“Cheers”.
We watch a lot British TV and some shows use “cheers” to no end. While an American might use it as a toast or maybe even a farewell, I’ve seen it used as a general filler right between sentences. No one is coming/going/toasting or anything. I think it means “So that’s good.”
The use of “cheers”, spread into common use in the Canadian military as conversation closers (either verbal or email). We see that a lot in emails and often at the end of conversations.
On a slightly different note, in Canada, when I was in the military (which was somewhat bilingual), and in my current job in Montreal, I see some words which are technically the same or similar in French and English, somewhat misused in the other language.
For example, “seance” and “implicated” in French mean an information session, and “involved”, respectively. Technically they’re the same in English but with significantly different connotations.
I don’t the he would be described as “cute” here either. The word is often used to describe an attractive person, but it’s a kind of adjective that doesn’t really convey sexual hotness. Sort of like you can say that Scarlett Johansson is pretty, and that is something that means she is nice looking, but not necessarily saying she’s a hot babe.
“Cute” is like that, but it connotes a younger look. It has no sexual hotness meaning, so it’s safe to use when describing your boss’s daughter.
A younger good-looking man can be cute as well. But not Dwayne Johnson. “Cute” would be used to describe a nice-looking, boyish-faced younger man.
I can’t recall ever hearing it as general filler. In the contexts I’ve always heard it, it means something like “thanks!” (e.g. “say, Bob, can you hand me the spanner? Cheers!”) or as a general sign-off/see-you-later/have-a-nice day type of expression: (e.g. “It was lovely catching up, Bob. Cheers!”)
Is it used more broadly than that?
I love Montreal. Whenever I’m there I throw around as much Quebecois profanity as possible, within the bounds of justified use. There’s nothing quite like screaming TABARNAK out the window of my Uber at the dickhead who tried to cut us off, and getting a legitimately outraged expression out of the guy’s face.
Oh yeah, it works in parts of Nova Scotia also. Cape Breton area, Annapolis Royal, what have you. I swear that is my favorite part of the entire world. It’s a real life Wes Anderson movie being over there.
I have NO proof for this, but I think it’s possible that “cheers” as a drinking toast could be an echo of German “tschüs” as a drinking toast - they sound similar - rather than an English word about cheering.
In that case, “cheers” and “adios” and “adieu” and “good-bye” would be all exactly the same word, traveling by different routes to get to us, and now meaning different things.
“Mean.”
In the US, a mean person treats other people in a nasty manner.
In the UK, a mean person is a miser. “Mean Mister Mustard” was tight with money, as the lyrics imply.
There’s a discussion of “sorted” in British English here:
This blog is a fascinating source of information on the differences between US English and British English, some of which is not at all obvious. I never knew, for example, that the word “frown” means something completely different in the two countries:
BTW, I would say that none of the examples given in this thread so far are what the OP was asking for – words that have the same definition but are used differently. All the examples given here are words that have different meanings. Although I’m not really clear on what the OP means by “same meaning but used differently”. Even their original example, “brilliant” seems to me to have two different meanings – either “very clever” (US) or “very good” (UK).
In English, “formidable” is generally used to mean fearsome, intimidating, menacing—a formidable army, a formidable opponent.
In French, “formidable” is usually positive; it means impressive, fantastic, amazing. A juggler can have formidable skills; a formidable chef makes wonderful food.
It’s essentially the same word, but English and French speakers spin it in different ways.
It seems to mean something different even within the US, depending on your generation and region, it seems. I had no idea a frown could be used to refer to a furrowed brow. For me, it’s always been a facial/mouth expression.
For example, from the comments:
I am absolutely stunned. I have never known it could be used to refer to the furrowed brow expression.
I wonder what those folks think when they hear the phrase “Turn that frown upside-down”?
There is some discussion of that phrase in the blog and comments. Generally it seems most of the British speakers had never understood the phrase, or thought of it as some abstract metaphor. I think it’s fair to say that almost all the commenters, both British and American, were pretty stunned to discover the “other” meaning of this word.
As an American, having read the blog post and all the comments, I admit that I’m puzzled by the whole “frown” discussion, in that I think of a frown as a facial expression.
That is, I don’t think of it as occurring either on the forehead or on the mouth, but on the entire face. Does it involve a furrowed brow? Yes. Does it involve a downturned mouth? Yes. It involves both. When you frown, you exhibit both of those characteristics. If I were asked something like “Where does a frown happen?,” I couldn’t possibly be more specific than “On your face.” Being asked to narrow it down any more precisely than that just strikes me as nonsensical.
Anyone else have that feeling?
I didn’t know that, and I’ve lived in the U.S. for about 15 years.
I agree that it’s a facial expression, but I think it’s a question of what’s facial features are principally involved in making that expression. A smile is unambiguously principally the mouth moving. A frown (to me as a Brit, anyway) barely involves any mouth movement at all, it’s principally the forehead furrowing and the brows pushing out and down over the eyes.
A minor English Spanish one is orquestra/orchestra. A Spanish orquestra can play any type of music (pop, salsa, jazz) whereas an English orchestra is strictly for Classical music.
To me, a frown is this: :(. I don’t think of a furrowed brow as having to go along with it.I suppose it can or maybe often does, but, to me, a furrowed brow can express a range of other emotions. To me, a furrowed brow is intense concentration/confusion, whereas a frown is disapproval/sadness.
So, a related question is possible differences in the range meaning of a frown. To me it’s disapproval, or possibly intense concentration, but never sadness. (I’m British)
But what sense of “frown” are you using? The furrowed brow? Then that’s the same as I interpret it.