Proof Americans and Brits speak a different language

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  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    We should be grateful that chickpeas aren't Ffa Cyw, as they could so easily have been.

    Some people call them garbonzo beans I believe.

    That is what they are called in Washington State.

    Here is a test I want out British cohorts to complete.

    Please define the following words or phrases (no cheating):

    1. Buck
    2. Pass the buck
    3. Going Dutch
    4. Sweet
    5. Zonked
    6. Bought the farm
    7. Shoot the Breeze
    8. Jonesing
    9. John Hancock
    10. Monday Morning Quarterback
    11. Ride shotgun
    12. For the Birds
    13. Put up your dukes
    14. Carpetbagger
    15. Pork

    I am sure our British friends can come up with similar phrases we Americans would not understand.


    Canadian prairies, old man here.

    I don't know:

    3. going Dutch - maybe means skinny dip

    10. I think jonesing means longing for something

    12. John Hancock - I've heard it, does it mean "every man" like John Doe

    14. Monday Morning quarterback - know what it means, never would use it

    19. carpetbagger - unsure

    21. pork - other than the meat, if it is "pork barrel" then it's taking money or benefits not rightfully your's, usually politicians paying their friends

    May I ask if any of you use the term "gong show"? I've heard it is not international.
  • May I ask if any of you use the term "gong show"? I've heard it is not international.

    A Gang Show is a theatrical performance by a scouting group. I have no idea what a gong show might be. Gong, as well as being the metal thing you bang, is an archaic word for faeces, and for the facility in which one produces it.

    Out of context, I'd suspect that it was rather rude, but I don't think you'd have introduced it here if it was.

    Lacking further inspiration, I'll go with a bowdlerization of shit-show.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    'Cute hoor' is more Irish than Scottish. 'Cute' = shrewd, cunning. 'He's that cute, he could mind mice at a crossroads'. 'Hoor' = whore, but with no sexual connotation: cf Chaucer 'He was a gentil harlot and a kynde' - a rogue or scoundrel.

    I find it quite a useful expression.
  • May I ask if any of you use the term "gong show"? I've heard it is not international.

    A Gang Show is a theatrical performance by a scouting group. I have no idea what a gong show might be. Gong, as well as being the metal thing you bang, is an archaic word for faeces, and for the facility in which one produces it.

    Out of context, I'd suspect that it was rather rude, but I don't think you'd have introduced it here if it was.

    Lacking further inspiration, I'll go with a bowdlerization of shit-show.

    A gong show is when something goes wrong and it is funny.
    A shit show is when something goes wrong or is messed up from the beginning, and it isn't funny.

    "The church service was a total gong show when the usher tripped, and threw the offering plate up in the air and pennies, envelopes and prayer requests rained down, as if from heaven." And everyone laughed.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    mouset
    h
    ief
    wrote: »
    Also

    Carpetbagger has the implication
    that they are from outside the region. Someone unwanted coming in from other parts to do things the locals may or may not want done.

    Pork=
    amendment in a spending bill that benefits one particular state or district, and not the country as a whole, OR benefits one particular industry or other subportion of the country. Normally this is done in a tit-for-tat manner. If you vote for a new post office in my district, I'll vote for a new courthouse in your county.

    Regards Carpetbagger
    The term comes from how Northerners, who wanted to take advantage of the devastation of the South after the civil war came with their belongings stuffed in carpet bag luggage.

    Regards Bought the farm
    The term comes from WWI when the servicemen would have enough government life insurance on them so that if they died, their survivors could buy a farm to sustain themselves.

    Pork also has another more vulgar meaning, btw.

    Regards the British terms. I think I could only give an educated guess on "Being (someone's priest"

    Trying to control someone else's life.

    Regards, Hoist one's own petard

    I happen to know that one because I am reading a book on Capt Cook's adventures in the South Pacific.

    The American term for it would be "Blow up in one's own face."
  • Isn't to be someone's priest the equivalent of putting them to bed with a shovel?
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Isn't to be someone's priest the equivalent of putting them to bed with a shovel?

    Pretty much. Back in the days when I was an Ag and Fish librarian a chap in the American Midwest sent me a query about this, as he manufactured these fishing accessory wooden clubs called 'priests'. I explained there were so called because they 'gave the last rites' to the fish. He sent me one which of course I left in the library. I sometimes wonder what happened to it.

  • We stab fish in the head. Never did understand the beating them to death.
  • This is why I don't fish! (Yes, I'm a wimp)
  • edited April 2020
    Well to be truthful, I wouldn't have posted that, but I am swaggering a bit because the dog and cat and I were playing pirates. If you're going to be a pirate you need to be prepared to stab. Our enemy is the Spherical Bastard Virus. My wife mostly ignores me.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Missed that one about the priest.

    I am still adjusting to the word "stuffed."

    I learned a new meaning for crumpet today, though.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    'Wean' (pronounced 'wain') is a contraction of wee ane = little one = child. A wheen is an indeterminate number. So you could have a wheen o' weans.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I learned a new meaning for crumpet today, though.

    It's better to toast them under the grill as the sides need different timing. Plain butter's best but some like honey or golden syrup.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I learned a new meaning for crumpet today, though.

    It's better to toast them under the grill as the sides need different timing. Plain butter's best but some like honey or golden syrup.

    Try them with Marmite!

  • Best with peanut butter
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Sparrow wrote: »
    Gee D wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I learned a new meaning for crumpet today, though.

    It's better to toast them under the grill as the sides need different timing. Plain butter's best but some like honey or golden syrup.

    Try them with Marmite!

    Marmite is not welcome in this house - food of Satan. We do enjoy Vegemite on toast but not on crumpets.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    You don't put anything on crumpets apart from indecent amounts of butter (that's their whole spongiform point).
  • @Gee D are you Ozzie, born and bred? I could never stomach Vegemite when I lived out there, but I love Marmite!
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    You don't put anything on crumpets apart from indecent amounts of butter (that's their whole spongiform point).

    This 😀!
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    @Gee D are you Ozzie, born and bred? I could never stomach Vegemite when I lived out there, but I love Marmite!

    Yes, every last cell.
  • My physio in hospital said “sweet” whenever any excercise went well, so I assume it is street talk for “good “ or “that went well”. Lord P uses “cool beans” in a similar way.
    I don’t know where that one has come from.
  • Marmite is particularly good spread on toast with a thin layer of peanut butter on top.

  • On priest, I don't think you beat a fish to death, as above, usually a tap on the head dispatches them. Having said that, I was a catch 'em and chuck 'em back fisher, as nearly all coarse fishing is in UK, with exception of pike and zander, but they are predators.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Marmite is particularly good spread on toast with a thin layer of peanut butter on top.

    You're saying that just to troll, aren't you?

    Please?

    Marmite is Satan's earwax.
  • I get the feeling that the Easter Bunny is made more of in the States than in Britain. It seems to have a distinct personality, as far as I can make it, while over here we get chocolate rabbits and that's it. Or am I out of touch with my own culture again?
  • Darllenwr likes peanut butter and marmite. In fact, you can now buy a jar of peanut butter and marmite swirled together.
  • Marmite is rather awful. But I have found recently that peanut butter and tomatoes is quite nice. If you can get tomatoes.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    I like a peanut butter and tomato sandwich too.
  • Crumpet toasted
    Then butter tomato and cheese.
    Re toasted
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I do like Marmite, very thinly spread. But I once ate half a small jar (a very small jar - haven't seen one that size for a long time). It was an experiment. I had started to have migraines, and Marmite was mentioned as a possible trigger. Mine seemed to be associated with the calendar, and I ate the stuff at a time half way between one attack and the predicted next one. The Marmite did not trigger an attack. I did not try it at the predicted time, and I have never eaten that amount since. It was difficult.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Okay, the term "crumpet" as referred to in Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going where Captian Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz is the two-legged bronze beauty which is usually topless on the beaches of Tahiti. Tony's partner is a British divorcee living in Australia. He makes that reference when Tony suggests tracing Captian Cooks' travels in the Pacific.

    One thing I have to admit, though, is I will never understand the British pound monetary system. I am much more comfortable with the decimal system most other countries use.

    But then again people in the US use a form of the imperial measuring system which no other country (including Britain now) uses. This really fucks me up when I go to Canada and have to by gas (petro) there. Thank God, the speedometer on my car does have a metric gage on it as well as the mile gage--otherwise, I would be paying a lot on speeding tickets. Nice people, those Canadians.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    KarlLB wrote: »

    Marmite is Satan's earwax.

    Forgot to say, "Quotes File!" :joy:
  • The really screwy thing is that an American gallon is 3.89 litres, and an imperial gallon is 4.54. Most Canadians are bilingual re measuring. I use imperial measures for cooking (cups, teaspoons etc), metric for distance, feet and inches for height, small distances mm, pounds for some weights like people or meat, kg for lifting something. Two measuring systems does make for some pains, like having to have 2 sets of wrenches and socket sets, though also knowing that a ½" wrench is close to a 13mm, which works unless the bolt is stuck.

    We end up with some rather odd sizes for things, like a standard bottle or can of beer might be 330, 341 or 355 ml. Though when we take growlers to brew pubs for refill, they are 500 l and up in round metric sizes. -- do you call refillable beer bottles growlers?

  • john holdingjohn holding Ecclesiantics Host, Mystery Worshipper Host
    Gramps49 wrote: »

    One thing I have to admit, though, is I will never understand the British pound monetary system. I am much more comfortable with the decimal system most other countries use.

    The British system has been decimal for (nearly) 50 years...what's hard to understand about that?
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    BroJames wrote: »
    I like a peanut butter and tomato sandwich too.

    Vegemite and tomato on toast makes a good mid-morning snack, especially if you've just picked the tomato.
  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    But then again people in the US use a form of the imperial measuring system which no other country (including Britain now) uses. This really fucks me up when I go to Canada and have to by gas (petro) there. Thank God, the speedometer on my car does have a metric gage on it as well as the mile gage--otherwise, I would be paying a lot on speeding tickets. Nice people, those Canadians.
    Ah... You used a word I was going to bring up here as an unusual example of the Americans going European. Gage was how Americans commonly used to spell what the rest of us (engineers, anyway) have always known as a gauge, but now seems to be common American usage as well.

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    But then again people in the US use a form of the imperial measuring system which no other country (including Britain now) uses. This really fucks me up when I go to Canada and have to by gas (petro) there. Thank God, the speedometer on my car does have a metric gage on it as well as the mile gage--otherwise, I would be paying a lot on speeding tickets. Nice people, those Canadians.
    Ah... You used a word I was going to bring up here as an unusual example of the Americans going European. Gage was how Americans commonly used to spell what the rest of us (engineers, anyway) have always known as a gauge, but now seems to be common American usage as well.

    Spelling error
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »

    One thing I have to admit, though, is I will never understand the British pound monetary system. I am much more comfortable with the decimal system most other countries use.

    The British system has been decimal for (nearly) 50 years...what's hard to understand about that?

    Goes to show how old I am.
  • And we tend to use a mix of metric and Imperial. Mike's rather than kilometres on road signs but for some inexplicable reason in kilometres on some footpaths ('trails' in US English).

    Most recipes use both pounds and ounces and metric measurements.

    We tend to think in yards rather than metres and in feet and inches rather than centimetres and metres, but it depends.

    Beer and milk are still dispensed in pints.

    I could go on.

    I suspect Gramps 49 is thinking of pounds, shillings and pence ('old money') from reading old novels or seeing old films (movies). I'm old enough to remember the old currency and used to take a 'threepenny bit' (pronounced 'thruppenny') to school. You were 'made up' (delighted) if you were given 'half a crown' at birthdays or Christmas.

    I can just about remember farthings, I think and we were beginning to be taught about rods, poles, perches and furlongs when metric came in. We were taught both the metric and Imperial systems and ended up completely confused.

    It wasn't that unusual to come across very worn Victorian or Edwardian pennies - and the old penny was huge - in change when I was a kid. They were sufficiently exotic for me to put them in a tobacco tin and keep them though. But plenty of George V and George VI coins around back then as I remember.

    Anyway, four farthings in a penny, two ha'ppennies in a penny, four pennies (pence) in a groat, 12 pennies in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound. What's so complicated about that?
  • Whoops, 'miles' not 'mikes' ...
  • The really screwy thing is that an American gallon is 3.89 litres, and an imperial gallon is 4.54.

    A US pint is 16 fluid ounces. A US pint of water weighs a pound.
    A UK pint has been 20 fluid ounces since I think Stuart times. Whilst I appreciate the extra beer, there's not much rhyme or reason to it.

    Both gallons are eight of their respective pints.

    @Gramps49 is apparently stuck pre-1971 with old British money. Pre-decimal money wasn't actually all that complicated, although some Brits enjoy making it sound harder than it really is.

    I'd say weight was more confusing that coinage. Why should there be 16 ounces to the pound, but 14 pounds to the stone? Exactly what is a hundredweight again? (8 stone, for those at the back, or 1/20 of a (long) ton.
  • In practice, as @Gamma Gamaliel said, we use a mixture of Imperial and metric in the UK. That may be confusing, but I can't see it changing with Brexit coming up.
  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    A US pint is 16 fluid ounces. A US pint of water weighs a pound.
    A UK pint has been 20 fluid ounces since I think Stuart times. Whilst I appreciate the extra beer, there's not much rhyme or reason to it.

    Both gallons are eight of their respective pints.

    Oh Lord. Just tell me roughly how many millilitres are in my glass of beer...

    Mind you, in Australia different states have different terminology for that as well. I've literally seen a chart.

  • We call kilometres clicks fairly often. Fuel efficiency for vehicles is l/100km (litres burned per 100 km of travel).
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Yes, a reverse of mpg which is distance per unit of fuel.
  • I get the feeling that the Easter Bunny is made more of in the States than in Britain. It seems to have a distinct personality, as far as I can make it, while over here we get chocolate rabbits and that's it. Or am I out of touch with my own culture again?

    There is an attempt by sellers of greetings cards and chocolate to get the rabbit into UK Easter but so far its not taken over from the religious/ spring hybrid of my youth.
  • Imperial measures of length are still fairly common, especially in sport.

    We're all still pretty familiar with inches, feet and yards, but then you have
    chain - 22 yards, the length of a cricket wicket
    furlong - 10 chains, still used in horse racing
    mile - 8 furlongs
    league - 3 miles

    You've also got the
    ell - 45 inches, generally used to measure fabric
    link - 1/100th of a chain, a smidgeon under 8 inches
    rod (also called pole or perch) - 25 links

    Of course, nautical measurements are another matter :grin:
  • Mentioning sport, I'm currently rereading Little Women and its sequels. To my surprise there are several references to people playing cricket (and none to rounders, sorry baseball). Was cricket popular in America at the time, or was it a type of baseball?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »

    One thing I have to admit, though, is I will never understand the British pound monetary system. I am much more comfortable with the decimal system most other countries use.

    The British system has been decimal for (nearly) 50 years...what's hard to understand about that?

    Goes to show how old I am.

    You really thought we still used £/s/d?
  • Cricket was played fairly widely across the original northern states, Pennsylvania being a hotspot. However, cricket needs a large pitch and a well-prepared flat wicket, making impromptu games a no-no, so baseball took over from around the time of the US civil war.
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