A question for speakers of English English

[Britva415]

Shouldn't that be spelled "incourrectly"?

"boout to bounnet"

 

[WhiteTailDarkTip]

Using vernacular is always tricky. If you get it wrong you look like a fraud. Even worse if you use some contraction like “don’tcha?’ and cock it up.

 

[THBGato]

Even worse if you use some contraction like “don’tcha?’ and cock it up.

True dat, bruv, for real.

 

[WhiteTailDarkTip]

True dat, bruv, for real.

Fam

 

[ElectricBlue]

True dat, bruv, for real, innit?

Fixed that for ya!

 

[DreamingOfMyEx]

So, basically ....

Americans not knowing how to speak English like the English do = Stupid self-centered Americans think they're the only people in the World.

Americans trying to speak English like the English do = Stupid pretentious Americans guilty of cultural appropriation.

Got it.

Oh, and happy 4th of July!

 

[Cacatua_Galerita]

Australian here. ‘From A to Z’ (aye to zed) is an adaptable idiom. We’re certainly familiar with all the common British versions already mentioned:

Generic (item):

• from top to tail
• from stem to stern
• from head to toe

Generic (temporal):

• from sunup to sundown

Cynical, i.e. “My boss had me running around...”:

• from pillar to post
• from arsehole to breakfast (common in modern Australia only, if swearing is appropriate)

The extents can be improvised on-the-spot. For example, in a musical context you might say ‘from ABBA to ZZ Top.’ Bonus humour points for warping the alphabet dimension to instead say ‘from Rachmaninov to Rammstein.’

The humour of ‘from arsehole to breakfast’ comes from the absurd dimension; measuring from anatomy to occasion. I can't think of any other examples that use an absurd dimension, there's always some sort of tie between the 'A' and 'Z.'

So, in an automotive context only, ‘from boot to bonnet’ would be a suitable improvisation over the more commonplace ‘from bumper to bumper.’

 

[Voboy]

OP, if it's an American character saying it? I'd avoid "boot to bonnet."

I've met a GREAT many Americans in my life (hell, I am one myself). Maybe 3-4% of them know what a "boot" is in the British context; I'd go more like .0002% for those who'd know what "bonnet" means.

I'd go "searched stem to stern" if the speaker is old-fashioned, or "searched high and low" for something simpler. More often, I've heard people use terms like, "searched all over the motherfuckin' place."

 

[TheLobster]

The humour of ‘from arsehole to breakfast’ comes from the absurd dimension; measuring from anatomy to occasion.

Reminds me of a joke about the military definition of spacetime.

What is it, you ask? Well, it's when the soldiers dig a trench from this spot until 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

 

[Bamagan]

OP, if it's an American character saying it? I'd avoid "boot to bonnet."

I've met a GREAT many Americans in my life (hell, I am one myself). Maybe 3-4% of them know what a "boot" is in the British context; I'd go more like .0002% for those who'd know what "bonnet" means.

I'd go "searched stem to stern" if the speaker is old-fashioned, or "searched high and low" for something simpler. More often, I've heard people use terms like, "searched all over the motherfuckin' place."

Well, I have no plans to replace the phrase with something else; it feels right for the character, and I didn't even realize I'd used a peculiar idiom until I was editing. I do think you're maybe underestimating the likelihood of understanding, although that could just be indicative of us interacting with dramatically different subsets of Americana.
I was mostly curious to learn if it was an expression I'd picked up because it was common or semi-common in other parts of the Anglophone world or not. That question seems to be adequately answered in the negative, so thanks to everyone who chimed in on the topic! I probably picked it up somewhere obscure, or else my brain had a Bot moment and hallucinated it.

 

[Voboy]

I do think you're maybe underestimating the likelihood of understanding, although that could just be indicative of us interacting with dramatically different subsets of Americana.

Possibly, but "bonnet" for hood is quite obscure. I agree, though, that the context would make it very clear what your character means.

It does remind me of a similar phrase common where I live now, "from soup to nuts." It's brand-new to everyone I've ever met from any other part of the country (including me). It's unapologetically old-fashioned too (from an age of multi-course meals), and I find it charming. But I'd definitely only put it into the mouth of a New Englander.

 

[Bamagan]

Possibly, but "bonnet" for hood is quite obscure. I agree, though, that the context would make it very clear what your character means.

It does remind me of a similar phrase common where I live now, "from soup to nuts." It's brand-new to everyone I've ever met from any other part of the country (including me). It's unapologetically old-fashioned too (from an age of multi-course meals), and I find it charming. But I'd definitely only put it into the mouth of a New Englander.

I asked the same question to a different social media, where most of my contact list is American and Canadian, and got a similar response. They'd never heard the expression, but they understood what it meant, and assumed it was a British thing. I can't say that at least some of them didn't google the terms before responding, but no one asked what a bonnet was. I know for a fact that many of my contacts there are fans of things like Harry Potter, Dr. Who, Downton Abbey, Monty Python, etc., however, so they probably have a fair grasp of at least the British expressions that Brits deem colloquial enough to put in their media. How representative those folks are of (North) Americans in general, however, I can't easily say.

Edit: 'Soup to nuts' is charming, by the way, and I predict a 20% chance that I forget where I heard it by next year and put it in the mouth of whatever quirky character I'm writing about at the time.

 

[Britva415]

I'd definitely only put it into the mouth of a New Englander.

Italian-Americans would probably also know that one well.

 

[Titsandclits]

In the UK we wouldn't say head to tail, more likely head to toe. Yes I understand boot to bonnet but don't know where you've picked it up from. Not common at all.

 

[KachinaDoll]

Boot to bonnet, no, I've never heard anyone say that. Bumper to bumper maybe (fender to fender).End to end more likely.