# 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:** 30
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/581 "2024-10-27T22:21:24Z")
Yes it does. At least in New England English. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/582 "2024-10-27T22:30:40Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Does anyone still say “on the mains” to indicate you have electricity (and/or water?)? Other than a cabin in the countryside or something, where would it be legal to provide housing _without_ access to utilities? I mean, seems like you would have little cause to _say_ it. ---
**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 27, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/583 "2024-10-27T23:41:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The American song “Battle Hymn of the Republic” uses the phrase “His terrible swift sword” (clearly in the sense of “inspires terror”) – but there, too, the song dates from the 19th century (it was written during the American Civil War). In the 1900 book _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_, the Wizard introduces himself with “I am Oz, the great and **terrible!** ”; 39 years later, the line was changed to “I am Oz, the great and **powerful!** ” in the movie _The Wizard of Oz_. That seems to indicate that the meaning of the word changed during the first half of the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/584 "2024-10-27T23:48:21Z")
I had a teacher in Pakistan in the late 1970s early 1980s who had as a pet peeve the changed meanings of “terrible”, “terrific”, “awful” and “fantastic” He would have been born around 1910. Though in Pakistan before the dominance of global media, English was very, very, much trapped in the pre-independence (1947) if not Victorian/Edwardian times. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/585 "2024-10-28T00:14:15Z")
ISTR, fairly recently, seeing stories in which a British mailing address was identified in the manner of “Bletchly Hall, West Dumfries”. It was a bit disconcerting to me, as every mailing address in the US, that I know of, starts with a number. You probably could get a letter delivered to “The White House, Washington, DC”, but it still has an official address that begins with a number. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/586 "2024-10-28T00:38:53Z")
There is a short story (I think) by Chesterton wherein a character, an “arboreal house agent” resides at “The Elms, Buxton Common, near Purley, Surrey” There is no house whimsically named “The Elms”. There is a tree house in the elms. My best friend in primary school lived in a house in Karachi which could be described as: [prominent family name] Palace Neighborhood [with over 100,000 residents] Karachi East He was part of that family (or rather closely related to the head of a very large global ethno-religious group). My father was a salaried professional. I had no idea about the gulf in our socioeconomic status until I was in secondary school. His father then built a squash court on their property, because my friend wanted to take up the game. ETA: I see from googling that the property is now show with number, street and postal code. Also seems to have gone from a residence with a small office building on the “grounds” to a huge office complex with a residence attached. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/587 "2024-10-28T00:39:55Z")
You will see a Such-And-Such Hall address [no street] on some university campuses, but there are typically a lot of offices in there so you often still get a room number or P.O. box number or something in there, though I presume if you leave it off they still know where the Department of History or the Department of Structural Engineering is. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/588 "2024-10-28T01:36:29Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > In North America the word “Street” or “Avenue” can (sometimes?) be omitted when referring to an address or a location. Don’t try that with [Peach Tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peachtree_Street#:~:text=While%20%E2%80%9CPeachtree%E2%80%9D%20alone%20almost%20always,%E2%80%9CPeachtree%E2%80%9D%20in%20their%20name.), Atlanta, Georgia. Scroll down to Nomenclature for a partial list. ---
**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 28, 2024, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/589 "2024-10-28T06:53:03Z")
OTOH, in 2000-2002 I worked on Broadway and 20th St. in Manhattan. Every now and then, when telling people our address, someone from out of town would ask, “So, is that XXX Broadway Street, or Broadway Avenue…?” at which point I’d say, “No, it’s just Broadway.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/590 "2024-10-28T07:46:05Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Does anyone still say “on the mains” to indicate you have electricity (and/or water?)? It doesn’t come up all that much. Houses without those services are pretty rare exceptions, and are usually that way for a reason, such as being explicitly run ‘off grid’ ---
**Author:** ![Oswald\_Bastable](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oswald_bastable/32/214_2.png) [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/591 "2024-10-28T13:33:43Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Does anyone still say “on the mains” to indicate you have electricity (and/or water?)? I’m going to disagree slightly with the other posters replying to this. Although it’s unlikely for a UK property to not have mains electricity and water (unless specifically designed that way), there are still plenty of properties without mains gas (where heating is generally provided by electricity 😬 or by having an oil tank on the property). In this case I think it would be quite normal to say you’re not on the (gas) mains. 🤷 OB ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/592 "2024-10-28T13:52:14Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > You wont hear ‘cunt’ on British television (not including movies.) On a show like Gogglebox, they’ll say fuck, shit, asshole etc…, but never the C word. It wasn’t uncommon on _Mock The Week_. Although I only ever saw that on YouTube, so maybe it got edited out for broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/593 "2024-10-28T14:12:57Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > ISTR, fairly recently, seeing stories in which a British mailing address was identified in the manner of “Bletchly Hall, West Dumfries”. It was a bit disconcerting to me, as every mailing address in the US, that I know of, starts with a number. You probably could get a letter delivered to “The White House, Washington, DC”, but it still has an official address that begins with a number. It still happens. In the UK, in smaller towns, houses have names. The Bentley family might or might not live there anymore, but the postal service knows where Bentley House is, and will deliver there without need of a number, or even a street. The government even issues drivers licenses with the address as Housename, Townname, Postcode. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/594 "2024-10-28T15:29:53Z")
Broad Way. It’s already there in the name. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/595 "2024-10-28T17:48:32Z")
I just posted a citation elsewhere: a US document which used the word “incline” where I would have said “increase”. > In recent years, there has been a noticeable incline in the use and abuse of loperamide… Thinking about it, I have seen this done before, and I think that was also in a US publication. (I’m not sure of the nationality of the _authors_ [in this case](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557885/)). Is this a common use of “incline” in the US or am I reading too much into it? j ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/596 "2024-10-28T18:04:32Z")
Those words are not synonymous, though. An increase means the value of something went up. An incline— a tendency— seems to hint that the derivative went up, or is otherwise large. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/597 "2024-10-28T18:07:21Z")
It’s definitely weird to me, either someone is abusing the thesaurus or it’s some phamacology-related terminology you won’t see elsewhere. Psst: loperamide is an opiate, they’re abusing it by eating literal handfuls and now we have to buy tiny quantities at a time. ---
**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 28, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/598 "2024-10-28T18:43:18Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > loperamide is an opiate, they’re abusing it by eating literal handfuls I didn’t know it is an opiate. I know it as a stopping-up pill for diarrhoea, and those who are eating handfuls must be creating their own punishment, shall we say. As for that particular misuse of ‘incline’, I’d have guessed they meant not ‘increase’ but ‘decline’. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/599 "2024-10-28T19:21:27Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Psst: loperamide is an opiate, they’re abusing it by eating literal handfuls… Yeah, that was what I was posting over in _Tell Us An Interesting Random Fact…_. j ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/600 "2024-10-28T23:50:42Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > It’s still strange they named two ships “Terror” and the Greek personification of darkness and were shocked when the expedition ended in tragedy and people maybe ate each other. Ships need to be especially careful if they hear voices in the night yell “Schooner, ahoy!” or encounter people in rowboats covered in green fungus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941.md?page=31)