Why do some Americanisms irritate people?

AnWulf Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:52 am

Why do some Americanisms irritate people?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14130942

Here is my reply to a few of his complaints ...

reliable ... goes back to the 1560s in Scotland ... maybe it just stayed alive in America but died out in England.
truck ... can be traced way back to 1610s in usage and to 1794 as a cart for a heavy load ... lorry only back to 1834 as railroad slang and then used in 1911 for a motor vehicle.

mail/post ... confusion on both sides ... in England mail was letters going overseas and post was letters in-country.

faze ... from the Kentish dialect feeze ... to frighten, alarm ... from Anglo-Saxon (AS) (aka Old English) fesian.

hospitalize ... to put in a hospital ... wow, shortened that up!

wrench ... from AS/OE wrenc ... a tool for twisting.
spanner ... from German spannern

elevator/lift ... I like lift ... it's shorter and appropriate ... but it can be confused for the sense of "giving someone a ride" ... As in, "Can I give you a lift?"

gasoline (gas) vs petrol ...

petrol - from Fr. pétrol (1892); earlier used (1580s) in reference to the UNREFINED substance

gasoline ... from gas + o(i)l + chemical suffix -ine ... for the REFINED petrol.

The short form "gas" can be confused when referring to "natural gas".

hood/bonnet ... it's the old Germanic/French thing with two words with essentially the same meaning.

I'm not sure what the author's complaints about the others are ... perhaps if he were to offer alternatives for comparisons.