# Borrowed Americanisms



## liaconn (16 Sep 2011)

Playdate

Anyone else find this expression really, really annoying? And what other Americanisms grate on you?


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## onq (16 Sep 2011)

Half them I can't post here, but I vividly remember an eight year old Irish kids being severely adminished by his Mum as he got into her car outside the Rotunda one day when something occured and the little lad exclaimed - 

"BEEEE-AATCHH!"

"Did you just call your mother a bitch!?" exclaimed his Mum.

"Wha'? No, I - all the guys say that," said the genuinely confused little boy.

"S'all right Caroline - I caugh my little fellah saying in out the back garden to his friend the other day - its dem American TV programs!" said her friend who was with her.

Good job he hadn't called her a "Ho".


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## Vanilla (16 Sep 2011)

I prefer some americanisms though- for example 'fall'.  So descriptive and yet simple.


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## micmclo (16 Sep 2011)

Watergate was incredible
Now we have:
Bertiegate
Drunkgate
AIBgate
Badhairgate if Catherine Zeta Jones is photographed on a windy day

Lazy journalism from hacks who think they are the next Woodward and Bernstein


"Do the math" is another one
It's Maths or Mathematics, it is not Math


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## ajapale (16 Sep 2011)

Vanilla said:


> I prefer some americanisms though- for example 'fall'.  So descriptive and yet simple.



I quite like many of the the American neologisms and prefer them to many old fashioned military or biblical allusions such as..

Line Management
Open a new front.
Top Brass
sacraficial lamb etc.

I think new words and phrases are great and think that we Irish should keep the tradition going by inventing new ones!


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## callybags (16 Sep 2011)

micmclo said:


> Watergate was incredible
> Now we have:
> Bertiegate
> Drunkgate
> ...


 
You forgot Cowan' gate


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## liaconn (16 Sep 2011)

ajapale said:


> I quite like many of the the American neologisms and prefer them to many old fashioned military or biblical allusions such as..
> 
> Line Management
> Open a new front.
> ...


 
But PLAYDATE?????? WTF?

Just say 'he's going over to a friend's house'. or 'one of his pals in school asked him over'.

I don't say I'm going for a 'chatdate' or a 'cupofcoffeedate'.


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## onq (16 Sep 2011)

As long as we are talking about phrases we like or use I confess to have used the following -

"...from the get-go..."

"...like..." 

"...hot..."

"...babe..."


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## onq (16 Sep 2011)

liaconn said:


> But PLAYDATE?????? WTF?
> 
> Just say 'he's going over to a friend's house'. or 'one of his pals in school asked him over'.
> 
> I don't say I'm going for a 'chatdate' or a 'cupofcoffeedate'.



Sorry liaconn,

"Playdate" is embedded in my 11-year old's lexicon as "playday" and is used interchangeably amongst the Mums.

"Playdate"
"Playday"

Dare I say it - "who knew"?


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## onq (16 Sep 2011)

I suppose the ultimate Americanism has to be the "Department of Defense"...


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## micmclo (16 Sep 2011)

Unless you play baseball you do not call people to "touch base"

We're deep in the fourth quarter
A Hail Mary has nothing to do with religion, it's a last ditch attempt to save the day
That team is the winningest team around

If you screwed over a colleague I'd say you were out to "hang them"
That's being replaced by "throw them under the bus".
It means the same thing


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## liaconn (16 Sep 2011)

onq said:


> Sorry liaconn,
> 
> "Playdate" is embedded in my 11-year old's lexicon as "playday" and is used interchangeably amongst the Mums.
> 
> ...


 
I've a friend who uses 'playdate' all the time and it sounds so stupid even though she's really intelligent. I keep expecting her to start talking about 'sidewalks' and going out to the 'backyard'.


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## Marion (16 Sep 2011)

> and going out to the 'backyard'.



Now, Liaconn, I'm totally confused. 

Where else would you be going? Hello?

I'm a country gal )) and we always used that term.

Marion


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## Betsy Og (16 Sep 2011)

liaconn said:


> and going out to the 'backyard'.


 
A real culchisim is to use the word "haggard" to refer to a backyard - which I agree is not an Americanism.


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## orka (16 Sep 2011)

liaconn said:


> But PLAYDATE?????? WTF?
> 
> Just say 'he's going over to a friend's house'. or 'one of his pals in school asked him over'.
> 
> I don't say I'm going for a 'chatdate' or a 'cupofcoffeedate'.


I don't mind playdate - we don't have a short alternative ourselves - just the long-winded versions you mention.  Much easier ('tis the season for new kids at school to make new friends) to say 'we'll arrange a playdate' than 'we'll arrange for your son to come to our house or my son to go to your house' or 'we'll arrange for them to play together in one of their houses next week'.  Playdate is succinct - it is a bit of a weird word but there isn't really an alternative.


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## Vanilla (16 Sep 2011)

Marion said:


> Where else would you be going? Hello?
> 
> Marion


 
Exactly! 

We must have been 'posher' than you, Betsy Og, our haggart was actually one of the fields, each field having its own name- eg 'the field with the tree in the middle', 'the mushroom field', 'the coarse meadow' and so on.

I'm now immune to 'playdate' too. 

I love talking to my american sister-in-law, we sometimes get completely confused and befuddled. The other day she sent my dad an email telling him '... and you know what you can do with...household implement'. Oh how I laughed when dad rang me, astonished at what his daughter-in-law was saying to him.


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## Leper (16 Sep 2011)

Betsy, the word is "haggart" not "haggard" like when you do something wrong, you wade in with a haggart of apologies . . . 

Haggard means something else . . . although you could have a haggard haggart.


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## becky (16 Sep 2011)

Betsy Og said:


> A real culchisim is to use the word "haggard" to refer to a backyard - which I agree is not an Americanism.



We have a back yard and a haggard but we pronounce it haggart.  The backyard is concreted while the haggart isn't.  The big hay cocks were there and a sick cow was let sleep there at night.


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## hastalavista (17 Sep 2011)

liaconn said:


> Playdate
> 
> Anyone else find this expression really, really annoying? And what other Americanisms grate on you?



I love going on a Playdate with a PlayMate


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## onq (17 Sep 2011)

...the one I found infiltrated has into my brain earlier today - so subtly that I forgot about it when posting here previously..."bigtime"


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## onq (17 Sep 2011)

And one I find I'm using more and more on my texts to see if someone is around and free to chat... "wsup"

Slightly off topic, but does anyone remember the "Wasssaaap!" parrot sketch - was it from Budweiser?

Here you go... http://www.metacafe.com/watch/25229/whazzup/


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## Mpsox (19 Sep 2011)

Betsy Og said:


> A real culchisim is to use the word "haggard" to refer to a backyard - which I agree is not an Americanism.


 
Haggard is where you put the hay, backyard is where the dog sleeps and yes, as another poster said, it was concreted over and it also usually had a proper 5 bar gate.


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## liaconn (19 Sep 2011)

What's wrong with 'back garden'.  To me a yard is a concrete space but anything with trees and grass is a garden, unless you're American in which case it always seems to be the 'back yard'.


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## liaconn (19 Sep 2011)

orka said:


> I don't mind playdate - we don't have a short alternative ourselves - just the long-winded versions you mention. Much easier ('tis the season for new kids at school to make new friends) to say 'we'll arrange a playdate' than 'we'll arrange for your son to come to our house or my son to go to your house' or 'we'll arrange for them to play together in one of their houses next week'. Playdate is succinct - it is a bit of a weird word but there isn't really an alternative.


 
Its not really more succinct. You still have to say 'let's arrange a playdate where your daughter comes to my daughter's house' or whatever.

Sorry but I just think it's a really pretentious expression. What's wrong with 'Can Johnnie come over to play with Mike some day next week?'


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## Mpsox (19 Sep 2011)

Not sure if it an Americanism but the tendancy to raise the inflexion of an ordinary sentance to make it sound like a question is something I find very irritating


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## Firefly (19 Sep 2011)

Mpsox said:


> Not sure if it an Americanism but the tendancy to raise the inflexion of an ordinary sentance to make it sound like a question is something I find very irritating



I think this is an Australian-ism, but +1...drives me nuts as well.


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## Purple (19 Sep 2011)

Firefly said:


> I think this is an Australian-ism, but +1...drives me nuts as well.



The High Rising Terminal or Australian Upward Inflection.


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## onq (19 Sep 2011)

There was also the "you're so fat..." series of comments which I believe came via or from American TV shows.

These were doing the school rounds last year, one example of which was -

"You're so fat, you need a satellite to take a passport photo..."

There's  about...


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## AlastairSC (19 Sep 2011)

I find the use of "dirt" for "earth" uncomfortable. As in "digging in the dirt". Seems to imply (or at least I infer) lack of respect for the soil somehow......


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## orka (19 Sep 2011)

liaconn said:


> Its not really more succinct. You still have to say 'let's arrange a playdate where your daughter comes to my daughter's house' or whatever.


But it's not really used like that is it?  Do you have kids and do people use the word like that?  It's seems a really awkward way to phrase it.  If you don't have kids, you probably haven't become immune to the annoying word yet...


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## Queenspawn (19 Sep 2011)

*Mensa mensa mensam*

Americanisms or shorthand terms are fine if they bring clarity but that's not always the case. My favouite is the verb "to table" pretty aweful to make a verb of a noun but even worse if you consider that to table in US means that you are NOT going to discuss it while over here to table something means that you specifically ARE going to discuss it.  Go figure WTF like OMG etc ad nausium


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## liaconn (19 Sep 2011)

orka said:


> But it's not really used like that is it? Do you have kids and do people use the word like that? It's seems a really awkward way to phrase it. If you don't have kids, you probably haven't become immune to the annoying word yet...


 
No I don't have kids but your point was that its more succinct and my point is that its just as simple to say 'can orka come over to play sometime'.  One of my friends uses it all the time and if we're trying to arrange to meet up she'll start saying 'well Sarah has a playdate on Thursday' or whatever and it sounds so formal and contrived. Sorry, but the word just grates on me.


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## dave28 (19 Sep 2011)

another one is to say "You know what?" where it isnt required at the beginning of (usually) an answer to a question


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## Purple (19 Sep 2011)

I could care less really gets to me. It's just wrong.


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## Gordanus (2 Oct 2011)

liaconn said:


> if we're trying to arrange to meet up she'll start saying 'well Sarah has a playdate on Thursday' or whatever and it sounds so formal and contrived.



Unfortunately, in my playdate arranging days, the whole thing *was* contrived.  Mainly because the mothers doing the organising were all working and so these things had to be arranged in advance. And then there was also the reciprocal arrangement to work out too.  It wasn't a case of wandering over to Mary's house and asking Mary's mother "Can Mary come out to play?" as it was in my own youth.


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## RMCF (2 Oct 2011)

They aren't borrowed. We ain't giving them back.

My personal pet hates are

1) The use of 'so not', as in 'shes so not going to get away with this'.

2) *Dee*-Fence in terms of sport. What ever happened Di-Fence.


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## liaconn (2 Oct 2011)

I also notice that we're using the word 'college' much more.

No one does a secretarial course anymore, or a cookery course .Everyone's 'at college' studying office management or catering or whatever.


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## Purple (2 Oct 2011)

liaconn said:


> I also notice that we're using the word 'college' much more.
> 
> No one does a secretarial course anymore, or a cookery course .Everyone's 'at college' studying office management or catering or whatever.



That's because everyone is a "Professional" now days.


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## mathepac (2 Oct 2011)

There has been an astonishing move to using American military terms to describe everyday situations :


 HSE front-line staff - front-line HSE staff battling for pensions and patient health and safety with AK47s?
 not on my watch - what about on your cuckoo clock? We are not military types and don't stand watches.
 the various wars that have been declared - crime / drugs / drink-driving / speeding, etc. What are the objectives?  Who is the enemy? How many casualties have the wars inflicted?
 impact (rather than effect) - violent term beloved of PR types (most of whom don't have a grasp of basic English).
 
I also recently heard a presidential candidate talking about "stepping up to the plate" -  does s/he play baseball or even know that the term is a sporting one? Will this candidate formally force the GAA to adopt baseball as our national sport.

Watching the telly or the radio is a bit like being in some war-room deep in the bowels of Teach Leighin. Our country is beginning to sound as if it's populated by a host of Sarah Palin's brainless offspring.


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## hastalavista (2 Oct 2011)

mathepac said:


> [*] not on my watch - what about on your cuckoo clock? We are not military types and don't understand watches.
> .


Fingers Fingelton does


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## Purple (3 Oct 2011)

mathepac said:


> Watching the telly or the radio is a bit like being in some war-room deep in the bowels of Teach Leighin. Our country is beginning to sound as if it's populated by a host of Sarah Palin's brainless offspring.



Lol, post of the week!


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## bullbars (3 Oct 2011)

hastalavista said:


> Fingers Fingelton does


 
that did make me chuckle!


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