Momentarily
Matthew Engel, writing on the BBC News Site has managed to live up to the standards I'd expect of someone complaining about grammar and words. Here is his list of Americanisms he feels are creeping into good old British English:
A sure list of horrors, I'm certain you'll agree.
Except.
Faze is just about an Americanism, though it's derived from a Kentish word "Fease", which is itself a version of a much older word of slightly different meaning.
Hospitalize isn't an Americanism, it's a UK word (though a constructed one) that dates back at least a hundred and ten years.
Elevator is an interesting word. Its usage for farm machinery - lifting grain to an upper floor, particularly, dates back (in the UK) to at least 1825. The usage for a thing that carries people is mainly American, but the root is a shared word.
Rookies isn't an Americanism at all, it's a word for new recruits and dates back to around 1870 or so. Kipling used it in 1891.
Guy for "man" is an American popularisation and widening of an existing word.
Ouster isn't an Americanism - it's a three-hundred year-old word first used in Parliamentary reports.
Outage probably is one, but it's hardly "just creeping in" - first British use in print is in 1951. Coincidentally, that's the year Matthew Engel was born. Perhaps he is an Americanism too?
Words come in and out of fashion. True neologisms (first usage, British, 1772) are rarer than people think. I have no idea what Matthew Engel thinks "British English" is, but I'm pretty convinced he's wrong about it. Language and usage changes with shifting power, with geographical and political movements and often for no reason that anyone can readily fathom.
And spending ten minutes with the OED is immensely rewarding. It's nice to see that Engel is maintaining the standards we've come to expect of journalists, and not bothering to do even basic research.
- Faze, as in "it doesn't faze me"
- Hospitalize, which really is a vile word
- Wrench for spanner
- Elevator for lift
- Rookies for newcomers, who seem to have flown here via the sports pages.
- Guy, less and less the centrepiece of the ancient British festival of 5 November - or, as it will soon be known, 11/5. Now someone of either gender.
- And, starting to creep in, such horrors as ouster, the process of firing someone, and outage, meaning a power cut. I always read that as outrage. And it is just that.
A sure list of horrors, I'm certain you'll agree.
Except.
Faze is just about an Americanism, though it's derived from a Kentish word "Fease", which is itself a version of a much older word of slightly different meaning.
Hospitalize isn't an Americanism, it's a UK word (though a constructed one) that dates back at least a hundred and ten years.
Elevator is an interesting word. Its usage for farm machinery - lifting grain to an upper floor, particularly, dates back (in the UK) to at least 1825. The usage for a thing that carries people is mainly American, but the root is a shared word.
Rookies isn't an Americanism at all, it's a word for new recruits and dates back to around 1870 or so. Kipling used it in 1891.
Guy for "man" is an American popularisation and widening of an existing word.
Ouster isn't an Americanism - it's a three-hundred year-old word first used in Parliamentary reports.
Outage probably is one, but it's hardly "just creeping in" - first British use in print is in 1951. Coincidentally, that's the year Matthew Engel was born. Perhaps he is an Americanism too?
Words come in and out of fashion. True neologisms (first usage, British, 1772) are rarer than people think. I have no idea what Matthew Engel thinks "British English" is, but I'm pretty convinced he's wrong about it. Language and usage changes with shifting power, with geographical and political movements and often for no reason that anyone can readily fathom.
And spending ten minutes with the OED is immensely rewarding. It's nice to see that Engel is maintaining the standards we've come to expect of journalists, and not bothering to do even basic research.