BEWARE, BRITISHISMS ARE COMING!

Being particularly interested in language, one of the things I notice when I travel the world is the growing influence of American words.  It’s understandable that in areas where the US has pioneered development, such as computing and space exploration, Americanisms would be adopted.  Therefore, words like ‘software’, ‘program’, ‘shuttle’ and ‘App’ seem to be universal.  But even in the normal (regular?) business world we see phrases like ‘reach out’ increasingly adopted, as well as American spelling in English documents, which annoys a lot of people.

What’s really interesting about this is that apparently it’s a two-way process.  Britishisms – as they’re called – are invading the American language.  According to the Washington DC correspondent of the BBC (a British institution if there ever was one), the following English phrases are now in common usage in the US:

Spot on (exactly right)

Will do (yes I will do that)

Chat up (flirtatious conversation or maybe in American parlance ‘hit on’)

Keen to (be eager to)

Book a room (reserve a room)

Called Larry (named Larry)

Sell-by date (expiration date)

Probably the funniest one is ‘ginger’ which means a person with red hair.  In the UK this can be viewed as a slightly critical term, particularly by people who have red hair.  However, in the US, ‘ginger’ has positive connotations such as gingerbread.

It’s good to know that language travels in many directions and English is a very rich language just because we’ve absorbed influences from so many different cultures. 

So I think this research is ‘spot on’ but I’m keen to ensure that I don’t call red haired people ‘ginger’.  That’s definitely past its ‘sell-by date’.

I’d love to hear from you about Americanisms and Britishisms and what you think about them. 

Have a good weekend.

Larry.