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Weird Americanisms (UK vs USA thread)

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demon said:
Mathematics
Mathematic
Mathemati
Mathemat
Mathema
Mathem
Mathe
Math

Not that complicated. Shortened words don't always end with the same letter the original word does, and plural words don't always end in 's'.

"Mathematic" as a singular noun isn't really a thing. No one says "I'm working on a mathematic".
Click to expand...

'Mathematics' is a non-countable noun, though - so that doesn't work at all, linguistically...
 
GameplayWhore said:
Finally finished reading the thread; was great, fun. Wrote huge wall-of-text post (with footnotes!), decided to post summary of summary instead:

"I could care less" is a Whedonism, not an Americanism. Around here, it is our idiot litmus.

I went to the cinema every week for nearly twenty years. People only made noise when a movie was universally terrible or when it was excessively fanservicey, and this was very very rare. I've gotten chided for using a "smartphone" in a cinema, even before the trailers started. Maybe it's a more common thing now, but I've only gone once a year in the last five.


Anyway, honest bit of curiosity here about our erstwhile masters:

Around here, people ask questions as greetings when they are passing by and obviously have no time for a conversation. They'll ask you "How are you?" and then walk away. I personally consider this to be incredibly rude, but it is a more common manner of greeting now than "Hello" used to be.

My question to our kettle-loving brethren is: Have you avoided this terrible plague? Do you have chiv-on-sight rules for people coming off the airplane when visiting from the States in order to prevent an outbreak? How do you deal with this situation when you are visiting over here?

I would really, truly like to know if I can somehow cure my people of this most heinous of afflictions.
Click to expand...

How are ya? And How's it goin? Are australianisms as far as I know
 
demon said:
Mathematics
Mathematic
Mathemati
Mathemat
Mathema
Mathem
Mathe
Math

Not that complicated. Shortened words don't always end with the same letter the original word does, and plural words don't always end in 's'.

"Mathematic" as a singular noun isn't really a thing. No one says "I'm working on a mathematic".
Click to expand...

Pantaloons
Pantaloon
Pantaloo
Pantalo
Pantal
Panta
Pant
Pants

Abdominals
Abdominal
Abdomina
Abdomin
Abdomi
Abdom
Abdo
Abd
Ab
Abs
 
Cumpkin Hubris said:
I've always just used pants and trousers interchangeably. If pants are underwear, where do I wear my underpants?
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I have never heard anyone in the UK (or on UK TV) refer to trousers as pants. In my experience it is solely associated with the US.

Yet we do indeed have underwear and underpants and just pants.

You could try wearing underpants under your pants and then underwear under your underpants? I imagine that would be hideously uncomfortable though.
 
This kid I knew back in primary school went commando once, and told people. Later that afternoon he got kegged (pantsed in US?), his horrified expression was enough to make me never risk going commando again.
 
DBT85 said:
I have never heard anyone in the UK (or on UK TV) refer to trousers as pants. In my experience it is solely associated with the US.

Yet we do indeed have underwear and underpants and just pants.

You could try wearing underpants under your pants and then underwear under your underpants? I imagine that would be hideously uncomfortable though.
Click to expand...

Ah, it's a northern thing.

For our US friends, it should be noted that "pants" can also be used as an adjective to mean "rubbish". For example, "That new console from Nintendo is pants".
 
Random thought:

I just can't wrap my ears around Solomon Grundy saying that he "wants trousers too."

though I can see Braniac asking for trousers instead of pants, to be fair.
 
GameplayWhore said:
Around here, people ask questions as greetings when they are passing by and obviously have no time for a conversation. They'll ask you "How are you?" and then walk away. I personally consider this to be incredibly rude, but it is a more common manner of greeting now than "Hello" used to be.

My question to our kettle-loving brethren is: Have you avoided this terrible plague?
Click to expand...
In regards to what?

  • If you pass by a stranger in England you don't acknowledge them
  • If you run into a friend you stop and talk to them.
  • If you run into an acquaintance then things get more difficult and awkward, you try to work out whether they want to talk to you (do they look like they're veering towards you, or aiming to pass by?), and whether they will take offense at you not stopping, or whether they're just being polite and actually don't want to stop. Depending on what you decide you either acknowledge them with a head nod, or a "alright mate?", or you stop to make small talk. You can also look slightly to one side and pretend you haven't seen them, but that maneuver can be risky if you don't pull it off, resulting in offense.
 
daviyoung said:
In the UK we say "all right?" as a greeting, but it's not a question we expect an answer to.
Click to expand...

It's really more "alright" than all "right" if that makes sense. I knew a Chinese student at uni who obviously picked up on this traditional greeting but he always said every syllable and it just sounded wrong.

Anyway I don't understand how society can properly function without it
 
f0rk said:
It's really morest' lright" than all "right" if that makes sense. I knew a Chinese student at uni who obviously picked up on this traditional greeting but he always said every syllable and it just sounded wrong.

Anyway I don't understand how society can properly function without it
Click to expand...

In many places its shrunk down to 'reet'
 
Never understood why the British favor the "-ise" spelling over "-ize," considering the "-ize" spelling was developed by Oxford.
 
People that hate tipping are amazing. You do realize you end up paying more for shitty service without tipping, right? Service in the UK is fucking horrible because the servers are so fucking lazy.

Also, Gordon Ramsey is a horrible fucking chef. His import to this country is inane. If you want boring cuisine you would go to a Ramsey joint. What a dumb cunt.
 
RobotMafia said:
People that hate tipping are amazing. You do realize you end up paying more for shitty service without tipping, right? Service in the UK is fucking horrible because the servers are so fucking lazy.

Also, Gordon Ramsey is a horrible fucking chef. His import to this country is inane. If you want boring cuisine you would go to a Ramsey joint. What a dumb cunt.
Click to expand...

rbe0dk-1.gif
 
RobotMafia said:
People that hate tipping are amazing. You do realize you end up paying more for shitty service without tipping, right? Service in the UK is fucking horrible because the servers are so fucking lazy.

Also, Gordon Ramsey is a horrible fucking chef. His import to this country is inane. If you want boring cuisine you would go to a Ramsey joint. What a dumb cunt.
Click to expand...

What? No, I'm disgusted by bad tipping, or lack of tipping culture in the UK.
 
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