Anglo-American communications studies

Tim May tcmay at got.net
Fri Jan 5 17:50:40 PST 2001


At 1:00 PM -0500 1/5/01, Ken Brown wrote:
>
>Harmon Seaver wrote:
>>        In different areas of the US we have different tems for the 
>>thing get water
>  > out of at the sink. In the south it's often called spigot, and in the north
>  > faucet. Also tap. What do you Brits call that?
>
>Tap. We find the word "faucet" funny, it sounds as if it should be
>slightly obscene, a good example of the US habit of never using a short
>word when a long one will do. But when I found myself amongst Americans
>I was slightly disappointed to find that they almost all say "tap" these
>days. Just as they say "car" instead of "automobile". You are obviously
>all watching too much British TV, or listening to too many British rock
>bands. You should defend your language against this tide of old-world
>vulgarity.

I'm now 49, and "car" has been much more common in these United 
States than "automobile"  has been, in my lifetime.

Further, I often hear Britishisms which are far longer and more 
labored than the American equivalents. For example:

"articulated lorry" vs. "semi"

"redundant" vs. "laid-off"

"Mackintosh" vs. "raincoat"

"Pantechnicon" = "moving van"

(I only learned this last one on a site devoted to Britishisms vs. 
Americanisms.)

Fact is, both dialects of English have longer versions of the same 
basic word than other dialects have.

Which is preferable is a matter of taste and familiarity.


--Tim May
-- 
Timothy C. May         tcmay at got.net        Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
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Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns






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