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American Vocabulary
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One of the peculiarities of American English is the usage of a number of medieval Englishwords, which are no longer used in Britain today. When the earliest English colonists came to America they were speaking English of the 17-th century. The words fall (autumn), used by Shakespeare, and corn (which means in England any grain, e. g. wheat) are immediate examples. Some old English words have developed new meanings. The very popular word sheriff, which meant in England or Wales a person appointed by the King to carry out ceremonial duties, and in Scotland the senior judge, in America is applied to the person who observes the law in the state. The word guy (a boy, or a man in A. E. in informal use) came from the name of one of the most popular villains in England Guy Fawkes who organized Gunpowder Plot against King James 1 in 1605.
Here are a few examples of British and American words, meaning the same phenomena or people:
B. E. A. E. B. E.
Government Administration Goods train freight train
Securities bonds label tag
Banknote bank bill some time ago a way back
Chairman president children kids
Manager executive post mail
Minister secretary form(at school) grade
Milliard billion tram street car
Leader editorial a tin a can
Offer tender a bill a check
Guarantee warranty a carpet a rug
To run a business to operate business a car a automobile
Goods train freight train a lorry a truck
Label tag timetable schedule
Biscuits cookies interval intermission
Secondary school high school tap faucet
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Barristor/solicitor attorney sweets candy
When your flight deplanes (B. E. -disembarks) in America, you take carry-on (hand baggage), get a cart (trolley), stand in a line (queue) to receive your baggage (luggage) in the airport. If you want to continue your journey by railroad (not railway- B. E. ), you won’t buy your ticket at the booking-office but at the ticket-window, and the man who sells it to you is not the booking-clerk, but the ticket-agent. The train is already waiting and you get into a car or a sleeper (B. E. - a sleeping carriage). After your journey you get out on the track (platform) and take a cab ( a taxi) or go by subway ( tube, underground) to the hotel or American friend’s of yours. If you want to fix a meeting ( to arrange a meeting) with the friend, it will be best to call him up (not to ring up). If you don’t have enough change you may use a collect call ( B. E. - charge transferred).
IF your friend has an apartment ( a flat) on the second floor (B. E. -first floor) or over, you take an elevator (lift) to come to him. If he lives in a house, he may have a yard (a garden). In the house there is a living room with a dining area, a bedroom and a bathroom. There is a closet (B. E. “wardrobe”) in the bedroom, there are draperies (curtains) on the windows, rugs (carpets) in all rooms. In the bathroom there is a tub (a bath) and a faucet (taps).
When an American goes out he may walk along a sidewalk, (pavement) to the downtown (to the center). He uses the crosswalk ( pedestrian crossing) to cross the street. He puts gas (petrol) at a kitty-corner (diagonally opposite) gas filling station into his automobile, then drivers along a freeway (motorway), takes left ( turns left) and after about three miles he comes to the Interstate (the main motorway in the US connecting different states). The story can be continued on and on.
The origin of many common American words and phrases is very interesting and peculiar. Here are some of them: Uncle Sam. That name used to belong to an American man Samuel Wilson who marched in a parade in the style of dress that had been copied for the picture in
newspaper drawings. Later this name became national personification of the USA, and sometimes more specifically of the American Government.
Yankee This term was at first applied to the inhabitants of the Dutch colonies in North America, especially to those who lived in New Amsterdam, i. e. New York. Dutch name Jan corresponds to English John and Kee may be the pet form of another typical Dutch name. Yankee became the designation of any inhabitant of New England, and sometimes of the whole United States.
OK. The origin of the American word “okay” generally abbreviated to two letters OK, is quite obscure. One of the versions is that O. K. represents the initial letters of “all correct”. The establishment of the new word was reinforced by the use of the letters “O. K. ” for signing official documents during the Presidential term of general Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), who could not be called a well-educated person.
Dollar. The word “dollar” comes from the name of coin used 400 years ago. In 1516 silver coins began to be minted in a mine near a small village, called Joachimstal, in Bohemia. The coin was called a “joahimstaler”, after the village name, or “taler” for short. When the talers were brought to the Netherlands they were used as “daler”. The English borrowed the Dutch form “daler” and began to spell it “dollar”. The dollar had been the currency of Germany and Spain for over two centuries before it became American. Thomas Jefferson proposed that the Spanish dollar would be the unit of currency, thus helping America to become independent of the British pound sterling after the war for independence.
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The California Gold Rush in the late 19PthP century gave rise to many new words, transforming the meanings of the original ones.
Bonanza The modern usage of the word “bonanza” is a figurative extension of its original one as “a very productive mine”, which is itself a direct borrowing from Spanish (meaning “prosperity” or “success”). Nowadays, it denotes something that is prospering quickly, bringing good luck and wealth. One of the long-running American TV series Bonanza portrayed a family of men working on their enormous Nevada ranch. The film reminded the viewers of the farms and ranches in the late 19PthP century,, testifying to the figurative usage of the original word.
To Pan out. This expression meant a method for obtaining the gold by filling a pan with the ore and gently washing away the soil and gravel, leaving the heavier gold at the bottom of the pan. The expression was figuratively broadened to the meaning “ to get success”.
The new ways of life and characters of 20-21 centuries brought a lot of new words and coinages “Disk jockey”, “natural” (something very suitable), “show business”, “star” (popular performer), baby-sitter, basketball, chewing gum, credit card, home-made, know-how and so on are all originally from the American usage of the world of business, entertainment and technology.
Many of the new American words are based on old grammar processes of compounding existing words, as in “boyfriend, bookstore, brainstorm ballfrog, supermarket, heliport (helicopter + airport), motel(motor+ hotel), docusoap (documentary + soap opera), breathalyzer (breath + analyze), fly-drive holiday (to travel by plan and a car”). American English also tends to coin and use more freely nouns compounded from a verb and a preposition, such as “blowout, checkup, fallout, etc. Nouns are used as verbs: to park, to package, to program, to vacation. Adjectives can become nouns: briefs, comics, reds.
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