Irritating American names for things

ohnonotgmail · 12-12-2020 02:01PM

The Continental Op wrote: »

I've always associated the word Store with the big old Department Stores but then as you can see I've fallen into the trap of using another American name for things.

Department Store? is that an americanism? that is what the likes of Clerys, Roches and Arnotts were always called here.

The Continental Op · 12-12-2020 02:22PM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Department Store? is that an americanism? that is what the likes of Clerys, Roches and Arnotts were always called here.

The Department Store seems to be a French invention :eek: But seems far less of an American term than I at first thought

Gaoth Laidir · 12-12-2020 06:53PM

Stateofyou wrote: »

Fedder (feather), beef sah-ayy (beef satay), tree (3), stah (star), wedder (weather) and the widespread misuse of the word "been" for being. And if you're from Monaghan, saying hi or hey after greeting someone- "well what's the craic hi." Or the heavy use of the word "like" in some parts. And the gasp or taking in of air to convey that you agree. Wtf. :pac:

New Home wrote: »

^^^
American?

Stateofyou wrote: »

To illustrate the point, we pronounce or say things in an irritating or ridiculous manner as well....

I agree. This thread is redundant insofar as it's a criticism of American terms when we ourselves have just as many, which in some cases are more confusing.

There's nothing wrong with different dialects. That's a feature of any language. Yes, some dialects may have peculiarities that don't make sense to others (e.g. their use of the pound sign, in my case), and some may be "less correct" than others (e.g. Brazilian Portuguese), but the real problem is the growing reduction in general literacy among all dialects over recent times, clear to see in social media and of course on Boards.

Whether it's this side of "the pond" or the other, incorrect usage of the most basic of grammar and spelling is glaringly obvious. No punctuation, misuse of the apostrophe, confusion of homophones (there v their), "should of" instead of "should have" and "there is" instead of "there are". New ones I see are "alot" and "awhile" instead of "a lot" and "a while". I've been seeing alot of that for awhile now.

I notice this with my own kids also, but they're not being corrected. In fact, several teachers make the same mistakes themselves! It's a sad indictment of the state of our literacy, but if you point this out you're a grammar nazi.

dxhound2005 · 12-12-2020 07:37PM

Growing reduction. That's a great phrase.

764dak · 12-12-2020 07:41PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

It's a sad indictment of the state of our literacy, but if you point this out you're a grammar nazi.

Or someone comes and talks about descriptivism and say "as long as you can understand what they mean", "language is evolving" or " prescriptivism is bad."

Mad_maxx · 12-12-2020 08:20PM

autumn - The Fall

Gaoth Laidir · 12-12-2020 08:45PM

764dak wrote: »

Or someone comes and talks about descriptivism and say "as long as you can understand what they mean", "language is evolving" or " prescriptivism is bad."

Because it's ok to present your business like this.

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ohnonotgmail · 12-12-2020 08:47PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Because it's ok to present your business like this.

the greengrocers apostrophe is a longstanding tradition in signwriting.

blackbox · 12-12-2020 08:48PM

Yard for garden.

They use garden as well, but I don't know what they mean by it.

dxhound2005 · 12-12-2020 09:08PM

Gaoth Laidir · 12-12-2020 09:10PM

blackbox wrote: »

Yard for garden.

They use garden as well, but I don't know what they mean by it.

Plenty of "back yorrrds" are popping up in Ireland now too.

ohnonotgmail · 12-12-2020 09:12PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Plenty of "back yorrrds" are popping up in Ireland now too.

we always had a back yard growing up.

Wibbs · 12-12-2020 09:23PM

blackbox wrote: »

Yard for garden.

They use garden as well, but I don't know what they mean by it.

From what I've gathered is that "yard" refers to a basic plot of land out the back of your house. Basic patch of grass, that sorta thing, but "garden" is something ornamental that's deliberately cultivated by someone who is into gardening with flowerbeds and the like.

Gaoth Laidir · 12-12-2020 09:24PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

The great irony of that piece is that he uses excellent English in it. Nowhere does he make the same mistakes that he claims should be let go and never challenged. In any case, his examples are not what I'm talking about in general everyday usage. I reckon he can't help biting his lip when he reads someone writing 9 lines of text in lower case and not a single comma or full-stop.

Anyway, sure it is what it is, sure.

Gaoth Laidir · 12-12-2020 09:28PM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

we always had a back yard growing up.

There are back yards and then there are back "yorrds", with the American twang. When i was growing up, the idea of a yard was more of an ungrassed storage area than a garden.

wonski · 12-12-2020 09:29PM

Soccer.

Zaph · 12-12-2020 09:33PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Because it's ok to present your business like this.

That sign made me twitch involuntarily. I'm just glad I don't have OCD or I probably would have exploded.

The Continental Op · 12-12-2020 09:35PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

There are back yards and then there are back "yorrds", with the American twang. When i was growing up, the idea of a yard was more of an ungrassed storage area than a garden.

Always a pain when looking a US lawn mower stuff. They always talk about a yard mower.

764dak · 12-12-2020 09:42PM

wonski wrote: »

Soccer.

That came from England.

wonski · 12-12-2020 09:52PM

764dak wrote: »

That came from England.

They call it football in England generally, no?

dxhound2005 · 12-12-2020 09:57PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

The great irony of that piece is that he uses excellent English in it. Nowhere does he make the same mistakes that he claims should be let go and never challenged. In any case, his examples are not what I'm talking about in general everyday usage. I reckon he can't help biting his lip when he reads someone writing 9 lines of text in lower case and not a single comma or full-stop.

Anyway, sure it is what it is, sure.

You reckon?

Feisar · 12-12-2020 10:08PM

The property.

No it's a few fields. The first time I noticed it was on American Chopper, the lads headed up to the property to get back to nature. Spent their time tearing about in quads. Yea a real shining example of "leave no trace".

ohnonotgmail · 12-12-2020 10:40PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

There are back yards and then there are back "yorrds", with the American twang. When i was growing up, the idea of a yard was more of an ungrassed storage area than a garden.

the stupid accent is separate to the use of word yard. I'm well aware of what a yard is, thanks.

764dak · 13-12-2020 12:06AM

wonski wrote: »

They call it football in England generally, no?

Soccer means association football.

https://www.lexico.com/definition/soccer

Origin
Late 19th century shortening of Assoc+ -er.

https://www.lexico.com/explore/whats-the-origin-of-the-word-soccer

The word soccer comes from an abbreviation for Association (from Association Football, the ‘official’ name for the game) plus the addition of the suffix –er. This suffix (originally Rugby School slang, and then adopted by Oxford University), was appended to ‘shortened’ nouns, in order to form jocular words. Rugger is probably the most common example, but other examples included in the Oxford English Dictionary are brekker (for breakfast), bonner (for bonfire), and cupper (a series of intercollegiate matches played in competition for a cup).

https://www.etymonline.com/word/soccer

1889, socca, later socker (1891), soccer (1895), originally university slang (with jocular formation -er (3)), from a shortened form of Assoc., abbreviation of association in Football Association (as opposed to Rugby football); compare rugger. An unusual method of formation, but those who did it perhaps shied away from making a name out of the first three letters of Assoc. Compare 1890s English schoolboy slang leccer, from lecture (n.).

Gaoth Laidir · 13-12-2020 01:46AM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

the stupid accent is separate to the use of word yard. I'm well aware of what a yard is, thanks.

My point was on the increased Americanizsation of Irish speech in both the vocabulary (yard instead of garden) and the accent.

Stateofyou · 13-12-2020 10:35AM

Wibbs wrote: »

From what I've gathered is that "yard" refers to a basic plot of land out the back of your house. Basic patch of grass, that sorta thing, but "garden" is something ornamental that's deliberately cultivated by someone who is into gardening with flowerbeds and the like.

Yes, and/or a garden would be a part of the yard that you grow vegetables in. They also distinguish the front yard from the back yard.

Stateofyou · 13-12-2020 10:39AM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

the stupid accent is separate to the use of word yard. I'm well aware of what a yard is, thanks.

"Stupid accent?" That's a ridiculous thing to say, and rude.

Wibbs · 13-12-2020 11:06AM

Stateofyou wrote: »

"Stupid accent?" That's a ridiculous thing to say, and rude.

An American accent on an American most certainly isn't stupid, or an American accent on someone who learned English as a second language from an American source, but the same accent mangled by an Irish person who's never set foot in the place is... well it shows they're pretty easily influenced and likely pretty thick too. Like when that trump muppet was originally hitting the news and Irish people were putting "MAGA" in their posts on social media. *Cringe*

Wibbs · 13-12-2020 11:09AM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Department Store? is that an americanism? that is what the likes of Clerys, Roches and Arnotts were always called here.

You forgot Dunnes Stores.

But yeah very much so, I mean more the smaller average shop is getting the "store" treatment of late. Only the other day a woman I know was hoping to get some stuff for her kids for Christmas from the toy store. That most certainly would have been the toy shop 20 years ago. I suppose online shopping has really made this change more than anything. Most are US based and are naturally called "stores".

Wibbs · 13-12-2020 11:13AM

Feisar wrote: »

The property.

No it's a few fields.

Just the American word for land really. Though it has more of the vibe of "mine" than land does. I suppose that's a historical cultural artefact too maybe? Americas was based on colonisation of existing lands and pioneers and settlers staking claims to that land, so property became more accurate?

Irritating American names for things

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