English - British vs. American
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I didn’t see a gift link so maybe you’ll need a WaPo subscription to see this. Perhaps WTG knows a workaround.
What strikes me more than the different spellings is the sheer quantity of data available and the power of the tools used to sort it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/08/22/what-are-most-american-most-british-words/
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Here's a non-paywall version:
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I need to learn how to do that!
Copy the link you want to read.
Go to archive.is.
Paste the link into the box at the bottom: "I want to search the archive for saved snapshots".
Press enter.
For major publications, you will usually find multiple saved copies, though sometimes you come up empty.
It's always worth a try.
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I follow Laurence (or Lawrence) ....
Link to video
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Decades ago, when I was taking a music course in London, it involved a lot of writing. So I had quite a problem being understood when I asked at a stationer’s for an eraser. It turns out that the British term is “rubber” — which sounds to American ears like a rude request.
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The word 'fanny' in Britain has a different meaning than here in the US.
First 11 seconds of this video:
Link to video
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In university one of my friends had the nickname “Shag”. This was before the Austin Powers movies brought the term to North America. He was one of those guys who was so rarely called his given name that a lot of people didn’t know what it was. His father even used his nickname on the regular. Our very Scottish (and very proper) costuming teacher, on the other hand, would not allow such a word to be said in her presence. I put a lot of quarters in the swear jar over my four years there because of Shag.
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It's allowed in the ornithological sense.
Fanny pack is a bum bag here. Like Daniels sling bag.
We still use underpants(boxers/y-fronts/nickers) but have lost (the quite obvious use of) pants as you commonly use the word.
Rubber is still used in art contexts. I say condom. But then, I'm getting a bit long in the tooth.
