:22:28Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > > [@veryfrank](#): > > > > The way the Brits say “first floor” to mean “the level above ground floor” rather than “ground floor” messed me up on my first few trips over there. > > For what it’s worth, this isn’t just the UK, it’s the practice everywhere in Europe. So it’s the Americans who are the weird one on this. Most (all?) of Latin America too. IME the USA is pretty much the sole outlier that confuses the ground floor with the first floor. Idjits 😉 . In Latin America most elevators have a button that says “PB”, then above that “1” through however many floors. PB being Piso Bajo literally “bottommost floor”. Meaning the ground floor with exits to the outside world and such. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/45 "2024-10-18T13:30:35Z")
The word “punt” seems to have nearly opposite meanings between the two countries. In Britain, punting means betting, so when someone is punting, they are going for whatever their goal is. In America, punting means giving up, a term borrowed from football when you kick the ball away to the other team. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/46 "2024-10-18T13:35:24Z")
I thought British “punting” was like a pickup term, either prostitutes or, more innocuously, hitting on someone at a pub. Doesn’t it also work like that? I suppose that works tangentially with the definition above. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/47 "2024-10-18T13:44:30Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Most (all?) of Latin America too. IME the USA is pretty much the sole outlier that confuses the ground floor with the first floor. Idjits 😉 I’m sorry, but this is one case where the Americans are absolutely right. If a building has five stories, then the top story should be 5 and not 4. Doing otherwise makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/48 "2024-10-18T13:53:18Z")
Still not quite sure what exactly a “geezer” is. It’s clearly a male, and specific type of male, but I don’t know what type that would be. It doesn’t strike me as a term of endearment, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/49 "2024-10-18T13:55:28Z")
The ones that make me stabby are the respelling ones: “whilst” for “while” or “draught” for “draft”. The former just is sooo pretentious, and as for the latter (a ship’s depth below the waterline) my Grade 1 phonics teacher drilled it into my head that “au” sounds like “aw” and gh is often silent, so every time I see that word I always say “drawt”. 🤬 ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/50 "2024-10-18T14:01:16Z")
There are those buildings built on a slope, so the entrance might be on, e.g., the second floor, depending on where you walk in. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/51 "2024-10-18T14:01:19Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > The word “punt” seems to have nearly opposite meanings between the two countries. In Britain, punting means betting, so when someone is punting, they are going for whatever their goal is. In America, punting means giving up, a term borrowed from football when you kick the ball away to the other team. > [@veryfrank](#): > > I thought British “punting” was like a pickup term, either prostitutes or, more innocuously, hitting on someone at a pub. Doesn’t it also work like that? I suppose that works tangentially with the definition above. My take is British “punt” is simply “to take a chance”. Yes, as in betting, but not only that. You’re doing something with an uncertain outcome: “We’re taking a punt on this new product introduction; it’ll either fly or flop”. So I suppose one could take a punt on the babe sitting on the adjacent barstool, but that seems contrived. As to US “punt”: Notice that in gridiron football punting is itself a chancy move. The defense may well run your punt back for a touchdown. Or at least run it back a good distance, negating the bad field position you’d hoped to leave them with. So US punting is more of “We’re out of ideas and opportunities so we’re going to do the least-bad thing on offer and hope like hell it doesn’t come back to bite us.” As in: “This latest ad campaign really needs to boost our sales or we’re going to have to start layoffs.” In that sense British punting is fundamentally optimistic, while US punting is fundamentally pessimistic. But both are taking a chance and hoping for the best. > [@DCnDC](#): > > Still not quite sure what exactly a “geezer” is. It’s clearly a male, and specific type of male, but I don’t know what type that would be. It doesn’t strike me as a term of endearment, but I could be wrong. Geezers are old, or act old. Geezers are fussy. Geezers have infirmities they like to complain about. The term can be self-deprecating, or it can be pejorative from mild to major. I suppose two old friends could use it jokingly to refer to one another. ETA ref @colinfred a few posts down … I meant US geezers; I have no clue about Brit geezers. Sorry to be unclear ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/52 "2024-10-18T14:05:04Z")
Wasn’t Webster an Orwellian fundamentalist pro-life slaver? IMHO it’s worth going out of one’s way to avoid his (deliberate) Newspeak. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/53 "2024-10-18T14:05:10Z")
In the UK a geezer is a wideboy, a guy who either is or presents himself as a bit dodgy and maybe semicriminal, but not really harmful. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/54 "2024-10-18T14:05:50Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > The pronunciation of “clerk” as “clark” is also weird to me. From the musical _Pal Joey_, by Rodgers and Hart: “Anybody who says ‘clark’ is a jark.” ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/55 "2024-10-18T14:10:01Z")
The entire rules of Cricket. {BAFFLED} ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/56 "2024-10-18T14:12:20Z")
Sorry yeah, I meant the British term. > [@colinfred](#): > > wideboy That’s a new one to me. Never heard it before. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/57 "2024-10-18T14:13:08Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Geezers are old, or act old. Geezers are fussy. Geezers have infirmities they like to complain about. The term can be self-deprecating, or it can be pejorative from mild to major. I suppose two old friends could use it jokingly to refer to one another. > > ETA ref @colinfred a few posts down … > > I meant US geezers; I have no clue about Brit geezers. Sorry to be unclear The oeuvre of Mike Skinner, aka the grime act The Streets, is all about [geezer life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpiyqpAu-Q). ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/58 "2024-10-18T14:14:11Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Also _flan_ - in the UK, it’s pretty much a synonym for _tart_ - a shallow, usually open-topped pie, with a crust, with either a sweet or savoury filling. > > I understand that the USA meaning of _flan_ is what we call _creme caramel_. _Flan_ is the Spanish word for _creme caramel_. Until fairly recently, the only place we Yanks ever saw it was in French restaurants (which are usually expensive, so we rarely go there) or Mexican restaurants (which are inexpensive, so we often go there). So we picked up the Spanish term. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/59 "2024-10-18T14:18:09Z")
The many many layers of jargon that Americans use to obfuscate what is at its heart the relatively simple game of baseball. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/60 "2024-10-18T14:19:00Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Still not quite sure what exactly a “geezer” is I _think_ in the US an elderly, possibly querulous/opinionated, man that in the UK we might call (not necessarily unkindly but maybe patronisingly) an “old codger” (I’m nearly there myself,) In the UK, most commonly a working/tradesman type, well on the way to being thought of as a tough guy/hard man. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941.md?page=4)