# Why "and the great glass elevator" and not "the great glass lift"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506 "2012-09-12T14:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Piranha\_Brothers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@The\_Piranha\_Brothers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Piranha_Brothers)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/1 "2012-09-12T14:30:12Z")
AFAIK the UK word is “lift” while “elevator” is for the US. So why is it “Charlie and the great glass elevator”? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/2 "2012-09-12T14:33:58Z")
Could be because the book was published in the US first. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/3 "2012-09-12T14:39:41Z")
Elevator makes for a better-sounding title, and while we use the word “lift” ourselves, everyone knows what an elevator is. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/4 "2012-09-12T14:45:41Z")
I meant to add, the above is just a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/5 "2012-09-13T16:02:59Z")
From [Sparknotes](http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/charlie/section5.rhtml): > [@](#): > > While walking home from school one day, Charlie notices a green piece of paper half buried in the snow. It is a dollar bill. Charlie looks around to see who might have dropped it, but no one is there. He realizes that it now belongs to him. Charlie carefully extracts the dollar from the snow and gazes at it. The book doesn’t specify where Charlie lives, but the fact that he found a dollar bill could indicate that he lives in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/6 "2012-09-13T21:29:09Z")
The money Charlie finds varies between different editions of the book. A dollar in US editions, 50p in UK. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/7 "2012-09-13T21:32:21Z")
Even in British usage, as others have said, “elevator” will be understood - and it sounds a lot grander and more impressive than a mere “lift”. British astrophysicists don’t talk about “space lifts”. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/8 "2012-09-13T21:47:10Z")
This is just a SWAG, but: “elevator” is more metrically satisfying than “lift”. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-and-the-great-glass-elevator-and-not-the-great-glass-lift/634506/9 "2012-09-13T22:05:10Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Could be because the book was published in the US first. But at the same time, it’s not “everlasting jawbreaker,” but “everlasting gobstopper.” When I first heard this term, I assumed “gobstopper” was something Roald Dahl made up, instead of being the generic British term for a jawbreaker.