A History of English Language

A history of the english language 374
importance of the differences that can be readily pointed out. The American on going to
England or the British traveler on arriving in America is likely to be impressed by them,
because each finds the other’s expressions amusing when they do not actually cause
puzzlement. As examples of such differences the words connected with the railroad and
the automobile are often cited. The British word for railroad is railway, the engineer is a
driver, the conductor a guard. The baggage car is a van, and the baggage carried is
always luggage. American freight train and freight yard become in Britain goods train
and goods yard. Some of the more technical terms are likewise different. A sleeper in the
United States is a sleeping car; in Britain it is what Americans call a tie. American switch
is a point, a grade crossing a level crossing, and so on. In connection with the
automobile, the British speak of a lorry (truck), windscreen (windshield), bonnet (hood),
sparking plugs, gear lever (gearshift), gearbox (transmission), silencer (muffler), boot
(trunk), petrol (gasoline or gas). British motorway is American expressway and dual
carriageway is divided highway. Such differences can be found in almost any part of the
vocabulary: lift (elevator), post (mail), hoarding (billboard), nappy (diaper), spanner
(wrench), underground (subway), cotton wool (absorbent cotton), barrister (lawyer),
dustman (garbage collector). Americans readily recognize the American character of ice
cream soda, apple pie, popcorn,free lunch, saloon from their associations, and can
understand why some of them would not be understood elsewhere. A writer in the
London Daily Mail complained that an English person would find “positively
incomprehensible” the American words commuter, rare (as applied to underdone meat),
intern, tuxedo, truck farming, realtor, mean (nasty), dumb (stupid), enlisted man,
seafood, living room, dirt road, and mortician, although some of these have since become
normal in British English. It is always unsafe to say what American words a British
person will not understand, and there are some pairs in this list that would be pretty
generally “comprehended” on both sides of the Atlantic. Some words have a deceptive
familiarity. Lumber with Americans is timber but in Britain is discarded furniture and the
like. Laundry in America is not only the place where clothing and linen are washed but
the articles themselves. A lobbyist in England is a parliamentary reporter, not one who
attempts to influence the legislative process, and a pressman for Americans is not a
reporter but one who works in the pressroom where a newspaper is printed. 61
It is of course on the level of more colloquial or popular speech that the greatest
differences are noticed. The American seems to have a genius for
61
For words, phrases, and syntactic structures from British English that have recently been adopted
into American English, see John Algeo, “The Briticisms Are Coming! How British English is
Creeping into the American Language,” Journal of English Linguistics, 23 (1990–95), 123−40.