I think the word “ass” for “donkey” goes back to Old English and earlier; the “ass” for “bottom” is a corruption of “arse”.
An English woman I met once mentioned a baby’s “button”. It took a while for me to figure out what she was referring to. She asked, “What do you call that in America?” “A ‘pacifier’.” “That makes sense.”
Ass as buttocks was “impolite” long before people were throwing around “asshole” all the time. It’s generally considered a swear word, even on its own without hole, albeit not in the same category as the f-bomb or worse that you can’t even say on TV, more like bitch*. It’s certainly a word you couldn’t get away saying in front of most grownups if you were a kid in the 80’s.
*-bitch as in a term of disrespect for a woman, or a mean woman, or an assault on a man’s manliness, not as in “a female canine”
A pacifier is usually referred to in Britain as a baby’s dummy.
Lots of different things, to be honest - there’s no one single term that I’m aware of. Processed cheese slices, burger cheese or just calling it by the brand name. Of course, with the internet spreading Americanisms around even more than before, some people might now call it American cheese.
Course, if it was a South Park quote, then several of us have been whooshed.
I’ve only ever heard it called a dummy. Maybe button’s a regional thing.
@gigi: yep, for suspenders too. Over here, suspenders are the things that hold women’s lacy stockings up. It’s slightly amusing to hear staid old men described as wearing suspenders. 
FTR, I did mention that I’ve heard pants used for women’s underwear too, but it is definitely rarer than knickers (which is an extraordinarily silly-sounding word).
I think that use of badge is actually used in America, just not as much, I’ve heard it used before at least. The “kneejerk” word would probably be pin or button, but badge is also a possibility.
Pins are often smaller too, when I hear “button” I tend to think of rather large, cheaply made things a housewife who is volunteering for their local church pressed themselves from stuff they printed out. “Pin” strikes me more as the things you get from Spencer’s (that you are often put on backpacks).
Unoffensive, yes, but mockable. To be honest I’d probably let out a snerk if anyone said that. In fact, I’d say “bum” (or, in a formal situation, “buttocks”) probably is about as offensive and doesn’t cause a laugh to slip (maybe that’s just my family though).
Didn’t it refer to those silly looking shorts American boys wore prior to the 1930s?
Yeah, I realized that–corrected myself on page one.
Obviously the onions on their belts were dragging their pants down…
Ah, yes, it’s certainly contextual. The word “ass” for buttocks is still impolite today. What I’m regarding as unfortunate is that “ass” as a descriptor for a rude, stubborn, or obstinate person is too often regarded as impolite, due to the over use of “ass”-as-buttocks and “asshole”-as-ass. It’s common to call someone an asshole when what you really want to say is ass. It’s corrupted the politeness of “ass,” which is (or should be) a perfectly fine word.
Balthisar, you wrote:
> At some point (either or before the use of “ass” in the above context), the word
> has come to refer to the derriere . . .
This would seem to imply that we know of a time when it didn’t apply to the derriere. In fact, the word seems to have meant the same thing clear back to the time of proto-Germanic and possibly back to the time of proto-Indo-European.
Not so. While it would be unfair to say that US men’s shoe sizes have no rhyme or reason, they don’t have very much, either. Length of the foot in inches and shoe size approach each other for a 10-11 inch foot, but past that there’s not much similarity.
I guess I don’t see that. At some point in time, the word “ass” (or its proto-Indo-European root) started to mean derriere. Prior to that, the word/sound either didn’t exist or meant something else. Hence, it had to “have come to refer” to its meaning at some point in time. It didn’t always exist. Or I’m totally misunderstanding you, or you me.
It sure sounds like you’re talking about recent times when you say:
> . . . either or before the use of “ass” in the above context . . .
I can’t see any way to read what you wrote as meaning clear back in the time of the proto-Indo-Europeans.
D’oh, sorry, I missed your correction. Oh well, I just like talking about old types of clothes!
I see. I don’t know how far back it goes. I’m originally only pointing out that it’s different, which is why I also indicate before or after. We could clarify things by understanding that “ass” and “ass” are homonyms, and I’m suggesting that they’ve become muddled in recent times. It wasn’t my attention to focus on the history of “ass = derriere,” whose history is irrelevant (‘either or before the use of “ass” in the above context’), but rather how “ass” as “rear end” leads to asshole – being located there – and the modern interpretation of the homonym “ass” being used in place of “asshole”, when they really have two separate meanings and histories.
Saying, “he’s an ass” isn’t supposed to the same thing as “he’s an asshole,” and both asses have different histories; the former is a donkey, and the latter refers to the butt. In today’s usage, though, many people decry “ass” as impolite because they incorrectly make the association with the latter usage above. I hope I’m clearer now, and I think I understand your point.
O.K., I see your point now.
Square cheese
American here: I think of suspenders as being the vulgar clip-on things you get at a novelty store, very elastic, attach to the pants, more for show than function. When you go to a men’s store for a suit and they sew buttons into the waistline, those are for braces.
Is that a common distinction, or am I being a snob?
And doesn’t vest refer to something different in British English than it does in N.A. English?
I think so: it’s an item of clothing (usually sleeveless, but it can have sleeves sometimes) worn under other clothing to keep warm.
It’s also a buttonless top which has no sleeves and is worn as an outer garment (sometimes over another top, but more often on its own). Americans use the word vest in that way too sometimes, though, don’t they? I’ve certainly heard a couple of Americans refer use the word that way, at least, but two people is not exactly a large sample and they were Americans living in England.
It’s definitely not a garment which is primarily designed to be worn over shirts and has buttons (those things that you use as fasteners :D) down the front. That’s a waistcoat.
This is a difference that genuinely caused me some confusion when reading American books and watching American media. John removing his vest in a crowded room at an overwarm party would be a little more revealing in the UK than in the US, and it’s hard to see how a woman could admire the silk vest of a fully-besuited man.
Similar with ‘washing up.’ Over here, that’s ‘washing the dishes.’ For many years I was nonplussed by the apparent American practice of washing the dishes before dinner rather than after, as a point of etiquette rather than ‘oh balls, I’ve run out of clean plates.’
Given the number of US-UK clothing term differences that have been mentioned in this thread, and the many that haven’t (tank top is used differently; turtlenecks are polonecks; deck shoes are canvas shoes, and so on), it’s surely not surprising that I didn’t know that Americans use the same word for shirt buttons as the UK does.