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Irritating American names for things

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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Gaoth Laidir


    Sure that expression "Only an hour from Dublin" has been around forever...


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,810 ✭✭✭Hangdogroad


    A weird one is "cissy" or sissy. It used to be used as an insult in primary school, dont think any of us ever knew the real meaning behind it except that it was implying a fellow who liked "girlish" stuff. However youd never hear it into secondary school or adulthood. Which is why I always find it funny when you hear it in American films, tv etc by adult men to insult each other.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,918 ✭✭✭Conall Cernach


    "Bangs" for "fringe" is my pet hate. It took me ages to work out what is was when I was reading an American edition of a book. "She had long blonde bangs" or something like that. I thought it was pigtails or something. Why is it a plural?


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 76,207 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    "Bangs" for "fringe" is my pet hate. It took me ages to work out what is was when I was reading an American edition of a book. "She had long blonde bangs" or something like that. I thought it was pigtails or something. Why is it a plural?
    Straight from the horse's mouth: https://www.etymonline.com/word/bangs#etymonline_v_26891
    (see what I did, there?)


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,381 ✭✭✭Yurt2


    JupiterKid wrote: »
    Mom - seems to be the standard term for mother amongst anyone here born after 1996 or so

    It’s “mam” or “mum” - no ifs or buts...


    Or if you're from Kerry. Lots of people from Kerry (most?) say Mom for some indiscernible reason.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 161 ✭✭honeyjo


    Trolley Car instead of Tram


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,907 ✭✭✭✭Ash.J.Williams


    Process-aze - processes


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Gaoth Laidir


    In rowt (en route).


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,133 ✭✭✭Hamsterchops


    Moss Cow (Moscow).

    Moo ......


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,327 ✭✭✭FishOnABike


    Yurt! wrote: »
    Or if you're from Kerry. Lots of people from Kerry (most?) say Mom for some indiscernible reason.

    Shortened version of mamaí.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    Working class dubs say ma not mom
    Americans who come here probably find it odd if someone says have you got a fag
    meaning cigarette


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,812 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    If theres anything worse than bro its brah/bruh. Seriously, who suddenly decides this is a thing?

    "Since when is this a thing?"


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,630 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Moss Cow (Moscow).

    Moo ......

    Moo Sulini (Mussolini)


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,907 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Moo Sulini (Mussolini)
    Ironically, while Americans do tend to anglicize foreign names (AY-dolf Hitler, "Katelynn" for Caitlín, etc) on this one the common US pronunciation is closer to the Italian original than is the pronunciation used on this side of the Great Puddle.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Gaoth Laidir


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    Ironically, while Americans do tend to anglicize foreign names (AY-dolf Hitler, "Katelynn" for Caitlín, etc) on this one the common US pronunciation is closer to the Italian original than is the pronunciation used on this side of the Great Puddle.

    Correct. The correct pronunciation is "Moose-Soleenee"


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,788 ✭✭✭Sebastian Dangerfield


    Two that don't so much annoy me when Americans use them, more so the increasing use here:
    Burger joint
    Sneakers


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,907 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Two that don't so much annoy me when Americans use them, more so the increasing use here:
    Burger joint
    Fascinating (or perhaps not) fact of the day: "joint" in this sense is not a US creation at all. A "joint" was London underworld slang for a group of people that got together for some illicit or disreputable purpose, or for the place where they got together, or for the kind of place where you might go to meet such people. So you have gin-joints, bookies' joints, opium joints and so forth, but you don't have clothes joints or book joints or grocery joints.

    Even more fascinating fact; the first recorded use of the term in print is by the Irish sports journalist Pierce Egan in the early 19th century. He mostly wrote about horse-racing and prize-fighting, but he did publish an (almost entirely fictional) account of his own life in which he refers to the boarding-school that he attended - which he didn't think very highly of - as a "joint".

    He also published a monthly magazine called "Life in London" which contained stories - sometimes fictional, somethings gossip about thinly-disguised well-known people - about, well, events in London, involving lots of fashionable slang and set in real-life sporting and entertainment locations. The stories were all framed as involving a man-about-town named Jerry Hawthorn and his "elegant friend", Tom, or has having been told by one of them to the other. The stories were hugely successful and eventually gave rise to a series of equally successful stage plays, which in due course were performed in New York and triggered a huge, and enduring, Tom-and-Jerry craze in the US. This is thought to be how this sense of "joint" became current in US English. "Tom" and "Jerry" became stock names for stories and jokes about young men engaged in high-spirited but stupid, thoughtless and possibly dangerous actions, and that is why MGM's cartoon cat and mouse are so named.


  • Registered Users Posts: 127 ✭✭redoctober


    Haven't read everything on this thread but did anyone mention: "The point is is this"? I've heard some Americans use this. Don't know if it's restricted to USA or used anywhere else.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,792 ✭✭✭✭Igotadose


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    Ironically, while Americans do tend to anglicize foreign names (AY-dolf Hitler, "Katelynn" for Caitlín, etc) on this one the common US pronunciation is closer to the Italian original than is the pronunciation used on this side of the Great Puddle.

    At least we pronounce the letter H!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,638 ✭✭✭SHOVELLER


    Or when they say Question?

    And "Can I ask you a question?"

    Flummoxed when I told them they just did.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 20,907 ✭✭✭✭Ash.J.Williams


    riclad wrote: »
    Working class dubs say ma not mom
    Americans who come here probably find it odd if someone says have you got a fag
    meaning cigarette

    Or “can I bum a fag?”


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,907 ✭✭✭✭Ash.J.Williams


    A weird one is "cissy" or sissy. It used to be used as an insult in primary school, dont think any of us ever knew the real meaning behind it except that it was implying a fellow who liked "girlish" stuff. However youd never hear it into secondary school or adulthood. Which is why I always find it funny when you hear it in American films, tv etc by adult men to insult each other.

    “Then I took out my razor blade
    And I did what god forbade
    Now the cops are after me
    But I proved that I’m no sissy “


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,847 ✭✭✭764dak


    From the NBA: threepeat



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,184 ✭✭✭riclad


    they used to be called runners ,before sneakers became premium fashion items worth 100s of dollars.

    english changes all the time, theres dozens of words that came from tech, or the web, lol, selfie, i have never heard an irish person say the word mom, the irish say ma, mammy, mother,



  • Registered Users Posts: 8,412 ✭✭✭Markcheese


    They've been runners and sneakers for years over here - I think trainers was more a UK thing originally...

    I'm old enough to remember them being rubber dollies in cork ... ( Although rarely heard it )

    Slava ukraini 🇺🇦



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,165 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran




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