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Thread: American words not understood outside the US

  1. #101
    XJETGIRLX
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by Vox Imperatoris
    I just thought of another Southernism that might not be understood: "buggy" for "shopping cart".
    Yes! My husband used to tease me about this one all the time. I still can't call it a cart.

  2. #102
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by MsPurlMcKnittington
    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    Quote Originally posted by MsPurlMcKnittington
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    That explains a lot of what we see, actually.
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  3. #103
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    As an American living in the UK I learned to call my US underwear "pants" and my US pants "trousers." I remember laughing at that campaign for Dockers that had the tagline, "Nice pants."

    Of course the US t-shirt is called a vest in the UK. I'm not sure what they'd call a US vest across the pond.

  4. #104
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by Hippy Hollow
    As an American living in the UK I learned to call my US underwear "pants" and my US pants "trousers." I remember laughing at that campaign for Dockers that had the tagline, "Nice pants."

    Of course the US t-shirt is called a vest in the UK. I'm not sure what they'd call a US vest across the pond.
    I always thought a "waistcoat" in the UK was an American "vest."
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  5. #105
    Elephant CRSP's avatar
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by Hippy Hollow
    As an American living in the UK I learned to call my US underwear "pants" and my US pants "trousers." I remember laughing at that campaign for Dockers that had the tagline, "Nice pants."

    Of course the US t-shirt is called a vest in the UK. I'm not sure what they'd call a US vest across the pond.
    This is probably region specific. In the north, we call underwear "underpants" and "trousers" and "pants" are interchangeable.
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  6. #106
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by Vox Imperatoris
    I just thought of another Southernism that might not be understood: "buggy" for "shopping cart".
    Shopping trolley here. Is that used over there?

  7. #107
    Confused Box Guy fachverwirrt's avatar
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    [quote=An Gadaí]
    Quote Originally posted by "Vox Imperatoris":1tjsbyjo
    I just thought of another Southernism that might not be understood: "buggy" for "shopping cart".
    Shopping trolley here. Is that used over there?[/quote:1tjsbyjo]
    Trolley over here usually refers to a streetcar or tram.

  8. #108
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by fachverwirrt
    Quote Originally posted by An Gadaí
    Trolley over here usually refers to a streetcar or tram.
    Another meaning of "trolley" is trolley bus, i.e., a bus powered by overhead electric wires, but running on the ordinary street surface.

  9. #109
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    "Charlie Horse"
    "Stoop" (as a noun.
    Just assume that everything I say is sarcastic.

  10. #110
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by Hippy Hollow
    Of course the US t-shirt is called a vest in the UK. I'm not sure what they'd call a US vest across the pond.
    Well, as prr said, they're usually called "waistcoats", although nowadays this usually refers to the tailored kind you wear with a suit. Most vests that exist for a specific purpose (like stab vests or bulletproof vests) follow the American usage.

  11. #111
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    Default Re: American words not understood outside the US

    Quote Originally posted by An Gadaí
    Shopping trolley here. Is that used over there?
    No, but I've just gotta say that the Brit slang term "trolley dolly" for a (female) flight attendant is one of the funniest (if most sexist) things I've ever heard!

  12. #112
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    Something I was thinking of earlier, not so much a word, but Gilligan's Island was a mainstay popular cultural reference in US tv shows aired here all throughout my youth. If Gilligan's Island was ever shown here it long since had ceased to be shown so I never really understood what any of the references meant. I get that it was a show about a group of people shipwrecked on an island and it seems to have been hugely popular in the US but I'm not sure too many people here would have ever seen it.

  13. #113
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    Well, there's a Gilligan's Island movie rumored to be in the works, so maybe you can catch up on it.
    I think one of the interesting cultural points about the TV show was that the characters were introduced in the theme song simply by their role ("the Professor" was almost always just called that too). They were all archetypes. Also of note, there was a "movie star", but when the credits were changed to add the other young female, her role was simply her name — "Mary Ann". she existed merely to spark the question of whether you preferred the putatively more attractive and famous girl to the cuter one with a better personality.

    Going back to 'trolley', I first heard the word used in U2's "Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World" but wasn't entirely sure if it was just surrealist imagery.

  14. #114
    Stegodon Jaglavak's avatar
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    "Grab a freshie."
    I've never had to explain it to an American.

  15. #115
    MOON GIRL FIGHTS CRIME Myrnalene's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Jaglavak View post
    "Grab a freshie."
    I've never had to explain it to an American.
    Really?


    ......can you explain it to me?
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  16. #116
    The Apostabulous Inner Stickler's avatar
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    Grab a fresh beer from the fridge.
    I don't think so, therefore I'm probably not.

  17. #117
    Why so serious? Tinker's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by tunaman View post
    Well, there's the (mostly Southern) use of "[day] week" to mean "not the upcoming day, but the week after that".

    For example, if I made an appointment for our cat at the vet's office, I might tell my wife that the appointment is for "Tuesday week" (meaning 8 days from now) instead of "next Tuesday" or "the following Tuesday" or "not tomorrow, but the next Tuesday".

    It seems that this usage is unknown outside the US.
    I grew up in the American Southwest and have lived my entire adult life in the Northeast. I have lots of family from the South, and this is the first time I have EVER heard of this.
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  18. #118
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    Quote Originally posted by Jaglavak View post
    "Grab a freshie."
    I've never had to explain it to an American.
    You would have had to explain it to this American beer drinker. The only thing I can remember being described as a freshie was fresh snowfall on a ski hill, that was at least 10 years ago.

    I also am not familiar with the "Tuesday week" usage but I've lived in the Northeast my whole life...it might be mostly a southern thing.

  19. #119
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    Quote Originally posted by Tinker View post
    I grew up in the American Southwest and have lived my entire adult life in the Northeast. I have lots of family from the South, and this is the first time I have EVER heard of this.
    I grew up on the East coast, spent a decade plus in Utah, and only once I moved here to Houston did I hear it for the first time. I hear it all the time now, usually from older people, usually from more rural people, almost always from African Americans. If your Southern family falls outside of those three categories, it's very likely you wouldn't have heard it.
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  20. #120
    Oliphaunt elmwood's avatar
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    There's a ton of regional terms in Buffalo English that are a complete mystery to the world beyond Western New York; "Let's get some Chiavetta at the lawn fete." Still, we're here to talk about American terms not widely understood outside of the country. Lemme' think ... outside of AAVE and some technical terms, I can't think of much. I'm considering "would Canadians understand it, but not Brits or other first world English-speaking countries?

    Maybe we should call this thread "North American English words not understood in other English-speaking countries?"

  21. #121
    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by elmwood View post
    There's a ton of regional terms in Buffalo English that are a complete mystery to the world beyond Western New York; "Let's get some Chiavetta at the lawn fete." Still, we're here to talk about American terms not widely understood outside of the country. Lemme' think ... outside of AAVE and some technical terms, I can't think of much. I'm considering "would Canadians understand it, but not Brits or other first world English-speaking countries?

    Maybe we should call this thread "North American English words not understood in other English-speaking countries?"
    What does that (my bolding) mean? I know you just said out of USA, but I'm curious.
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  22. #122
    Porosity Caster parzival's avatar
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    The mention of trousers/pants reminded me of a story ( I believe related at Language Log) about an American looking for 'khaki pants' - most Americans pronounce khaki the same way one would 'cacky', though 'cacky' is not a word in American English.

    How far has 'hella' expanded beyond the borders of the US? I grew up with it and only a few years discovered that it had spread out of Northern California but was highly regional before then. As for meaning, it's an intensifier, if an informal one. "That's hella sweet." "Some people find this word hella annoying."

  23. #123
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by parzival View post
    The mention of trousers/pants reminded me of a story ( I believe related at Language Log) about an American looking for 'khaki pants' - most Americans pronounce khaki the same way one would 'cacky', though 'cacky' is not a word in American English.

    How far has 'hella' expanded beyond the borders of the US? I grew up with it and only a few years discovered that it had spread out of Northern California but was highly regional before then. As for meaning, it's an intensifier, if an informal one. "That's hella sweet." "Some people find this word hella annoying."
    The cultural ambassadors Gwen Stefani and Cartman have spread hella hella far and wide.

    Cacks/keks is a colloquial term for trousers in much of the UK and Ireland. Are you talking about "cacky" as in "shitty"?

  24. #124
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    Quote Originally posted by jali View post
    What does that (my bolding) mean? I know you just said out of USA, but I'm curious.
    I went to college in Buffalo but I don't get this either.(To me a fete means a party although no one I know uses the word. I don't know what Chiavetti is but I do know what loganberry tastes like).

    As far as I can tell in American English khaki pronounced cacky means tan. Any explanations as to other meanings or pronunciations would be welcome.

  25. #125
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    Quote Originally posted by Oliveloaf View post
    I was being interviewed by a British journalist when I used the word "burble" to describe the exhaust note of a specific car.

    The interviewer started laughing, and finally questioned my use of the word. He thought it more-or-less a childish, made up word.

    I believe I described the car as having a rewarding, deep-throated burble.

    Funny.
    Pretty common term here and quite onomatopoeic.

  26. #126
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    Quote Originally posted by Mangetout View post
    Spackle. I mean, I know what it means now, but I'm betting that not many non-US English speakers have encountered it.
    First encountered it in Sweden then read it in an American book (The Ninja: Eric Van Lustbader, IIRC) and knew what it meant, would have been baffled otherwise.

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