Americanisms II

Continued from Americanisms.

I know someone who thinks we shouldn't use the word "revisit" because it's an Americanism. He wants to remove them all from the language. Going back to Jamestown? I asked. Yes, the lot. And how are you going to do that? He was strangely silent.

But he's not alone.

H.W. Fowler (1858–1933) in The King’s English, 1908 says:
"Americanisms are foreign words, and should be so treated... A very firm stand ought to be made against placate, transpire and antagonize." He condemns Kipling for using the words shrimp-pink and honey-coloured.

And according to the wonderful and crowd-sourced Urban Dictionary, Americanisms are:

"garbled English masquerading as the correct way to speak in today's global village"

and

"ridiculous mispellings and mispronunciations of the beautiful English language by the Yanks. This often involves missing vitally important letters from such words as 'herbs' (in American ''erbs'); maths ('math'); through (thru) and bizarre pronunciations of words such as basil ('baysill'); mirror ('meeyor')and aluminium (alloominum). We invented it, albeit it with a little help from Ancient Romans, Celts and French so stop messing around with it!"

And the Economist Style Guide says:

"Vilest of all is the habit of throwing together several nouns into one ghastly adjectival reticule: Texas millionaire real-estate developer and failed thrift entrepreneur Hiram Turnipseed..."

Educated Americans go to great lengths to avoid compound adjectives like this – preferring to break up sentences with endless qualifying clauses, separated by commas. Yanks, eh?

American and British English began to diverge in 1607. Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828, and Americans follow the modern version.

Sometimes we pick up words from them, sometimes they borrow from us.
Get over it! (As they would say.)

Americanisms

Americans use our language and have the NERVE to speak and write it differently! They were our colony until they won their freedom and we lost the war - but we were still top nation! Except now we aren't and they want to take over the world. So let's fight back - by shunning all Americanisms! Yes, that's going to work. Or "good luck with that", as they would say.

America on the left, Britain on the right. And IN the right.
a few months back: ... ago
a while back: some time ago
advisory: hint, tip, warning, public service broadcast/announcement etc
after an elapse of years: a lapse of years
all of: all
alternate: alternative
around: round, about
aside from: apart from
atop: on top of, on, up

beat out: beat
besides: beside
birthing: giving birth

bucolic: pastoral (to me bucolic means large, fat, dim 19th century agricultural workers with amusing West Country accents, ghastly mumming plays and incomprehensible jokes about “turmuts”)
bumble: bungle

bundt pans: jelly moulds
burn ward: burns ward

canopy bed: fourposter
chichi: chic
chomping at the bit: champing
cobblestone: cobbled (if streets are cobbled, they always have to mention it)
cup cake: fairy cake with mounds of vivid icing and sprinkles

deadly: anything that makes people die (deadly force)
depthless: bottomless
deviltry: devilry
differ with: don’t agree with
done: carried out/on
down to: due to, up to
duplex: semi

ever-(fickle etc): always
face time: meeting in RL
fancy: elaborate, elegant
feckless: useless, powerless, lackadaisical, weedy
file cabinet: filing cabinet
finish line: finishing line
footless: inept or awkward (dates from 1398 according to Webster)
freight train: goods train
French: French people, the French (many French disapprove of José Bové)
from here on in: from now
full-fledged: fully fledged

get in trouble: get into trouble
give them the heads-up: tell them to look out
go belly up: fail, founder
graduate: unis graduate students, and students “are graduated”
guys in ties: suits

hall: corridor
happenstance: chance
has to be: is surely
Have a nice day: Goodbye
He talks a good game: He's all mouth.
He’s got game (He Got Game is the title of a movie)
heads up: advance notice, warning, hint, tip, advice
high-strung: highly-strung
hurt: harm, damage
hurting: suffering

I guess: I imagine
in hopes of: in hope of
is set to: will, is destined to
issue: problem

lease on life: lease of life
light fixture: light fitting

lilt: any language or accent other than American English (critics complained Dodie Smith’s plays were written in a “bird-like lilt that is so British” and always mentioned teacups, teapots, drawing rooms or just tea)

MacGyver: jury-rig, cobble up

middle class: lower middle to working class (in Britain “middle class” means posh or even smug, pretentious and uptight)

more nuanced: less obvious, subtle, underhand
nauseous: nauseating (but Charlotte Bronte used nauseous to mean sick-making)
neat (neat-oh!)
nuance: insinuation, euphemism, subtlety, weasel word

obsess: be obsessed with
on par with: on a par with
on second thought: on second thoughts
outcropping (used to mean islet): outcrop (only used for “land islet”)

panderer: pander (n)
parking garage: carpark
parse: interpret
persnickety: pernickety
pile into: crowd into, not criticize
plenty good enough: good enough
pocket/wallet: money, ability to pay
position: policy, stance
pry open: prise open
pushpin: map tack

rankled: disgruntled
restless: untiring
right now: now
rightfully: rightly
roil: upset
run scared

salt shaker: salt cellar
save out: save
say: for example
shooter: sniper, marksman, gunman

skittish: Americans use “skittish” to mean nervous, wary. We use it to mean arch, playful, unreliable, like a horse dancing about and shying at plastic bags, or a woman of a certain age slapping your wrist with her fan and screaming “La, Sir Percy!”.

sling: dispense (like slinging hash)
specter: threat, bogeyman
spin out: spin off

sport/sports: They wear a sport jacket, but talk about sports. (We wear a sports jacket and talk about sport.) They work in the missions, not mission, field. They say “legal protections” not protection. They change directions, not direction. They say brick-and-mortar, not bricks-and-mortar. They say “Everybody must use their brain” (not “use their brains”).

spotty: patchy
sputter: splutter
stomping ground: stamping ground
stop/prevent from: stop, prevent
strike down: They “strike down” a law or judgement instead of abolishing or overturning it.
substantive: substantial
the word on the street: rumour
tight-knit: tightly knit
topic A
toss out (or just toss): chuck out, throw out
track: add up “It doesn’t track”
tricksy: tricky

ugly: used metaphorically, as in an ugly action
under the hood: under the bonnet
vent: air, express (emotions)
wake up and smell the coffee: live in the real world
worked just fine: functioned acceptably

More here, and links to the rest.