My theme this week on wordcraftjr was "Americanisms." I started by using the book by Gary Luke and Susan Quinn, then went to the Web, and now am totally mixed up about what an Americanism really is. I am sure I have completely confused the kids, and I might just delete that whole thread.

My first word was "phony" as cited by Luke and Quinn. Well, after I found a few words in the book that weren't actually Americanisms, I looked up "phony" in the OED. It isn't there, except for the suffix. However, today I went to Dictionary.com, and they said that it is from Irish Gaelic. So how is that an Americanism?

Next, I went to "cayenne," which I confess I found from a Web site that considered Americanisms as being loanwords from the 2 American continents; cayenne, it said, was from South American tribes. Later I looked up cayenne in the OED, and while the South American etymology is correct, it was first cited in 1756 in a Jamaica publication, but then in 1782 it was cited in European Magazine. Is it an Americanism?

After those 2 words, I posted hippie, which I am sure of.

Still I am confused as to what makes a word an Americanism. Help!

Kalleh,

It depends on what you mean by the word "Americanism". I would use it to describe a word used in America for which we have a different word over here. For instance, American talk about railroads whereas we say railways. Another example would be sidewalk, which we call a pavement. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, more.

You seem to be looking for words that were coined in America, which is a completely different thing. After all, fall was taken to America by your Founding Fathers but dropped out of use here in favour of autumn; fall is still an Americanism.

A technique I use is to first Google the word or expresion in the "all" or "exact phrase" box, noting the no. of hits. Then in the "without" box enter "uk au nz nu aussie brit british cockney", again noting no. of hits

As a rule of thumb, a ratio of 4:1 or greater indicates your expression is mainly a rightponder

Try it

So, Arnie, would you consider an "Americanism" the same as our conversation in the British/American thread? The dictionaries agree with you on that, so you must be right. I thought an Americanism was something that was coined in the the U.S. (or as the one site said, in the "Americas"). That must be too stringent.

Are those words that I cited above Americanisms?

quote:

Are those words that I cited above Americanisms?

No, not in the sense I would use the term. The words you mention are all used in the UK as well.

I didn't even think about "Americanisms" being exclusively words coined here. To me, it's as Arnie says - words that we use that folks in England don't use.

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:

quote:

Are those words that I cited above Americanisms?

No, not in the sense I would use the term. The words you mention are all used in the UK as well.

But if they are not used in the UK, they are not Americanisms surely.

To me an Americanism is a common recent phrase that is used in the UK, which probably has an American origin.

For example, I will (highly amusingly) pretend not to understand if anybody talks about their buns, and (even more amusingly) make an inference about donkeys if anybody refers to their ass. Ass and buns are Americanisms.

To me an Americanism would be a word which people here would recognise but would think of as being primarily American.
This would encompass such US/UK vocabulary differences as sidewalk/pavement, usage differences such as "ain't" (which was British a long time before it was American but fell out of favour here), slang usages such as "ass" or "buns" as in Graham's example, and words that Tony Blair has "borrowed" from George Bush such as "insurgent" or "rendition", In short any word that I think of as an Americanism. By definition this makes it more or less impossible for an American to identify.

Another type of Americanism is usage. Often we see phrases written or said by Americans that just would not be used in that way here. One example is that an American would say "A couple hundred people." whereas we would say "A couple of hundred...".

Even that is regional, arnie. I've heard midwesterners say " a couple hundred" but I've never heard anyone I live close to say anything but "a couple of hundred."

Makes me wonder which Americanisms are used across the entire country but not outside the country -- if any.

Saranita,

Maybe it is regional, but I can guarantee that you would never hear a British person say "couple hundred". That usage would immediately identify the speaker as American, in the same way that "Y'all" would, and I recognise that relatively few Americans would use that construction.

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:
That usage would immediately identify the speaker as American, in the same way that "Y'all" would, and I recognise that relatively few Americans would use that construction.

"Relatively few," hm? You're right...probably only about a hundred million people.

A minority, then.

As I thought, Americanisms aren't that easy to identify. I at least should have defined what I meant by them I think. I will go back and do that.

Arnie, wouldn't you at least call "hippie" an Americanism? While "baseball" is a word you'd know, surely it is more of an Americanism than not, right?

Baseball is not an Americanism, it is an American word, which is different.

An Americanism is an expression, word, or word use which is not used in UK English.

Thus today's date, 24 May, is just a date. But today's date shown as 5/24 is an Americanism. Understood here but not used here in that way. Similarly, this year, two thousand and six, would never be rendered as "two thousand six" as would be common in the USA.

No, "hippie" and "baseball" are not Americanisms. If we used, say, "New-Ager" instead of "hippie" over here, then it would be an Americanism. As RE says, it is an American word. "Aluminum" instead of "Aluminium" and "flavor" instead of "flavour" are also Americanisms.

I would imagine slang phrases are most clearly regional or cultural. What about the following:

Yea, yea, whatever . . .

Wow

Get krunk!

Get yer groove on.

CW,

There is certainly some slang used either on one or t'other side of the pond but not both, so it would probably stand out as an Amerericanism/Britishism. A prime example would be the well-known "fag", which is a pejorative term for a gay man in the US and simply means a cigarette over here. Anyone using the word in the former context here would be recognised as using an Americanism, and vice versa.

There are plenty of slang phrases that are used similarly on both sides of the Atlantic. I suspect that most originate in the States nowadays. "Yea, yea, whatever . . ." and "Wow" are used here; probably learnt from American TV, music and movies. I've never heard "Get krunk!" or "Get yer groove on", although for all I know it may well be used by some kids here.