Literature The British English vs American English thread!

[Blobbenstein]

I have noticed that USians use the word 'mooch' differently to Britlanders....in the UK it means to sort of slouch around doing not much for a while...like mooching around the house doing very little...where as in the US it is more negative, and means being a scrounger or something.

 

[Capstan]

Was recently chatting on the web with a friend in Great Britain. They referred to a neighborhood movie theater as a flea-pit.

 

[Blobbenstein]

just means an old delapidated cinema.....I like the term myself.

 

[Capstan]

Yes, cinema. Britons seem to refer to the "movies" as cinema. In America, we go to the movies, seldom the cinema.

 

[Capstan]

Anther British term I've seen used several times is, nobut. "When I was nobut a lad." I take it it's a contraction of 'nothing but.'

 

[Blobbenstein]

probably northern use....yes, like 'nowt but'

 

[Capstan]

Northern? Yes, it came out of Yorkshire.

 

[Joe]

I have noticed that USians use the word 'mooch' differently to Britlanders....in the UK it means to sort of slouch around doing not much for a while...like mooching around the house doing very little...where as in the US it is more negative, and means being a scrounger or something.

Actually, both meaning are in (the American) Webster's Dictionary, and there is no notation about the first being "chiefly British" or whatever. But you are right that Americans more often use it in the second sense.

The most famous American song about mooching is "Minnie the Moocher." Minnie had a boyfriend who was "cokie" (i.e., used cocaine) who took her to China town and showed her how to kick the gong around (i.e., partake of opium or heroin).
She had a dream about the King of Sweden (impliedly a drug-induced, surrealistic dream). So Minnie was a doper and possibly a petty thief.

 

[Amy SF]

We Americans use "mooch' in both meanings, really. Poor people on welfare are demonized as "mooching" off the government. But we also say that someone who is unemployed and still living with his parents is a lazy moocher. Similarly, someone who crashes with friends, doesn't work, hangs around all day watching TV and eating snacks and doesn't contribute to the household is called a moocher. So definitely, in America, however it's used, mooch has a negative connotation.

 

[Moll Flanders]

I have noticed that USians use the word 'mooch' differently to Britlanders....in the UK it means to sort of slouch around doing not much for a while...like mooching around the house doing very little...where as in the US it is more negative, and means being a scrounger or something.

Yes, I could say I went for a mooch around town or around the shops and it would just mean I just walked around leisurely with no particular purpose.

 

[Calliegirl]

Yes, I could say I went for a mooch around town or around the shops and it would just mean I just walked around leisurely with no particular purpose.

If we heard that here, we'd think you went around begging at the shops for a handout or panhandling for change, or at least, that's what I would think.

 

[Joe]

Why Do Germans Speak AMERICAN (not British) English?

(Thanks go to IS for indirectly referencing this video.)

 

[Moll Flanders]

I didn't know what jaywalking meant for the longest time. I thought it had something to do with looking for prostitutes, I was getting it confused with kerb crawling.

If we heard that here, we'd think you went around begging at the shops for a handout or panhandling for change, or at least, that's what I would think.

Maybe I should do that next time to make some extra cash.

 

[Joe]

I didn't know what jaywalking meant for the longest time. I thought it had something to do with looking for prostitutes, I was getting it confused with kerb crawling.

May I recommend a website (to one and all)?

It is called OneLook Dictionary Search.

OneLook Dictionary Search

You put a word or phrase in the search box and the site will look through hundreds of dictionaries to find some that define your word or phrase, including both British and American dictionaries, and specialized subject dictionaries, like medical, business, computing and slang.

Wikipedia explains the origins of the word jaywalking.

The word jaywalk is a compound word derived from the word jay, an inexperienced person and a curse word that originated in the early 1900s, and walk.[4] No historical evidence supports an alternative folk etymology by which the word is traced to the letter "J" (characterizing the route a jaywalker might follow).

In towns in the American Midwest in the early 20th century, "jay" was a synonym for "rube", a pejorative term for a rural resident, assumed by many urbanites to be stupid, slightly unintelligent, or perhaps simply naïve. Such a person did not know to keep out of the way of other pedestrians and speeding automobiles.[5]

Jaywalking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maybe I should do that next time to make some extra cash.

Arthur Conan Doyle has one of his Sherlock Holmes short stories about an English actor who decides to dress up as a busker and beg on the street. The actor ends up making a shockingly high income as a busker/beggar--much more than he made as an actor on the stage.

 

[Blobbenstein]

so what actually is Jaywalking? Is it crossing the road at the wrong place?
We don't have such a law here, I don't think.

 

[Joe]

so what actually is Jaywalking? Is it crossing the road at the wrong place?
We don't have such a law here, I don't think.

Yes, it appears that Britain and the US have very different laws concerning pedestrians crossing the street.

Jaywalking occurs when a pedestrian crosses a roadway where regulations do not permit doing so. Examples include a pedestrian crossing between intersections without yielding to drivers and starting to cross a crosswalk at a signalized intersection without waiting for a permissive indication to be displayed. In the United States, state statutes generally reflect the Uniform Vehicle Code in requiring drivers to yield the right of way to pedestrians at crosswalks; at other locations, crossing pedestrians are either required to yield to drivers or, under some conditions, are prohibited from crossing. The term's dissemination in the 1920s and 1930s was due in part to the introduction of the automobile.

Jaywalking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you were a school child in the US in the 1960s, you could not watch cartoons or after school programs without seeing this commercial/public-service-announcement a billion, zillion, trillion times. The song was also played over and over on the radio.

And practically everyone remembers it, it was drilled into you so thoroughly!

 

[Amy SF]

I've heard of people actually arrested for jaywalking.

 

[Moll Flanders]

May I recommend a website (to one and all)?
It is called OneLook Dictionary Search.
OneLook Dictionary Search
You put a word or phrase in the search box and the site will look through hundreds of dictionaries to find some that define your word or phrase, including both British and American dictionaries, and specialized subject dictionaries, like medical, business, computing and slang.
Wikipedia explains the origins of the word jaywalking.
Jaywalking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This was years ago now, I don't think I even used the internet in those days. I just used to hear the term jaywalking on US TV programmes and thought it meant something else.

 

[Calliegirl]

I don't know if this goes for other states, but in California, even though jaywalking is illegal, you can get a ticket if you don't stop (your car) for jaywalkers.

 

[Joe]

I don't know if this goes for other states, but in California, even though jaywalking is illegal, you can get a ticket if you don't stop (your car) for jaywalkers.

You are right, of course. But I think California is the exception in this regard among American States.