Yes, it’s a Cambridge University thing. May Week and the May Ball used to be in May before the end of year exams. But they decided to move it to after the exams as it was too much of a distraction. But tradition is big at Cambridge so they kept the old name.
I figured it was. They were punting on the river (is it the Cam?) at Cambridge at the time. That scene was from “Shada,” the story that was never finished because of a strike at the BBC, but it was later repurposed for “The Five Doctors.”
Given that “prom” is short for promenade, [To walk slowly along a path for pleasure or the path itself] "Going to the prom would only apply to the path, whereas going to prom would apply the the pleasurable walk.
Exactly this. The Welsh word for “fortnight,” “pythefnos,” too, is literally “fifteen nights.”
The weather’s too cold in May, duh.
And Oktoberfest is in September.
nm. Didn’t notice it was such an old thread.
Not to be confused with The Proms.
Prom is short for promenade concert , a term which originally referred to outdoor concerts in London’s pleasure gardens, where the audience was free to stroll around while the orchestra was playing.
And the Great October Socialist Revolution took place in November. (of course - you could be using the “Old Style” calendar).
One that always throws me off is the word “jumper”
If it’s a British person saying it, they men what Americans call a sweater. A jumper in american fashion, it’s this
For a German IT guy like me, a jumper is this:
That’s a pinafore.
Maybe I’m just a dude, but I’ve never heard of the term used for a dress in the US. It’s the PC part to short pins. Or I suppose a suicidal person…
What do you call this?
It’s partly because you’re male ( I think that’s what you’re saying, anyway) and partly because the last time they were in style for adult women was in the '80s. You really only see them nowadays for girls under about 10 - and even for them, it’s mostly school uniforms.
Pinafore in the US is a type of apron with a front bib but no back. Pinny refers to a type of shirt worn over a gym uniform to distinguish one team from another.
Well. In the country I grew up in (Aotearoa/New Zealand), I would call that a turtleneck jersey. In the country I reside in now (Australia), I would call it a turtleneck jumper. So let’s just call it a turtleneck.
I came to the US in the 1980s from Pakistan and the sweater-jumper thing confused the hell out of me (among many other words and phrases discussed in this thread). [American] Jumpers were quite popular for women of all ages at the time.
And yes in Pakistan that was called a pinafore. It was a common part of a school uniform, but also otherwise. Was a favorite of MiniMouse when she was under 10. I’m looking a framed picture of her in one right now.
Thanks to the globalization of media English in Pakistan is much more American than British nowadays. At least in accents. But I do know that what were trainers 40 years ago are now called sneakers.
If you never bought women’s clothing before say, 1995(in th US), you wouldn’t have even run across the term (as it relates to clothing) Like Doreen said, it hasn’t been fashionable for adults for a long time. Except for the link, all the google results were American Girl dolls.
I might call it a turtleneck, but there are a lot of what y’all call jumpers that aren’t turtleneck. I call it a sweater.
But what causes the cognitive dissonance for me isn’t that it’s a different word. That comes from the fact that what I call a jumper is NOT cold weather clothing. It certainly isn’t worn to stay warm on a cold winter day. So when I read about a character putting on a jumper and jeans to go out in the cold, it throws me for a loop.
Does anyone even know the origin of the term?
I’ve noticed on Heartbeat that Gina uses “ta ra” sometimes as if to say goodbye. Is that common in England or is that a northern thing? Does anyone say “ta ta” as you might (rarely) hear in the US?
When it was time to name frozen treats on sticks, the word lollipop was split up, with the British talking the front for ice lolly and the Americans the back for popsicle. After weeks of testy negotiations and a few hotly disputed coin tosses.