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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate Americanisms...?

768 replies

Groof · 05/01/2025 22:54

I think maybe because it feels like all English-speaking cultures are becoming boring and homogenous.

New ones I've noticed that people in the UK didn't routinely say five years ago but are now EVERYWHERE:

  • birth control (instead of 'contraception' or 'the pill')
  • wait list (instead of waiting list)
  • reach out

Which ones do you hate or AIBU?

OP posts:
Treaclewell · 07/01/2025 08:44

RitaIncognita · 06/01/2025 19:45

We have several styles of macaroni and cheese in the US. They include the roux-based one you refer to, but we also have a custard-based one that is favored in the South and with African American families. There is also the boxed Kraft one, but that is a category all its own.

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I once tried the Kraft boxed version which I thought might be useful in emergencies. Note the "once". It is an abomination. As is tinned macaroni cheese.

BarbaraHoward · 07/01/2025 07:16

Dreamingoftheunknown · 07/01/2025 02:07

To have gotten on or in something means to have entered.

As well as meaning to have obtained, to have gotten can also mean to have become.
I’ve gotten tired, for example.

There may be other ways it’s used, but they’re the ones I can think of at the moment.

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My technical grammar knowledge is crap, but gotten is just a particular tense of the verb to get.

I went to the shop, I got milk.

I should have gone to the shop, I would have gotten milk.

I think in some areas of England they use "got" in both of those, but not in Ireland, parts of Scotland, the US, Australia etc etc.

FindingMeno · 07/01/2025 05:55

For as long as I remember I have been quite sad that in spelling, gaol has been replaced with jail.
A strange and enduring fixation of mine.

GrumpyOldCrone · 07/01/2025 05:06

I quite like Americanisms - except ‘grab’, which I always hear/read very literally. No need to grab things - just pick them up gently! And as for grabbing lunch: how absurd Grin

Also, I would like to preserve the British usage of ‘fag’ on this side of the ocean - although I don’t know if that will be possible (or desirable) in the long term.

NattyTurtle59 · 07/01/2025 04:06

steff13 · 06/01/2025 00:35

Snobs.

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Yep, definitely snobs. I'm in NZ, we use a lot of Americanisms here, no-one cares.

Dreamingoftheunknown · 07/01/2025 02:07

SinnerBoy · 06/01/2025 23:46

EmeraldRoulette · Yesterday 23:22

I really like "gotten" as it makes sense

I could - not for the first time - be completely wrong...

I was taught that gotten was to have obtained something, as in ill-gotten gains.

You wouldn't have obtained on the bus...

To have gotten on or in something means to have entered.

As well as meaning to have obtained, to have gotten can also mean to have become.
I’ve gotten tired, for example.

There may be other ways it’s used, but they’re the ones I can think of at the moment.

RitaIncognita · 07/01/2025 01:41

LifeExperience · 06/01/2025 23:55

Where I come from in the US the shag is a type of dance. I spent many hours at uni dancing it.

Ah yes, Beach Music and the Carolina Shag. There's a movie called "Shag". It's about the dance.😀

CulturalNomad · 07/01/2025 01:39

I'm surprised that more Americans aren't used to hearing the word fringe used to describe "bangs". Very popular with all the beauty bloggers and where I am I can't imagine walking into a salon and asking for " a layered bob with a long curtain fringe" and the stylist being confused.

https://www.southernliving.com/fashion-beauty/hairstyles/fringe-bangs

gotmyknickersinatwist · 07/01/2025 01:12

gotmyknickersinatwist · 06/01/2025 14:57

It's 'fil-um'. You're welcome.

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Apologies for quoting myself but, for context AND a lovely wee amalgamation of filums, a bit of anti-American sentiment and a rhotic arse, here youse are:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ofpqyjACGFU

Before you continue to YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ofpqyjACGFU

ErrolTheDragon · 07/01/2025 00:28

Whereas British students...Grin

Don't you love words with multiple meanings? I saw shags shagging on Skye a couple of years ago. Rugs, haircut, tobacco....

LifeExperience · 06/01/2025 23:55

Where I come from in the US the shag is a type of dance. I spent many hours at uni dancing it.

Pallisers · 06/01/2025 23:52

Pejorative? Not at all! At least not the way I've heard it used. Popular with my young adult son and his twenty-something friends.

It's nice if it has lost that but it definitely was a pejorative back in the day. See post above re Tim Minchin.

I agree Ted Lasso might be responsible for most of the word traffic from UK to US.

SinnerBoy · 06/01/2025 23:46

EmeraldRoulette · Yesterday 23:22

I really like "gotten" as it makes sense

I could - not for the first time - be completely wrong...

I was taught that gotten was to have obtained something, as in ill-gotten gains.

You wouldn't have obtained on the bus...

dreamingbohemian · 06/01/2025 23:44

I think Ted Lasso got Americans saying wanker a lot more :)

dreamingbohemian · 06/01/2025 23:43

CulturalNomad · 06/01/2025 20:05

Cool, I'd love to hear from Americans who can say they use British isms.... or if they use British pronunciations

*shag
*ginger
*flat (for apartment)
*fringe (for bangs)

All in common use.

Lol no

Shag, yes

Ginger, a bit, mostly because Americans found out that redheads are bullied in the UK and can't believe it

Flat and fringe, no way

ErrolTheDragon · 06/01/2025 23:42

I guess Tim Minchin's 'Prejudice' wouldn't work in the US then

CulturalNomad · 06/01/2025 23:33

Pallisers · 06/01/2025 23:19

Also isn't ginger a bit of pejorative? I've never seen anything but admiration for red hair here in the US.

@Annabella92
Pejorative? Not at all! At least not the way I've heard it used. Popular with my young adult son and his twenty-something friends.

(Sorry Annabella92 - didn't mean to @ you and can't seem to delete it!)

Pallisers · 06/01/2025 23:19

Also isn't ginger a bit of pejorative? I've never seen anything but admiration for red hair here in the US.

RitaIncognita · 06/01/2025 23:12

Pallisers · 06/01/2025 23:04

I've never heard any of these in the US. Shag maybe a bit - and it sometimes appears as a clue in the NYT crossword. I told my hairdresser recently about the fringe for bangs thing - no one in the salon had ever heard of it.

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I agree. I have heard shag, but none of the others with their British meaning.

Ginger is a nickname for Virginia in the US. I've never heard it used to refer to a redhead.

Pallisers · 06/01/2025 23:04

CulturalNomad · 06/01/2025 20:05

Cool, I'd love to hear from Americans who can say they use British isms.... or if they use British pronunciations

*shag
*ginger
*flat (for apartment)
*fringe (for bangs)

All in common use.

I've never heard any of these in the US. Shag maybe a bit - and it sometimes appears as a clue in the NYT crossword. I told my hairdresser recently about the fringe for bangs thing - no one in the salon had ever heard of it.

Whydoeseveryonewanttoargue · 06/01/2025 21:32

CulturalNomad · 06/01/2025 20:05

Cool, I'd love to hear from Americans who can say they use British isms.... or if they use British pronunciations

*shag
*ginger
*flat (for apartment)
*fringe (for bangs)

All in common use.

North American and been in thr Uk for 20+ years and have never used any of these.

RitaIncognita · 06/01/2025 20:44

It's true that some British terms have crossed the pond. "Bonkers," "bespoke," "fancy' (for liking something), "gobsmacked," and "shag" are some examples.

As long as we don't start saying "uni" for university and "I was sat," it's fine with me.

Ethylred · 06/01/2025 20:27

Anglicisms are just as bad.

RawBloomers · 06/01/2025 20:21

Lafee · 06/01/2025 17:07

Huh? I haven't picked up any racism...
Are we not all just discussing the appropriate or inappropriateness of the Brits using Americanisms?

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Almost no one has discussed the appropriateness or otherwise of using words that are more common in America than England. The thread title makes it clear this is simply about hating things being used in Britain because they associate them more with America.

RawBloomers · 06/01/2025 20:14

UndergroundOvergroundWomblingFreeby · 06/01/2025 18:45

The annoyance is British people picking up and using Americanisms instead of using English words.
The French get annoyed with Franglais so why shouldn't we dislike Ameriglish?
Another cringe is 'myself' replacing me' or 'I'. I don't think that's an Americanism though.

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Why shouldn’t (some) British people be as small minded and racist as (some) French people? What a question.

However, I don’t it’s equivalent to the French rejection of foreign words (though I think that’s small minded too) since as my post that you responded to pointed out many Americanisms that people are complaining about are British. We just haven’t used them for a while.