The word “rock” seems to extend to smaller stones in the US than in Britain. In a John Irving novel, a character says “she threw rocks at you?” when the incident involved gravel or pebbles from a driveway. And in the TV drama Succession, the character Tom (who is American, although played by a Brit) says “sad rock” in reference to a pebble he picks up from the beach. I was taken aback on both occasions, as I wouldn’t use the word “rock” for anything smaller than my fist.
By contrast, the word “pond” seems to extend to much larger bodies of water in the US than in Britain.
No other letter ends in “-ch”, and some Brits disagree with Americans as to whether or not the name begins with an aspirated “h”. In fact, I have never seen the name of the letter spelt out (English in not like Greek in that respect).
I think this came up in another thread, but anyhow…when I first visited the UK, and was offered “lemonade” in resturants, I found it odd but not unwelcome. I tried it, and found that what the Brits call “lemonade” isn’t the fruit drink from concentrate that we have in Canada, but a kind of carbonated beverage that’s akin to 7UP/Sprite but with a much more pronounced citrus sweetness. British friends confirmed this, and said that what I call “lemonade” they call “squash.” Not sure what they call the fibrous, nasty-tasting gourd that I was forced to choke down as a kid. Anyway, when I’m Over There, I drink British lemonade at many of my meals.
While watching a UK police show last night, my sister didn’t know what they were referring to as “gear,” because she was thinking climbing gear which made no sense in context. I had noticed this fairly recently (like within the last year?) police on TV were using “gear” to mean illegal drugs.
Is this real? Or just something they do for the TV shows to sound like they’re up on the trends?
The tower housing Big Ben was known as St. Stephen’s Tower until 2012, when it was renamed Elizabeth Tower on the occasion of Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, celebrating 60 years on the British throne.
Zee/Zed is perhaps the most popular case where people cherry-pick an example to try to assert that their dialect is the one that has all the consistency and the other one is the weird one.
In particular, the question is often something like “Oh yeah, well why don’t you call a stripy horse a ZEDbra?” (implying that Zee and Zee-bra are evidence of some sort of pattern of consistency).
In reality, the consistency is imaginary and the impression of it is little more than familiarity with that which is ‘normal’. Like, sure, Zee, Zee-bra, consistency. So why aren’t cats called see-ats and dogs called dee-ogs and whales double-you-ales?
And in America, a “creek” is usually a very small stream, whereas I hear that in Britain it is a tidal inlet. (There are other words that also mean “small stream” that some Americans use, but they would all understand “creek”/“crick”.)
So I guess the upshot of this is that in Britain, “river” can be applied to narrower and shallower bodies of water than in America. Small streams are sometimes called rivers in America, especially if geographers decide that they are the source of a river despite their small size, but more often they will be called something else.
Rhyming slang is stupid. Unless you know what the person has in mind there is no way to get it. I suppose that is the point, it is code. But what the hell are
I’ve heard of Hampstead Heath. But "Pony trap? Cobblers awls? Yes I know what an awl is, but why are they particularly associated with cobblers? I’d be more prone to a tack hammer.
Rhyming slang is a sore spot for me, I had a british friend who would bust it out and get upset that nobody got it. How the hell is someone supposed to follow your weird associations?
The only one that I ever got the first time was “Barney”. =Barney Rubble=trouble. I was quite intoxicated at the time.
I remember an interview with the slang lexicographer Jonathan Green in which he gave four examples of American rhyming slang, two of which I can currently recall.
Eighty Six = Nix
Duke = Duke of York = Fork = Hand = Fist (I shite you not - don’t blame me)
A British one almost as complicated: the expression “Not on your Nelly” (meaning No way, no chance) relies on.
Nelly = Nelly Duff = Puff = Breath = Life (thus, Not on your life).
My first exposure to cockney rhyming slang was the Kinks song “Harry Rag”, which I only understood after I heard the explanation by the announcer (don’t remember his name, he’s on countless BBC recordings from the time) for the BBC recording, which shows that also English listeners sometimes need rhyming slang explained.
In terms of describing a flow of water, USGS apparently says it goes river > stream > creek. However, in term of names, there is no actual difference: Lazy Creek could easily be as big as Roaring River, or even bigger. (“Stream” is generally not used in names.)
Google had a list at the bottom of other things that could be searched. One was Michael Bliss, who was a Canadian historian/actor. I don’t know if he had any connection to the phrase, but he existed.
