Americanisms in UK English

[Calthrop]

I did since find a discussion in a language forum where someone was suggesting the word may have gone out of favour around the time of WW1, but remained in more general use in the USA.

That would seem to make sense -- anything with German associations being anathemised in Britain in World War I: with the way history went, anti-German sentiments in that era, less strong in the US (plus, a substantial German-American community living there). Similarly with the breed of dog, which we have since that time, called "Alsatian"; but which in the US, is still "German shepherd".

 

[AY1975]

Whilst -ised and -isation are not used in the USA, -ize and -ization have long been used in this country. Indeed, they have always been the preferred spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. There has been a shift towards treating the s form as the 'correct' British spelling, in a rather rare move away from homogenisation, but both are correct in British English and the z form is not an Americani(z/s)ation.

And what about connexion versus connection? Until now I had always thought of connexion as US spelling, but Wiktionary seems to suggest that it is an obsolete form of UK English spelling and entry #56 in this thread from 2019 on obsolete railway terms still used also seems to suggest that this is the case:

Trivia - Obsolete Railway Terms still used

My pet hate lol Me too!

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Mcr Warrior]

And what about connexion versus connection? Until now I had always thought of connexion as US spelling, but Wiktionary seems to suggest that it is an obsolete form of UK English spelling..

Is this one of those words whose generally accepted late Medieval spelling went across with the early settlers to the New World in the 17th Century, after which time its spelling back here then (comparatively recently) changed to 'connection'?

 

[hexagon789]

And what about connexion versus connection? Until now I had always thought of connexion as US spelling, but Wiktionary seems to suggest that it is an obsolete form of UK English spelling and entry #56 in this thread from 2019 on obsolete railway terms still used also seems to suggest that this is the case:

Trivia - Obsolete Railway Terms still used

My pet hate lol Me too!

www.railforums.co.uk

Is this one of those words whose generally accepted late Medieval spelling went across with the early settlers to the New World in the 17th Century, after which time its spelling back here then (comparatively recently) changed to 'connection'?

I've seen 'connexion' in 1st edition British novels from the 1940s, as well as earlier.

It seems to have fallen completely out of favour by the 1960s, with 'connection' becoming the usual spelling.

 

[Richardr]

The Times certainly used connexion in the early 1980s and also used the ize rather than the ise until they "updated" their spelling.

 

[Bald Rick]

And what about connexion versus connection? Until now I had always thought of connexion as US spelling, but Wiktionary seems to suggest that it is an obsolete form of UK English spelling and entry #56 in this thread from 2019 on obsolete railway terms still used also seems to suggest that this is the case:

Trivia - Obsolete Railway Terms still used

My pet hate lol Me too!

www.railforums.co.uk

‘connexion‘ is used in at least one Bond novel by Fleming.

 

[johnnychips]

I've seen 'connexion' in 1st edition British novels from the 1940s, as well as earlier.

It seems to have fallen completely out of favour by the 1960s, with 'connection' becoming the usual spelling.

I do remember our English teacher in the 70s telling us that The Times preferred ‘connexion’ in their style guide, uniquely amongst British papers. My I-Pad spell check won’t have it!

In this rail forum, I must say I can’t recall it being spelt (spelled?) that way at all, considering how often contributors complain they aren’t held.

 

[DelW]

In this rail forum, I must say I can’t recall it being spelt (spelled?) that way at all, considering how often contributors complain they aren’t held.

Maybe no one on here wants to be reminded of "Connex"

Since the word is derived from "connect", surely connection is more logical than connexion.

 

[hexagon789]

I do remember our English teacher in the 70s telling us that The Times preferred ‘connexion’ in their style guide, uniquely amongst British papers. My I-Pad spell check won’t have it!

In this rail forum, I must say I can’t recall it being spelt (spelled?) that way at all, considering how often contributors complain they aren’t held.

Perhaps slightly later for The Times then!

Maybe no one on here wants to be reminded of "Connex"

Since the word is derived from "connect", surely connection is more logical than connexion.

Probably from the Latin 'connexio' meaning 'connect', hence the -xion ending.

 

[johnnychips]

Maybe no one on here wants to be reminded of "Connex"

Since the word is derived from "connect", surely connection is more logical than connexion.

This is why English is lovably barmy, and not the best world language. You would spell ‘infection’ unthinkingly, but how about ‘infl…ion’, which is something to do with grammar; but you would not spell ‘flexion’, to do with muscles any other way.

Edit: having just googled, it seems to always be ‘inflection’ to do with grammar. Aaargh! I could have sworn I’d seen ’inflexion’.

Edit 2: And my iPad spellcheck doesn’t mind ‘inflexion’.

 

[swt_passenger]

Maybe no one on here wants to be reminded of "Connex"

Since the word is derived from "connect", surely connection is more logical than connexion.

Unless you’re travelling with Connex?

 

[Ianigsy]

Exactly, we often call films movies these days. Not sure how long that's been in common usage over here. We haven't succumbed to calling cinemas movie theatres, though (or theaters in US spelling).

Ah, but the original word was “kinema” (long E) from “kinematograph”. The French “cinématographe” seems to have stuck somehow.

Much as I was reading a year or two back how the classically educated priest who founded a certain Glaswegian sporting institution could never persuade the locals that “Celtic” has a hard C in every other context!

 

[Doppelganger]

This is why English is lovably barmy, and not the best world language. You would spell ‘infection’ unthinkingly, but how about ‘infl…ion’, which is something to do with grammar; but you would not spell ‘flexion’, to do with muscles any other way.

Well maybe this might be apt here:

"Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners"

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead—
For goodness’ sake, don’t call it "deed"!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)
A moth is not a moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose—
Just look them up—and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go and thwart and cart—
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I’d mastered it when I was five

 

[johnnychips]

Well maybe this might be apt here:

"Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners"

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead—
For goodness’ sake, don’t call it "deed"!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)
A moth is not a moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose—
Just look them up—and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go and thwart and cart—
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I’d mastered it when I was five

Well, I’ve not seen that one before! Will certainly use it when I’m trying to teach Belgian students English this summer. Thanks!

 

[Lewisham2221]

That would seem to make sense -- anything with German associations being anathemised in Britain in World War I: with the way history went, anti-German sentiments in that era, less strong in the US (plus, a substantial German-American community living there). Similarly with the breed of dog, which we have since that time, called "Alsatian"; but which in the US, is still "German shepherd".

Officially now known as German Sheperd Dog according to The Kennel Club. I've heard both in common usage in the UK, but I'd say German Shepherd was the more common.

One term, that I think is an Americanism, that really winds me up is "for sure" in place of "definitely "

 

[takno]

Officially now known as German Sheperd Dog according to The Kennel Club. I've heard both in common usage in the UK, but I'd say German Shepherd was the more common.

One term, that I think is an Americanism, that really winds me up is "for sure" in place of "definitely "

I'd say that "for sure" generally gets used in place of "of course" rather than definitely. I mostly say it when talking to Europeans, who generally understand it well because it maps directly onto phrases in various European languages. Might be an Americanism though I guess.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Folk are surely aware that the number of UK English speakers is far less than those speaking American English, by about 1 to 5?
Then you have to add the media bombardments from the US in film, theatre, books, travel , computing, commerce and other sectors.
Plus the wide English variations used in the former empire and commonwealth, with huge numbers in south Asia and places like Nigeria.
Plus regional forms and colloquialisms, even, or particularly, in the UK.
Plus the rapidly growing use of English as everyone's second language (largely driven by the commerce and media domination of the US) - in places like Eastern Europe and the far east.
English is evolving quickly, and the UK is not at the epicentre of it any more, though it is where it all began as a collision of Anglo-Saxon/Norse/Norman French.
I'm afraid it is all linked to the decline of Britain relative to the US, in global economic power, since WW1.

I was initially shocked to find that the auto-announcer used for English on Czech trains was actually an American! But I soon got over it.
And I've just been listening to Steve Montgomery, chair of RDG, who speaks in broad Scots (Glaswegian?), which I find harder to understand than I do many Americans.

The railway is one area where very many terms have different uses on each side of the Atlantic (tie, switch, depot etc) - though we now have S&C (switches and crossings).
I don't like the way "subway" has become the standard term for what we would call the "underground" or "metro" - our subways are just for pedestrians.
So is the Elizabeth Line a subway?
Journalists now refer to the Tokyo and other metro systems as "subways" in the American sense rather than the UK one.

 

[takno]

I don't like the way "subway" has become the standard term for what we would call the "underground" or "metro" - our subways are just for pedestrians.
So is the Elizabeth Line a subway?
Journalists now refer to the Tokyo and other metro systems as "subways" in the American sense rather than the UK one.

I find the Subway thing incredibly weird on Duolingo. It's not something I've actually heard in the US, where Subway is a thing in New York or a sandwich, and other cities have metros or L trains or transits. I haven't heard it for that matter anywhere in Europe, although doubtless somewhere will have picked it up. Duolingo has a strange passion for enforcing a rather extremist constructed form of US English and Spanish, and has quite a lot of mystifying USisms in languages like Polish. I don't think it's helping anybody.

 

[AY1975]

I don't like the way "subway" has become the standard term for what we would call the "underground" or "metro" - our subways are just for pedestrians.
So is the Elizabeth Line a subway?
Journalists now refer to the Tokyo and other metro systems as "subways" in the American sense rather than the UK one.

I find the Subway thing incredibly weird on Duolingo. It's not something I've actually heard in the US, where Subway is a thing in New York or a sandwich, and other cities have metros or L trains or transits. I haven't heard it for that matter anywhere in Europe, although doubtless somewhere will have picked it up. Duolingo has a strange passion for enforcing a rather extremist constructed form of US English and Spanish, and has quite a lot of mystifying USisms in languages like Polish. I don't think it's helping anybody.

The Glasgow Subway has always been called the "Subway" (well, kind of: it was officially called the "Underground" from about the mid 1930s until the early 2000s, although many Glaswegians still referred to it as the "Subway").

Conversely, in Washington DC they call it the "Metro".

 

[themeone]

Is “can I get” when used at a shop counter an Americanism?

I've always assumed so. It's an expression I dislike heartily to which the response at a shop counter should be "No, I have to get it for you".

Also dislike "reach out" used to mean "contact" or "get in touch with". Sadly it seems to have become very commonly used.

 

[Lewisham2221]

Also dislike "reach out" used to mean "contact" or "get in touch with". Sadly it seems to have become very commonly used.

On a similar track - "touch base" *shudders*

 

[Bald Rick]

Also dislike "reach out" used to mean "contact" or "get in touch with". Sadly it seems to have become very commonly used.

 

[Pinza-C55]

Folk are surely aware that the number of UK English speakers is far less than those speaking American English, by about 1 to 5?

It doesn't matter how many people speak variations of English. The American astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson is very fond of what he calls "naming rights" ie when something is invented in a country then that country gets to dictate how it is used. So we invented the postage stamp and thus our stamps are the only ones in the world which are not required to show the name of the country. We invented English and other countries speak their versions of it but that's all they are , versions.

 

[johnnychips]

View attachment 126645

Although I respect totally all your knowledge in railway matters, this is the best thing you’ve ever, ever posted. A photocopy will be slyly placed where management can see it when I get to work on Monday.

To comply with rules, if you can’t see the attachment, see post #202.

I am still chuckling.

 

[DelW]

Also dislike "reach out" used to mean "contact" or "get in touch with". Sadly it seems to have become very commonly used.

See also posts 40 and 44 (I do realise that this is too long a thread to remember everything ).

 

[Bald Rick]

Although I respect totally all your knowledge in railway matters, this is the best thing you’ve ever, ever posted. A photocopy will be slyly placed where management can see it when I get to work on Monday.

To comply with rules, if you can’t see the attachment, see post #202.

I am still chuckling.

I’m still chuckling, and I found it about 4 years ago

 

[61653 HTAFC]

And what about connexion versus connection? Until now I had always thought of connexion as US spelling, but Wiktionary seems to suggest that it is an obsolete form of UK English spelling and entry #56 in this thread from 2019 on obsolete railway terms still used also seems to suggest that this is the case:

Trivia - Obsolete Railway Terms still used

My pet hate lol Me too!

www.railforums.co.uk

Without this post, if I'd ever encountered "connexion" in the wild I'd have assumed it was either a spelling mistake or a real-world example of the Steve Buscemi "How do you do, fellow teens?" meme... Every day is a school day!

One term, that I think is an Americanism, that really winds me up is "for sure" in place of "definitely "

It just makes me think of Geordie football pundits or managers. Alan Shearer and Lee Clark seem fond of it, fo' shu'a!

 

[Bald Rick]

One term, that I think is an Americanism, that really winds me up is "for sure" in place of "definitely "

It just makes me think of Geordie football pundits or managers. Alan Shearer and Lee Clark seem fond of it, fo' shu'a!

For me, it’s F1 driver speak. On the basis of no evidence whatsoever, I’m convinced that all F1 drivers who are not native English speakers are put through a crash course of “F1 English”. They can describe perfectly how the balance of the car is set up, or what rules they didn’t infringe, but I bet they couldn’t ask for for extra gravy in the chippy.

 

[takno]

For me, it’s F1 driver speak. On the basis of no evidence whatsoever, I’m convinced that all F1 drivers who are not native English speakers are put through a crash course of “F1 English”. They can describe perfectly how the balance of the car is set up, or what rules they didn’t infringe, but I bet they couldn’t ask for for extra gravy in the chippy.

F1 drivers are all proper fancy - they probably get their chippies delivered on JustEat.