Britishisms in Stories About Americans, and Vice-Versa

[oggbashan]

'Standing Pat' I understood and used it in the 1960s when I played cards with my friends. It was more frequently used in Poker but also with five and three-card brag and Vingt et un. It meant NOT drawing a card or cards but staying with the cards you were initially dealt.

 

[XerXesXu]

Standing pat.

“Having shed her clothes with fascinating rapidity, she stood for a moment partly wrapped in the dingy gauze of the window curtain listening with infantile pleasure, as pat as pat could be, to an organ-grinder in the dust-brimming courtyard below.”

 

[jehoram]

'Standing Pat' I understood and used it in the 1960s when I played cards with my friends. It was more frequently used in Poker but also with five and three-card brag and Vingt et un. It meant NOT drawing a card or cards but staying with the cards you were initially dealt.

That's what I always took it to mean, and I've only played cards with Americans. In the context of the song, I think it meant that the narrator wanted his audience to know that he wasn't destitute when he died.

 

[jaF0]

'Well and truly ...'


How British is that? I've only heard on on Brit TV.

'He was well and truly knackered, he was', which I took to mean the bloke was drunk as a skunk.

 

[ElectricBlue]

'Well and truly ...'


How British is that? I've only heard on on Brit TV.

'He was well and truly knackered, he was', which I took to mean the bloke was drunk as a skunk.

Exhausted, tired, but not necessarily drunk.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Would this include British spellings?

Because I have a certain fondness for grey, dreamt, and theatre. I know they are wrong in American English, I just like them better.


I have a bad habit of picking up the terminology of foreign friends and sometimes a sentence forms in my head that I need to sit down and ruminate on to pull the British, Irish, and American bits apart. It's an issue.

Has anyone ever commented on your spelling? I can't see why readers would make a big deal out of alternate spelling such as you mentioned, unless they're so pig ignorant they don't know the rest of the world exists. I use Oz English spelling, which is mostly British English, except where it isn't - we have the Labor Party, for example, but we still have manual labour - and no-one has commented on it, ever.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Not here, but I still try to go back and switch out from my preferred spellings to the US versions out of habit. I will never use "tyre" but "dreamt" is such a pretty word.

But tyre is a good word!

"I tire of your ramblings about tyres. I know you're a tyre fitter, but I want your tyre lever over here so I can tire you out."

 

[KeithD]

Has anyone ever commented on your spelling?

Not mine, but I've seen them comment on British or American spellings of others, not knowing there are different spelling conventions in English-speaking areas.

 

[Handley_Page]

But tyre is a good word!

"I tire of your ramblings about tyres. I know you're a tyre fitter, but I want your tyre lever over here so I can tire you out."

I get tired of this sort of thing. . . .

 

[jaF0]

Tommy the tyre fitter at Tyreland got so tired of fitting tyres he retired to Tyrol.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'm sorry for what my joke has brought.

It is tiresome.

 

[jehoram]

Would this include British spellings?

Because I have a certain fondness for grey, dreamt, and theatre. I know they are wrong in American English, I just like them better.

My American friends in the thespian arts tell me that there is a distinction between "theatre" in the sense of the performance arts and "theater"... the building where these arts are practiced. But the practice isn't consistent.

 

[KeithD]

My American friends in the thespian arts tell me that there is a distinction between "theatre" in the sense of the performance arts and "theater"... the building where these arts are practiced. But the practice isn't consistent.

Right. I sometimes use "theatre" just to show I once was in it.

 

[jaF0]

Aside from Peter and a couple of others, is 'noone' a Britishism for 'no one', or is it just stupid people that use it?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Aside from Peter and a couple of others, is 'noone' a Britishism for 'no one', or is it just stupid people that use it?

More a typo, I think.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Aside from Peter and a couple of others, is 'noone' a Britishism for 'no one', or is it just stupid people that use it?

It's the antonym to alot.

 

[PennameWombat]

Aside from Peter and a couple of others, is 'noone' a Britishism for 'no one', or is it just stupid people that use it?

The Macquarie Dictionary[1] uses "no-one" (with the hyphen) as an acceptable form, along with "no one". But most citations listed use "no one".

As to "noone", they recognize its usage and existence, but say:

Usage: The spelling noone is increasing in frequency but is still not generally accepted.

[1] Macquarie Dictionary:

regarded as the standard reference on Australian English.

and Australian English largely follows British English rules, spelling, etc.

 

[Panty Wrangler]

Right. I sometimes use "theatre" just to show I once was in it.

I'm sure the meaning is special to those who've been in it, but somehow it just comes across as pretentious to me.

 

[Panty Wrangler]

One of my favorite authors on Lit can't "fathom" writing a story without one or more characters lacking the imagination to comprehend something that's surprising or unusual. I think she's Canadian, so related to British?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm sure the meaning is special to those who've been in it, but somehow it just comes across as pretentious to me.

Bloody hell, I'd better dust off my tux! I've never ever been to anything else but a theatre, they're all we've got in Australia .

 

[Panty Wrangler]

Bloody hell, I'd better dust off my tux! I've never ever been to anything else but a theatre, they're all we've got in Australia .

OMG You're going to go PENGUIN!

 

[ElectricBlue]

OMG You're going to go PENGUIN!

Lol. +5

 

[KeithD]

I'm sure the meaning is special to those who've been in it, but somehow it just comes across as pretentious to me.

Not to the British. (Or those on Broadway.)

 

[Panty Wrangler]

Not to the British. (Or those on Broadway.)

Well, the British - I'll give you that. Ditto for the Aussies; but those on Broadway may be too close to the problem...

 

[KeithD]

Well, the British - I'll give you that. Ditto for the Aussies; but those on Broadway may be too close to the problem...

Problem? I don't see a problem. "Theatre" is listed as an accepted variation on Webster's.