Elsewhere, Richard told us of a TV program that will "solicit assistance for the OED's current project to find out more about the origins of some of the common phrases we use."

It strikes me that the list of 49 terms is heavily slanted to Briticisms. Here's how I'd categorize them:

• 38 basically British: balti; Beeb; boffin; bog-standard; bomber jacket; bonk (sex); bouncy castle; chattering classes; codswallop; Crimble; dosh; full monty; gas mark; handbags (at dawn); her indoors; jaffa (cricketing); Mackem; minger; minted; muller; mullet (hairstyle); mushy peas; naff; nit nurse; nutmeg (football); Old Bill (police); on the pull; pass the parcel; phwoar; pick'n'mix; ploughman's lunch; pop one's clogs; porky; posh; ska; something for the weekend; throw one's toys out of the pram (or cot); tikka masala
• 11 familiar in US too: back to square one; cyberspace; cyborg; ditsy; gay (homosexual); made-up; moony; pear-shaped; posh; smart casual; snazzy

Do others share my impression that the OED is disproportionately focusing on UK terms?

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Do others share my impression that the OED is disproportionately focusing on UK terms?

Shock, horror revelation! British dictionary, written by an Englishman, published in England, has a British bias!

Next week - our research team investigates - "Is it true that Webster's dictionary has altered the spelling of some English words simply to suit American preferences?"

I think we should be told.

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tikka masala

Mmm, I finally had this about 6 months ago at a restaurant in Dallas, and it is fabulous.

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full monty

This was the title of a movie shown in the States, and thus is a common expression here now.

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mullet (hairstyle);

This is common as an American word(and hairstyle), and I didn't know it was British inspired. The expression typically used to describe it is "business in the front, party in the back".

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ska

Like the music genre? It has kind of faded in the last 6-7 years, but Americans under the age of 30 who listen to music know what this is.

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posh;

Like Posh Spice? This is also fairly common in America, although mostly on the E! network.

The rest of the words are weird to me, and are certainly "heavily slanted".

Wasn't Cyberspace coined by William Gibson in Neuromancer? This is what I've always thought and just checking answers.com confirms this. Did the tv program find out anything more than that?

I believe the term "made-up" is being used in a sense of "very pleased". Do Americans us it in this sense at all?

The programme, Balderdash and Piffle, is made by BBC TV for consumption by a British audience. Is it any wonder that they should have chosen a large number of words of chiefly British origin? It's not much use to the OED finding out that a particular word was first used in the UK in a particular publication when it was used much earlier in the USA, for instance. British viewers are likely to know more about words that originated here.

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Shock, horror revelation! British dictionary, written by an Englishman, published in England, has a British bias!

Where do you get "British Dictionary"?

It purports to be an English dictionary. Its name is Oxford English Dictionary; the pre-1993 versions were titled A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles.

If it is merit place as "the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium," it cannot be limited to the British-isles version of English.

[calming] arnie, your point is well taken. Interestingly, though, their request-list includes words, such as "nerd", which are not of British origin -- or more precisely, there is no particular reason to believe that their first appearance in English occurred in Great Britain.

I was going to make the point arnie made above. I'm sure a fascinating American equivalent could be made but the fact is that it's a program made for British TV that is unlikely to be seen by more than a tiny handful of people outside Britain. Of course it includes the origins of British words and phrases. I would expect that a US version would include a large number of US words and phrases that I've never heard of and while I'd be interested I sincerely doubt if many people here in the UK would.

The priniciple aim of a TV program, though I might wish it to be education, is to get people to watch it. Even on the BBC. Hence the rather irritating style this program adopts.

As for bias. I don't think the OED has any intentional bias (although it may have a slight unintentional one) but the program certainly, and naturally, does.

Just out of curiosity, how many of the words and phrases listed at the top of the thread do the US members know?

Are there any that you are completely unfamiliar with?

I couldn't define:

balti; bog-standard; bouncy castle; Crimble; dosh; gas mark; handbags (at dawn); her indoors; jaffa (cricketing); Mackem; minger; muller; naff; nit nurse; nutmeg (football); Old Bill (police); on the pull; pass the parcel; phwoar; pick'n'mix; pop one's clogs; porky; something for the weekend;

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Where do you get "British Dictionary"?

I used the term because you talked of "a UK bias". The UK includes England but England does not include the UK. Hence my use of British (the nearest adjective we have for "of the UK")

I know, of course, that it is the Oxford English Dictionary, but I suspect that this is meant to be a description of the language whose words it defines, not its origins.

As for the reasons why it should me more interested in UK rather than US English, I think that others have answered this point quite adequately.

It's a shame that you can't get the programme in the USA - although the Beeb will have a video available once the series has finished - just get in touch with BBC publications, specifying that you need the US NTSC format if you buy a tape. I am sure it'll be available on cdrom as well so that's a better alternative if you have a player. If you have any problems let me know and I'll pop into the BBC shop and buy a copy and post it.

Bob asks, "Just out of curiosity, how many of the words and phrases listed at the top of the thread do the US members know? Are there any that you are completely unfamiliar with?"

I'd expect that the vast majority of USn's would know at most two (posh and perhaps full monty) of the 38 listed as British.

Personally, I knew only four (posh, full monty, bonk and chattering classes), until I learned two more from this board: Beeb and, recently, codswallop.

I know: Beeb; bonk (sex); codswallop; full monty; mullet (hairstyle); mushy peas; ploughman's lunch; posh; ska; and tikka masala.

One of the words listed as "basically British" is "ska". It is in fact Jamaican in origin. It appeared in the program yesterday. The earliest cite already found was in a US magazine from 1964, Mademoiselle. The programme succeeded in finding a mention in a UK newspaper written for Jamaican immigrants, The Jamaican Daily Gleaner, written a whole six months earlier!

There are four words in there that I didn't know before the program was broadcast although I see that one of them is wrongly listed - muller should be listed as mullered which I did know.

The ones I don't - or didn't - know are jaffa and nutmeg (both apparently sporting terms which would explain why I don't know them), Mackem (also, after a fashion, a sporting term or at least a term used by football fans).

If you don't care to look them up I'm sure one of us can enlighten you with regard to most of them.

Hi Bob, not giving a monkey's about sport either I can't tell you what jaffa or nutmeg mean. 'Mackem' however, I mentioned in the thread on Old Dialects. A 'Mackem' is an inhabitant of Sunderland, I've heard they had an expression there referring back to their shipbuilding days "We mack them, they tack them", 'mack' and 'tack' being the pronunciation of make and take in the Wearside area. They're sometimes therefore known as 'Mackem Tackems', but usually shortened to 'Mackem'. Due to the intense rivalry of Newcastle Football Club and Sunderland Football Club you're very likely to hear it in that context but the rivalry between the towns actually goes back to the English Civil War when they were on opposing sides, or so I understand.

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Hi Bob, not giving a monkey's about sport either I can't tell you what jaffa or nutmeg mean.

I, too, don't give a monkey's about sport, any sport. Indeed, I have a deep loathing for most sports.

Interestingly my limited research seems to indicate that in excess of 50% of UK residents share my dislike, or at least are uninterested. So why, I wonder, is there so much sport in the media? Even the mighty Times irritaes me in that respect since I throw away about a third of it unread, simply because it deals with the inanities of the footballing classes.

Is there, I wonder, any correlation, positive or negative, between those who are interested in words and those who are interested in sport? It is surely apparent that many of the sporting "heroes" who appear on UK TV are, at best, only semi-articulate - even when discussing their own sport.

And yes, I am aware that there are exceptions to that rule, so nobody need tell me of the oratorial skills of, say, Kris Akabusi! I am speaking in general.

When I'm out having a few beers with friends I can feel my eyes starting to glaze over when the topic of conversation turns to bloody football! They're all such armchair managers aren't they? Ask them what they're interested in and they'll say "sport", " What do you play, then?" I ask them. "No, I just watch it on the telly." They'll almost invariably reply. "Ah, so you watch other people doing something? What a waste of existance." I would reply, if I thought it was safe to!
I often wonder when you see a pub full of blokes all watching football or whatever how many of them actually care very little for it but are driven by peer pressure to show enthusiasm? Be very funny if it was most of them!

Fortunately (Tim Martin be praised) J D Wetherspoon pubs have no TV sports and no music. What they do have is good beer at fair prices.

And do you know, many of the local pub managers, suffering a loss of trade, complain about the "unfair" competition as they watch their cigarette-smoking, football-watching, chemical fizz-drinking clientele numbers reduce as their, often unwilling drinking associates, discover the benefits of a fine pint in a non-smoky, non-sporty, environment.

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J D Wetherspoon pubs have no TV sports and no music.

Alas, that's about to change. I read in my newspaper a couple of days ago that all Wetherspoon pubs are to get two large-screen TVs. I think we can be fairly sure that they won't be tuned to programmes like Balderdash and Piffle!

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I often wonder when you see a pub full of blokes

I guess I am wrong, but I thought "blokes" was an Australian word. Do the British use it, too? We surely don't.

Yes, Kalleh, we use 'blokes'. I always assumed the Aussies took it with them along with the other Oz favourite 'mate'. In English usage there is also 'blokish' or even 'blokey' as in 'blokey bloke'. Here, 'bloke' really means I suppose a stereotypical male- a beer drinking (sorry Richard, probably Lager!), football watching, probably a bit thick Briton.
But also it still is a collective term for a group of men.

Can a "bloke" be a woman?

Not in England.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Can a "bloke" be a woman?

But a guy can
- that used to sound so wierd, hearing Americans calling a mixed or female group, you guys.

Graham, I belive we've talked about this before here, and I think people are divided on that. I consider men and women "guys," but, if I remember correctly, other Wordcrafters said they don't.

Is there a female equivalent to "bloke?"