Irritating American names for things

Rothko

Das Reich wrote: »

And where are you from? Because all Europeans (non british islanders) and non Europeans I met have exactly this impression from Ireland soon as they arrive.

They're wrong

Hamsterchops

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Our culture is basically American, our wealth is from American companies.

American english is superior english anyway so i'm glad it's getting more common in Ireland

Not true.

Invidious

Rothko wrote: »

They're wrong

How are they wrong that Irish culture is very Americanized? Most Irish people in the 70s, 80s and 90s grew up watching American TV & films and listening to American music. A new generation of kids are now growing up watching predominantly American content on YouTube and Netflix. American country music is huge in Ireland — in what other European country would there be a national meltdown over Garth Brooks being denied permission to hold concerts? And Irish people seem to follow US politics even more avidly than their own domestic politics — threads on Boards.ie about the recent US elections probably got more posts than threads about the Irish general election in February. Most of the top employers in Ireland are now US multinationals, meaning that many people's professional lives are deeply entwined with America as well. There's no getting away from it, sorry.

Hamsterchops

The point of this thread is to do with irritating American English creeping into (and displacing) our own understanding of English. Standard/ Hiberno English is our traditional tongue, not American English as well you know.

So you can put out your Trash on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, while we put out our rubbish

daveville30

Diaper / nappy
Motor/engine
Trash/rubbish

Badly Drunk Boy

tringle wrote: »

One I have heard recently is "on accident" instead of by accident. It happened on accident. First time I heard it was on an unscripted TV show i I thought it was just the person's style of talking. Second time was in a interview but can't remember where and third time was an Instagram story where a well spoken chef/food writer explained how this recipe was developed on accident when they didnt have X ingredient available. Is this a new thing, has anyone else heard it. Its only in the past 4 weeks i have come across it.

I mentioned 'on accident' earlier in this thread. I've heard it numerous times but most recently was by two different characters in the comedy Community which finished in 2015, so it's not a very new thing.

mikemac2

Their recipes

1 cup of....

They just love to break everything down into cups

Wibbs

Invidious wrote: »

How are they wrong that Irish culture is very Americanized? Most Irish people in the 70s, 80s and 90s grew up watching American TV & films and listening to American music. A new generation of kids are now growing up watching predominantly American content on YouTube and Netflix. American country music is huge in Ireland — in what other European country would there be a national meltdown over Garth Brooks being denied permission to hold concerts? And Irish people seem to follow US politics even more avidly than their own domestic politics — threads on Boards.ie about the recent US elections probably got more posts than threads about the Irish general election in February. Most of the top employers in Ireland are now US multinationals, meaning that many people's professional lives are deeply entwined with America as well. There's no getting away from it, sorry.

I agree, though would say it has accelerated massively in the last 20 years. I grew up in 70's and 80's Ireland and like you say we had a lot of US media exposure and British with it, but the absorption wasn't nearly so obvious. Nobody(outside of parts of Kerry) was calling their mother "mom", nor going to the "store" and the only time you'd hear a cheesy mid atlantic accent was coming from a club DJ, and they were lampooned for it.

The UK has had a similar exposure to US media in that time, but they haven't gone the mid atlantic thing and use of loan words to near the same extent as we have. Then again we Irish have long had an uncomfortable relationship with our accents and origins for all sorts of historical reasons. We had mass elocution going on in schools of the 50's and 60's to take the (mostly rural)accents away. First it was an aping to a large degree of the received british accent, now it's the American.

Wibbs

daveville30 wrote: »

Diaper / nappy

Diaper sounds a lot posher(from the Greek, into English). Nappy is short for napkin, which could be confusing in a restaurant...

Motor/engine

More a confusion/mashup between the types. IIRC an engine converts energy into a reciprocal motion, a motor turns energy into a rotating motion. So an internal(or external) combustion device is an engine, a an electric device is a motor. So a Tesla has a motor, a Small block Chevy has an engine. Even that can vary across time. So something like a windmill is an "engine" though it's mostly rotational.

Different terms for the same thing can give a glimpse into history too. So an estate car was as it suggests a car with loads of luggage space for people who owned large estates, a "stationwagon" was a vehicle that transported people and all their luggage from train stations to their properties. A "shooting brake" was a two door car for estates with room in the back for guns and the like. These days of course it's up for grabs marketing wise, so VW have a four door "shooting brake". No VW. NO.

Trunk makes more sense than boot. Early cars literally had trunks strapped to the back. Hood makes more sense than bonnet, the latter sounds a bit girly. I dunno where fenders or wings came from. In the very early days they were called mudguards on both sides of the Atlantic.

I do like how Americans as far as they're concerned don't seem to live in houses or apartments, they live in homes. Welcome to my home. Kinda sweet. We'd rarely say that, more likely get inside you muppet you're letting the heat out.

Hamsterchops

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

I mentioned 'on accident' earlier in this thread. I've heard it numerous times but most recently was by two different characters in the comedy Community which finished in 2015, so it's not a very new thing.

Community is an American production.

Rothko

Invidious wrote: »

How are they wrong that Irish culture is very Americanized? Most Irish people in the 70s, 80s and 90s grew up watching American TV & films and listening to American music. A new generation of kids are now growing up watching predominantly American content on YouTube and Netflix. American country music is huge in Ireland — in what other European country would there be a national meltdown over Garth Brooks being denied permission to hold concerts? And Irish people seem to follow US politics even more avidly than their own domestic politics — threads on Boards.ie about the recent US elections probably got more posts than threads about the Irish general election in February. Most of the top employers in Ireland are now US multinationals, meaning that many people's professional lives are deeply entwined with America as well. There's no getting away from it, sorry.

The post that I originally replied to said that out culture was "basically" American. That's pretty much implying that we have no culture of our own, which is blatantly untrue.

Of course Ireland has been influenced by America to a certain extent, no one can deny that. However, we still very much have our own identity.

daveville30

Dude you need a vacation to the car rib be in

COVID

daveville30 wrote: »

Dude you need a vacation to the car rib be in

With the above example, it's unclear as to whether the emphasis is on the second syllable or the third syllable.

daveville30

What a retard remark

COVID

daveville30 wrote: »

What a retard remark

Is it?

I'm genuinely not sure which pronunciation of Caribbean you believe to be the correct one.

Seamai

mikemac2 wrote: »

Their recipes

1 cup of....

They just love to break everything down into cups

The minute I see the mention of cups in a recipe I lose interest, it might be fine for basic baking but not for anything where more exact measurements are required.

daveville30

Most people this side call it Caribbean
Yanks call it the Carib be in.
Jesus you need a hobby

COVID

daveville30 wrote: »

Most people this side call it Caribbean
Yanks call it the Carib be in.
Jesus you need a hobby

Okey dokey, we'll leave it there so.

dxhound2005

Pronunciation advice in writing is pretty much useless, without phonetics. Second best is to bold the syllable which is stressed in speech, Car rib e an. Another example would be the Japanese and the Irish pronunciations of Fukushima. Foo koosh ma / Foo koo she ma.

Stateofyou

daveville30 wrote: »

What a retard remark

Do people still use that word in 2020? Really? :rolleyes:

Pasteur.

Become...

Stateofyou

Stateofyou wrote: »

Do people still use that word in 2020? Really? :rolleyes:

Appropriate thread, at least.

Ubbquittious

daveville30 wrote: »

Dude you need a vacation to the car rib be in

If you're being in your car or your rib then you should be grand as long as you don't risk infecting any passengers

Wibbs

Stateofyou wrote: »

Do people still use that word in 2020? Really? :rolleyes:

Indeed, it would arguably be more grammatically correct to type "retarded".

Gaoth Laidir

Seamai wrote: »

The minute I see the mention of cups in a recipe I lose interest, it might be fine for basic baking but not for anything where more exact measurements are required.

In work we were tasked with carrying out a technical test for a NOAA subdivision (to do with repairing coral off Florida). The official test method stated to "add half a cup of sea salt..." to water to simulate sea water. We Googled what exactly a cup is and of course found several wildly different definitions. And this is for NOAA.

WoollyRedHat

Imitation Cheese- it's fake cheese.

garrettod

Fanny pack

Invidious

Rothko wrote: »

The post that I originally replied to said that out culture was "basically" American. That's pretty much implying that we have no culture of our own, which is blatantly untrue.

Of course Ireland has been influenced by America to a certain extent, no one can deny that. However, we still very much have our own identity.

I'd say Ireland has a hybrid culture. Some aspects are clearly Irish, such as the Irish language & literature, GAA sports, and traditional Irish music. But many people also follow English football and soaps, watch American films and TV, eat Asian food, and so on. And then there are the ever-increasing numbers of foreign-born residents: One in six people living in Ireland was born elsewhere. So it's an open question as to what "our own identity" actually means anymore.

COVID

Invidious wrote: »

I'd say Ireland has a hybrid culture. Some aspects are clearly Irish, such as the Irish language & literature, GAA sports, and traditional Irish music. But many people also follow English football and soaps, watch American films and TV, eat Asian food, and so on. And then there are the ever-increasing numbers of foreign-born residents: One in six people living in Ireland was born elsewhere. So it's an open question as to what "our own identity" actually means anymore.

A clear and concise, common sense post.
It's mad, Ted.

Rothko

Invidious wrote: »

I'd say Ireland has a hybrid culture. Some aspects are clearly Irish, such as the Irish language & literature, GAA sports, and traditional Irish music. But many people also follow English football and soaps, watch American films and TV, eat Asian food, and so on. And then there are the ever-increasing numbers of foreign-born residents: One in six people living in Ireland was born elsewhere. So it's an open question as to what "our own identity" actually means anymore.

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

whisky_galore

Invidious wrote: »

I'd say Ireland has a hybrid culture. Some aspects are clearly Irish, such as the Irish language & literature, GAA sports, and traditional Irish music. But many people also follow English football and soaps, watch American films and TV, eat Asian food, and so on. And then there are the ever-increasing numbers of foreign-born residents: One in six people living in Ireland was born elsewhere. So it's an open question as to what "our own identity" actually means anymore.

Irish Trad music is played on instruments that aren't Irish for the most part.

Celmullet

I don't know if it has been mentioned already but the one that bugs me the most is "On Accident".

dxhound2005

Celmullet wrote: »

I don't know if it has been mentioned already but the one that bugs me the most is "On Accident".

They don't do it On Purpose.

mikemac2

mikemac2 wrote: »

Their recipes

They just love to break everything down into cups

This drives me mad so I use the "everything metric" chrome extension and it adds metric to everything.

tringle

Celmullet wrote: »

I don't know if it has been mentioned already but the one that bugs me the most is "On Accident".

I did just a page or so back and while i now know its not a new thing i have only heard it in the past few weeks and multiple times, it just doesnt sound right. Its like something a 3 year old would say and you would correct.

Ikozma

When they claim their sports teams are world champions when they win their own national leagues drives me bloody simple

dxhound2005

tringle wrote: »

I did just a page or so back and while i now know its not a new thing i have only heard it in the past few weeks and multiple times, it just doesnt sound right. Its like something a 3 year old would say and you would correct.

It doesn't sound right because it is still rare. In 200 years time things could have reversed and there will be complaints about By Accident. That is the danger of thinking short term about language development. I can't see any logical argument against it, if On Purpose or On Average are OK.

Usage notes
In the US, on accident is about 1–2% as common, on average, as by accident (COCA). However, usage varies geographically; some regions use on accident much more than others.
In the UK, on accident is about 3% as common as by accident (BNC).

whisky_galore

Ikozma wrote: »

When they claim their sports teams are world champions when they win their own national leagues drives me bloody simple

World Series.
Lol.

Stateofyou

whisky_galore wrote: »

World Series.
Lol.

I asked this before too. Take the World Series for example in Baseball. I was told that the name origins came from the newspaper that sponsored them in the late 1800's; it was called The World. It was a marketing gimmick basically. It spread from there. So it's nothing to do with thinking they're masters of the world or anything like that.

Baseball is also a professionally sport played in many countries around the world believe it or not, and they compete with each other every 3-4 years (can't remember how often). Apparently it's one of the most popular played sports ww.

Barna77

Happy holidays... :mad:

dxhound2005

Stateofyou wrote: »

I asked this before too. Take the World Series for example in Baseball. I was told that the name origins came from the newspaper that sponsored them in the late 1800's; it was called The World. It was a marketing gimmick basically. It spread from there. So it's nothing to do with thinking they're masters of the world or anything like that.

Baseball is also a professionally sport played in many countries around the world believe it or not, and they compete with each other every 3-4 years (can't remember how often). Apparently it's one of the most popular played sports ww.

The explanation about it being from the World newspaper is supposed to be an urban legend.

https://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/10/6-faqs-brits-america

garrettod

Am American saying, rather than word for something, but does my head in....


....


Thank you, for your service :mad:

Demonique

Eduard Khil wrote: »

Color

Where's the U gone

I heard it's because there was a time when printing costs were per letter, so the yanks eliminated the u from a lot of words to keep the costs down

But I also heard it's because the US wanted to show its independence from england

Gaoth Laidir

One expression I can't stand (and it's not exclusive to Americans; it seems all English speakers use it) is: "What it is is..."

What that is is is pretty annoying.

The Continental Op

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

One expression I can't stand (and it's not exclusive to Americans; it seems all English speakers use it) is: "What it is is..."

What that is is is pretty annoying.

I think I know what you mean as I know an American that often says "It is what it is".

Randy Archer

Oh where do we start?

Fanny , Sidewalk , The mall ,Candy , Cell phone - and how they pronounce mobile

Their use of the word “fag”

Their term for Happy Christmas , despite being predominately Christian nation (least on paper)

How they spell words like night -nite ; colour /color

Driving on the wrong side of the road

While not unique to them , their piss poor understanding of political theory like left wing , socialists , liberal etc lol

Extra special ire is reserved for the nerd wannabe whose academically challenged who says “fun fact” and proceeds to enlighten the world with an ill informed and boring “fact” about something that they copied and paste from Wikipedia

Wibbs

Randy Archer wrote: »

How they spell words like night -nite ; colour /color

To be fair that's just simplifying the spelling in a language whose spellings often make no sense phonetically. LIke WTF is a gh doing in night. Nig hit?

Driving on the wrong side of the road

We can largely blame the French for that feck up. A generally innovative and clever bunch who can go rogue from time to time. Before them pretty much every European society drove/walked on the left. The Romans certainly did. Later on in the late medieval when the church sent out a how to guide for pilgrims they repeated this tradition and instruction. Apparently a trend in France for very large horse drawn trucks by any other name meant the driver had to sit on the left to watch for clearance and it took off from there. Their empire followed suit. Ditto for the British.

In mainland Europe it could get weird. Though Italy switched to driving in the right in the 20's IIRC, they continued to make sports and racing cars RHD well into the 50's, while ordinary cars were LHD. Apparently this was down to the layout of European race tracks which favoured RHD cars. In race cars this continued into the 1960's Here's an American Ford GT40 built to piss off Enzo Ferrari and win races in Europe.



Though the gear shift is on the right like in a LHD car the overall layout is RHD. Given the majority have the right as the dominant hand, it makes sense to keep that on the wheel at all times rather than the less dominant, so for me anyway RHD is "superior" in that respect.

While not unique to them , their piss poor understanding of political theory like left wing , socialists , liberal etc lol

Yeah that's an odd localisation that has since gone worldwide on the interwebs. I reckon it's down to America's culture being more aimed at the individual rather than the group and government being seen as more local with the government being seen as distant, so 19th/early 20th century political group movements like socialism, even fascism never took a big hold there, though they had smatterings of both. This in turn led to a suspicion and simplification of any group movement and anything group based outside of religion to be vaguely "unamerican".

Actually Unamerican is a weird one. I can't think of another culture that has a similar label. It's a shifting definition too.

Wibbs

An outlier on RHD/LHD in the US were early limousines with drivers. They were often RHD so when parking on a street the driver was closest to the path, sorry sidewalk, so didn't have to walk around the car to let his passengers out.

Harry Palmr

"Call out" which started as an Americanism - challenge/attack/highlight but please don't call out unless you need a tradesman.

ohnonotgmail

Wibbs wrote: »

An outlier on RHD/LHD in the US were early limousines with drivers. They were often RHD so when parking on a street the driver was closest to the path, sorry sidewalk, so didn't have to walk around the car to let his passengers out.

Not the only outlier. US mail vehicles for rural delivery are right hand drive so the postman can put letters in the kerbside postboxes without having to get out.