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Comment by Vivtek | Hacker News Reader

Cute. Their sidebar isn't all that accurate, though. "Called Joe" a Britishism? 'Fraid not, chaps. Booking a flight? Also not that British. And "an American would say" is more than a little offensive, although surely not intentionally.

Also they missed "wanker" - which has been used a lot lately. It's a good word.

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Non-American here, and I failed to see how "an American would say" is offensive. It seems to me that it's just pointing out the differences, which doesn't ring as offensive at all. Would you care to explain? (I am genuinely asking this question out of curiosity, not criticizing)

Also, +1 on "wanker". It is indeed a good word.

Sorry - in politics, the worst possible thing one American can do to another is to imply that they're not really American. I'm a liberal from Indiana - that may or may not mean anything to you - but somebody identifying me as a not-quite-American based on something I say that maybe sounds too posh really raises my hackles, even as I realize, full well, that it's a really stupid reaction.

Even then, I didn't really notice it until I'd read three things I say that an American wouldn't. Dammit. It's like the time that chick in Germany tried to tell me I don't speak English, just American. I may not know everything, but by God and St. George I am the utter master of my dialect and precisely how and when it differs from whatever we Anglophones deem "standard".

Thanks for the clarification. I thought you were implying that BEING called an American was offensive, instead of the other way around. I understand now.

I also didn't see the implication of being "not really American" if you don't say it that way, but I see what you mean.

Funny story about the girl in Germany, though. :P

Also:

Bit - Not at all uncommon in the US

Sell-by date - Also common in the US. It has different connotations than "expiration date", which is why a lot of grocery stores have started using it. Sometimes packages will even have separate "sell by" and "expiration" (also "use or freeze by") dates.

Metrosexual, Gastropub - These are not Britishisms. They're just recent words that happen to have originated in Britain. That's not at all the same thing. Britishism implies that the word is (or at least was) stereotypically British.

Whilst teaching someone programming the other day I realised that the overloaded word "call" causes great problems. I had to correct "a function called main" to "a function named main", in order to make sense of "calling a function".

Before then I had been unaware that I use the word for different meanings.

>"an American would say" is more than a little offensive

Wait, what? What's offensive about that?

Well, an American would say it's offensive, but they're all just a bunch of fucking cunts so just tell them to piss off.

Internationalized for the Limeys.

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