Again, the multiple lane change - chinese lane change?? WHAT? I’ve never heard of this. A Chinese Fire Drill of course is something totally different. My term for this is “lane surfing,” but that refers to someone weaving in and out of traffic at Stupid Speed than someone changing multiple lanes at once. I generally go with “asshole” as well.
Oh yeah, me too!! And a chinese fire drill was that silly (usually teenage) stunt where everyone jumps out of the car at a red light, dashes madly around it and jumps back in.
Guilty as charged, yer honor. I guess I just assumed that if you could do something ON purpose, you could do it ON accident. You don’t do things BY purpose, do you?
-When one takes another person along, one “carrys” them.
-One uses a “buggy” in which to put one’s groceries while shopping.
and, for some odd reason, I picked up on an unusual pronunciation of “protein”. I pronounce it 'pro-tee-in, rather than the more common 'pro-teen. I think I blame my 10th grade biology teacher for that.
Did the same thing with the lane change thing-checked “other” and typed in ‘I call the driver an idiot’.
And those things they put on top of ice cream are jimmies. They can be sprinkles, too. I’m surprised that wasn’t in there. That usually comes up in the soda/pop and milk shake/frappe discussion.
Wicked was definitely missing. I didn’t find out til I started posting on the internet about 7 years ago that it was just a regional word. Where are all you other wicked posters from? I’m curious how far it actually does reach. Someone mentioned they grew up in CT. I’m from MA.
LifeOnWry, it’s nothing personal. I don’t consider you a sub-human form of life because you say that, AND you have a point. I just happen to hate it. I understood that it was grammatically incorrect, but I honestly don’t know… I certainly have never run into it in a formal published work, but that doesn’t mean it’s unacceptable in colloquial spoken English. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though!
Things are wicked all the way down here in NZ. What puzzled me was that Americans “write someone” rather then write to someone. But my American is purely garnered from T.V and movies.
calm kiwi, the first time that I heard a Brit say, “I took her to hospital” instead of “I took her to the hospital,” I snapped a crick in the back of my neck.
I’m Southern but I throw my shoes on the floor. However, I do leave them in the floor.
My mother says piano as if it were pie-anna. And sometimes she calls it panna. That drives me crazy.
A lot of people in West Tennessee pronounce Clinton as if it were pronounced Clin’un – with a very very slight glottal stop. The same is true for other words ending in “ton.”
I’m worried I’m going to be an anomalous blip near Winnipeg. Plenty of my usages (autoroute, metro, etc) are Quebec English, a recently recognized dialect. Some other usages that didn’t make it on there are:
-subvention, meaning a subsidy;
-stage (pronounced stajh), meaning an internship
-cinq à sept, a cocktail party (especially one that takes place between five and seven o’clock);
-vernissage, a one-person art show/reception;
-danse à dix, a more salacious variety of a lap dance;
-inscription, meaning registration.
Seriously, it’s getting to the point where I had to think hard about what some of these are in English.
LifeOnWry,
I think the “going by” thing must be only a Chicago city thing. We don’t use it here in the suburbs, and we didn’t in the boonies where I grew up. The first couple of times I heard one of my city friends use it, I had to figure it out. I thought he meant just driving past the place.
Oh, and don’t forget the left-off “h” in words like “Nort’” and “Sout’”.
BTW, did you grow up in the 'burbs? Or are you a transplant?
Well, to throw you off, I’m in Tennessee, about 100 miles from where I grew up. I picked it up from my college roommate, in Maine. She was from Hingham, MA.
I also picked up “Draw” instead of “Drawer” from her, but I’ve managed to drop that from my vocab.