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Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 7:29:01 AM   
Aneirin


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From: Tamaris
Status: offline 		I have been wondering about some of the words used to describe things on here, things we call a name, but you Americans have another name for it. Faucet for example, a tap as we know it, Closet, that to us is a cupboard ,trunk on a car, to us, it is the boot, fanny  is to us, well, twat and there are others that escape me at the moment.

Now given the American Language  is really the  English language, why the difference in names used to describe common things. Where did you get your different words from ?
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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 7:33:28 AM   
GreedyTop


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Status: offline 		If I'm not mistaken, 'trunk' in the instance you give probably derives from the earliest automobiles.  Rather than having a built in storage space, 'steamer trunks'  were mounted onto the back of the car.

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall my GRandfather telling me that at some point


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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 7:47:15 AM   
Marc2b


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Status: offline 		As Greedy has already noted, as the need for new words occured (due to changing technologies, changing cultural practices, etc) we simply came up with different words. You also have to factor in the immigration factor. Lots of words from other languages have entered American English.



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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 8:04:51 AM   
Aneirin


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From: Tamaris
Status: offline 		Me being one of those boring bastards, I need to know the origin of things, and so wonder at what I hear, from where does the word come from, why is it used. If the origin is foreign, from which language and what was it in that language.

But yes, I understand trunk now, a steamer trunk would fit, for I have seen such things strapped to the back of vintage cars.

But Fanny ?

( oh, GT, I like your new pic )


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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 8:17:09 AM   
GreedyTop


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as far as fanny.. I have no idea!!

edited:  http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=fanny&searchmode=none


< Message edited by GreedyTop -- 7/16/2009 8:19:53 AM >

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 8:25:14 AM   
CallaFirestormBW


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Status: offline 		fanny 
"buttocks," 1920, Amer.Eng., from earlier British meaning "vulva" (1879), perhaps from the name of John Cleland's heroine in the scandalous novel "Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" (1748). The fem. proper name is a dim. of Frances. The genital sense is still the primary one outside U.S., but is not current in Amer.Eng., which can have consequences when U.S. TV programs and movies air in Britain and vice-versa. Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

My mother, who was a Zigfield Girl in the mid 40s, tells me that "buttocks" was substituted for the more common English definition for 'fanny', starting in the late 20s and early 30s, and into the 40's when she was in New York, in order to tone down the implications for several Broadway plays, in order to keep censorship from shutting them down. "Buttocks" or "Behind" was a more... discrete way of describing 'the nethers', so censors were told that 'fanny' really meant 'behind', not crotch.

< Message edited by CallaFirestormBW -- 7/16/2009 8:31:10 AM >

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 12:28:10 PM   
stella41b


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Status: offline 		Americans are well, uh... different?

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 1:13:50 PM   
DesFIP


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Status: offline 		Churchill's line, as well as I can remember it, was that England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

British influence on language here ended over 200 years ago. It would be odd if there wasn't a great deal of divergence by now. Our language has been influenced by the Netherlands, who were here before the Brits, by the Spanish, the French, many African languages, and every other immigrant group - Italian, Yiddish, Irish, and so on.

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 1:17:35 PM   
bdswitch


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Status: offline 		American English and the Queens' are very different dialects, but American is also made up of dozens of strains which can be almost foreign to non-native speakers. I am currently living in the South, and both accent and dialect differences can be quite noticable. I am now able to translate redneck, but am still slow. Languages are alive and constantly changing, not always for the better, but what can you do. I love BBCAmerica and find the differences in names very interesting.  Swedes and courgettes for rutabagas and zucchini, Hoover for vacuum. Knock you up for drop by for a visit always amuses since here it means to impregnate. Reminds me of an episode of Coupling (the British, and far superior, version of Friends) where Jeff is screaming "Breasts" in Israeli through Heathrow because he thinks it is a girl's name.

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 1:24:04 PM   
NorthernGent


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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

British influence on language here ended over 200 years ago.



Quite right too. Though you and I appear to be speaking the same language - I could be wrong; my eyes are not what they were. No idea what's going on but one of us is under-estimating the "English influence on language".

One 'kindergarten' isn't a summer.

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 1:30:55 PM   
FullCircle


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Status: offline 		Interesting fact: the US word 'Fall' is based on their inability to spell the word 'Autumn'.

and that is the origins of that.

OK I made this fact up, so sue me.

< Message edited by FullCircle -- 7/16/2009 1:34:10 PM >

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 5:34:24 PM   
MasterG2kTR


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Status: offline 		A few more.....

American           British
Elevator               Lift
Toilet                   Loo
Pants                   Trousers
Cigarette              Fag
Highway              Motorway
Driveway             Car Park (not totally sure about this one)
Wrench                Spanner

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 6:24:45 PM   
Marc2b


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quote:

Knock you up for drop by for a visit always amuses since here it means to impregnate.


Well, that explains why the British chick slaped me. I had been wondering why since we had seemed to be getting along so well.

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 6:37:09 PM   
MistressWolfen


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Status: offline 		MasterG2kTR
I had always understood
American
underwear
Brit
pants
but hey us Canucks have our own bizarre dialect and call the above mentioned ginch
Brits say couch Americans sofa and Canucks chesterfield the diversity is great
OP
I think it is important not to confuse dialect with language when we look at these exciting and wonderful differences in communication.

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 6:47:51 PM   
Marc2b


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quote:

Brits say couch Americans sofa and Canucks chesterfield the diversity is great


Don't be so sure. It must be a regional thing because where I live it is a couch, not a sofa.

Edited to add: I do live near the border with Canada, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

< Message edited by Marc2b -- 7/16/2009 6:48:34 PM >

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 9:35:43 PM   
Arpig


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quote:

Brits say couch Americans sofa and Canucks chesterfield the diversity is great

I am Canadian, and rather old, and I have always called it a couch. That is what my parents always called it as well. Perhaps being from New Brunswick has some bearing on it, but I honestly don't think I have ever heard the word "Chesterfield" used to mean anything but a cigarette.


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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 10:00:50 PM   
MistressWolfen


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Status: offline 		not sure could be that chesterfield is a western thing *shrugs* couch is used here also. There are cigarettes called chesterfield? that I did not know are they a Canadian brand?
edited to add...just read your profile yer a young un Arpig

< Message edited by MistressWolfen -- 7/16/2009 10:02:51 PM >

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 10:11:01 PM   
igor2003


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Status: offline 		Just to add a couple more to the "sofa, couch" list, there is daveneau and davenport.

For other USA - UK differences in wording there is:

vest - waistcoat
cookie - biscuit
truck - lorry
vacation - holliday
gasoline - petrol

And for just one difference from one area of the USA to another, part of my family comes from the Pacific Northwest and know the three meals as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, whereas my dad was from Tennessee and knew them as breakfast, dinner, and supper. The little metal boxes that kids use to take their lunch to school around here are generally known as lunch pails or lunch "buckets", and my dad always called them dinner buckets.

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 10:16:13 PM   
tazzygirl


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Status: offline 		lol... just to give another twist

shag... US... its a dance

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RE: Foreign words ? - 7/16/2009 11:36:55 PM   
susie


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Arpig

quote:

Brits say couch Americans sofa and Canucks chesterfield the diversity is great

I am Canadian, and rather old, and I have always called it a couch. That is what my parents always called it as well. Perhaps being from New Brunswick has some bearing on it, but I honestly don't think I have ever heard the word "Chesterfield" used to mean anything but a cigarette.



Most of us in the UK call them sofas too. In fact I am not sure I have heard anyone say couch here. Sometimes people will still say settee instead. Chesterfield here is a particular design of sofa, leather with a very square look and low back and arms.

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