Britishisms in Stories About Americans, and Vice-Versa

[Zeb_Carter]

Speaking of U.S. Military short timers...

"He's so short, he could walk under a snake."
"He's so short, ...

Well, the euphemisms just go on and on.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Yes, fiftieth anniversary of the collapse, October last year.

I can remember it, then Granville.

jeez, i forgot about granville!

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

Vix, that may be true in a handful of major cities, but I grew up in a rural area. Everyone drove to the closest small city to shop nearly every week, and the closest mid-sized city several times a year. The closest National Park was over an hour away, but still a regular playground for everyone of driving age.

I’ll admit that major cities - San Francisco and the LA metro area for us - were regarded with suspicion and visited only when necessary.

I don’t see how your point in any way differs from mine.

This raises an interesting point. TV programmes are set in what seems to be a 'bigger' place (Pettycoat Junction notwithstanding). If a community has not seen it necessary to venture outside the county (or even the State?) how come the programme seems to represent the USA, rather than one small part of it ?

My guess is that TV writers and producers usually don’t have much way of knowing about those small parts, whether they’re in a big city or in a rural area. I don’t watch enough movies/TV to have any meaningful insight, sorry. But just using my own, narrow experience in Washington Heights NYC as an example: I lived there briefly when I moved to NYC during an internship and at the time, there was a Tony-award winning musical set in the fictionalized area (it’s now a movie, too). But to my knowledge, that mainstream exposure didn’t impact the long-standing immobility within that community. And actually, the main criticisms of the musical were that it was droopy and inaccurate.

When producers want to film a story that’s set in a small (and usually, backward ) rural USA town, they often film scenes in and around my family’s Oklahoma seat, even when the story isn’t even set in Oklahoma.

 

[SamScribble]

When producers want to film a story that’s set in a small (and usually, backward ) rural USA town, they often film scenes in and around my family’s Oklahoma seat, even when the story isn’t even set in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma,
Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.

Thank you. That is now my ear worm for the next few hours

 

[LAHomedog]

My guess is that TV writers and producers usually don’t have much way of knowing about those small parts, whether they’re in a big city or in a rural area.

This is not true. Most of the TV writers and producers I know either come from smaller towns or have spent a lot of time there. You have to remember that the thing about television is it is everywhere and comes into everyone's living rooms.

For example, sure I was born in NYC (up in the Washington Heights area in a hospital that no longer exists) and raised in San Francisco, but I have lived in Pittburgh, PA, Macomb, Ill (a farm town), Louisville, KY, my best friend and his wife now live in Bloomington, ID, and my wife and I own an RV and travel all over this country, mostly in the small towns.

Living and working in a major urban area does not mean that is all that you know.


When producers want to film a story that’s set in a small (and usually, backward ) rural USA town, they often film scenes in and around my family’s Oklahoma seat, even when the story isn’t even set in Oklahoma.

If a movie or a show is shooting in Oklahoma it is because of: 1) The location fits the needs of the production designer and the scripts, 2) The cost of the crews is low. 3) Some kind of tax break or incentive. 4) And there are ample crews who know what they are doing. Atlanta, GA and Vancouver up in Canada are the same.

Regarding tax breaks: Oklahoma has a state law that rebates taxes on film and TV production. Also, Oklahoma has no sales tax on property or services used in production. If you have a production budget in the millions that is a large line item saving. And if you are shooting an episode of a weekly show budgeted at a $million dollars a week that adds up fast.

Plus, Oklahoma has a lot of locations that look generic and a whole bunch of national and state parks.

A great location site.

 

[jaF0]

Saw this on another thread here:


"I once had to neck a teenth when we got pulled by the dibble."

 

[LAHomedog]

---- If a movie or a show is shooting in Oklahoma it is because of: 1) The location fits the needs of the production designer and the scripts, 2) The cost of the crews is low. 3) Some kind of tax break or incentive. 4) And there are ample crews who know what they are doing. Atlanta, GA and Vancouver up in Canada are the same.

Regarding tax breaks: Oklahoma has a state law that rebates taxes on film and TV production. Also, Oklahoma has no sales tax on property or services used in production. If you have a production budget in the millions that is a large line item saving. And if you are shooting an episode of a weekly show budgeted at a $million dollars a week that adds up fast.

Plus, Oklahoma has a lot of locations that look generic and a whole bunch of national and state parks.

A great location site. ------

For reasons I do not understand, this part was included within your quote:

 

[HordHolm]

Not sure if it's exactly relevant, but does this also relate to English versus American spelling? i.e. Honour/honor, colour/color and so on.

I'm not native to either country, but I find I usually write the English versions by instinct, but sometimes I change them to American just because the spell check insists I write American. (Which is bloody annyoing I might add)

And what about idioms? I've always been fond of the phrase 'Pull the other one!', ever since I first heard it. To me, that is as British as it gets, but I might be wrong.

Oh, 'pull the other one' is very British. It comes from public hangings where friends of the condemned would haul down on their legs (when not prevented by any guards/bailiffs/serjeants or similar) to end their torment - hangings were not carried out using the 'long drop' method whereby the condemned has their neck broken, but until the mid/late nineteenth century the condemned was slowly strangled, and death might take as long as ten minutes. Why it then evolved into an idiom suggesting making someone believe something untrue, usually for fun, is beyond me.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Oh, 'pull the other one' is very British. It comes from public hangings where friends of the condemned would haul down on their legs (when not prevented by any guards/bailiffs/serjeants or similar) to end their torment - hangings were not carried out using the 'long drop' method whereby the condemned has their neck broken, but until the mid/late nineteenth century the condemned was slowly strangled, and death might take as long as ten minutes. Why it then evolved into an idiom suggesting making someone believe something untrue, usually for fun, is beyond me.

Never heard that etymology before. It's short for 'pull the other one, it's got bells on!' and usually assumed to derive from 'pulling one's leg' to make a fool of them, but rejecting the idea and implying the person is talking nonsense, making a fool of themselves, so try again (probably with a dig at Morris dancers who wear bells and are popularly assumed to be idiots).

Relatedly, someone kindly read part of a draft of mine and suggested Americans wouldn't understand "going out on the pull", as in to go for a night out in the hope of finding someone of an appropriate sex to successfully get together with.

Would 'go out on the prowl' work? They suggested 'see what they could pick up' but that to my ear doesn't imply putting in the effort?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Would 'go out on the prowl' work? They suggested 'see what they could pick up' but that to my ear doesn't imply putting in the effort?

"Out on the prowl" speaks loudly, I'd have thought. In Oz, definitely.

 

[SimonDoom]

Relatedly, someone kindly read part of a draft of mine and suggested Americans wouldn't understand "going out on the pull", as in to go for a night out in the hope of finding someone of an appropriate sex to successfully get together with.

Would 'go out on the prowl' work? They suggested 'see what they could pick up' but that to my ear doesn't imply putting in the effort?

I've never heard "going out on the pull." I don't think most Americans have.

"Going out on the prowl" would work fine for an American readership.

 

[Rustyoznail]

"Out on the prowl" speaks loudly, I'd have thought. In Oz, definitely.

Don’t you tell my mum.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Saw this on another thread here:


"I once had to neck a teenth when we got pulled by the dibble."

sounds like summat offa trainspottin'.

 

[oggbashan]

Do Americans do 'dogging'?

https://youtu.be/MXzaVOk_Ydk

 

[Sean]

sounds like summat offa trainspottin'.

Couple of hundred miles south of Edinburgh.

 

[Sean]

Saw this on another thread here:


"I once had to neck a teenth when we got pulled by the dibble."

For the benefit of our colonial cousins, and Appleby, a teenth is 1/16th of an ounce of weed. Dibble are the constabulary.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/01/a0/c9/01a0c9342a830e3d15341a0f726c06c1.jpg

 

[jaF0]

Figgered so, but all I could recall was 'the Nick', or 'the Nik' as it may be.

.

 

[Sean]

Figgered so, but all I could recall was 'the Nick', or 'the Nik' as it may be.

.

Neck in that context means swallow.

So the full translation would be, " I once had to swallow a sixteenth of an ounce when we were apprehended by the police".

 

[jaF0]

Yes, I'm aware of that. But I've also heard a police station or cop shop referred to as the Nick, or Nik. And then there's The Bill.

 

[Sean]

Yes, I'm aware of that. But I've also heard a police station or cop shop referred to as the Nick, or Nik. And then there's The Bill.

Yeah, police station is the nick. To be nicked means to be arrested.

 

[Leer75372]

A few comparisons, US cf. British/Australian

The US words may be regional - I’ve seen some here and heard many on TV.

US - British
drug - dragged (She drug/dragged it along the ground.)
Bit - bitten (I was bit/bitten by a snake.)
Broke - broken (the window was broke/broken by a rock.)
Forecasted - forecast (the weather was forecasted/forecast to be hot tomorrow.)
I Could care less/I couldn’t care less (The US version always sounds odd.)
Where are you at?/Where are you? (The “at” always sounds superfluous.)
Get off of me/get off me (The “of” also seems superfluous.)

If I think of others I’ll add them.

 

[soulhouse]

A few comparisons, US cf. British/Australian
Get off of me/get off me (The “of” also seems superfluous.)

The unnecessary use of "of" is a pet hate of mine that I used to think of as an Americanism, but has now widely taken hold in UK speech and writing. Examples: "outside of", "inside of", "all of", "off of". I thought it was used by all Americans until I heard Gore Vidal speak without doing so, so maybe it wasn't common in the States either at one time, or it was peculiar to his education. It makes me shudder every time I hear or read it, but that's just me.

 

[SimonDoom]

The unnecessary use of "of" is a pet hate of mine that I used to think of as an Americanism, but has now widely taken hold in UK speech and writing. Examples: "outside of", "inside of", "all of", "off of". I thought it was used by all Americans until I heard Gore Vidal speak without doing so, so maybe it wasn't common in the States either at one time, or it was peculiar to his education. It makes me shudder every time I hear or read it, but that's just me.

It's actually quite logical, grammatically. It's not much different from:

Move ahead of me

or

Let go of me.

or

Jump up on the table.

"Get" is a verb, and "off" is an adverb modifying "get." "Me" is a pronoun, but it's not really an object of the verb "get." So it makes sense to add the preposition "of" to make "of me" a prepositional phrase to describe what one is "getting off."

You wouldn't say "Move ahead me" or "Let go me" or "Jump up the table." In each case the preposition "of" serves a valuable purpose. Same thing with "Get off of me."

You can also choose to look at "get off" as a verb phrase, and if you do then "me" can be seen as the direct object of the verb phrase and no preposition is needed. But it's not like "I could care less," which grammatically makes no sense at all but which is commonly used by Americans (never by me, though).

 

[yowser]

US - UK

flashlight - torch
sidewalk - pavement
curb - kerb

 

[Rustyoznail]

US - UK

flashlight - torch
sidewalk - pavement
curb - kerb

Oz

Torch
Footpath
Kerb (or being technical, kerb & channel)