Lost in Translation--US vs UK English words

[NewGuise]

If you got fries with curds and gravy on your chef's hat, you need more than a napkin: you need a helmet!

How's that for some speedy translating?

"Chef's hat"? I've never seen a chef - on duty, at least - wearing a touque. On the hand, I have actually seen someone get ketchup in his hair and on his face when his kid grabbed a couple of french fries a little too enthusiastically. Had it been poutine it would have been messier still. Doubtless the dad wished his curls had been covered by a hat of some sort.

[piperdbh]

I stand corrected. A touque is a Canadian to-boggan, with emphasis on the "to".

[starbkjrus]

I once had a picnic with some American friends. The conversation turned to childhood memories. I stated that I had been a fan of "Muffin the Mule"

After the stony silence and icy stares, one of the American ladies said "You are aware that my child is sat here listening to you?"

It took some while to convince her that Muffin was a marionette type puppet in the shape of a mule and had been on television.

There weren't any picnics for a long time.

Regards

Chas

I have no clue why anyone would find this offensive and suspect I really don't want to know. If I think really hard about this one I might blush but I've never actually heard it the way apparently the person on your picnic had.

I have always heard the term rooftops in the States... Unless housetops is a Northern term, since I lived my time here, in the South.

Southern by birth and breeding - rooftops. "Up on the housetop click click click...etc etc. I always thought was 'foreign'.

snip...

On to Canadianisms: my brother claims to have devised a sentence that no Brit or American could ever fully understand, which is as follows:

"Could you please me pass me a serviette, I've gotten some poutine on my touque."

Any US or UK takers on that?

Being married to a Canadian might just give me an advantage on this one....

Just don't get that poutine off your touque on my good Chesterfield!

If you got fries with curds and gravy on your chef's hat, you need more than a napkin: you need a helmet!

How's that for some speedy translating?

Chef's hat? Only if it's really cold in the kitchen. ith:

[Lachlan09]

I’m Scottish but I would say rooftops as well, as in the old school song:-

“Cats on rooftops, cats on tiles,
Cats with something, cats with piles,
Cats with somethings wreathed in smiles,
As they revel in the joys of somethingsomething”

[OC Richard]

I once had a picnic with some American friends. The conversation turned to childhood memories. I stated that I had been a fan of "Muffin the Mule"

After the stony silence and icy stares, one of the American ladies said "You are aware that my child is sat here listening to you?"

That's a head-scratcher for me also. I can't imagine what could be offensive about that... I've only lived in West Virginia and Southern California, so maybe there's some local slang meaning wherever that picnic was.

Slang terms for naughty body parts can get one in trouble!

My wife was on a long coach trip in Europe with a load of Aussies and Kiwis years ago, and her bottom was getting sore from the hours of sitting. She announced "My fanny is sore!" to the great amusement of all present.

Here "fanny" means your bottom, your "bum" as the English say. (Here "bum" is a homeless beggar. "Bumming around" means hanging around with nothing to do.)

We have small packs worn at the waist which we call "fanny packs". These seem to be called "bum bags" in the rest of the English-speaking world.

About Canadianisms, I work at Disneyland (the original one in Anaheim) and I speak to Canadians every day. Many have nothing in either their accent or vocabulary that sets them apart from us here.
Accent-wise, they can usually be identified by the way they pronounce "out" and "sorry". We say the first syllable of "sorry" as "saw", Canadians "so".

Vocabulary-wise, yes some Canadians say "eh" or "hey" but many don't.
But they usually say "mum" (US "mom") and "is that right?" (US "really?").

I read in some book that "touque" (pronounced "tuke") was the only Canadianism to be adopted in English worldwide. Well, we sure don't say that here, where such a hat is called a "beanie". I had a discussion about that with a group of Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis and nobody seemed to use that word but the Canadians.

One of the oddest vocabulary things about English in different countries is the large number of terms for the thing you push a baby around in.
Here it's a "stroller." I've heard the English call it a "pram". A family from Wales was here at Disneyland and they called theirs a "push chair". I've heard some people, I don't remember where they were from, calling theirs a "buggy".

Another is the things you put on your feet, flat things with two little loops that your toes go in.

As a kid here in Southern California in the 1960's we called them "zorries".
Also "flip flops" and "thongs".
Nowdays my kids call them "sandals". To me "sandal" evokes an elaborate leather contraption like ancient Romans would wear.
I can't remember now, but it seems like they're called different things in different countries.

[Chas]

I once had a picnic with some American friends. The conversation turned to childhood memories. I stated that I had been a fan of "Muffin the Mule"

After the stony silence and icy stares, one of the American ladies said "You are aware that my child is sat here listening to you?"

Regards

Chas

That's a head-scratcher for me also. I can't imagine what could be offensive about that... I've only lived in West Virginia and Southern California, so maybe there's some local slang meaning wherever that picnic was.

Without wishing to be rude the clue is in -

Walkin' and talkin' and chewin' gum.

"Gosh, you look tired. Haven't you been sleeping well?"
"No, I spent all night "Muffin the Mule""

Regards

Chas

[fluter]

I read in some book that "touque" (pronounced "tuke") was the only Canadianism to be adopted in English worldwide.

I, too, would disagree with that one. And don't the cavillers among us know that touque is a mis-spelling of tuque, which is a mis-spelling of toque, which in standard English is, indeed, a chef's hat? or more generically, a hat without a brim? --- the floccinaucinihilipilificator

... the large number of terms for the thing you push a baby around in.
Here it's a "stroller." I've heard the English call it a "pram".

... as in perambulator, which is what my mother called this kind, more commonly baby buggy/baby carriage:


I think a push-chair is like a stroller, i.e. this kind:

[NewGuise]

...don't the cavillers among us know that touque is a mis-spelling of tuque, which is a mis-spelling of toque, which in standard English is, indeed, a chef's hat? or more generically, a hat without a brim?

The spelling has varied drastically throughout the word's long history, and the toque (or "toque blanche") as chef's hat is, I'm told, almostly exclusively used in the US, but otherwise, yes, absolutely.

The Canadianism is in the use of the word, however spelled (it varies across the country), to mean a (brimless) knit hat, but that usage has indeed spread world-wide.

[piperdbh]

In the Southern Appalachians, we like plenty of prepositions. For example, suppose a child were using the kitchen table as a fort. His mother might say to him, "Come on out from up in under there." He'd know what she meant.

We like double words, too. Such as window light, hose pipe, garden patch, granny woman, preacher man, etc. Is there a UK equivalent?

[Lallans]

OK, apologies if two similar replies get posted but it's because, as far as I can see, I accidentally hit alt-something and erased my first update message about the sentence "Please pass the serviettes, I got poutine on my touque."

I'm impressed that so many understood what poutine is, since it's only been around Canada, outside Quebec I mean, for a short while (originally, poutine was fast food, a serving of freedom fries smothered in curd cheese and then covered in hot chicken gravy: flavour-friendly but not heart friendly). However, nobody got touque, indeed pronounced as 'tuke,' which in Canuckistan is the term for what in the USA is known as a stocking or knit hat, and in the UK is called "that dreadful French peasant thing they wear on their heads to keep their ears from falling off from the cold." (Think SCTV, Bob and Doug McKenzie.)

I also thought of some more UK vs US terms:

boiled sweet = hard candy

plimsols = sneakers

anorak = any outdoorsy outer garment that covers the upper body in cold weather- most often a parka

gum boots = rubber boots (rural Canada = barn boots)

boot faced = resentful, remorseful, or scowling

lorry = truck (or surely this was done before?)

frock = skirt

sandwich = "two really thin slices of white bread with something you can almost see, but not taste, in between."