The American Language
rutabaga mangel-wurzel
saleswoman shop-assistant
saloon public-house
scarf-pin tie-pin
scow lighter
sewer drain
shirtwaist blouse
shoe boot
shoemaker bootmaker
shoestring bootlace
shoe-tree boot-form
sick ill
sidewalk pavement
silver (collectively) plate
sled sledge
sleigh sledge
soft-drinks minerals
spigot tap
squash vegetable-marrow
stem-winder keyless-watch
stockholder shareholder
stocks shares
store-fixtures shop-fittings
street-cleaner crossing-sweeper
street-railway tramway
subway tube, or underground
suspenders (men's) braces
sweater jersey
switch (noun, railway) points
switch (verb, railway) shunt
taxes (municipal) rates
taxpayer (local) ratepayer
tenderloin (of beef) under-cut
ten-pins nine-pins
thumb-tack drawing-pin
ticket-office booking-office
tinner tinker
tin-roof leads
track (railroad) line
trained-nurse hospital-nurse
transom (of door) fanlight
trolley-car tramcar
truck (vehicle) lorry
truck (of a railroad car) bogie
trunk box
typewriter (operator) typist
typhoid-fever enteric
undershirt vest
vaudeville-theatre music-hall
vegetables greens
vest waistcoat
warden (of a prison) governor
warehouse stores
wash-rag face-cloth
wash-stand wash-hand-stand
wash-wringer mangle
waste-basket waste-paper-basket
whipple-tree[2] splinter-bar
witness-stand witness-box
wood-alcohol methylated-spirits
[Pg102]
§ 2
/Differences in Usage/--The differences here listed, most of them
between words in everyday employment, are but examples of a divergence
in usage which extends to every department of daily life. In his
business, in his journeys from his home to his office, in his dealings
with his family and servants, in his sports and amusements, in his
politics and even in his religion the American uses, not only words
and phrases, but whole syntactical constructions, that are
unintelligible to the Englishman, or intelligible only after laborious
consideration. A familiar anecdote offers an example in miniature. It
concerns a young American woman living in a region of prolific
orchards who is asked by a visiting Englishman what the residents do
with so much fruit. Her reply is a pun: "We eat all we can, and what
we can't we can." This answer would mystify nine Englishmen out of
ten, for in the first place it involves the use of the flat American
/a/ in /can't/ and in the second place it applies an unfamiliar name
to the vessel that every Englishman knows as a /tin/, and then adds to
the confusion by deriving a verb from the substantive. There are no
such things as /canned-goods/ in England; over there they are
/tinned/. The /can/ that holds them is a /tin/; /to can/ them is /to
tin/ them.... And they are counted, not as /groceries/, but as
/stores/, and advertised, not on /bill-boards/ but on /hoardings/.[3]
And the cook who prepares them for the table is not /Nora/ or
/Maggie/, but /Cook/, and if she does other work in addition she is
not a /girl for general housework/, but a /cook-general/, and not
/help/, but a /servant/. And the boarder who eats them is not a
/boarder/ at all, but a /paying-guest/, though he is said /to board/.
And the grave of the tin, once it is emptied, is not the /ash-can/,
but the /dust-bin/, and the man who carries it away is not the
/garbage-man/ or the /ash-man/ or the /white-wings/, but the
/dustman/.
An Englishman, entering his home, does not walk in upon the [Pg103]
/first floor/, but upon the /ground floor/. What he calls the /first
floor/ (or, more commonly, /first storey/, not forgetting the
penultimate /e/!) is what we call the /second floor/, and so on up to
the roof--which is covered not with /tin/, but with /slate/, /tiles/
or /leads/. He does not /take/ a paper; he /takes in/ a paper. He does
not ask his servant, "is there any /mail/ for me?" but, "are there any
/letters/ for me?" for /mail/, in the American sense, is a word that
he seldom uses, save in such compounds as /mail-van/ and /mail-train/.
He always speaks of it as /the post/. The man who brings it is not a
/letter-carrier/, but a /postman/. It is /posted/, not /mailed/, at a
/pillar-box/, not at a /mail-box/. It never includes /postal-cards/,
but only /post-cards/; never /money-orders/, but only /postal-orders/.
The Englishman dictates his answers, not to a /typewriter/, but to a
/typist/; a /typewriter/ is merely the machine. If he desires the
recipient to call him by telephone he doesn't say, "/phone me/ at a
quarter /of/ eight," but "/ring me up/ at a quarter /to/ eight." And
when the call comes he says "/are you there?/" When he gets home, he
doesn't find his wife waiting for him in the /parlor/ or
/living-room/,[4] but in the /drawing-room/ or in her /sitting-room/,
and the tale of domestic disaster that she has to tell does not
concern the /hired-girl/ but the /slavey/ and the /scullery-maid/. He
doesn't bring her a box of /candy/, but a box of /sweets/. He doesn't
leave a /derby/ hat in the hall, but a /bowler/. His wife doesn't wear
/shirtwaists/ but /blouses/. When she buys one she doesn't say
"/charge it/" but "/put it down/." When she orders a /tailor-made
suit/, she calls it a /coat-and-skirt/. When she wants a /spool of
thread/ she asks for a /reel of cotton/. Such things are bought, not
in the /department-stores/, but at the /stores/, which are
substantially the same thing. In these stores /calico/ means a plain
cotton cloth; in the United States it means a printed cotton cloth.
Things bought on the instalment plan in England are said to be bought
on the /hire-purchase/ plan or system; the instalment business itself
is the /credit-trade/. Goods ordered by /post/ (not mail) on which the
dealer pays the cost of transportation are said to be sent, not
/postpaid/ or /prepaid/, but /post-free/ or /carriage-paid/. [Pg104]
An Englishman does not wear /suspenders/ and /neckties/, but /braces/
and /cravats/. /Suspenders/ are his wife's garters; his own are
/sock-suspenders/. The family does not seek sustenance in a /rare
tenderloin/ and /squash/, but in /underdone under-cut/ and /vegetable
marrow/. It does not eat /beets/, but /beet-roots/. The wine on the
table, if miraculously German, is not /Rhine wine/, but /Hock/.... The
maid who laces the stays of the mistress of the house is not /Maggie/
but /Robinson/. The nurse-maid is not /Lizzie/ but /Nurse/. So, by the
way, is a trained nurse in a hospital, whose full style is not /Miss
Jones/, but /Nurse Jones/. And the hospital itself, if private, is not
a hospital at all, but a /nursing-home/, and its trained nurses are
plain /nurses/, or /hospital nurses/, or maybe /nursing sisters/. And
the white-clad young gentlemen who make love to them are not /studying
medicine/ but /walking the hospitals/. Similarly, an English law
student does not study law, but /the/ law.
If an English boy goes to a /public school/, it is not a sign that he
is getting his education free, but that his father is paying a good
round sum for it and is accepted as a gentleman. A /public school/
over there corresponds to our /prep school/; it is a place maintained
chiefly by endowments, wherein boys of the upper classes are prepared
for the universities. What we know as a /public school/ is called a
/board school/ in England, not because the pupils are boarded but
because it is managed by a school board. English school-boys are
divided, not into /classes/, or /grades/, but into /forms/, which are
numbered, the lowest being the /first form/. The benches they sit on
are also called /forms/. The principal of an English school is a
/head-master/ or /head-mistress/; the lower pedagogues used to be
/ushers/, but are now /assistant masters/ (or /mistresses/). The head
of a university is a /chancellor/. He is always some eminent public
man, and a /vice-chancellor/ performs his duties. The head of a mere
college may be a /president/, /principal/, /rector/, /dean/ or
/provost/. At the universities the students are not divided into
/freshmen/, /sophomores/, /juniors/ and /seniors/, as with us, but are
simply /first-year men/, /second-year men/, and so on. Such
distinctions, however, are not as important in England as in America;
members of the university (they are called [Pg105] /members/, not
/students/) do not flock together according to seniority. An English
university man does not /study/; he /reads/. He knows nothing of
/frats/, /class-days/, /senior-proms/ and such things; save at
Cambridge and Dublin he does not even have a /commencement/. On the
other hand his daily speech is full of terms unintelligible to an
American student, for example, /wrangler/, /tripos/, /head/,
/pass-degree/ and /don/.
The upkeep of board-schools in England comes out of the /rates/, which
are local taxes levied upon householders. For that reason an English
municipal taxpayer is called a /ratepayer/. The functionaries who
collect and spend his money are not /office-holders/ but
/public-servants/. The head of the local police is not a /chief of
police/, but a /chief constable/. The fire /department/ is the fire
/brigade/. The /street-cleaner/ is a /crossing-sweeper/. The parish
/poorhouse/ is a /workhouse/. If it is maintained by two or more
parishes jointly it becomes a /union/. A pauper who accepts its
hospitality is said to be /on the rates/. A policeman is a /bobby/
familiarly and /constable/ officially. He is commonly mentioned in the
newspapers, not by his surname, but as /P. C. 643a/--/i. e./, Police
Constable No. 643a. The /fire laddie/, the /ward executive/, the
/roundsman/, the /strong-arm squad/ and other such objects of American
devotion are unknown in England. An English saloon-keeper is
officially a licensed /victualler/. His saloon is a /public house/,
or, colloquially, a /pub/. He does not sell beer by the /bucket/ or
/can/ or /growler/ or /schooner/, but by the /pint/. He and his
brethren, taken together, are the /licensed trade/. His back-room is a
/parlor/. If he has a few upholstered benches in his place he usually
calls it a /lounge/. He employs no /bartenders/ or /mixologists/.
/Barmaids/ do the work, with maybe a /barman/ to help.
The American language, as we have seen, has begun to take in the
English /boot/ and /shop/, and it is showing hospitality to
/head-master/, /haberdasher/ and /week-end/, but /subaltern/, /civil
servant/, /porridge/, /moor/, /draper/, /treacle/, /tram/ and /mufti/
are still strangers in the United States, as /bleachers/, /picayune/,