7 The DAE’s first example of raise in the sense of an increase in pay is marked an Americanism and dated 1898. The word must be much older. See Raise or Rise?, by Helen C. Munroe, American Speech, Aug., 1931, pp. 407–10.
8 I Discover America, by Kenneth Adam, London Star, Nov. 30, 1937: “Underdone beef is, of all things, rare.” Aids to the Talkies, by D. W. B(rogan), Oxford Magazine, Oct. 17, 1935: “Applied to under-done meat, rare … can easily be heard in Scotland.”
1 The DAE traces recess, in this sense, to 1860, and marks it an Americanism.
2 The DAE traces roadster for an automobile to 1908, and marks it an Americanism.
3 Horwill says that “in England joint is preferred.”
4 Switchback is in use in the United States.
5 The DAE traces roomer to 1871, rooming-house to 1893 and room-mate to 1789, and marks them all Americanisms.
6 Rooster is marked “chiefly U. S. and dialect” by the NED. Its first example, dated 1822, is of American origin. The DAE says that the use of the term “has been ascribed to … squeamishness about using the word cock.” Mr. Percy Marks reminds me that chicken-breeders use cockerel.
7 Cape Times (Cape Town), July 16, 1938: “In the intaglio section of today’s magazine supplement you will find more high-level photographs.”
8 The DAE marks roundhouse an Americanism and traces it to 1870. The word exists in other senses in English usage.
9 As She Is Spoke in the United States, by J. H. M., Glasgow Evening Citizen, Aug. 29, 1936: “If you want a return ticket you ask for a round-trip.”
10 From the cross-examination of a bankrupt in the London Bankruptcy Court, 1938:
Q. You know the expression stumer cheques?
A. Too well.
Q. I have some which you have passed at home and abroad.
Partridge says that stumer originally meant “a horse against which money may be laid without risk,” and suggests that it may come from the Yiddish. In the sense of a rubber-check he traces it to 1890.
11 H. W. Seaman informs me that char-a-banc is dying in England, but that some of the English roadside pubs still exhibit signs reading Charabanc Parties Not Accommodated. The term is pronounced sharabang or sharrybang.
12 Mr. A. D. Jacobs of Manchester tells me that run “is making headway” in England.
1 London Morning Post, Jan. 1, 1936: “Rutabaga … is a perfectly good English word (spelled ruta-baga), though not much in use now. Brassic rutabaga is the Latin name for the Swede or (as we used to call it in the army) horse turnip.” The rutabaga was introduced into England from Sweden c. 1800 and into the United States soon afterward.
2 Dos and Don’ts For Doughboys, by H. W. Seaman, Manchester Sunday Chronicle, March 22, 1942: “A pub is not a saloon, but a group of bars of different social ranks. The saloon-bar is the swellest and the public-bar is the lowest.”
3 British and American, by Josiah Combs, American Speech, April, 1941, p. 153: “William Feather reports that the British magazines that use copy prepared in his Cleveland office [substitute] blackleg for scab.”
4 Scallion is by no means unknown to the English. The NED traces it to the Fourteenth Century, and Mr. A. T. Grime of London tells me (private communication, Aug. 8, 1940) that it was in constant use in Northeastern Lancashire in his youth. He says that scally-onion was also used.
5 When the English use schedule they make the first syllable shed, not sked.
6 London Objerver, Feb. 9, 1936: “University College will award a Sir William Meyer studentship, of the value of about £120, for two years.” But scholarship is also used in England.
7 Headline in the London Morning Post, Sept. 25, 1935: Rugby Scrum Fatality.
8 See first floor.
9 The English-Speaking Peoples, by Alistair Cooke, London Evening Standard, Dec. 1, 1936: “They ask for a sedan, and with a little difficulty get what we call a saloon-car (a phrase that to an American means nothing, but in a vision might mean a rowdy bar on wheels, attached to a train).”
10 London Daily Express, Sept. 2, 1936: “He sold up practically all of his home.”
11 But Venetian blind is familiar in the United States. The DAE traces shade to 1867 and marks it an Americanism.
12 The First Reader, by Harry Hansen, New Bedford (Mass.) Mercury, July 27, 1935: “In America the professional man hangs out his shingle, meaning a signboard. In England he puts up his brass plate.”
13 See AL4, p. 122. Efforts have been made to introduce the English boot in the United States, but in vain, for the term still indicates, to an American, a foot-covering reaching to the knee. “Inconsistently enough,” says Horwill, “an American calls the boy who shines his shoes a bootblack, while an Englishman calls the boy who blacks his boots a shoeblack.” See boot.
1 American and English, by Claude de Crespigny, American Speech, June, 1926, p. 492.
2 Shoestring is not an Americanism, but it is used in the United States much oftener than in England, mainly because of the influence of shoe. On a shoestring is traced by the DAE to 1882.
3 Do You Speak English?, by John Blunt, London Daily Mail, Aug. 17, 1932: “Sidewalk for pavement is logical, as very few American side-walks were paved in the olden time.” A correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post, Nov. 9, 1939, called attention to the fact that the Liverpool Corporation uses pavement to indicate the roadway, not the sidewalk. A clipping from the Industrial Daily News, Sept. 22, 1936, sent to me by Mr. P. E. Cleator, indicates that it also uses sidewalk as Americans do.
4 The DAE traces silent partner to 1828 and marks it an Americanism.
5 Silverware is not unknown in England, but it apparently did not come in there until c. 1860, whereas it was used in America in the Eighteenth Century. Flat-silver and flat-ware seem to be Americanisms.
6 The English-Speaking Peoples, by Alistair Cooke, London Evening Standard, Dec. 1, 1936: “What they call sirloin is what we call rump, and our sirloin is their porterhouse.”
7 In Australia a slingshot is a shanghai. The slingshot is becoming obsolete in America, for American boys have begun to forget their old sports and games. The DAE traces the term to 1849 and marks it an Americanism.
8 But kippered herring is used in America. Kipper is an old English name for the male salmon in the spawning season. But its relation to to kipper, which the NED traces to 1773, is not clear.
9 Advertisement in the London Morning Post, Nov. 30, 1935: “A snip! 2 magnificent Python Skins, 18 ft. and 21 ft.; EXTREMELY moderate, for disposal privately.” The NED traces snip to 1894. The DAE does not list snap in the sense here indicated, but traces it in that of a brief, sudden spell of weather to 1740, in that of a string-bean to 1844, and in that of vim and dash to 1865. It is an Americanism in all these senses. So are snap judgment, to snap the whip, snapping turtle, and to snap into it.
10 The old difference between the English and American meanings of biscuit and cracker seem to be breaking down. The English begin to use both words in our senses, and biscuit is often used in America for what was formerly a cracker, e.g., the Uneeda biscuit.
1 New York Times Magazine, quoted in Writer’s Monthly, Oct., 1927, p. 335: “Soda fountains are soda bars tucked away in sweet shops, never at the chemist’s.”
2 London Leader, March 27, 1943; “Lord Woolton’s Ministry of Food has adopted Uncle Sam’s soft drinks in the place of minerals — few of which were made from mineral waters, anyway.”
3 London Daily Express, Sept. 22, 1936: “I have just got an express delivery letter with the South Kensington postmark of 11.30 A.M. the previous day.”
4 Mobile Police, London Times, Feb. 22, 1937: “There has been a friendly reception for last week’s announcement in the House of Commons that the number of mobile police is to be greatly increased. It has been taken as a further and a proper acknowledgment that the duty of the police towards road-users must be educative as well as punitive.” But see AL4, p. 226, n. 1.
5 Aids to the Talkies, by D. W. B(rogan), Oxford
Magazine, Oct. 17, 1935: “Many Americanisms are also Scoticisms, e.g., faucet for tap.” Mr. L. Clark Keating of Minneapolis (private communication, June 30, 1937) says that spigot seems to be confined to the Philadelphia-Baltimore area. He says that tap is used in up-State New York.
6 The English-Speaking Peoples, by Alistair Cooke, London Evening Standard, Dec. 1, 1936: “At the next counter he tries to come to the rescue of an American girl who wants a spool of thread and can make nobody understand. They go into a dumb show and begin to thread imaginary needles for the benefit of the girl behind the counter, who suddenly knows that what they’ve wanted all the time was a reel of cotton.”
7 The authority here is Horwill.
8 Squash is one of the oldest of Americanisms. It was borrowed from the Indians and is traced by the DAE to 1643.
9 Stairs is now common in the United States. The DAE traces stairway in American use to 1708, more than a century before it is first recorded in England.
10 Law Society and Legal Delays, London Daily Telegraph, Sept. 25, 1935: “The obvious remedy is to have a shorthand-writer.” Stenography is traced to 1602, in English use, by the NED, but all its examples of stenographer are American. The DAE traces stenographer to 1796 and marks it an Americanism. It is, of course, known to the English, but they seem to prefer shorthand-writer, especially when referring to court stenographers.
11 See Chapter III, Section 3.
12 The DAE marks straight, in this sense, an Americanism, and traces it to 1862.
1 London correspondence of the South China Morning Post, June 11, 1936: “The Prince of Wales, who for years wore a boater, could not make boaters fashionable.”
2 London Daily Telegraph, Sept. 4, 1936: “A new model 22 h.p. Ford V8 car is offered only as a four-door saloon with a swept-out tail.” See sedan. But stream-lined is often used in England.
3 I am indebted here to Mr. P. H. Muir of London.
4 The DAE traces string-bean to 1759 and marks it an Americanism.
5 As She Is Spoke in the United States, by J. H. M., Glasgow Evening Citizen, Aug. 29, 1936: “Even schoolboys and schoolgirls are students.”
6 Or tube. In England subway means an underground passage for persons on foot.
7 London Morning Post, May 6, 1936: “The Viscose Company … dividends were … maintained for the year by drawing upon surplus — or, as we should probably call it, reserve.”
8 Suspenders is traced by the DAE to 1810, and suspenders-button to 1833. See garter. Aids to the Talkies, by D. W. B(rogan), Oxford Magazine, Oct. 17, 1935: “A striking example was afforded by the puzzlement of a visiting English professor at Harvard who read that [William Jennings] Bryan, at the [Dayton, Tenn.] monkey trial, spoke ‘with his thumbs in his suspenders,’ this appearing to be an acrobatic feat to which all others were (as Americans used to say) ‘no a circumstance.’ ”
9 Or cardigan, or jumper. The Spoken Word That May Occasionally Baffle, by Joyce M. Horner, Yorkshire Evening Post (Leeds), Sept. 1, 1933: “Your Englishwoman in America … may cause some puzzlement by demanding to be shown jumpers, and will learn that all jumpers are sweaters, that cardigans, too, are sweaters, and sweaters are somewhat unhappily termed sweatshirts.”
10 As She Is Spoke in the United States, by J. H. M., Glasgow Evening Citizen, Aug. 29, 1936: “You insult the grocer by asking for fresh butter. What you wanted was sweet butter.”
11 See molasses.
12 Call Box, by Taylor Scott Hardin, New Yorker, Dec. 7, 1935: “ ‘Where’s the telephone booth?’ I interrupted. ‘Telephone booth?’ ‘Yes. Isn’t there any place I can telephone from?’ ‘Oh, a call box.’ ”
13 The NED says that tenpins is called American bowls in England. It is not, however, an American invention, and the traditional etymology given in AL4, p. 248, n. 1, is probably unsound. The DAE traces tenpins in American use to 1830 and tenpin-alley to 1835. A variant called duckpins originated in Baltimore in 1903. See Baltimore Duckpins, by Martin S. Day, American Speech, Dec., 1940, pp. 361–63.
1 Murder For Pleasure, by Howard Hay craft; New York, 1941: “In America the term thriller is usually employed to indicate the sensational crime story, as distinctive from the police novel proper. In England it has come increasingly to mean the bona fide detective story. When the English wish to signify the sensational novel they say shocker.” I take this from American Speech, Feb., 1942, p. 70.
2 Please Speak English, by Dale Warren, Seven Seas, Spring, 1939, p. 26: “I seldom have a need for thumbtacks, but if I did I would have to explain to the stationer that I’d be pleased to have a package of drawing-pins.”
3 Please Speak English, by Dale Warren, Seven Seas, Spring, 1939, p. 26: “A booking-clerk is just our old friend the ticket-agent.”
4 London Observer, Feb. 9, 1936: “The libraries have bought a lot of seats.”
5 The DAE traces ticket-office to 1835 and marks it an Americanism.
6 The DAE traces ticket-seller to 1857.
7 Tie is marked an Americanism by the DAE and traced to 1853. Sleeper was probably driven out of American use by the hazard of confusing it with the common American term for a sleeping-car, introduced c. 1875.
8 London Daily Telegraph, May 11, 1936: “Southern Railway Hold-up.” It was achieved, not by train-robbers, but by “a point failure outside Waterloo Station,” i.e., some trouble with switches.
9 Or W.C. Toilet is not unknown in England, but it is not common. Rest-room is apparently never used.
10 In the United States she is addressed as Miss —–; in England as Nurse or Sister.
11 Mr. R. Raven-Hart tells me that in England a transom is still the bar below the fanlight, as it once was in America. See Americanisms and Briticisms, by Brander Matthews; New York, 1892, p. 21.
12 Or, in New York, surface-car. The DAE traces trolley-car to 1891, street-car to 1862, and surface-car to 1889. All are Americanisms, as is you’re off your trolley. Trolley-ride, now obsolete, was in use c. 1900. Electric-car, now also obsolete, is traced to 1888. See motorman.
1 Truck was used in America, before the automobile, to designate any-heavy wagon, and in that sense is traced by the DAE to 1701.
2 Do You Speak American?, by John Blunt, London Daily Mail, Aug. 17, 1932: “Who could tell that truck-farming is market-gardening?” The DAE traces truck-farm to 1866, truck-farming to 1870 and truck-farmer to 1877, and marks them all Americanisms.
3 Road Hauliers Win Test Case, London Daily Telegraph, Feb. 16, 1937: “If there were good foundation for the suggestion of the railway companies that goods were carried by road at rates economic to the haulier and lower than the rates at which the railways could carry the same goods, the railway companies must seek their remedy elsewhere.”
4 See baggage-car. Trunk is not an Americanism, but it is seldom encountered in England.
5 When a Doughboy Goes Shopping in Britain, by Jack Brooks, Chain Store Age (New York), Nov., 1943: “A radio tube, in England, is a wireless valve.” As She Is Spoke in the United States, by J. H. M., Glasgow Evening Citizen, Aug. 29, 1936: “Your room may have a radio (with tubes); it will not have a wireless (with valves).”
6 See vest.
7 The DAE does not list union station, but it traces union depot to 1862.
8 See legal holiday.
9 The DAE traces vacationist to 1888 and vacationer to 1890, and marks them Americanisms.
10 H. W. Seaman: “Vaudeville has an exotic flavour in England.”
11 A Truck By Any Other Name, by Robert Lynd, London News-Chronicle, May 22, 1943: “In England your tailor talks of a coat and vest, and by the vest he means a waistcoat. Outside a tailor’s shop, however, a vest nowadays almost always means, not a waistcoat but an undershirt.” See undershirt.
12 Warden, an old English word, was apparently first applied to the officer in charge of a prison early in the last century.
13 The DAE traces washbowl to 1816 and marks it an Americanism.
14 The DAE traces wash-day to 1846. It is not m
arked an Americanism, but is not recorded in England until 1864. Washing-day is still preferred there.
15 Several English correspondents say that the English for wash-rag is really flannel, but others deny it. The NED does not list flannel in this sense, and its definition of face-cloth is “a cloth laid over the face of a corpse,” but its Supplement, 1933, adds face-cloth in the sense of “a cloth for washing the face,” and traces it to 1930. The Stars and Stripes, June 15, 1943, says that flannel is the English term.
1 I am informed by Mr. Maurice Walshe of London that washstand is in common conversational use.
2 In the London Sunday Express, July 10, 1938, I encountered an advertisement of wastepaper-tubs made of “papier maché finished in light walnut, with nautical designs in low relief.”
3 Don’t Take My Word For It, by Frank Colby, San Bernardino (Calif.) Sun, Nov. 8, 1940: “The Briton takes a bath in water heated in a geyser; the American’s bath water comes from a water-heater, usually referred to redundantly as a hot-water-heater.” A water-heater for kitchen use is called a copper in England.
4 The Weather Bureau was operated by the Signal Corps of the Army from Feb. 9, 1870 to July 1, 1891, when it was transferred to the Department of Agriculture. Later it was transferred to the Department of Commerce. The English Meteorological Office was established in 1854. See bureau.
5 London Sunday Times, July 26, 1936: “The Minister of Health expressed the hope that soon the bill providing for the contributory persons scheme for blackcoated workers, too often neglected in social efforts, would be introduced in Parliament.”
6 Title of an article in Motor News, organ of the Chicago Motor Club, April, 1939, p. 2: “Windshield is Windscreen to the Britisher.” See fender.
7 The DAE’s first example of witness-stand is dated 1885, but it must be much older.
8 News of the World (London), unidentified date: “Breakdown gangs with a crane and axes went out from Melton Mowbray, while villagers, motorists and police did their best to get at the men, pinned in the cabin of the lorry.”
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