Divided by a common language (mildly saucy)
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
A quip often attributed to George Bernard Shaw is that Great Britain and the US are two countries divided by a common language. Nowadays I would extend this to include Australia, New Zealand and the individual countries within the UK.
Most of us in the UK are well aware of this phenomenon because we are exposed to so much US and Aussie TV, and meet so many people from other Anglophone countries (and Scotland). The advent of channels showing UK TV on cable may also be raising awareness in the US.
However, what follows is a word (or words) of warning to those wishing to avoid embarrassing situations in discussions with Geeks from other countries. So, if you don't want to be tagged as a homophobic serial killer, or indeed to have hot meat and potato welded to your nipples read on.
Warning: The following contains mild sexual content (oops, one paragraph too late) and several digs at the inhabitants of countries other than my own. You want to dig back, add a word. I am big enough to take it.
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Thong: The word that inspired this list. Used by an Aussie in the phrase "I tripped over my thong". That sounded pretty painful to me and brought some bizzare pictures into my mind until I found out:
Thong (AS) - Sandal or flip-flop
Thong (UK) - G-string
-
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Which brings me on to Suspenders: In the UK you might pair these with a thong as this nice lady appears to have done.
Suspenders (UK) - Attachements on a garter belt used to hold stockings up
Suspenders (US) - Loops of elastic running from a trouser waistband over the shoulders, in order to avoid the trousers falling down. Known in the UK as Braces:
Braces (UK) - Loops of elastic running from a trouser waistband over the shoulders, in order to avoid the trousers falling down
Braces (US) - A wire contraption fixed to the teeth to gradually realign them.
More smut later.
-
-
3.
Board Game: CHiPs
[Average Rating:5.00 Unranked]
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Supper: a UK only one this.
Supper (England, South) - The evening meal
Supper (England, North) - A small bite to eat late at night (usually just before going to bed)
Supper (Scotland) - With chips, and taken any time of the day. As in that famous Scottish health food menu:
- Deep fried mars bar 2.50
- Deep fried mars bar supper 4.00
Whilst we are at it, that is Chips as in
Chips (UK) - Deep-fried sticks of potato known as French (or Freedom) Fries in less enlightened parts of the world.
Chips (US) - Thin, deep-fried slices of potato, known as crisps in civilised parts of the globe.
-
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Public School: This one always struck me as odd. In the UK, if you went to a public school your parents took you out of state education and paid money to a private establishment to educate you. In the US, if you went to a public school you were in state education.
Actually, I think the US may have a point on this one, our public schools aren't exactly open to most of the public.
-
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Pants: Easy rule of thumb. Americans and superman wear these on the outside, in the UK we wear them under our trousers (as modelled effortlessly by Billy Shatner here).
Pants (UK) - undergarments for the nether regions
Pants (US) - Trousers
-
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Pasties: OK, so the UK version is pronounced with a short a and the US version with a long one but....
Pasties (US) - a small piece of tasselled cardboard pasted to the nipple of an 'exotic dancer' to avoid corrupting men who have paid good money to come in here and see some flesh.
Pasties (UK) - a regional delicacy made of folded pastry containing a savoury filling and served cold or piping hot.
Believe me, you don't want to get these two mixed up.
-
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Fag: Tip to people from the North of England. No matter how gasping you are, never never come out with "I could murder a fag" in San Fransisco.
Mind you, it could garner you invitations to join several 'citizens organisations' in the flyover states.
Fag (UK) - Cigarette
Fag (US) - Homosexual
I was in two minds about which image to use here, this was the other but it struck me as a little too hetero.
-
-
8.
Board Game: Bummer
[Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Back to the smut, and one of my favourite parts of the anatomy. It is so versatile - sexy in some cases, a source of humour in others. Often pleasing to the eye but offensive to the nose. Yes, I am talking about the situpon.
Bum (UK) - situpon
Bum (US) - tramp, lazy person
Fanny (US) - situpon
Fanny (UK) - ahem, the bit that a thong DOES cover (and I don't mean the foot)
So fanny pack (US) = bum bag (UK)
-
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Rubber: Such a simple substance and yet so versatile
Rubber (UK) - a device for erasing mistakes
Rubber (US) - a device for avoiding mistakes
The UK equivalent incidentally would be a Rubber Johnny (hence the character name in Marshall Law).
-
-
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Pissed: A great old English etymology this one.
pissed (UK) - drunk
pissed (US) - angry
And lets face it, if you have made it this far you are probably one or the other.
-
-
Vetrhus of Rogaland
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
West over water I fared bearing poetry's waves to the shore of the war-god's heart; my course was set. I launched my oaken craft at the breaking of ice, loaded my cargo of praise aboard my longboat aft.
-
It has to be added to every geeklist--mandatory BGG rules state as much.
Seriously though, growing up my parents used this term for the television... and it still doesn't make sense to me. But, then again, I don't have HBO.
BOOB TUBE
But in the UK English for the American Novice list, this is an entry...
BOOB TUBE n. 1. Slang term for a tank top or knitted sleeve top. This never means TELLY. "The men were all glued to the BOOB TUBE" would raise a completely wrong image to the British.
We would call that clothing item a "tube top" here in the states.
-
-
Vetrhus of Rogaland
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
West over water I fared bearing poetry's waves to the shore of the war-god's heart; my course was set. I launched my oaken craft at the breaking of ice, loaded my cargo of praise aboard my longboat aft.
-
SCRUBBER: In the United States the term for a sponge with an abrasive pad on one side for washing dishes and the like.
UK--SCRUBBER n. 1. Young lady of dubious integrity. A tart.
(Hopefully one wouldn't hire a maid who was a scrubber using a scrubber...)
Which reminds me of a joke... an elderly man met a hooker on the street corner while out one night and she approached him,
"Hey old-timer, for $10 I will do whatever you ask of me..."
The man says, "Anything?"
"Sure, aaaanyything you wish, sugar."
With vigor, the man straightens up, hands her a ten dollar bill,
and exclaims,
"Paint my house!"
-
-
13.
Board Game: The Bill
[Average Rating:5.44 Unranked]
Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
-
Which reminds me Bill:
Bill (UK) - Something you pay
Bill (US) - Something you pay with
Also, as with this game, the Bill (UK) - the long arm of the law, originally the Old Bill and presumably Cockney ryhming slang for something.
-
-
14.
Board Game: Catnap
[Average Rating:5.10 Unranked]
Vetrhus of Rogaland
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
West over water I fared bearing poetry's waves to the shore of the war-god's heart; my course was set. I launched my oaken craft at the breaking of ice, loaded my cargo of praise aboard my longboat aft.
-
NAPPY n. 1. Diaper. UK
Nappy n. 1. A person of African desent who has tightly coiled unkept hair; 2. locks of hair that are tightly curled that appear unwashed and uncombed. US hip-hop terminology
Sholanda has such nappy hair you can see her buckshots even after she gets a perm.
So, what Don Imus got fired for would be sillier if the UK version was utilized for nappy...?
-
-
Scott Russell
United States
Clarkston
Michigan
-
Boot can be a noun or verb
Noun
US: high topped (but not athletic) outer foot wear. (also in UK?)
UK: storage compartment accessed from rear of car. (trunk in US)
As verb
US: kicking someone or something (out)
UK: putting in trunk of car?
Acutally consulting www.dictionary.com, it has a lot of meanings.
-
-
Scott Russell
United States
Clarkston
Michigan
-
Can you believe that there aren't any games in the database with bonnet in the name?
US - bonnet is something worn on the head usually with a festive or ornamental connotation. (also UK, it seems)
UK - automobile engine covering called a hood in US.
So would bees in a bonnet in the UK have a similar meaning be similar to "orcs in the hood" in the US? (An undesirable infestation in a car engine?)
-
-
David Seddon
United Kingdom
Congleton
Cheshire
-
And of course...
What is known as football in the US is known as incomprehensible rubbish here in the UK.
Here "soccer" is football.
What the Americans call football has very little to do with feet and even less to do with a "beautiful game."
I have never understood the fascination with a game where almost every movement is pre-planned and in which most of the action is actually pauses. To me, when they shout out numbers in a sport it's akin to asking Rembrandt to paint by them.
No, this is a real cultural difference between the US and a whole host of others - and it is not meant to hijack the thread, but you'd gotta admit...it's not the same.
And of course, here we have Rugby, anyway.
-
-
David Seddon
United Kingdom
Congleton
Cheshire
-
When an American asks to use the bathroom, he is not wanting to go for a long soak.
I am not 100% sure, but I think the word toilet is probably rude in America. Here, if we want to be rude we ask "where's the bog?"
-
-
19.
Board Game: Chuckers
[Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
David Seddon
United Kingdom
Congleton
Cheshire
-
When I first went to America, I found the word "Barf" to be most amusing. Was this a relative of Bart and Homer?
We never use the word in Blighty. Here, we are inclined to "throw up," "chuck up," "toss our salad," or just be plain "sick."
-
-
Albert Hernandez
United States
Greenville
South Carolina
-
Shag
US: In South Carolina, it's the state dance. Someone down the the road has a big "Shag" flag on their front yard.
UK: It involves swinging hips, but it's not done in public.
-
-
Peter Johns
United States
Houston
Texas
-
As an englishman residing in Texas I've had to learn a lot of these words to make sure I don't embarrass my self too much.
The first time a guy came up to me, stuck out his hand and said "Hi, I'm Randy!"... there was a definite pause while I tried to think of how to politely respond.
U.S. Randy = Man's Name
U.K. Randy = Horny
-
-
Walt
United States
Orange County
California
-
Much more could be said about roads. The comment about driving on parkways and parking on driveways doesn't really apply in a major metro area.
I'm mostly going to comment from a Californian perspective. I'd like to hear British, Aussie, NZ, East Coast (US), Southern (US), and Midwest (US) perspectives.
Route 66 ran from Los Angeles to Chicago, and is possibly the most famous highway in the US. Though replaced by the interstate highway system, state segments are often preserved as state routes or highways. "Route" doesn't imply anything except that the road carries some special designator other than its name, usually a number.
Highway is a variable term in the US. It may mean anything from an interstate highway to an important two lane road, meaning two lanes total, one in each direction.
An interstate is a part of The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, usually just called the interstate highways, or just the interstate. However, parts of this system are called various things in various places.
In Califonia, a public, limited access highway, part of the interstate or not, is called a freeway. This is a highway that has restricted access, that is, it cannot be accessed by every road that crosses it; and it has no traffic signals on it, but uses on-ramps and off-ramps. (It is called a freeway because it has no tolls.) In the eastern US, such a road may be called an expressway or a parkway. Motorway is not used in the US as far as I know. In California, Freeways are nearly always referred to by their numbers, since names are assigned oddly, sometimes to multiple numbered freeways.
A limited access highway for which a fee is charged is demoted to a toll road, though its construction may be identical to a freeway. Around me, toll roads are a political accommodation between home builders and county government to spare the builders from actually having to fund the highways needed to service their communities. While these toll roads theoretically pay their own way and are funded by corporate bonds, the bonds are backed by the county, so they are not strictly a private enterprise and the investors have essentially zero risk.
A highway in California, as mentioned, can be a two lane road with a number. But it can also be something like the Pacific Coast Highway, which is a non-controlled access road, varying from two to six lanes (or more), depending on the local population. If I recall correctly, Australia also has a Pacific Coast Highway, but they're not connected.
A parkway, in my area of California, is a four or six lane road with parks or greenbelts on either side. While parkways have signals, the number of streets allowed to cross the parkway is limited; lesser streets more often T into the parkway than cross it. Traffic signals are not first-come, first-served, but favor the traffic on the parkway.
While I use road as a general term here, usually a road would refer to a small road in the country. In the city or suburbs, it would be called a street. Streets are variously named avenues, drives, boulevards, streets, and other designations, with no particular meaning.
Many places in the US (though not so many in California) have a grid naming system dating from 19th century recommendations. The center of the grid might be designated by streets named "Main," "Center," or the name of the town. For example, the original square mile of Anaheim (Disneyland's suburb) had Anaheim Blvd. and Center St. crossing in its center, and it was bounded, unimaginatively, by North, East, South, and West streets. Some cities have numbered streets, like New York's famous 42nd Street or 7th Avenue (streets go one direction, avenues at right angles), or lettered streets, or both, especially in the towns founded by railroad expansion. Sometimes, numbered streets start from some geographic boundary: the ocean, a river, the railroad tracks. Sometimes, numbered streets extend north and south and lettered streets east and west (or vice versa), distinguished as E 1st St. and W 1st St., or even by 1st St. and 1st. Ave. (avenue). Occasionally, you'll see something like 2 1/2 St. One city here has numbered streets running E-W; and little numbered "places" (1st Place, 2nd Place...) running N-S in one area, but generally N-S letter streets (Alamitos, Bonito, Cerritos--the D street got renamed, though Ximeno remains).
Washington DC's ordinary streets (and those of many other US cities) are 1st St., 2nd St. etc. and A St., B St. etc., but it has two of each and (in theory) four intersections of any combination, one in each of the four quadrants of the city, NW, NE, SW, and SE. D and 6th, with no quadrant designation, refers to four different locations. DC has addresses like 123 6th St. NW; other cities make the quadrant importance more obvious, like 123 NW 6th St.
These systems are a bit over-mechanical, but they have the convenience of knowing that 750 A St. is midway between 7th and 8th. Generally, addresses are numbered from some local reference point, even numbers to the south and east, odd to the north and west. This is a great convenience, though an address of 30,000 using Los Angeles as a reference though it's sixty miles away in a different county is a bit over the top. Named addresses, as in Britain(?) wouldn't be understood, generally. Though sometimes a company will build its own road so it can be "1 Ego Corp Road," the Japanese custom of numbering in order of construction isn't used. (How do you find a Japanese address? If you don't know, you have no business going there.)
Traffic circles are rare, but coming back into use for low speed intersections. Rotary or roundabout would not be recognized here, or, I think, in most of the US.
Usually, large intersections are controlled by a signal or a traffic light (singular, though obviously using many lights). Referring to a single intersection signal as "traffic lights" would confuse people here.
Small intersections may use a signal, or several or one stop sign. A yield sign at an intersection or a four-way intersection with no signs or signal is rare in the LA area.
-
-
23.
Board Game: Roots
[Average Rating:2.67 Unranked]
Paul Kidd
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
-
Root:
Standard English: The part of a plant that secures it to the ground and draws in water and nutrients.
Australia: v/n Equivalent to shag (UK), screw (US).
-
-
Lexingtonian
United States
Unspecified
Massachusetts
-
In England, if a hotel employee offers to knock you up, they are offering to wake you up in the morning.
In the U.S., if someone knocks you up, they've made you pregnant.
-
-
25.
Board Game: Snog
[Average Rating:2.00 Unranked]
Brendan Tracey
United States
Unspecified
-
I'll have to admit, I thought JK Rowling made this word up when I first read book 6.
Snog (UK): Kiss
Snog (US): A made up word use to rhyme with bog.
-
-
|
|
Posted Sun Apr 15, 2007 2:55 pm
, you meant the pastry...
