Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[P. G. Tipps]

What is it you actually have against "Americanisms"? With many people it seems to derive from a sense of jealousy for the dominance of American popular culture (and technology) and its promotion of a rapidly evolving vocabulary, bringing a new kind of life into the language which conservatively minded people will of course oppose on principle, since it involves the horror of change!!! Jealousy is an ugly emotion.

Your sudden pro-American enthusiasm is somewhat unconvincing, Mr Barrett.

You still completely fail to grasp the point or get a handle on it, if you prefer ...

I am not against Americanisms, per se. In fact, I positively delight hearing them in America. The only point, as I've said before, is the now regular adoption of so many in the UK news media, not least the BBC.

I have asked before why this should be the case but, as yet, nobody has come up with a proper answer. It would appear, as suggested, that it is merely to appear 'cool' and trendy but if that is indeed the case it is a rather sad reflection on the BBC and others, don't you think?. Americanisms are for Americans ... the very term should give one a clue about that.

It is a valid question to ask and for one to respond in juvenile terms with silly words like 'jealousy' and 'ugly emotion' only confirms to me the now obvious fact that there is no sensible answer to the question!

[P. G. Tipps]

As Richard Barrett pointed out, it has been used by Private Eye for decades as shorthand for a type of old-fashioned, traditionally-minded Tory backbencher.

Yes, sadly I am older than Mr Barrett and used to be a regular reader of Private Eye ... it was a phrase for it's time decades ago but is hardly apt these days though I may well make an exception in the case of Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP ...

[ahinton]

I am not against Americanisms, per se.

One would never have guessed, I guess...

In fact, I positively delight hearing them in America. The only point, as I've said before, is the now regular adoption of so many in the UK news media, not least the BBC.

So "Americanisms" only for Americans and only in America, yes? How far would you go with this? Yorkshire English only in Yorkshire and Devon English only in Devon, peut-être?

I have asked before why this should be the case but, as yet, nobody has come up with a proper answer. It would appear, as suggested, that it is merely to appear 'cool' and trendy but if that is indeed the case it is a rather sad reflection on the BBC and others, don't you think?

Has it not occurred to you that any dividing lines between "British English" and other "Englishes" are rightly and understandably becoming ever more blurred because the are English speakers over many parts of the world and many of them travel between different places where English is spoken?

Americanisms are for Americans ... the very term should give one a clue about that.

But what exactly defines beyond all possible doubt an "Americanism" as such (in the sense of a peculiarly American use of English or peculiarly American English terminology)?

It is a valid question to ask and for one to respond in juvenile terms with silly words like 'jealousy' and 'ugly emotion' only confirms to me the now obvious fact that there is no sensible answer to the question!

There is nothing "sensible" in the above sentence.

[ahinton]

Yes, sadly I am older than Mr Barrett and used to be a regular reader of Private Eye ... it was a phrase for it's time decades ago but is hardly apt these days though I may well make an exception in the case of Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP ...

Slapped wrist for the redundant apostrophe if only because of your apparent concern for correct British English usage - but you surely have no need to make any such exception for Mr Rees-Mogg when he's done that so much more effectively himself?!

[Richard Barrett]

Your sudden pro-American enthusiasm is somewhat unconvincing, Mr Barrett.

As it happens I was married to an American for eight years, nothing sudden about it. "Americanisms are for Americans"... I presume you eschew the use of foreign products elsewhere in your life than in your language then?

[french frank]

Americanisms are for Americans ... the very term should give one a clue about that.

I think there might be a not-does-it-follow there, though many French folk feel the same way about English messing up French, when French is a good tongue on its own and has been for centuries many years.

[jean]

...there is no sensible answer to the question!

That's because it's not a sensible question.

Meanwhile...my post wondering why no-one much is objecting to the ridiculous overload of explicit grammatical terminology at KS2 languishes unobserved in Pedants' Paradise...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bit like MRSA, no?

MRDA most foul.

[greenilex]

Have to keep reminding myself that these our words are to be read all over the globe simultaneously on the web...it maybe tends to shrink parochialism?

[vinteuil]

Have to keep reminding myself that these our words are to be read all over the globe simultaneously on the web...it maybe tends to shrink parochialism?

... maybe.

But I remember being chided for using the americanism 'maybe' when I could have used 'perhaps'...

[Pianorak]

What I can't stand at any price is the "cloud cuckoo land", . . .

Soon to be replaced by Amber R's "magic money tree"?

[vinteuil]

Soon to be replaced by Amber R's "magic money tree"?

... usefully debunked here :

http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/in-full/joyce-mcmillan-debunking-the-tory-myth-of-the-magic-money-tree-1-4463846

[Richard Barrett]

Meanwhile...my post wondering why no-one much is objecting to the ridiculous overload of explicit grammatical terminology at KS2 languishes unobserved in Pedants' Paradise...

Not all of us look at Pedants' Paradise you know!

[jean]

You should - it's got more anti-pedants on it than this place!

[Richard Barrett]

I remember being chided for using the americanism 'maybe' when I could have used 'perhaps'...

An excellent example (akin once more to the enrichment of Anglo-Saxon by Norman French) where the traditional British usage and the "Americanism" complement one another nicely, "maybe" being less formal, which in some situations puts across a particular shade of uncertainty not covered by "perhaps." Maybe.

What about Australianisms? There's an increasing amount of that around too. Is that also a problem? or are there "no worries" about it?