To hate Americanisms...?

[Groof]

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?

God, yes. It seems so standard in American speech too, not informal or regional.
I also find the preferred American collective noun 'bunch' used for just about everything somewhat irksome.

Instinctual instead of instinctive.

Not to me. Juice doesn't cover squash or cordial.

I welcome ass replacing arse. What a disgusting word 😭

Fair enough, I do understand your point. I think it is also great that we celebrate what we have in common with each other rather than what divides us.

She was from Minnesota and said “soda”? Nah, she was lying to you. All true Minnesotans say “pop.” 😜

But ass is another word for a donkey. Why would you want to make the word so confusing?

I don’t dislike Americanisms and I find it linguistically interesting to see them being widely adopted in the UK. What I find particularly fascinating is that British people have been watching American TV and films (movies!) for almost 100 years yet some Americanisms only seem to have fully caught on since the advent of You Tube and Tik Tok. It’s not as if we hadn’t heard Americans say “birth control” and “meds” a zillion times in the 70s and 80s, but the terms really weren’t widely used here until the last 10 years or so. I think that it has something to do with more exposure to normal Americans as opposed to actors reading a script.

A few I have noticed are:

Regular to mean “standard size” or normal eg I’ll have a regular coffee

Fine print instead of small print

Bake sale

Season for series when talking about TV

Math (more in the phrase “You do the math! than talking generally about the school subject)

”The Feds”- street slang for the police

Retainer rather than braces (teeth)

My son is eight and lives a bit of “divided by a common language” chat though- he was questioning me the other day about why Americans say things like “Five hundred twenty” instead of “Five hundred AND twenty”. I couldn’t explain it but like that he noticed.

Not for me. When Americans say "in the hospital" it sounds like there's only one hospital to my sensitive English ear.

*

My friend is always "fixing" dinner when it's not broken.

Homonyms are common so it shouldn’t be a problem

I think it’s more so I’ve noticed friends over the years who’ve always said prescription or medicine etc suddenly change it to ‘meds’ so I think that’s why it irritates me because they never used to say it so it’s probably not the term itself but the way I’ve noticed people I know start suddenly saying it which made it feel weird and contrived. ❤️ hope your daughter is doing ok.

It's not even "Americanisms", as this thread shows. I imagine (or maybe I guess) it's West Coast American which is now over here, as it were.

And it's simplistic, hasty, inaccurate and jarring.

I add "bro" and "dude" to the list. Along with making out, homie, roomie, "get fresh", "the match" which should be "game", and rest room

Noo is a perfectly appropriate pronunciation. You understand the word, right?

I just saw another one on another thread-consult for consultation.

Surely that's Stoicism (Ancient Greek/Roman philosophy) not nihilism...

nihilism is believing life is meaningless, stoicism is quite the reverse.

The coffee and beverage sizes are probably in American English terms because it's generally American chains where three or four standard sizes are offered. "Normal" size isn't really a thing though - you don't find clothing in "normal" because if you did, what would you call the other sizes?
(Having said that, there used to be a designation "husky" to indicate clothes for chubbier children).

Fine print is nice because it has an implication of "finer points" or "the catch" to it. Small print seems to me to be merely descriptive, whereas fine print is both descriptive and suggestive.

"Do the math" is a perfectly good American phrase that has nothing to do with mathematical operations, and shouldn't be altered.

If "the Feds" is British street slang for "the police" it shouldn't be. It's a reference to the FBI, not a reference to "the police" in the US.

A retainer is a removable dental device for straightening teeth in the US. Braces are the train tracks sported by millions of middle schoolers across America. People don't usually mix them up.

Britons and everyone else I can think of say "one thousand five hundred", not "one thousand and five hundred", so the American version of 520 is a kind of continuation of that pattern.

Doesn't really bother me much, given how much language has changed over time. It's always reflected dominant influences. We don't object to the fact that nobody says, 'prithee, Sirrah' any more.

Television had a homogenising effect even before the advent of a large volume of American imports. Standardised education did a lot to eradicate local dialects, along with increased movement around the country.

Our language is fluid, it always has been. Much of it owes a lot to other nations. It's also worth noting that words such as 'gotten' were actually once prevalent in this country (let's not forget why Americans speak English in the first place). We also used to use the term 'fall' more commonly than 'autumn' at, funnily enough, the same sort of time the Mayflower first landed in America. At least some 'Americanisms' are more traditionally 'English' than our own modern tongue, because they have retained some vestiges of the language as it once was when the first settlers left the home nation, which we have lost.

Perhaps somebody historically objected to the 'Frenchisms' and all the young people suddenly wearing lingerie bought at the boutique run by a local entrepreneur...

Aren't you all lovely!

I believe it was Warren G. Harding who brought the word "normalcy" to prominence in 1920(ish), and he was laughed at for it. However, it caught on.

Wrt "momentarily" - it's a little worrying when the pilot announces the plane will take off momentarily.

A cooler is called a cool box in the UK.
Cooler is the better of the two imo, but the NZ term "chilly bin" is the best.

The misuse of American terms is indeed funny.

If "the Feds" is British street slang for "the police" it shouldn't be. It's a reference to the FBI, not a reference to "the police" in the US.

There is no “if” about it @mathanxiety I am absolutely certain that it is British street slang for the police. And yes, I know what the FBI is, thanks, and that the phrase has not only been imported but incorrectly applied.

I also never suggested that “do the math” should be altered. Why are you being so defensive?

And the British equivalent of “regular” is “standard” in most of the sizing examples you gave. Regular to mean normal is used as inI’m just a regular guy”.

You don’t think that’s a bit ironic coming from a British person? Considering what the British empire did to other languages and cultures I mean.

Wagon instead of lorry
Movie instead of film
Pissed instead of pissed OFF
People saying 'not that big OF a deal' when it used to be 'not that big a deal'.

All really annoying.

Considering that the word is a direct transliteration of a Hindi, Urdu, and Persian term that made its way into English, I don't think either Anglo culture can claim authenticity or superior lineage.

Gotten was good enough for Shakespeare and so I don’t understand the hate of it. It’s also been normal to use it in some parts of the UK like Scotland. The same people who are snobbish about it and have to correct it on MN threads are often the people who use structures such as “I was stood” or “I was sat”.