words in england that mean something totally different in america!!
curborough
Posts: 131 Member
The one I find funniest is fanny pack! I mean..come on, it's a bum bag!
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Replies
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Well "Bum"mer said the the "Butt" of all jokes0
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Chips are what we call crisps. So if you go to America and ask for chips you're gonna be disappointed!0
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I was educated this week that juice means something else in England.0
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stanmann571 wrote: »I was educated this week that juice means something else in England.
What was you told it meant?..having said that half the words the kids use here nowdays us older ones don't understand!1 -
blueyandcrazee wrote: »Chips are what we call crisps. So if you go to America and ask for chips you're gonna be disappointed!
A little off topic
Speaking of england, pants apparently mean underpants. which makes all the jokes on 8 out of 10 cats/UK tv make a whole lot more sense. "I was standing there in my pants" and I am thinking so what, you have trousers on, but they mean underpants/nickers/panties3 -
Yes pants are underwear to us!..trousers are your pants! Also those crazy satnavs that tell you to exit at the next 'ramp'..whats that all about!?1
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blueyandcrazee wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »I was educated this week that juice means something else in England.
What was you told it meant?..having said that half the words the kids use here nowdays us older ones don't understand!
I was advised that juice could mean liquid fruit flavored non-caloric water additives and not just the product produced by pulping/juicing a fruit.
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stanmann571 wrote: »blueyandcrazee wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »I was educated this week that juice means something else in England.
What was you told it meant?..having said that half the words the kids use here nowdays us older ones don't understand!
I was advised that juice could mean liquid fruit flavored non-caloric water additives and not just the product produced by pulping/juicing a fruit.
Yes we do call that juice or sometimes squash. It's the stuff that you dilute with water.0 -
blueyandcrazee wrote: »Chips are what we call crisps. So if you go to America and ask for chips you're gonna be disappointed!
A little off topic
Speaking of england, pants apparently mean underpants. which makes all the jokes on 8 out of 10 cats/UK tv make a whole lot more sense. "I was standing there in my pants" and I am thinking so what, you have trousers on, but they mean underpants/nickers/panties
I think that person is just simple. I'm Australian and call all those things by names other than "chip"0 -
An oldie and a goody is "boot". Not only in England but in the 20th century extent of the British empire. My cousin, a woman from Texas, had emigrated to Kenya for her career as a university educator. Her story of an encounter with a Kenyan police officer who wanted to examine the contents of her 'boot' is hilarious.1
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Yes, I have gotten no end of grief and hilarity from pants and fanny.
I remember once on a hair care board I announced to my international friends that I wanted to grow my hair down to my fanny. OMG I was tortured for that one for probably a month.
Then of course there are all the obvious ones...
Chips (French fries...U.S. chips are potatoes, corn chips, etc.)
Biscuits (cookies...our biscuits are fluffy things)
Veg (vegetables..."veg" means to chill out mindlessly)
Car park (parking lot)
Mate (buddy...mate would be romantic/sexual)
...and so on.0 -
Yes, I have gotten no end of grief and hilarity from pants and fanny.
I remember once on a hair care board I announced to my international friends that I wanted to grow my hair down to my fanny. OMG I was tortured for that one for probably a month.
Then of course there are all the obvious ones...
Chips (French fries)
Biscuits (cookies)
Veg (vegetables)
Car park (parking lot)
Mate (biddy)
...and so on.
Think you may have meant buddy... biddy is an old chicken
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First time I came to America on holiday(vacation!) I heard a woman ask her husband in one of the Disney parks if her fanny looked big! It just sounded so odd...and so wrong!0
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stanmann571 wrote: »Yes, I have gotten no end of grief and hilarity from pants and fanny.
I remember once on a hair care board I announced to my international friends that I wanted to grow my hair down to my fanny. OMG I was tortured for that one for probably a month.
Then of course there are all the obvious ones...
Chips (French fries)
Biscuits (cookies)
Veg (vegetables)
Car park (parking lot)
Mate (biddy)
...and so on.
Think you may have meant buddy... biddy is an old chicken
I think I was already editing this while you posted.
It was an autocorrect.
Have anything of substance to contribute?0 -
A biddy is an old person to us1
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blueyandcrazee wrote: »A biddy is an old person to us
It is to us* too. It was an autocorrect on my Kindle.
*And here I corrected yet another bad autocorrect. I will never buy a $79 Kindle again.0 -
blueyandcrazee wrote: »First time I came to America on holiday(vacation!) I heard a woman ask her husband in one of the Disney parks if her fanny looked big! It just sounded so odd...and so wrong!
Okay, well...you know...nobody wants a big fanny.
Just sayin'.0 -
One of my favorite greentexts:
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Bird (for a girl) (we might say "chick")
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Oh! Torch. For us a torch is something burning (like...physically on fire) on the end of a stick. The thing with the battery and little lightbulb is a flashlight.0
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Oh! Torch. For us a torch is something burning (like...physically on fire) on the end of a stick. The thing with the battery and little lightbulb is a flashlight.
That's an odd one.... 100 years ago both sides of the pond called it a torch or electric torch. I'm honestly a bit curious now how that evolved....
I suspect there's something in the WW1/WW2 military lexicon that floated into American but not English.
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Partner (needs further explanation in the U.S. i.e. squaredancing, business, lab, sex, workout, etc.)
Tea (in the U.S. means a cup of)
Mash (needs further explanation in the U.S. i.e. mashed potatoes, bananas, butternut squash, turnips, carrots, etc.)
Fizzy Drink (what the hell? Just smile and nod.)
Martini with lemonade (ordered by older British ladies in U.S. bars and restaurants. What they're talking about is dry vermouth with 7 Up or Sprite - ice optional. Tutoring necessary to avoid horrification.)
A partner can mean any of those things...its just somebody you do something with I suppose (or I guess!. Mash is something you mash down like potatoes become mashed potatoes or you can get carrot and swede mash where the two are mashed together(like partners!)..and fizzy drinks...drinks that are fizzy!0 -
We also call fizzy drinks..like coke..a bottle of pop. Do you say that in america?0
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blueyandcrazee wrote: »We also call fizzy drinks..like coke..a bottle of pop. Do you say that in america?
Yes... in fact, in some places everything is a coke... pepsi, sprite, mt dew, root beer.
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CoffeeAndContour wrote: »Bugger
I think the actual meaning of this is the same on both sides of the pond, it's just that Americans don't usually use it as an expletive.
I can think of another that has an extremely derogatory meaning in the U.S. but is slang in the UK for a cigarette. The original derogatory meaning was probably the same for both and referred to burning a certain segment of society during heretic burning times.0 -
stanmann571 wrote: »Oh! Torch. For us a torch is something burning (like...physically on fire) on the end of a stick. The thing with the battery and little lightbulb is a flashlight.
That's an odd one.... 100 years ago both sides of the pond called it a torch or electric torch. I'm honestly a bit curious now how that evolved....
I suspect there's something in the WW1/WW2 military lexicon that floated into American but not English.
This is a brilliant insight and I'll bet you're correct.0 -
In everyday vernacular, or labelling? That's not exactly wrong, but it's not a complete picture, either.stanmann571 wrote: »blueyandcrazee wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »I was educated this week that juice means something else in England.
What was you told it meant?..having said that half the words the kids use here nowdays us older ones don't understand!
I was advised that juice could mean liquid fruit flavored non-caloric water additives and not just the product produced by pulping/juicing a fruit.
Legislation means that only 100% fruit juice can be sold as "fruit juice". Juice mixed with sweeteners, like Ribena, may be squash, "juice drink", high juice squash, etc.
But in practice, not everyone makes a spoken distinction between different products in everyday conversation. Basically, everything may get called juice unless they're talking about dilution drinks. (That's a safety issue- undiluted squash is lethal!)
You can read more about the distinctions here: http://www.britishsoftdrinks.com/Fruit-Juices0 -
CoffeeAndContour wrote: »Bugger
I think the actual meaning of this is the same on both sides of the pond, it's just that Americans don't usually use it as an expletive.
I can think of another that has an extremely derogatory meaning in the U.S. but is slang in the UK for a cigarette. The original derogatory meaning was probably the same for both and referred to burning a certain segment of society during heretic burning times.
I've never heard an American use bugger, as an expletive or otherwise... unless they had had cross cultural exposure...
It's amusing that the MFP *kitten* filter doesn't pick it up...
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blueyandcrazee wrote: »First time I came to America on holiday(vacation!) I heard a woman ask her husband in one of the Disney parks if her fanny looked big! It just sounded so odd...and so wrong!
Oh yeah, holiday. For Americans it's a specific day of celebration, whether you go anywhere or not. Christmas, Easter, whatever. And yes, we would call taking time off, especially (but not always) if we go away, vacation. 0
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