John wrote:

quote:

Wikipedia describes it as a Jewish religious holiday

In Judaism, the "High Holidays" (pl.) refer to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This period, at the beginning of the Jewish New Year, is also described as the "Days of Awe."

Ann

I haven't been involved in this discussion for quite some time; I found a reference to this article about language differences:
The land of lateral speaking

I happened to come across this website, which is a user's guide for Americans for British English.

Interesting and funny, too.

Here's another one that took me some getting used to:

UK: Attitude
US: Manner, behaviour, opinion, stance, position

US: Attitude
UK: (I think, but maybe I've misunderstood) Arrogance, pomposity, condescension, self-importance.

I was genuinely confused when I first heard an American using "attitude" in a way that was obviously meant to mean a bad attitude in some way. For me, it's always been a neutral term on its own: it has to be qualified to mean anything negative (as in "Well, if THAT's your attitude", following by slamming of doors, etc.). But it's quite normal to say "X's attitude is that...." as an entirely neutral description of someone's opinion or assumptions about something.

Am I right in thinking this is a fairly recent introduction in the US (say, in the last 30 years or so)?

Yes, I think you're right that using "attitude" to mean "bad attitude" is fairly recent. Sometimes it's even just tude.

I would say that nowadays "attitude" requires some kind of qualification when you *don't* mean "bad attitude." One can say, for example, "Joe has such a great attitude" or "Well, it depends on your attitude--you should try to be more positive" but if you say someone's "got attitude"/"serious attitude"/"major 'tude" then the connotation is always that said person has "an attitude problem."

... but I guess that's exactly what you were saying already, Patrick...

I'm just wondering if I'll ever be in a situation to describe someone as a rude tude dude. Not sure it'd be worth the aggravation.

Maybe just settle for "That dude's got 'tude—majorly rude!", if you're in the mood.

Here's another great US vs English English site.

Here's one that hasn't come up so far, although it's not strictly speaking proper English English. It's more colloquial - but used a lot.

Kip: it means a nap, or a sleep. Mostly used as a noun, as in "I was having a kip when..." but I have heard it used as a verb, such as "He's kipping in living room."

I'm not sure where the word comes from - could it be dutch do you think?

It's from the Danish "kippe" - a hovel (but somewhere to sleep).

Whereas "kip" in Dutch = chicken.

quote:

rude tude dude

I like that one, Patrick. May I borrow it? I'll try to find an appropriate occasion to use it.

Ann

Oooh, sixpence a go licence fee, I think, Ann..

I have a question for ST folk across the pond about this "snog" verb. I'm just listening to the Stephen Fry narration of the last Harry Potter book, and somehow, in the audio version, the incessant use of "snog" is far more irritating to me than it was when I initially read the story.

Do you really always say "snogging" rather than "kissing" when referring to romantic kissing? Is it more equivalent to "making out"?

It's driving me crazy because, to me, the word conjures images of a wild pig hunting truffles or some such. And having a bunch of wizardy kids snogging over here and snogging over there (plus it would seem that the word has to be drawled--ssssnaawwwwwwging) is kind of interfering with my enjoyment of the story--huge fan of Stephen Fry though I may be!

I would not have thought of snogging as being romantic kissing. For me, it always sounded a bit uncouth. Making out sounds like it will be equivalent.

quote:

to me, the word conjures images of a wild pig hunting truffles or some such.

That's funny, Naomi. It does evoke such a picture: "a hog that snogs."

Ann

Thanks Ann, I do my best to keep my fans entertained.

Maybe I should couch my question differently. Can someone give some examples of when one would use "snog" and when one would use "kiss" or some other verb?

Um... "behind the bike sheds" and "tongues" come to mind.

But it's a long time since I was a teenager.

The term "snogging" is typical teenage speak, which is why it appears in the HP books which are, or were initially, aimed at pre teens and teens.Now of course you can choose a kid's or adult cover, because HP is popular with all ages.

Patrick is right it does a have behind the bike shed connotation!!lol and probably would not be found in other more highbrow tomes.

I guess we can check the television series "Coupling" off of your highbrow art list then .

LOL!!even the name does not qualify it for a spot! seem to remember it was quite entertaining though

I always thought the equivalent of snogging was necking.

There are lots of differences in this area - UK kids don't talk about getting to first base or second base.

Shag appears to mean dancing in the US where it means sexual intercourse in the UK.