@adrock1976 writes: "Also, I have heard people in the USA pronounce missile as "missel"", compared with the UK "miss-eyel".
Similarly, Americans tend to pronounce "hostile", like "hostel". I'm inclined to the sentiment that there just is much wherein they, and we, pronounce words differently; and / or use words of varying different-ness, to refer to the same thing.
Calling coleslaw slaw. It's downright lazy.
Peri-... It just is, OK?
I was hoping to be able to defend the American usage here, on the basis that coleslaw is definitely cabbage-based (German
Kohl); whereas maybe in America, there were similar shredded-salad-type dishes
not featuring cabbage: but Googling would seem to suggest that the Americans' "slaw" is, first and foremost, about cabbage -- so, no getting away from the fact that they suppress a syllable.
I realise that the chief point of this thread, is to grouse about things which are ridiculously petty, but happen to -- irrationally -- annoy the poster, out of all proportion; so attempted "peacemaking and conciliation" is not looked for or called-for ! To mention a US thing which irritates me far more than makes any kind of sense -- the colloquial word "pernickety": annoyingly fussy and hard-to-please. In the British form just quoted, I find it a splendidly expressive word. The Americans use it too; only they insert an extra letter, making it "persnickety": which -- for some reason or absolutely none -- strikes me as babyish, foolish, and super-annoying.