What new words have you learned recently?

[Peelee]

I've seen what you did do football. I don't think I would enjoy watching it.

Their football? That's quite good.

That's not bad. You should come over and watch some football.

We should do that sometime.

[CheesePirate]

I've seen what you did do football. I don't think I would enjoy watching it.

What have I done to football?

I don't remember inviting you, but you should come over.

[Sermil]

schwa: the "uh" sound that many unstressed vowels make. For example, the i in pencil or the e in taken. Written ə when writing out a word phonetically (\pen-səl\).

[snowblizz]

Okay, you English-speakers have got to be doing this on purpose at this point.

A more worryingly plausible explanation is that they in fact aren't and that's just how muddled they are.


Consider.

Football, a game widely considered in it's modern form to be "invented" by the British

	British	American
	A game using a round spherical object called a ball.	I'm not even sure what that is. A dried and cured dinosaur egg?
	A game using primarily your feet and absolutely not your hands. 1 exception apply.	A game using primarily your hands and absolutely not your feet. 2 exceptions applies.

At this point we should probably be glad icecream doesn't mean a very hot type of chili sause in one of those places.

[Keltest]

I believe theyre both called football because you play with the ball while on foot, ie running. As opposed to, say, Polo.

[Ajustusdaniel]

I believe theyre both called football because you play with the ball while on foot, ie running. As opposed to, say, Polo.

Yes. Also they both evolved from the same group of informalized medieval football games, which then got codified, focusing on different aspects, largely so different schools could play against each other with the same rules. In the British public school system we got Rugby and association football, whereas gridiron football came out of New England colleges.

[Scarlet Knight]

Yes... In the British public school system we got Rugby and association football, whereas gridiron football came out of New England colleges.

I protest, good sir! The first college football game was the Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs the Princeton "If I can't win, I'm going Homes" in 1869...which was also the last time we were national champions.

Not a new word, but a clearing up of some confusion- Moot apparently has two different meaning depending on whether it's being used in British or American English, though in both cases it refers to an unsettled point (initially of law).

In American English, moot point is one that hasn't necessarily been settled, but where the circumstances have changed such that resolving it doesn't meaningfully affect whatever larger issue is under debate, so you might as well move on and stop arguing about it.

In British English, a moot point is one that's still up for debate.

Well, now "Entmoot" makes more sense.

Colophon: a note describing the printing and typography of the book.

"Usually the colophon appears in the endpapers; sometimes you'll find them squeezed into the copyright page at the front. A basic colophon will identify the fonts used."

[Peelee]

Oh, that reminds me, I forgot one.

What the British say.	What the Americans understand.	What the British mean.
A bit of a pickle.	A small to medium problem for which a solution is needed.	Please tell me spouse and child I love them, for I and everyone else in the immediate vicinity are absolutely going to die.

[Ajustusdaniel]

I protest, good sir! The first college football game was the Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs the Princeton "If I can't win, I'm going Homes" in 1869...which was also the last time we were national champions.

Fine. New England and NewChannelIsland.

[Vinyadan]

Yea, but why is polo called polo?

[Peelee]

Yea, but why is polo called polo?

Because of the shirts they wear while playing.

[Ajustusdaniel]

Yea, but why is polo called polo?

I'm told it originated as "Chovgan," in what's now Iran, and was popular enough (folks with the wealth and time to learn how to ride horses love showing off how well they can ride horses) that it spread across Asia. 'Polo," is from the Balti word for 'ball.' Balti is spoken in some parts of India, and it was in India that the British picked up polo.

[SZbNAhL]

Yea, but why is polo called polo?

Because the goal sort of resembles a polo mint.

[Ajustusdaniel]

On a related topic, soccer is apparently soccer from "Association Football," shortened to "Assoc," with the er added and the a dropped because that's just what the British did to words at the time, apparently.

[Xuc Xac]

"Soccer" is obviously a British word. No American would have abbreviated "association" as "socca" and then spelled it with an "-er".

[Rockphed]

"Soccer" is obviously a British word. No American would have abbreviated "association" as "socca" and then spelled it with an "-er".

Almost False: Bostonians would have spelled it "-ar". Then again, going from "association" to "socca" is not an americanism. We would have called it "sosy".

[BisectedBrioche]

"Soccer" is obviously a British word. No American would have abbreviated "association" as "socca" and then spelled it with an "-er".

Technically true, but it's specifically the abbreviation public* schoolboys from wealthy families created (from "Association Football"; they tended to add a double consonant and an -er; e.g. rugger for rugby) to sound a bit posher. Not something your average British football fan would use non-mockingly.

*What a US English speaker would call private, just to confuse things

[Willie the Duck]

A handy guide to the differences between British English and American English:

What the British say	What the Americans understand	What the British mean
Flat.	Apartment.	Apartment.
Lift.	Elevator.	Elevator.
Lorry.	Truck.	Truck.
Rubbish.	Garbage.	Manchester United.

(also 'fanny', which seriously Brits ~90%+ of Americans do not realize that's what you think it means because for some reason this gets left out of the 'watch out for...' lists most of the time)
There are some (like rubbish) where we Americans actually have the word, it is just not the most prevalent. Others (like flat), are a case of 'equally as good' words -- a single unit of multi-unit housing is most likely both single-level and apart from the rest of the building, so either flat or apartment makes sense (another favorite is the boot/trunk of a car -- it's both the thing at the end and a storage compartment). Others where you need specific context, especially if it is place or brand based (mackintoshes, wellies, hoovering). Did the British call rain gear boots galoshes before Arthur Wellesley? Galoshes is such a weird word for Americans to have landed on, that I suspect it's a case of 'we're using the original British term, you just changed how you did things after we splintered away' situation.

[Fyraltari]

[I] Did the British call rain gear boots galoshes before Arthur Wellesley? Galoshes is such a weird word for Americans to have landed on, that I suspect it's a case of 'we're using the original British term, you just changed how you did things after we splintered away' situation.

Since galoche is French for a type of shoe, I suspect you are on to something here.

[SZbNAhL]

Since galoche is French for a type of shoe, I suspect you are on to something here.

That or the word was introduced by French immigrants. Like how Americans have kindergartens instead of nurseries due to German influence.

[Ajustusdaniel]

So long as we're doing it, Rugby is Rugby from Rugby School, which played football by a set of rules that evolved into modern Rugby. The notion that it was called this from it's traditionally being played in the carpeted front halls of wealthy aristocratic madmen is entirely fabulous, and just made up by me right now.

[Vinyadan]

I'm told it originated as "Chovgan," in what's now Iran, and was popular enough (folks with the wealth and time to learn how to ride horses love showing off how well they can ride horses) that it spread across Asia. 'Polo," is from the Balti word for 'ball.' Balti is spoken in some parts of India, and it was in India that the British picked up polo.

Thanks, that's a much more interesting explanation than the one I had made up for myself (from "pole on a horse", like how "golf" was originally the name of the stick).

[Ajustusdaniel]

Thanks, that's a much more interesting explanation than the one I had made up for myself (from "pole on a horse", like how "golf" was originally the name of the stick).

Keep in mind, this is fairly surface level research, Wiktionary and Wikipedia- I wouldn't pin anything important on it being accurate without some further fact-checking.

[Peelee]

That or the word was introduced by French immigrants. Like how Americans have kindergartens instead of nurseries due to German influence.

We have nurseries. It's just that our nurseries are the bedrooms/playroom for babies.

And also buildings for growing saplings or selling plants.

[Vinyadan]

Galoshes is such a weird word for Americans to have landed on, that I suspect it's a case of 'we're using the original British term, you just changed how you did things after we splintered away' situation.

If that's the case, it could be an example of the wave model; fundamentally, the idea is that the place with most influence generates new words, which then expand like circular waves to the more peripheral areas. So the more peripheral areas end up using older words, while the more influential one uses and propagates new ones. The process can break down once the influential area loses its influence, and sometimes you can see the now immobile circular waves around a certain area.

The typical examples are with Latin, with central areas like Italian and French using words derived from more recent inventions in Latin, e.g. derivatives of "plus", which means, well, plus, while Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian say plus using words coming from the older "magis". The switch from magis to plus happened in Rome; Italy and Gaul could be reached by the innovation in Roman speech, but it didn't have time to reach more peripheral areas on both sides of the Latin-speaking empire before Rome lost its influence.

Something similar happened with words meaning "cheese", where both Italian and French use words from the more recent "formaticum" while Spanish and Portuguese (and also English and German, although I'm not sure why) use words derived from the older word "caseus" (also meaning cheese).

I don't really know when UK English lost its charm over America, but Lovecraft wrote with a British spelling because it was still considered more prestigious (The Colour Out of Space). Maybe the British switched to the new word too late for the Americans to acquire it.

We have nurseries. It's just that our nurseries are the bedrooms/playroom for babies.

I think there's a Tolkien letter in which he says "we have no nursery" with this meaning. (letter 15).

[Willie the Duck]

If that's the case, it could be an example of the wave model; fundamentally, the idea is that the place with most influence generates new words, which then expand like circular waves to the more peripheral areas. So the more peripheral areas end up using older words, while the more influential one uses and propagates new ones. The process can break down once the influential area loses its influence, and sometimes you can see the now immobile circular waves around a certain area.

The typical examples are with Latin, with central areas like Italian and French using words derived from more recent inventions in Latin, e.g. derivatives of "plus", which means, well, plus, while Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian say plus using words coming from the older "magis". The switch from magis to plus happened in Rome; Italy and Gaul could be reached by the innovation in Roman speech, but it didn't have time to reach more peripheral areas on both sides of the Latin-speaking empire before Rome lost its influence.

Something similar happened with words meaning "cheese", where both Italian and French use words from the more recent "formaticum" while Spanish and Portuguese (and also English and German, although I'm not sure why) use words derived from the older word "caseus" (also meaning cheese).

I don't really know when UK English lost its charm over America, but Lovecraft wrote with a British spelling because it was still considered more prestigious (The Colour Out of Space). Maybe the British switched to the new word too late for the Americans to acquire it.

The Revolution seems like a good time (with some exceptions for Anglophiles, which is how I would explain Lovecraft). This would make sense if Wellington Boots became a culturally distinct thing after Wellesley's Napoleonic War service. We have other examples (not limiting myself to words) -- Brits used to use a knife and fork in the manner than Americans do, and then changed habits after we had already left their sphere of influence (leading to almost as many pointless internet arguments as whether Association or Gridiron have a better claim to the name 'football' ).

We have nurseries. It's just that our nurseries are the bedrooms/playroom for babies.
And also buildings for growing saplings or selling plants.

We also have 'nursery school's -- they are where you go when you are too young for kindergartens.

[Rogar Demonblud]

If I had to guess, galoshes is artificial rather than natural adaptation. Someone decided to use the French word in advertising them because of the mental connection between France and fashion.

[Xuc Xac]

... I suspect it's a case of 'we're using the original British term, you just changed how you did things after we splintered away' situation.

When you compare words that differ between American and British English, the American word is almost always the original term and the British word is a newer slang term with fewer syllables.

[Willie the Duck]

When you compare words that differ between American and British English, the American word is almost always the original term and the British word is a newer slang term with fewer syllables.

I would say often more than almost always, especially with things that mostly 'became a thing' after the split (see: trunk vs. boot of a car). With something like fashion, Rogar Demonblud's idea of galoshes being an advertising gimmick makes sense (I don't know it to be the case, but it is a plausible explanation). My gut still is that the Brits called... rain-shoes/boots (I can see why we came up with specific shorthand terms) galoshes until a specific famous person made a version of it famous and they became synonymous.

[Vinyadan]

Stour : dust
Weans : children (I think)