"Posh" allegedly derives from the days of the British Empire, and the more expensive cabins on the ships going out to India being on the shadier side of the vessel. "Port Out, Starboard Home" hence became a euphemism for "richer" and "higher up the social scale". "Hoity-toity" is, as you say, rather different, not far from "mutton dressed as lamb".
Absolutely. And that was the way you wanted to travel because it meant your cabin was always on the shadier side of the ship - Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company of course (P&O for short).
I would write eleven hundred and ninety-six*. Is the and not used State-side?
(On numbers, the French for 80, quatre-vingt (four twenties), has always amused...)
* or would I say one thousand, one hundred...? Not sure.
If it was gun deaths, I would (sadly) say "One thousand, one hundred and ninety six". If it was the year 1196 AD, I'd say "Eleven hundred and ninety six" or just "Eleven ninety-six".
We had a problem when we got into the "noughties". No-one wanted to say "Twenty-hundred and one" so it became "Two thousand and one" or "Twenty-oh-one".
Using hundreds rather that thousands is rather old-fashion in the UK and we only tend to use it for dates (& pre-20th century at that). Although I’m saying that as someone who was born post-decimalisation.
My wife tells a story of a American at university with her in the UK. The woman got on the dance floor and shouted “Anyone wanna Shag”. I know that a shag is a dance in the US. It is not here.
Don’t get me started on Writing the date the US way.
I remember one of my teachers in elementary school strongly admonishing us to not use the word and when writing out or saying numbers. Mostly because we all did that very thing!
And Hugal, you must know that I have to think carefully about writing dates and to whom I'm writing!! I was filling out paperwork for my mother last week, and while writing her birth date I was thinking how confusing 12-1-**** could be!
Using hundreds rather that thousands is rather old-fashion in the UK and we only tend to use it for dates (& pre-20th century at that). Although I’m saying that as someone who was born post-decimalisation.
I've heard it used here for phone numbers ending in 00 and also for AM radio frequencies ending in 00. Although nobody listens to AM radio anymore (well, not in the numbers of the 40s through 70s).
Dotting back to presses, did no one here air their bed linen in a hotpress?
I recall a raised eyebrow from a flatmate when I said I was taking a jar to bed. She thought that meant alcoholic drink rather than hot water bottle. (Mind you, she wouldn't be that far out these days...)
Dotting back to presses, did no one here air their bed linen in a hotpress?
Hotpress? Never heard of it. We have an airing cupboard, a heated place with slatted shelves for household linens before they go into the linen press, a super-sized cupboard with trays for sheets, etc on top and deep drawers at the bottom for blankets and pillows.
“Kettles” usually = teapots in American. And I have noticed that the electric kind do appear in more hotels.
Not here in New England (enough tea drinkers here to warrant grocery stores carrying loose tea). A tea kettle here is for heating water for tea on the stove (cooker). A tea pot is a ceramic vessel for steeping the heated water and tea in.
Dotting back to presses, did no one here air their bed linen in a hotpress?
Hotpress? Never heard of it. We have an airing cupboard, a heated place with slatted shelves for household linens before they go into the linen press, a super-sized cupboard with trays for sheets, etc on top and deep drawers at the bottom for blankets and pillows.
It's odd that the usage press=cupboard survived with linen, but not with hot. AIR my grandmother would use press of all storage units.
Dotting back to presses, did no one here air their bed linen in a hotpress?
Hotpress? Never heard of it. We have an airing cupboard, a heated place with slatted shelves for household linens before they go into the linen press, a super-sized cupboard with trays for sheets, etc on top and deep drawers at the bottom for blankets and pillows.
It's odd that the usage press=cupboard survived with linen, but not with hot. AIR my grandmother would use press of all storage units.
So would mine, and while I have the impression your grandmother may have been Irish, mine was thoroughly and for many generations, Fife. It is not just Americans and Brits that don't speak the same language.
When I was in my early twenties, an older American couple moved in two doors down. They seemed pleasant, and we said "Good morning" etc when we passed each other. I wasn't aware of anything amiss.
A few weeks later I was waylaid by them,full of apologies for having been avoiding me. When they moved in, someone had told them I was a solicitor, and they had completely misunderstood the nature of my profession.
When I was in my early twenties, an older American couple moved in two doors down. They seemed pleasant, and we said "Good morning" etc when we passed each other. I wasn't aware of anything amiss.
A few weeks later I was waylaid by them,full of apologies for having been avoiding me. When they moved in, someone had told them I was a solicitor, and they had completely misunderstood the nature of my profession.
How funny! No wonder they were avoiding you. They thought you were a lawyer!
NEQ: oh it's worse than prostitution. They thought you were a door-to-door salesperson, a much less reputable occupation. Home mailbox signs with NO SOLICITING on them are anticipating neither free legal services nor hoes.
Not long after moving to Canada, I talked about something that was going to happen in a fortnight's time. This was greeted with blank looks. I had to explain that this meant it would happen in two week's time. "Oooo!" they said, "why didn't you say that?"
I once gave a presentation to some colleagues talking about something that would take a fortnight to complete. Someone asked "what's a fortnight", so of course I replied "twice a sennight".
... A tea pot is a ceramic vessel for steeping the heated water and tea in.
I don't know whether this is still the case, but 40+ years ago, I remember reading an article which had discovered the curious fact that there were marked and consistent regional differences in the UK, worked out from sales figures, as to whether people preferred a pot tea pot or a metal one.
I'm familiar with "pot plants" but didn't realize it was referring to what the pots were made of, only that they were pots, i.e., buckets for putting plants in.
Thongs or flip flops here are called Jandals. They were introduced by an ex soldier who had been part of J Force, which occupied Japan after WWII. Jandals meant Japanese sandals.
I’ll never think of teapots in the same light again.
It’s not just North America that’s woefully remiss in not providing tea making equipment as standard; we’ve found it to be the same in France. I’ll admit in the past to having pooh-poohed those Brits who travel abroad and whine about missing their home comforts but maybe old(er) age changes us into Victor Meldrew lookalikes; this year we took our own mini travelling kettle and teabags with us.
"Going to the potty" or, more often, just "going potty" is usually used for young children. (I just overheard a woman in a store yesterday asking her toddler if she needed to "go potty" -- and I thought to myself how ridiculous that sounded.)
“Kettles” usually = teapots in American. And I have noticed that the electric kind do appear in more hotels.
Not here in New England (enough tea drinkers here to warrant grocery stores carrying loose tea). A tea kettle here is for heating water for tea on the stove (cooker). A tea pot is a ceramic vessel for steeping the heated water and tea in.
Okay, but for most of 'Murika I call to witness the 1939 song "I'm a Little Teapot" which evidently describes a kettle ("when I get all steamed up, hear me shout").
But the version I sing with British preschoolers has the words 'when I see the tea cups hear me shout' so it's referring to the vessel containing the brewed tea! Did the English words get retrofitted on to mirror our use of the terms or what?
Daughter-Unit was raised with the correct knowledge and practice of tea making. A few years ago, her request for Christmas was a teapot. Her dear Mother-in-Law and I did our Christmas shopping together, and she wanted me to help her find the teapot D-U would like best. She kept picking up kettles!!! I said that D-U actually wanted the ceramic vessel that the tea would brew in. M-i-L was totally confused and really doubted I knew what I was talking about until Christmas Day, when D-U was thrilled with the beautiful teapot that I helped her M-i-L find.
So, yes. I'm so embarrassed to confess that many, many of my fellow Murikans have no idea of the difference between a teapot and a kettle.
Our electric kettle at home (plugs into the wall outlet) has an auto shut-off. At our cabin, the stove-top kettle is a whistling one, which is the shouting. (And our cabin is a cabin, it is not called a cottage. I frequently jump in the drink there, which means lake.)
Then there’s the shop referenced in Friends, and which I visited in Toronto, Pottery Barn. Nice shop for a mooch, but not a barn, and don’t remember much pottery.
Daughter-Unit was raised with the correct knowledge and practice of tea making. A few years ago, her request for Christmas was a teapot. Her dear Mother-in-Law and I did our Christmas shopping together, and she wanted me to help her find the teapot D-U would like best. She kept picking up kettles!!! I said that D-U actually wanted the ceramic vessel that the tea would brew in. M-i-L was totally confused and really doubted I knew what I was talking about until Christmas Day, when D-U was thrilled with the beautiful teapot that I helped her M-i-L find.
So, yes. I'm so embarrassed to confess that many, many of my fellow Murikans have no idea of the difference between a teapot and a kettle.
How did Dear M-i-L imagine the tea mashed? Did she think D-U boiled the water with the leaves already floating in it? Serious yuk.
Comments
Hush-a hush-a we all fall down (no ashes here)
I would write eleven hundred and ninety-six*. Is the and not used State-side?
(On numbers, the French for 80, quatre-vingt (four twenties), has always amused...)
* or would I say one thousand, one hundred...? Not sure.
If it was gun deaths, I would (sadly) say "One thousand, one hundred and ninety six". If it was the year 1196 AD, I'd say "Eleven hundred and ninety six" or just "Eleven ninety-six".
We had a problem when we got into the "noughties". No-one wanted to say "Twenty-hundred and one" so it became "Two thousand and one" or "Twenty-oh-one".
I recognise it as a non-Brit usage like, say, ‘plow’ or ‘aluminum’.
Don’t get me started on Writing the date the US way.
Or smuggling tobacco? https://tinyurl.com/yyyfvk6f
And yes, many a kid from the Carolinas has gotten that lesson on different meanings when traveling abroad.
And Hugal, you must know that I have to think carefully about writing dates and to whom I'm writing!! I was filling out paperwork for my mother last week, and while writing her birth date I was thinking how confusing 12-1-**** could be!
I've heard it used here for phone numbers ending in 00 and also for AM radio frequencies ending in 00. Although nobody listens to AM radio anymore (well, not in the numbers of the 40s through 70s).
I recall a raised eyebrow from a flatmate when I said I was taking a jar to bed. She thought that meant alcoholic drink rather than hot water bottle. (Mind you, she wouldn't be that far out these days...)
Hotpress? Never heard of it. We have an airing cupboard, a heated place with slatted shelves for household linens before they go into the linen press, a super-sized cupboard with trays for sheets, etc on top and deep drawers at the bottom for blankets and pillows.
Not here in New England (enough tea drinkers here to warrant grocery stores carrying loose tea). A tea kettle here is for heating water for tea on the stove (cooker). A tea pot is a ceramic vessel for steeping the heated water and tea in.
It's odd that the usage press=cupboard survived with linen, but not with hot. AIR my grandmother would use press of all storage units.
So would mine, and while I have the impression your grandmother may have been Irish, mine was thoroughly and for many generations, Fife. It is not just Americans and Brits that don't speak the same language.
A few weeks later I was waylaid by them,full of apologies for having been avoiding me. When they moved in, someone had told them I was a solicitor, and they had completely misunderstood the nature of my profession.
How funny! No wonder they were avoiding you. They thought you were a lawyer!
I once gave a presentation to some colleagues talking about something that would take a fortnight to complete. Someone asked "what's a fortnight", so of course I replied "twice a sennight".
It’s not just North America that’s woefully remiss in not providing tea making equipment as standard; we’ve found it to be the same in France. I’ll admit in the past to having pooh-poohed those Brits who travel abroad and whine about missing their home comforts but maybe old(er) age changes us into Victor Meldrew lookalikes; this year we took our own mini travelling kettle and teabags with us.
I can see this discussion going round in circles here.
As generally used here, a pot is a thing. The material from which pots are made is pottery or ceramic. Pottery is also a collective noun.
(Husband of a Potter here.)
That’s a chamber pot.
Okay, but for most of 'Murika I call to witness the 1939 song "I'm a Little Teapot" which evidently describes a kettle ("when I get all steamed up, hear me shout").
So, yes. I'm so embarrassed to confess that many, many of my fellow Murikans have no idea of the difference between a teapot and a kettle.
Our electric kettle at home (plugs into the wall outlet) has an auto shut-off. At our cabin, the stove-top kettle is a whistling one, which is the shouting. (And our cabin is a cabin, it is not called a cottage. I frequently jump in the drink there, which means lake.)
'Dont have a face like s coffeepot
Coffeepots are tall and thin
Better have a face like a teapot
Other folks to Jesus win'
Cringe! I assume she learnt it in Sunday school or similar.