quote:

US English = . . . he was peeved, put out, upset

Pretty close, Felicity, but maybe a bit stronger. Both my husband and the online dictionary I consulted mentioned "angry" first. So if you put "really" before "put out," it would probably convey the meaning.

Ann

I've come across this particular situation several times in the last few weeks. At first I thought it was just bad grammar...a colloquilalism, or just a mistake, but then I heard it on the BBC news.

It seems that when I (as an American) would say "I ATE the candy", a Brit would say "I ET it" ((phonetic spelling...don't know how this would really be spelled) Is this really the standard British pronunciation of the word "ate"????

Well no Brit would say I et the candy, they would say I et the sweet.

Being an east-side Scot I would say ate, but lots of Brits would say et - it is a pronunciation thing.

I agree with CDT. It is a regional thing.

I think that the ett/et pronunciation is standard English.

I haven't got an Oxford dictionary to hand right now, just a giant Collins French/English Dictionary but when I look up ate there, the pronunciation is given as 'et' so that is how Collins is teaching foreigners to pronounce it anyway.

Interesting, Thank you!

I was reminded of an expression I heard the other day that I think is English: After you hear that someone old has died, to say that they'd had a good innings means they've had a good long life.

I've always assumed this comes from cricket. I'm not sure whether the expression is also used in North America. Doesn't Baseball have innings as well?

Baseball has innings, but the expression isn't used in the US - at least I've not heard it used here. Our equivalent might be "...they had a good run..."

they had a good innings/they had a good run - then "they kicked the bucket". Is that true for both nations?

And still on the death theme, do you "shuffle off this mortal coil" (I think this is literary reference but I'm not much good on remembering sources) and subsequently "push up the daisies" in America?

Some Americans shuffle off the mortal coil - at least those that have a good education:-) When I was young, we had to read a lot of Shakespeare. We also push up daisies. I agree that we do not talk about innings in the context of death.

Well oop north they talk of people "popping their clogs" which I've always rather liked. As in "before I pop my(me?) clogs I want to go to Venice etc. It's suitably irreverent, I think.

Gorn to join the choir invisible...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2H6DSoqZz_s

"Popping the clogs" literally means pawning them - in this case, presumably to raise a bit of money for the final arrangements (though presumably it would be someone else "going down to uncle" to do the popping).

That's a coincidence, Patrick. At breakfast this morning, my husband (British) was talking about popping clogs. Then he went on to pop goes the weasel and explained exactly what that meant. We Yanks grow up with all the British nursery rhymes and songs, but now I realize we never even thought about the words and their meanings.

quote:

Originally posted by PatrickLondon:
Gorn to join the choir invisible...

Thanks for that Patrick. I haven't seen that sketch for ages. About the only expression he doesn't use is popped his clogs.

Interesting that it refers to pawning. I'd always pictured people falling backwards off their clogs.

zuriga, there's a whole science and counter-science about the meanings of nursery rhymes. I was very firmly told that so many were derived from popular political skits of their time*, only for other people to say more recently that they existed long before said events. There used to be an elaborate literal explanation about everything in "Pop goes the weasel", which I think others have tried to debunk. And so it goes on....

*For example, "Hush a bye baby, on the treetop" was said to be all about James II's surprising late baby (the arrival of which triggered the Glorious Revolution and his departure), "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" was said to be all about either Mary I or Mary Queen of Scots and their Catholic religion, "The King of Spain's daughter" was about a royal marriage plan that never happened, and so on.

Thanks, Patrick. I do remember hearing a few of those tales as I was growing up in the States. Living here now, brings a whole new dimension to a lot of long ago memories, including children's literature. Who knew?!?!

Ring-a-ring a roses was supposed to be about the black death.

quote:

Ring-a-ring a roses

CDT,

I wondered, when I read your post, whether the above was the same as "Ring around the rosey," which is how I've always heard it in the US. And it turns out that this is the case. answers.com provides these North American variants:

"The most common variation of the song in the USA:

Ring around the rosies
Pocketful of posies
Ashes, ashes
We (or They) all fall down

In the Southern U.S. (most specifically, in Louisiana), it is usually sung as thus:

Ring around the rosey
Pocket full of posies
Upstairs, downstairs
We all fall down

In Canada, it is usually sung as thus:

Ring around the rosey
A pocket full of posies
Husha, husha (imitative of sneezing)
We all fall down"

As for the claim of a connection with the Black Plague, snopes.com maintains that this is another urban legend. This is what it says:

" Origins: If 'few people realize' that 'this seemingly happy little nursery rhyme actually refers' to the Black Plague, so much the better, because the explanation presented above [on their Website] is nonsense. 'Ring around the Rosie' is simply a nursery rhyme of indefinite origin and no specific meaning, and someone, long after the fact, concocted an inventive 'explanation' for its creation."

Ann

The version in Australia is

Ring-a-ring a rosie
A pocket full of posies
A-tishoo, a-tishoo,
We all fall down!

That's what I learned as a boy in England.

Here's a couple of barrel-scrapers I've picked up on recently:

UK: In the light of...
US: In light of....

(I mention it only because I've had a couple of instances of the US usage creeping into colleagues' documents in the office)

US: Eyes of a stove
UK: Rings of a cooker

(I've just noticed this in Steven Carter's "Famous Writer's School").

I can't say I ever heard anyone in the States say 'eyes of a stove.' Of course, it's one big country.

My husband is an editor and gets many magazine pieces from all over the world. He is constantly complaining about how Americanisms are creeping into the British language. I don't think it can be helped in this modern age we live in. And look how many Indian words are used in the UK. Fair is fair.

True. English, wherever it's spoken, absorbs all sorts of words and idioms from local languages: one glorious salmagundy.

Mind, a lot of words from Hindi via the Army in days of Empire are probably dying out. I don't hear many people talking about "chai-aiking" or "doolally" these days.

Though Jamie Oliver is doing his bit to keep "pukka" current...

Jonathan