100+ Differences between British and American English | British vs. American Vocabulary Words

MountainRa said:
Thanks! I never thought about it having a Germanic origin. At any rate, it seems to be one of those words that has fallen out of use and relegated to history.
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I believe 'fall' as in autumn used to be an English dialect. 'Fall' being maintained in the US. But then autumn became more dominant in the UK.
 

StarSong said:
There are very few traffic circles AKA roundabouts in California. There were some in NJ and NY, where I learned to drive, but most are gone now.

DH, born and raised in CA, can't maneuver them without my coaching him through, and oftentimes we go round and round a few times before he can exit. :oops:o_O

When I was 18 and in a traffic circle, a lady clipped my driver's side. Got out of her car and started wailing that her boyfriend was going to be so upset that she had an accident in his new car.

I couldn't believe my ears. I said, "You ran into ME!" She looked at me very dismissively and said, "You were in the lane I needed to be in."

A nearby cop saw the incident and stopped to help sort it out. He shrugged and said, "Traffic circles are nightmares. So many accidents." That was it. He sent us both on our way and she didn't have to pay for the damage to my car.

I hated traffic circles before that and even more since.
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They call them rotarys in Connecticut. I'm only aware of one and that was quite awhile go.
 

retiredtraveler said:
Do Brits commonly use 'cow' as in 'silly cow' or 'poor cow'? Or, is that something they use on TV. I hear it a lot on film, but never in person.
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Yes..in England..definitely.. but in Scotland if you call a woman a Cow, you're calling her the worst kind of Harlot..

Here in southern England , cow is used to mean.. just a tiny insult.. like daft cow.. or stupid cow.. further north ..it's also used in the context of feeling sorry for someone.. ''poor cow'' etc
 
The UK has around 40 different dialects of English, each with their own accents and slang.
So, it is misleading when someone uses this phrase “we in Britain”or “over here we do not do or say this.”

It depends which region one is from (there are 13)!, perhaps the school they attended etc.
For example, I grew up in London and went to a school where one is taught to speak in a certain way i.e. Received Pronunciation. It doesn’t matter where in the world I visit, I can be understood.
 
MountainRa said:
A word I often heard older family members use when I grew up in southern USA , and often wondered if it had British or Irish roots, was the word ’quare’. It was used to mean strange or peculiar, maybe eccentric. As in ‘ those neighbors down the street are a quare bunch.’ Or ‘ I get a quare feeling walking by that house’.

I never hear that word used now. Did anyone else encounter this term growing up? Or know what language it comes from?
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It transpires it's an old Irish word meaning ''very''....



An adjective used by rural Irish Wexford farmers similiar to the word "very". "Mary was quare sad when she heard that the potatoes had caught blight" The origins of the word come from South Wexford used first in newspapers in early 1800's.
 
RadishRose said:
They call them rotarys in Connecticut. I'm only aware of one and that was quite awhile go.
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these are very common types of roundabouts here.... these ones are usually the type we encounter immediately after coming off the motorway slip road...



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..and these smaller ones are what we would typically encounter on our urban and suburban roads...

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MountainRa said:
Thanks! I never thought about it having a Germanic origin. At any rate, it seems to be one of those words that has fallen out of use and relegated to history.
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In the context of how you say your family used the word, ’quare’. In that it was "used to mean strange or peculiar, maybe eccentric." It seems to fit in with the definitions below.

What's important is what exactly are your thoughts. Do you think it was an Irish dialect or generally your family's pronunciation of 'queer'? Perhaps the sound, 'quare' for queer being used, taken to the USA, and passed down through your family?

quare: adjective Irish dialect

1, remarkable or strange a quare fellow

2, great or good you're in a quare mess

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/quare

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/quare

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quare

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/quare



If its derived from 'queer' of a similar original meaning, then this is the etymology of queer (quare?)

"c. 1500, "strange, peculiar, odd, eccentric," from Scottish, perhaps from Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer "oblique, off-center," which is related to German quer "oblique, perverse, odd," from Old High German twerh "oblique" (from PIE root *terkw- "to twist"). For the suggested sense evolution, compare cross (adj.). But OED is against this etymology on grounds of timing and sense.

The meaning "appearing, feeling, or behaving otherwise than is usual or normal" is by 1781. The colloquial sense of "open to suspicion, doubtful as to honesty" is by 1740. As a slang noun, "counterfeit money," by 1812; to shove the queer (1859) was "to pass counterfeit money. Queer Street (1811) was the imaginary place where persons in difficulties and shady characters lived, hence, in cant generally, "contrary to one's wishes."

Sense of "homosexual" is attested by 1922; the noun in this sense is 1935, from the adjective. Related: Queerly. Queer studies as an academic discipline is attested from 1994.

Among the entries in the 1811 "Lexicon Balatronicum" are: Queer as Dick's Hatband "Out of order without knowing one's disease"; Queer Bitch "An odd out of the way fellow"; Queer Ken "A prison"; Queer Mort "A diseased strumpet"; Queer Rooster "An informer that pretends to be sleeping and thereby overhears the conversation of thieves in nightcellars." "

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=queer
 
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Magna-Carta said:
In the context of how you say your family used the word, ’quare’. In that it was "used to mean strange or peculiar, maybe eccentric." It seems to fit in with the definitions below.

What's important is what exactly are your thoughts. Do you think it was an Irish dialect or generally your family's pronunciation of 'queer'? Perhaps the sound, 'quare' for queer being used, taken to the USA, and passed down through your
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I think it was an Irish dialect and was common not just in my family but the entire rural area of upstate South Carolina . ‘Quare’ was definitely its own separate word. In thinking back I can also remember it being used to imply someone was unfriendly.

Thanks for your research help.
 
Some more noticeable differences. I just got finished reading a book that constantly referred to "childer" rather than "children" and in a book I am reading at the moment they discover "artefacts" rather than "artifacts!" Both books are written by British authors. The latter had me scratching my head, was I so wrong in spelling it artifacts all these years? Childer is a real stunner, I had never heard of that version before and was convinced it was a mistake, except it showed up time after time!
 
Old Salt said:
Strange, I just looked it up in Wikipedia. Childer, singular is supposed to be still used in Ireland. Childer, plural, near your old haunts in Northern England! :)
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Not my old haunts...in Northern England..I've only ever visited the North of England once...

I just remembered the only Irish people I've heard calleing children 'Childer'' are Irish gypsies
 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia






Mycenaean stirrup jar from Ras Shamra (Ugarit) Syria, 1400–1300 BC

An artifact[a] or artefact (British English) is a general term for an item made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest.[1] In archaeology, the word has become a term of particular nuance and is defined as an object recovered by archaeological endeavor, which may be a cultural artifact having cultural interest.

Artifact is the general term used in archaeology, while in museums the equivalent general term is normally "object", and in art history perhaps artwork or a more specific term such as "carving". The same item may be called all or any of these in different contexts, and more specific terms will be used when talking about individual objects, or groups of similar ones
 
Old Salt said:
Oh, you Europeans! LOL By North American standards you live practically next doors!
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yes I realise that by North American standards we do live cheek by jowl... but you'd have to be a Brit to understand the importance of being very independent of a neighbour.. or a neighbouring country... especially when it comes to the Auld enemies the Scots and the English..:D
 
Yep, the word “childer or childers” is still used in Ireland and Northern England from Chester, Manchester and Liverpool up to the Scottish border.
Liverpool is only around 170 miles from Glasgow, Scotland


Although the word “artefact”(derived from the Latin “arte factum” originated in Britain…it is interesting to note, British books and periodicals published from 1900 to 2019 used the American “artifact.”
 
As you know I am a Scottophile! (I know there's no such word but indulge me) So what are you doing in England, isn't that being a traitor to your kin? And, I am teasing, of course! I am tired of using emojis because I am afraid of being misunderstood! One last one: :LOL:
 
Yes to the Scots it is being extremely disloyal... but I was a teen when I moved here with the family... and I've been here ever since . When I do visit Scotland I am literally called a Traitor.. even after 50 years...yet the English don't react the same way to Scots..
 
hollydolly said:
Yes to the Scots it is being extremely disloyal... but I was a teen when I moved here with the family... and I've been here ever since . When I do visit Scotland I am literally called a Traitor.. even after 50 years...yet the English don't react the same way to Scots..
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That's shocking and a great shame, HD! I never knew old resentments still ran that deep in Scotland!
 
My sister went on a holiday to Phuket. She was in a lovely department store and asked one attendant where was the ladies toilet? She was taken down a narrow hallway and the attendant pointed and bowed. When she got into the toilet she was shocked to see a hole in the ground and a hose nearby. The hand towel looked like it had never been washed. She quickly left and went back to her hotel room. Another friend got caught short and had to use a toilet similar to the other one, He had to squat down and his knees locked and he was calling out for his partner to come in and help. He said he was so embarrassed and left as fast as he could.
 
oscash said:
My sister went on a holiday to Phuket. She was in a lovely department store and asked one attendant where was the ladies toilet? She was taken down a narrow hallway and the attendant pointed and bowed. When she got into the toilet she was shocked to see a hole in the ground and a hose nearby. The hand towel looked like it had never been washed. She quickly left and went back to her hotel room. Another friend got caught short and had to use a toilet similar to the other one, He had to squat down and his knees locked and he was calling out for his partner to come in and help. He said he was so embarrassed and left as fast as he could.
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In many places where there's still the hole in the ground. there's not the addition of a hose..this is the modern ones...

5e1cbefae7232bf36256c3de_Chinese-Squat-Toilet-w1000.jpg



in the past they looked like this.. and some still do...

1000_F_111633048_wkZShE1IVUnVQdj3ObjAS5DdogKlTeXG.jpg
 

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