Literature The British English vs American English thread!

[MadamSarcastra]

NYC, too. The pedestrians rule there. LOL

 

[ledboots]

NYC, too. The pedestrians rule there. LOL

If only the cabbies would play nice!

 

[KLS52]

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



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!

O......M......G.......I had completely forgotten about that, lol. Nice find!

 

[Joe]

I saw Season 8 (Set 8) of the BBC detective show Foyle's War, set in England just after the Second World War.
One word that was used repeatedly in British English is spiv. This has several meanings, but here it refers to a petty criminal involved in the black market.

One episode dealt with anti-Semitism in post-War Britain. I came across two expressions I had never heard before, fairly nasty, but not necessarily exclusively British. One is half-dick

Spoiler

which refers to a male Jew, back-handedly referencing the Jewish practice of male circumcision

The other is four_by_two

Spoiler

i.e., Jew, as the result of rhyming Cockney slang

 

[robert99]

Spiv., ah yes. The classic spiv is "Flash Harry" in the St Trinians films played by the recently deceased George Cole.

 

[Joe]

I have a friend, Paul, who was given a cigar as a young man by Winston Churchill. He saved the cigar and later donated it to the Churchill Centre. An account of the history of the cigar was published in the New Haven Register, and also on Paul's blog. (Well worth reading, IMHO.)

The 50 Year Journey of Sir Winston Churchill's Cigar

The Anti-Yale: * The 50 Year Journey of Sir Winston Churchill's Cigar

What I wanted to ask about in this thread is the meaning of Churchill's famous V-for-Victory hand gesture. Paul says in his column that this hand gesture means something significantly different in Britain than it means in the United States.
He writes:

Little did I know at that time that in Britain that sign is the equivalent of an upraised middle finger in America. (So that’s what Churchill had been flashing Hitler all through the war!) You never ask for two loaves of bread in Britain with a forefinger and middle finger V-sign. You use your thumb and your index finger. If not, you’re at risk of receiving a fist sandwich instead of two loaves of bread.

Britons, is this true? I had never heard of this before. If you can shed any light on this practice for this benighted American, please do.

 

[AeryFairy]

I have a friend, Paul, who was given a cigar as a young man by Winston Churchill. He saved the cigar and later donated it to the Churchill Centre. An account of the history of the cigar was published in the New Haven Register, and also on Paul's blog. (Well worth reading, IMHO.)

The 50 Year Journey of Sir Winston Churchill's Cigar

The Anti-Yale: * The 50 Year Journey of Sir Winston Churchill's Cigar

What I wanted to ask about in this thread is the meaning of Churchill's famous V-for-Victory hand gesture. Paul says in his column that this hand gesture means something significantly different in Britain than it means in the United States.
He writes:



Britons, is this true? I had never heard of this before. If you can shed any light on this practice for this benighted American, please do.

Yes and no... it's a rude gesture here if done with the back of your hand towards the person it's aimed at. But, from the wikipedia page on the hand sign and Churchill's useage:

Early on he sometimes gestured palm in (sometimes with a cigar between the fingers).[33] Later in the war, he used palm out.[34] After aides explained to Churchill what the palm in gesture meant to other classes, he made sure to use the appropriate sign.

So, yes it's rude, but apparently Churchill didn't mean it that way.

 

[Joe]

Yes and no... it's a rude gesture here if done with the back of your hand towards the person it's aimed at. But, from the wikipedia page on the hand sign and Churchill's useage:



So, yes it's rude, but apparently Churchill didn't mean it that way.

Thanks, AF. Good research. I had no idea Wikipedia had a V-sign page.

 

[Joe]

I have what may be a trivial question about the usage of "truck" versus "lorry."

I just rewatched a British film called The Killer Elite (2011) with Jason Statham and Clive Owen. In it, the British characters, while talking with other British characters, refer to certain motorized vehicles as "trucks," never "lorries." I thought "lorry" was the British term for what Americans would call a "truck." Or has linguistic usage changed radically since I was in school? Can anyone shed some light on this matter?

 

[Andy_T]

I am of course not an expert on this,

but after living in a Malaysia for 3 years (which used to be under British rule), my wife and I are normally joking to each other that

... THIS is a TRUCK ...

while THIS ... is a LORRY

 

[robert99]

Difference Between Lorry and Truck
It is interesting to note that a truck is described as a light vehicle. On the other hand a lorry is classified under heavy vehicles. This is one of the main differences between a truck and a lorry. It should be understood that a lorry is used for transporting heavy items and things such as logs of wood, machinery and the like. On the other hand a truck is used to transport small items and light weight goods such as household articles and the like.

The driver of a lorry needs to be more skillful in driving the vehicle than the driver of a truck. It is interesting to note that in the US a truck refers to a vehicle for carrying heavy goods. In the Britain, it refers to an open railway carriage or wagon for carrying freight. It is important to know that trucks are used in railway stations and airports. On the other hand lorries are used on the roads. These are the main differences between the two words truck and lorry.

(Since movies are targeted for US audiences it is probably the reason why truck was used.)

 

[Andy_T]

Interesting ... so we actually have it completely wrong, with the lorry being the heavy one.
But the word sounds less awe-inspiring

And, of course, we know that trucks look like this in England:

 

[robert99]

Interesting ... so we actually have it completely wrong, with the lorry being the heavy one.
But the word sounds less awe-inspiring

Shows the influence of the US media ...

 

[Joe]

I've come across an expression in British English that I cannot find a definition for, namely, "hotly-tipped." As in "Tom Hiddleston is hotly-tipped to play the next James Bond." I would guess this means "highly recommended" or "strongly touted" or something like that. But this is just a guess.

Also, this expression is listed in the Wordnik dictionary, but when you go to the listing, it says "Sorry, no definition available." Huh? What good is a listing with no definition?

hotly-tipped - definition and meaning

It does offer several examples of the usage of this expression.

 

[Second Summer]

I've come across an expression in British English that I cannot find a definition for, namely, "hotly-tipped." As in "Tom Hiddleston is hotly-tipped to play the next James Bond." I would guess this means "highly recommended" or "strongly touted" or something like that. But this is just a guess.

I'm assuming it means a lot of people believe Tom Hiddleston will play the next James Bond? So something like "commonly/widely believed/predicted"?

From the Google dictionary entry for "tipped":

verb
past tense: tipped; past participle: tipped.
[...]
2. British
predict as likely to win or achieve something.
"Christine was widely tipped to get the job"

 

[Joe]

I'm assuming it means a lot of people believe Tom Hiddleston will play the next James Bond? So something like "commonly/widely believed/predicted"?

From the Google dictionary entry for "tipped":

verb
past tense: tipped; past participle: tipped.
[...]
2. British
predict as likely to win or achieve something.
"Christine was widely tipped to get the job"

Thank you, IS. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

 

[Joe]

Watched the movie An Education (2009), a story set in early 1960s Britain about an affair between a 16-year-old secondary school student, Jenny and a 20-something older man, David. David and his pal Danny keep using the word stat. Jenny does not know what they are talking about. David and Danny are con artists and petty criminals. A stat is a
little old lady who is afraid of colored people. David and Danny rent flats in an area with lots of stats, then sublease these flats to colored people. As the colored people move in, the stats fly into a panic and sell their flats cheaply. David and Danny then buy them up at bargain basement prices, later to sell them at a substantial profit after moving the colored people back out.

 

[Joe]

I have a further question about an expression used in the film An Education. It is "Tommy Boy." It is not clear to me exactly what it might mean, but somehow it means a young man who is not serious about his goals, who is frivolous.

Now, the problem I am having is this. An Education was set in about the year 1962, so I am looking for the meaning of this expression in British English of about 1962.

If you try to look up this expression in an online dictionary or encyclopedia, you get a reference to a 1995 film starring Chris Farley and David Spade.

Tommy Boy is a 1995 American road comedy film directed by Peter Segal, written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, produced by Lorne Michaels, and starring former Saturday Night Live castmates and close friends Chris Farley and David Spade.

Tommy Boy - Wikipedia

But I am not looking for the meaning of the phrase from 1995 on, but rather its meaning in 1962 and prior to 1995.

Can anyone be of help?

 

[Joe]

More information about "stats" from the original memoir:

Through Danny, I learnt how Peter Rachman had seemingly solved the problem of "stats" - statutory or sitting tenants - who were the bane of 1960s property developers. The law gave them the right to stay in their flats at a fixed rent for life if they wanted - and they had a habit of living an awfully long time. But Rachman had certain robust methods, such as carrying out building works all round them, or taking the roof off, or "putting in the schwartzers" (West Indians) or filling the rest of the house with prostitutes, that made stats eager to move.

Lynn Barber on her liaison as a 16-year-old with an older man

 

[Moll Flanders]

I've read this so many times during the US election.

hill of beans

noun, Informal.
something of trifling value; virtually nothing at all:
The problem didn't amount to a hill of beans.