Interesting article on the BBC website about "Britishisms" invading American English.
Over this side of the pond we often get annoyed about Americanisms invading the English Language but it seems that this is happening the other way.
One of the reasons might be because of TV programmes but perhaps a reason might be the popularity of British news sources (like the BBC) on the web.
The article goes on to show how terms like sell-by date (expiration) Go Missing (disappeared) and Chat Up (Hit on) are increasing.
To me equally interesting that it took time for American and British English to deviate and that this was given a jolt by Noah Webster's dictionary of 1806. Webster wanted the fledgling nation to have its own language. Webster is the chap who liked dropping U's apparently.
Oh and words like Candy, Diaper and the Fall were originally British English but dropped out of use between 1850 and 1900. Whereas Trousers, amongst and fortnight were once common both sides of the Atlantic but dropped out of use in America.
1 comment:
Often wondered about the dropped 'U' and put it down to laziness.. and never realised we started the words Candy et al... one lives and learns!
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