Hello, SErs! Harmony here 🙂
While working with an American editor the self-same week that my last post on Wicked Words went live, an amusing situation (word-wise) arose. It had to do with our uncommon common language between UK and US English. We think we’re saying the same thing, when in fact …
Oh dear!
The first word that got lost in translation was HOMELY. Here’s what Google has to say:
Apparently, my American readers would have taken that descriptive to mean ugly and plain while my English Readers would have understood it as cosy, comfortable, and something nice, lols!
A common word with the same meaning on both sides of ‘the pond’ is HOMEY … it gets across the meaning I wanted and seems a far safer one to use. So, now I need to get out of the homely habit and into the homey one!
While HOMELY took me by surprise, the next one, I knew about but had a brain block initially, and it gave us both a chuckle …
RUBBER.
A plain, simple word, right?
Nope.
In the UK …
And … in the US …
So, when editing my short story for an American anthology, I had to swap out RUBBER for ERASER to avoid any misunderstandings!
Some American words are creeping into the UK such as ELEVATOR and TRASH and even FLASHLIGHT, and RUBBER does sometimes get used interchangeably; however, I’m not sure the reverse is true, as a TORCH still means something completely different between continents, as does BOOT (versus TRUNK). And FANNY in American means the opposite of its UK counterpart. It’s the difference between front and back!
I would love to see what words you’ve come across that read the same, are spelled the same, but mean something completely different 🙂
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Great post, Harmony! I’m a fan of the Great British Baking Show (watch it here on PBS) and I always have to stop and think when they talk about biscuits and crisps. We call them cookies, for the most part. So interesting!
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Glad you like the post, Julie. Yep, gotta love language! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Here is a great post from the Story Empire blog on the differences that can arise between UK and US English.
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Thanks for the reblog, Don 🙂
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My pleasure.
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Hello Harmony! That’s hilarious, but you know it’s the same with Spanish speaking countries too. The same Spanish word could have several different meanings depending on whether you’re in Spain, Central or South America or the Caribbean.🙄
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Hi Vashti! I’m sure we’d find similar all over the world, lols. I started Spanish lessons last year and first up was the course warning us of those very differences 🙂
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Ha, ha! It’s a miracle we humans can communicate at all! 😉
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Isn’t it weird how we all speak English yet words translate differently? To put it in perspective, we have the same issue within the U.S. where certain words have different meanings depending on where you’re at in the country.
I’ve read my share of British authors and have enjoyed learning the differences in our dialects. Words are such strange creatures 🙂
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Words sure are strange creatures! 🙂 We have the same between counties in the UK where we argue over whether it’s a bap or a bun or a bread cake … it’s a circle of bread that mostly gets used with burgers! 🙂
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Amazing how both countries speak English, but so many differences. I knew about some of these, but I didn’t know fanny meant front in British English. You mentioned the boot of a car if I’m not wrong we use hood for the front, and you use bonnet. A bonnet here is something a baby wears.
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Isn’t a bonnet also the hat that has the material to tie underneath the chin? lol!
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Ha ha ha. Yep, we use bonnet. I’ve only ever seen it used for a hat in historical novels, lols! Or, decades ago, a baby bonnet, but it isn’t in common usage over here anymore. I love how language morphs and changes. Apparently, back along, ‘Nice’ used to mean unpleasant, then it got used in sarcasm so much that its meaning switched to pleasant! 🙂
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There are a few words that have different meanings between The UK and Australia, we mainly use UK-speak here but one example is ‘Fourex’ which used to be a term for a condom in The UK whereas it’s a brand of beer in Australia…
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Ah now that has me laughing, as I never knew that brand of condoms in the UK but from the power of advertising did know about the beer!!! 🙂
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Too funny, Harmony. Thank you.
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So glad you found it amusing, John! 🙂
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🙂
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Reblogged this on Archer's Aim and commented:
Here’s some humorous word confusion shared by Harmony Kent today on Story Empire!
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Thanks for the reblog, PH 🙂
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My pleasure, Harmony!
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Yes, a great post, showing that language is a live thing.
I always had to make corrections, at first, in my manuscripts as I used British English and had to change to American English as the editor asked, being an American publisher. Sometimes it confused me. Thank God for all ki9nd of dictionaries!
So in the end, the English I use is a kind of Romlish, Romanian and English!
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Romlish! I love it 🙂 Great to see you, Carmen 🙂
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The first time I read a book from across the pond, I thought it was full of typos. 🙂 Favor is Favour and Booger You is the same as F*** You over here. Interesting language differences. Great post, Harmony.
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Oh, Jan, that is too funny! 🙂
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I’ve read enough works by authors from across the pond to recognize many of our language differences, yet I still laugh at some of them. Here “bum” is a hobo or a person without any means of support, rather than a body part, and depending on how it’s used in a sentence, the difference can be pretty amusing. It can also be a verb, to bum, which means to beg or borrow. “The man bummed a cigarette from his new acquaintance.” I guess that would sound either pretty strange or downright awful to our friends across the pond. Ah, words! How I love ’em! 😀
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I’d forgotten about that use of Bum until now, lols. Oh, I adore words! As an aside, did you know that ‘Dammit I’m mad’ reads the same backwards?!? 😉
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Oooh, I love palindromes! That’s a new one for me, thanks! 😀
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Too funny. I think you should share the unedited story with us some day.
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Lmao! 😃
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I’m aware of many of the language differences, but “fanny” is a new one to me. I don’t think I’ve ever used that particular word to describe (in the US) someone’s bottom, but I’m certain if I did it would have raised quite a few eyebrows across the pond!
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Lols. I chuckle every time I come across the term ‘fanny pack’ … over here, we would call it a bum bag! 🙂
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That was one that came immediately to my mind, we have a bit of a giggle over that…
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Reblogged this on Nesie's Place and commented:
Fun and helpful post by Harmony Kent on how every day words translate from country to country. 😉
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Thanks for the reblog, Felicia! 🙂
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You’re welcome, Harmony! 😉
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What would be a lovely story in the UK could end up being a hilarious comedy in the US! 😄 I knew about homely, but had no clue about rubber – too funny!
Though not an American creation, Mexican tacos are a big deal here. Yankee-assumption is all people of Latin descent share the same heritage, blah, blah, blah. I couldn’t stop laughing when a former co-worker of Brazilian descent said in her country ‘taco’ was the outer shoe sole! Gives ordering a plate of tacos a whole new meaning! 😄😄😄
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Oh, Felicia, that is too funny! he he he 🙂
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Hahahahaha! I have to laugh at fanny and rubber. Fanny over here in Aus is, er, lady bits, just like in the U.K., but rubber here is definitely a condom! Seems we draw from both sides.
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Ah, yes, I only mentioned the US in this post, but of course, you Aussies also share this common uncommon language!!! lols 🙂 Canada is another one that draws from both sides 🙂
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And we March to the best of our own drum with things like; don’t be a drongo!
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