To have misunderstood the meaning of this word my whole life?

[Lemonsaretheonlyfruit]

Salubrious.

I always thought it meant luxurious. Turns out it means healthy or health giving. (My 10 year old DS asked me this morning so I looked it up just to double check I was giving him the correct definition!)

Who knew? (Probably everyone apart from me). Any more of these to share?

[quote lemonsaretheonlyfruit]@Mamanyt there is a difference? [/quote]
Apparently they're diverging - this is from a US dictionary. I'm not sure if the same applies in the U.K., I only use 'further' for distance as well as the 'to a greater extent' meaning.

Farther and further have been used more or less interchangeably throughout most of their history, but currently they are showing signs of diverging. As adverbs they continue to be used interchangeably whenever spatial, temporal, or metaphorical distance is involved. But where there is no notion of distance, further is used. our techniques can be further refined Further is also used as a sentence modifier further, the workshop participants were scarcely optimistic — L. B. Mayhew , but farther is not. A polarizing process appears to be taking place in their adjective use. Farther is taking over the meaning of distance the farther shore and further the meaning of addition. needed no further invitation

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farther

(The chunk of text in that is a quote from the dictionary, I forgot to mark it up)

Wrt to quite, I was extremely disappointed when I prepared a special meal for someone who had learnt their English in the USA and they declared the main dish 'quite nice'. They nearly didn't get dessert.

It happened to me in a comment on some work from my US manager - I thought she was damning me with faint praise, but she meant it as a compliment.

@Anoisagusaris

A lot of people on here don’t know the meaning of mortified.

This irritates me too..

Wrt to quite, I was extremely disappointed when I prepared a special meal for someone who had learnt their English in the USA and they declared the main dish 'quite nice'.

Ah this is me! I’m not American by the way, I’m British. I said to a waitress once when she asked how the food was that it was ‘quite nice’ and I was confused and when she said (and quite stroppily) “what’s wrong with it?” Nothing was wrong, quite nice to me simply means nice.

I worked with a non-native speaker who once said “Thanks a bunch” to me, meaning it as extra-sincere thanks. I thought I’d better warn her for future reference that it was only ever used sarcastically. It’s certainly the only way I’ve ever heard it used. Am I right?

This did the rounds a few years ago- it is designed to help non-British people understand what the British actually mean when they give feedback at work. It’s brilliant.

My favourite is:
What British person says: “I was a bit disappointed that...”
What they mean: “I am annoyed that”
What non-British person hears: “It doesn’t really matter”

Or
Says: “I would suggest that..”
Means: “Do it or be prepared to justify yourself”
Hears: “Think about the idea, but do what you like”

You're right, but it's understandable someone would interpret it as and dictionary definitions seem not to always mention irony. Like 'thanks a lot', the spoken tone conveys sincerity or irony.

@ErrolTheDragon

You're right, but it's understandable someone would interpret it as and dictionary definitions seem not to always mention irony. Like 'thanks a lot', the spoken tone conveys sincerity or irony.

Oh I didn’t think any less of her for misunderstanding @ErrolTheDragon. That one, I think, is always sarcastic so in a way quite useful if you are communicating in writing and want to be sarcastic, because no tone needed to get your message across. (Provided the person reading it knows that!)

"Quite nice" to me is a description that is followed by "but + criticism" so I can see where the waitress was coming from.

"Or
Says: “I would suggest that..”
Means: “Do it or be prepared to justify yourself”
Hears: “Think about the idea, but do what you like”"

I had a boss who used to say 'would it be a good idea to..?.' If you want to give an order that must be obeyed, you should be clear about it!

@Gwenhwyfar

"Or Says: “I would suggest that..” Means: “Do it or be prepared to justify yourself” Hears: “Think about the idea, but do what you like”"

I had a boss who used to say 'would it be a good idea to..?.' If you want to give an order that must be obeyed, you should be clear about it!

Whereas if we say to our boss, "would it be a good idea to...." we mean "this is what we need to do, but you need to think it's your idea".

I was a teenage before I realised that ‘several’ didn’t mean seven of something 😳

As a child I knew that several didn’t mean seven of something. But I used to be bloody annoyed with the inaccuracy of it!

Like a pp, I used to think that twat was just like twit.....until, as a teen, I used it in front of my parents and my dad asked me if I knew what it meant. I was mortified when he explained.

I hadn't realised the original meaning of pratt before reading this thread and then googling it. The word prattfall makes a lot more sense now.

This thread has also made me realise that I've always misunderstood livid when referring to the colour (assumed it was bright red because a very angry, livid person would be red faced) and didn't have a clue what colour puce was.

Re 'twat', I just found this

www.etymonline.com/word/twat

@Doggybiccys

Same as you!

For most of my life I thought the Hoi Polloi were the posh/upper class people - not the common folk. It was only a couple of years ago I discovered I was wrong.

@CounsellorTroi

Thank you! I now see that "the" needs to be dropped from Hoi Polloi.

Not pronunciation but meaning. DS went out briefly and left a note to say he'd be back momentarily. I had to complain he'd been watching too much Netflix, and that momentarily in English English means for a moment not in a moment. Mind, I learnt the American meaning when I got confused watching Ally McBeal.

I have to say, one of my "pettest peeves" is people who do not know the difference between "idea" and "ideal." I can't tell you how often some clueless person has said, "I have a really good ideal!" and I think, "only one?"

@Mamanyt, with ‘ideal’ were they Bristolian? The accent adds an I to words ending in a vowel. Bristol itself means ‘place of the bridge’ originally ‘Bridge Stowe.’

Monical, Amandal, ideal, Asdal etc.

[quote MillicentMartha]@Mamanyt, with ‘ideal’ were they Bristolian? The accent adds an I to words ending in a vowel. Bristol itself means ‘place of the bridge’ originally ‘Bridge Stowe.’

Monical, Amandal, ideal, Asdal etc.[/quote]
Nope. I'm in the USA. They were Tennessee mountain rednecks.

But that's a fun fact to tuck away in my mind! LOVE learning new things about places I've never been!

Is it possible the "L" ending is still Bristolian, and preserved? Usages such as "fall" for autumn and "gotten", "trash" and "I guess" were current in Shakespeare's time and are common US usage, while they fell out of use in the UK.

It's quite surpising to see the use of 'quite' as American. I always thought it was a British usage and Americans would regard it as either (banally) polite or sarcastic as when used after a factual satement or opinion - 'oh, quite'. In my teens I read way outside my cultural context so knew a lot of words I would never use (or only use to annoy in arguments, eg. I told my brother his bullying was debilitating - drove him mad). I also read a lot of American novels and would come across people eating eggplant and zucchini which I never heard of in real life. It wasn't until well into my twenties I realised they were aubergines and courgettes and started eating them along with garlic. And cooked with olive oil so I guess that was quite unctuous of me.

CheetasOnFajitas

So true. :o