RE: Chiches you want to bitch slap.
August 28, 2012 at 10:22 pm
(This post was last modified: August 28, 2012 at 10:39 pm by greneknight.)
(August 28, 2012 at 5:35 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Actually, I'm English but I'll let you off with that one..!
Incidentally, you reminded me of another cliché that gets up my nose:
* people who say British (or <shudder> 'Brit') when they mean English. I'm sure the Welsh, Scots, Irish and similar regional minorities get the same reaction.
(only kidding, knight! Well, partially anyway...)
Actually, I did mean British. You might have been Scottish for all I knew. If I don't know someone well and I figure he might be from the UK, I usually don't say English because it can be offensive to the rest. I'm English myself which is probably why I'm more careful not to offend others. Then there are others who are from somewhere far away. You can't call them English even if they were born in England. British is a safer word.
(August 28, 2012 at 5:30 pm)Gambit Wrote:
Oh, he's just being comical. Wastepaper basket is something I've heard in England although a bin or a dustbin is more common. I've heard it called horseback riding in England. Horse riding is ok too. I think horseback emphasizes not the area of the horse but the fact that someone is mounted on a horse although one might ask why it's necessary to specify that. But that's the peculiarity of language. Sidewalk is the only one that's distinctly American. When I first heard it, I didn't know it was a pavement. I thought it was a slip road.
