American words not understood outside the US

[Giles]

I'm interested in finding some words where the US meaning is generally not understood outside the US.

One example is "biscuit". English speakers generally understand what "cookies" and "crackers" are, and they use "biscuits" to refer to them comprehensively, but I suspect that unless they've visited the US, they don't know that in the US a "biscuit" is a baked good served with the main mean, and very much like what they would call a "scone" (though there are "scones" in the US too).

Another is "entree", which if used outside the US means an appetiser or first course: not the main course, as it does in the US.

Any other good examples? (And not words like "automobile" or "elevator", which are not used but which are still understood outside the US).

[parzival]

'Napkin', which in the US means a piece of paper or cloth used at a meal.

Outside the US it could mean 'sanitary napkin' although it probably would be understood in context. 'Serviette' seems to be the most common word for what napkin means in the US, and 'serviette' isn't used inside the US.

'Fanny' in the US exclusively refers to the behind, and it's only slightly impolite. In the UK at least it's only used of women, and means the genitals/vulva.

[CRSP]

Napkin is well understood in that context in the UK.

[kk fusion]

I got strange looks for asking about a drugstore.

[glee]

How about 'busboy' and 'soda jerk'?

Meaningless in England...

[Giles]

I got strange looks for asking about a drugstore.

Yes, that makes sense, because the American drugstore really has no exact counterpart in Britain or Australia (where chemists' shops or pharmacies sell a wide range of non-pharmaceuticals, but not as wide a range as drugstores in the US).

[Giles]

How about 'busboy' and 'soda jerk'?

Meaningless in England...

In addition, the verb "bus" in the sense of the sign "Please bus your own tables" would not make much sense.

[tunaman]

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.

[Giles]

Tunaman, that sense of "Tuesday week" to mean a week after next Tuesday is the normal sense in Australia. I'm not sure what the usage is in the UK. However, today being Monday, I'd reference the day 8 days from now as "tomorrow week", not "Tuesday week".

But this example reminds me of an example of ignorance the other way round: most Americans don't seem to understand what a "fortnight" is, so they just talk about "two weeks", while "fortnightly" is "biweekly".

[hendo]

But this example reminds me of an example of ignorance the other way round: most Americans don't seem to understand what a "fortnight" is, so they just talk about "two weeks", while "fortnightly" is "biweekly".

Definitely. I used to use "fortnight" a lot, but stopped when i realized that many Americans have no idea what it is.

While it's not exclusively American, i remember many of my Aussie friends not knowing what cilantro is; we refer to the leafy part of the plant (not just the seeds and roots) as coriander in Australia.

[Mangetout]

Spackle. I mean, I know what it means now, but I'm betting that not many non-US English speakers have encountered it.

[Cerowyn]

I'm going to assume that the OP means "North America" and not "the US", since virtually all of the terms mentioned thus far are if not part of everyday Canadian English, at least well understood by Canadians.

I know, it's not like most Americans are very aware that Canada exists, but I'd think at least a transported Brit would!

[silenus]

Hey, we know Canada is there! It's the 51st state, right?

[durian]

"Homecoming" is not well known outside the US.

Most people outside the US wouldn't know what 1040 and W2 mean.

[Glazer]

I know, it's not like most Americans are very aware that Canada exists, but I'd think at least a transported Brit would!

We know what Canada is. Canada is that one cousin that you always ignore, just because it pisses him off.


















I keed I keed

[Cerowyn]

Ah, s'alright. I may be an immigrant, but even I have developed the requisite thick-skin when it comes to such things.

Oh, wait. I'm supposed to apologize now, right?

[BiblioCat]

... 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 was born in the Midwest, and am now in the Mid-Atlantic, and and I've never heard this usage.

[Wheresgeorge04]

How about 'busboy' and 'soda jerk'?

Meaningless in England...

Soda Jerk is meaningless here, too, since the 50s. But what do you call the person who clears the table at a restaurant?

Joe

[Derleth]

Some more food confusions:

American lemonade isn't carbonated. It is just lemon juice with sugar and water added. Limeade is similar, except with lime juice. We don't really have anything very similar to carbonated lemonade here.

American cider is a soft drink, meaning it doesn't contain alcohol and is, in fact, similar to apple juice. I understand that British cider is what Americans call hard cider and is alcoholic.

And this isn't a confusion, but a question: Do the British drink very much iced tea? It's mainly a Southern thing here (Deep South and Southern Midwest) and references to British tea are universally to a hot beverage.

[glee]

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've been using that over here for decades!

[si_blakely]

But what do you call the person who clears the table at a restaurant?

A waiter. Why do you need a different person from the one who bought the plates to take them away from the table?

Si

[Rube E. Tewesday]

But what do you call the person who clears the table at a restaurant?

A waiter. Why do you need a different person from the one who bought the plates to take them away from the table?

Si

So you pay some kid even less than the waiter to clear dishes, allowing the waiter more time to look after tables.

[Claptree]

Spackle. I mean, I know what it means now, but I'm betting that not many non-US English speakers have encountered it.

Interestingly, spackle is spackel in Swedish.

[Wheresgeorge04]

But what do you call the person who clears the table at a restaurant?

A waiter. Why do you need a different person from the one who bought the plates to take them away from the table?

Si

The waiter will come along after your meal, and ask, "All finished?" and take your plate, but when you're gone, the busboy cleans the table, takes the rest of the glasses/plates/utensils. Does the waiter do that too, in the UK? At a busy restaurant, a waiter has too many tables to do that...

Joe

[Oliveloaf]

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.

[Petrobey]

Do the British drink very much iced tea? It's mainly a Southern thing here (Deep South and Southern Midwest) and references to British tea are universally to a hot beverage.

Not that much, no. We understand what it is, but tea is hot in the UK.

What do you understand by a "thong" in the US?

An Australian girl I knew got into terrible trouble in Selfridges asking where to buy "rubber thongs".

(Apparently a "thong" is that sandal with the bit that goes between your toes. We call them a flip flop. A "thong" in the UK is a G string!)

[BiblioCat]

In the US, a thong is now underwear. A g-string or butt floss.
When I was much younger, thongs were what are now called flip-flops.

[Giles]

"Thong", in the sense of rubber sandals, seems to be particularly Australian (perhaps because they are worn a lot there). The New Zealand word for these is "jandal".

[pulykamell]

Do the British drink very much iced tea? It's mainly a Southern thing here (Deep South and Southern Midwest) and references to British tea are universally to a hot beverage.

Not that much, no. We understand what it is, but tea is hot in the UK.

What do you understand by a "thong" in the US?

An Australian girl I knew got into terrible trouble in Selfridges asking where to buy "rubber thongs".

(Apparently a "thong" is that sandal with the bit that goes between your toes. We call them a flip flop. A "thong" in the UK is a G string!)

I remember a thong being flip-flop sandals in the 80s. Then around the early 90s, the word got co-mingled with G-string, and now "thong" primarily refers to G-string, but the older meaning would still be understood in context by anybody, say, 30 and up, I would think. And I haven't heard the word "G-string" since high school. In the early 90s (I graduated high school in '93), I definitely referred to them as "G-string bikins." Now, I'd say "thong bikini." (Hmm...looking over at Wikipedia, apparently a "G-string" is actually a specific type of thong, although the words are often used synonymously.)

[tomb]

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.

On the other hand, I find it amusing that a British journalist would be unaware of burble .

(Although, I would guess that not one Yank in a hundred would actually be able to put a meaning or a sound to the word.)

[Laughing Lagomorph]

... 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 was born in the Midwest, and am now in the Mid-Atlantic, and and I've never heard this usage.

I grew up in New York City/State, and now live near Boston and have never heard an American speak this way. I am familiar with it from British books, movies, and TV shows though.

[tomb]

iced tea? It's mainly a Southern thing here (Deep South and Southern Midwest) and references to British tea are universally to a hot beverage.

Sweet tea is a mostly Southern thing, (that has grown in popularity in the North over the last decade), but iced tea is sufficiently common to the whole of the U.S. that Lipton actually has an instant product that is intended for use solely as iced tea. I have not been in any restaurant, in decades, that did not serve iced tea. I suspect that the same is true in Canada; (it has been 45 years since I ordered an iced tea in Canada and was brought a glass of hot brewed tea containing several rapidly diminishing ice cubes).

[OneCentStamp]

But what do you call the person who clears the table at a restaurant?

Jose.

Statistically speaking, it gives me the highest probability of getting it right.

*d&r*

[tunaman]

... 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 was born in the Midwest, and am now in the Mid-Atlantic, and and I've never heard this usage.

I grew up in New York City/State, and now live near Boston and have never heard an American speak this way.

That's why I said it's a "mostly Southern" thing. Before today, I'd never heard it outside the South, but now I find it's apparently common in the UK and Australia.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

I suspect that the same is true in Canada; (it has been 45 years since I ordered an iced tea in Canada and was brought a glass of hot brewed tea containing several rapidly diminishing ice cubes).

Wouldn't happen today, iced tea's everywhere. My wife, though, who's the tea drinker in the family, tells me that to get truly good iced tea in a restaurant, you still have to go to the Southern U.S.

[pulykamell]

... 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 was born in the Midwest, and am now in the Mid-Atlantic, and and I've never heard this usage.

I grew up in New York City/State, and now live near Boston and have never heard an American speak this way. I am familiar with it from British books, movies, and TV shows though.

Well, tunaman did say it was mostly a Southern thing. That said, I've never heard this usage before anywhere in the US, but I've lived in the Chicago most my life.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

That's why I said it's a "mostly Southern" thing. Before today, I'd never heard it outside the South, but now I find it's apparently common in the UK and Australia.

And until today I would have called it an "entirely British (and Australian, apparently) thing". I never realized people in the Southern US used it too. I've never really spent any time there though. Ignorance fought etc. etc.

[featherlou]

As we were discussing in this thread, Americans call back bacon Canadian bacon, but Canadians do not (we call it back bacon, if we call it anything at all). If you came to Calgary and ordered Canadian bacon, after the server stopped staring at you funny, she would try to figure out what the heck you were after. I suspect they might think you meant normal bacon that was from Canadian pigs.

[OneCentStamp]

As we were discussing in this thread, Americans call back bacon Canadian bacon, but Canadians do not (we call it back bacon, if we call it anything at all). If you came to Calgary and ordered Canadian bacon, after the server stopped staring at you funny, she would try to figure out what the heck you were after. I suspect they might think you meant normal bacon that was from Canadian pigs.

Same as if you asked for "Swiss cheese" in Zurich. All Swiss cheeses are presumably Swiss. What we call "Swiss cheese" in the USA is Emmentaler.

Oh, and Panama hats really originated in Ecuador.

[Wheresgeorge04]

As we were discussing in this thread, Americans call back bacon Canadian bacon, but Canadians do not (we call it back bacon, if we call it anything at all). If you came to Calgary and ordered Canadian bacon, after the server stopped staring at you funny, she would try to figure out what the heck you were after. I suspect they might think you meant normal bacon that was from Canadian pigs.

So what do you call strips of crispy pork meat? American Bacon? Plain ol' bacon?

Joe

[Rube E. Tewesday]

As we were discussing in this thread, Americans call back bacon Canadian bacon, but Canadians do not (we call it back bacon, if we call it anything at all). If you came to Calgary and ordered Canadian bacon, after the server stopped staring at you funny, she would try to figure out what the heck you were after. I suspect they might think you meant normal bacon that was from Canadian pigs.

So what do you call strips of crispy pork meat? American Bacon? Plain ol' bacon?

Joe

If you go into a Canadian greasy spoon and order bacon and eggs, you'll get exactly what you'd get in an equivalent American joint. The Canadian place is more likely to have back bacon or peameal bacon on the menu than the American one, but they'll be described as "back bacon" or "peameal bacon", not just "bacon". That "Canadians call 'ham', 'bacon' "is just one of those jokes that sounds funny to an American, but has no connection to reality.

[kferr]

In the UK the thing that North Americans call either 'back bacon' or 'Canadian bacon' is just 'bacon'. What Americans just call 'bacon' is called 'streaky bacon' here.
I'm an an American ex-pat in the UK and I can't think of any words that the Brits wouldn't get with a bit of context. There's just too much American telly for that. I grew up in Iowa and didn't hear 'Tuesday week' until I came here. 'Biscuit' as in 'Biscuits & Gravy' (breakfast heaven!) is probably the single hardest thing for the Brits to get their heads around.

[gurujulp]

Tunaman, that sense of "Tuesday week" to mean a week after next Tuesday is the normal sense in Australia. I'm not sure what the usage is in the UK. However, today being Monday, I'd reference the day 8 days from now as "tomorrow week", not "Tuesday week".

But this example reminds me of an example of ignorance the other way round: most Americans don't seem to understand what a "fortnight" is, so they just talk about "two weeks", while "fortnightly" is "biweekly".

I thought a fortnight was twenty days...

Although after googling, I stand corrected...

[OutStandingInTheField]

Although I don't think anyone would misunderstand your intention, if you use the word vacation to describe a break from work in Australia people will know you are not from around there ... and I am from around there (I just happen not to live there anymore). They prefer to go on holidays.

[kenner116]

I thought a fortnight was twenty days...

Although after googling, I stand corrected...

You're thinking of a scorenight.

[Rigamarole]

I got strange looks for asking about a drugstore.

Yes, that makes sense, because the American drugstore really has no exact counterpart in Britain or Australia (where chemists' shops or pharmacies sell a wide range of non-pharmaceuticals, but not as wide a range as drugstores in the US).

Don't quite get your response here - isn't it the pharmaceuticals (i.e. drugs) which make it a "drugstore" and not so much the non-pharmaceutical trash bags, small appliances, and the like that they also happen to sell?

[McNutty]

Don't quite get your response here - isn't it the pharmaceuticals (i.e. drugs) which make it a "drugstore" and not so much the non-pharmaceutical trash bags, small appliances, and the like that they also happen to sell?

Well, it depends on how you ask. If you said, "hey, I need to get a prescription filled. could you tell me where the nearest drugstore is," they could probably make the leap that "drugstore" means "chemist," whereas if you said "hey, I need to buy some shampoo. could you tell me where the nearest drugstore is," they would think "what's this thing called a 'drugstore' where you could buy shampoo?"

I speak from experience: I forgot to pack shampoo on a trip to Germany once, and people were extremely confused by my inquiring about a "drugstore", which is better known as an "apotheke", and which does not sell shampoo.

[pulykamell]

I thought a fortnight was twenty days...

If you have trouble remembering it, realize that "fortnight" is ultimately a contraction of "fourteen nights."

[TheFlame]

Although I don't think anyone would misunderstand your intention, if you use the word vacation to describe a break from work in Australia people will know you are not from around there ... and I am from around there (I just happen not to live there anymore). They prefer to go on holidays.

This is true of the UK as well. "Vacation" is a clear sign that you're either from 'over the pond' or have at the very least being watching far too much American telly.

[BiblioCat]

That's why I said it's a "mostly Southern" thing. Before today, I'd never heard it outside the South, but now I find it's apparently common in the UK and Australia.

Yes, I saw that, and I'm in Maryland, which some people consider southern, I guess because we're below the Mason-Dixon line. There were a couple of threads on the SD that got rather heated over whether or not Maryland was a Southern state, but I'm not opening that can of worms again.