#53823
01/25/2002 8:05 PM
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Posts: 1,094
old hand
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Today's Xrefer Friday brain-teaser, with our favorite quote:
George Bernard Shaw supposedly said that "Britain and America
are two countries divided by a common language". So do you know
your boardwalks from your pavements? It's time to find out...
Good luck and have fun!
1. The Americans call it a thumbtack. What do the British
call it?
2. The British call it paraffin. What do the Americans
call it?
3. The Americans call it a billfold. What do the British
call it?
4. The Americans call him a mortician. What do the British
call him?
5. The Americans call it cotton candy. What do the British
call it?
6. The British call it a bowler hat. What do the Americans
call it?
7. The Americans call it a skillet. What do the British
call it?
8. The British call it a fanlight. What do the Americans
call it?
9. The Americans call it a vest. What do the British
call it?
10. The Americans call it tick-tack-toe. What do the
British call it?
The answers are at http://www.xrefer.com/brainteaser/2002/01/01252002.jsp
I personally think #3 is a bunch of bull. I know approximately no one who uses the term billfold.
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#53824
01/25/2002 8:35 PM
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Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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#3 I've certainly heard billfold but I've heard their reputed British version at least as often.
#4 Likewise.
#7 The same or even more so.
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#53825
01/25/2002 9:14 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Don't faint, Faldage, I agree with you exactly.
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#53826
01/25/2002 9:52 PM
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Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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1. The Americans call it a thumbtack. What do the British
call it? pushpin
2. The British call it paraffin. What do the Americans
call it? kerosene?
3. The Americans call it a billfold. What do the British
call it? purse
4. The Americans call him a mortician. What do the British
call him? undertaker?
5. The Americans call it cotton candy. What do the British
call it?
6. The British call it a bowler hat. What do the Americans
call it? derby
7. The Americans call it a skillet. What do the British
call it? spider
8. The British call it a fanlight. What do the Americans
call it?
9. The Americans call it a vest. What do the British
call it? I used to know this!
10. The Americans call it tick-tack-toe. What do the
British call it? noughts and crosses
TEd
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#53827
01/25/2002 10:14 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
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I've certainly heard billfold
Yes, I've heard billfold used before, but I don't think I know anyone specifically who uses it, maybe my grandmother. Based on what I've heard, wallet is much more common.
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#53828
01/25/2002 10:27 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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1. The Americans call it a thumbtack. What do the British call it? pushpin Drawing pin, actually.
3. The Americans call it a billfold. What do the British call it? purse Wallet, last time I reached into my hip pocket.
7. The Americans call it a skillet. What do the British call it? spider Frying pan? Oh well, Jim if you know it well.
9. The Americans call it a vest. What do the British call it? I used to know this!
Try waistcoat (or sometimes a pullover). Could also be a singlet. Depends on exactly you mean by vest.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#53829
01/25/2002 11:10 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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the trouble with 8 is, it seems no one under the age of 40 knows transom!
or the most common idiom using it.. to come in over the transom--
transom windows are, i think are different than fan lights.. a fan light is a semi circle window above a door.. and it is fixed.
a transom is rectangluar, and opens by turning on a pivot.
the idiom come from the idea of poor (that is, lacking money) writers who would put manuscripts "in over the transom" and so save the postage, and its used to describe anything of dubious value that arrived unsolicited..
transoms where used alot in the days before A/C-- since they were above the door, and usually to small for a person to fit through, they could be left open, and the hot air would rise, and vent through the transom.
when i was a kid, and live in "new law tenements" (circa, 1880) apartments, the apartments all had transoms..
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#53830
01/26/2002 1:41 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Somebody said "spider". I didn't know until a few years ago that a "spider" is a frying pan with three legs about three inches long for cooking over hot coals on an open hearth. You'd have a tough job finding one today outside of a museum.
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#53831
01/26/2002 3:10 AM
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Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Odd, parafin = wax in French not kerosene. Are you sure it means kerosene??
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#53832
01/26/2002 11:39 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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I see no-one's answered no. 5. It's candy floss.
Bingley
Bingley
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#53833
01/26/2002 3:00 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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"Odd, parafin = wax in French not kerosene. Are you sure it means kerosene??"
When petroleum is fractionated, the short chain compounds boil off first, and are suitable for internal combustion engine fuel. The next longer chain compounds are suitable for heating and illuminationm, and jet airplane fuel. US got home electricity a couple decades ahead of UK, thanks to Insull, and so stopped using "kerosene" a long time ago. We use "paraffin" for one of the solids, which is used for candles and wax paper.It used to be for making seal on top of home made jellies, jams, and preserves.
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#53834
01/26/2002 3:30 PM
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Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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4. The Americans call him a mortician. What do the British call him?
Harumph! No American I know uses "mortician" it is always undertaker or funeral director.
Who made up this list anyway (mumble mumble)
Good fun Jazzo. Thank you.
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#53835
01/26/2002 3:52 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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A thumb tack is a flat, wide disc requiring one finger (or thumb) to imbed. A pushpin has a tall, thinner body (with flanges on top and bottom) *requiring two 'fingers'. A drawing pin was (25 years ago) a pushpin (shape) for securing drafting mylar (I'm sure it still is  ). Depends on exactly you mean by vest. I know what yer sayin', Jimmy.
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#53836
01/26/2002 5:53 PM
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Posts: 13,803
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No American I know uses "mortician"
I think the morticians themselves do.
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#53837
01/26/2002 6:01 PM
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An obsequies professional I knew a long time ago had special bumpersticker on his automobile
" The fishin' Mortician".
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#53838
01/26/2002 9:42 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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A drawing pin was (25 years ago) a pushpin (shape) for securing drafting mylar (I'm sure it still is).
Can you hear me rattling my packet of drawing pins, old son? [snake rattling -e]
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#53839
01/26/2002 10:33 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Can you hear me rattling my packet of drawing pins, old son? [snake rattling -e]Doesn't that hurt when you bend over? 
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#53840
01/28/2002 3:14 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
I know approximately no one who uses the term billfold.
[let-me-introduce-myself emoticon]
I also use "wallet," but I'm pretty sure that I use "billfold" more frequently.
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#53841
01/28/2002 3:45 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
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Say the word wallet. See, to say wallet you must use a high pitched voice. Now say BILLFOLD, How deep, how direct, and how to the point.
Words like wallet should be reserved for the naming of ugly fishes and little birds.
This is an opinion of...,
Milum.
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#53842
01/28/2002 3:57 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Say the word wallet. See, to say wallet you must use a high pitched voice. Now say BILLFOLD, How deep, how direct, and how to the point.
Ah, let us rejoice in our diversity.
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#53843
01/28/2002 5:38 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
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to say wallet you must use a high pitched voice.huh??  
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#53844
01/28/2002 6:35 PM
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Posts: 2,661
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milum - I'm with JazzO on this one. (we are close to the same longitude  ). The 'aw' and the 'eh' in wallet sound a slight bit more grave' together, especially given how acute I've heard *members of the 'upper states' pronounce 'bill'.
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#53845
01/29/2002 11:47 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
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Dear Musick, JazzO, The rest of the world, etc... Must I continually correct myself? I meant A figurative high pitched voice not a real high pitched voice. I was going to say "...the whimpy nasal sound of the french..." but I didn't want to insult a whole nation. Must I be scrutinized by every Tom, Dick, and Jazzo?  Milum.
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#53846
01/29/2002 12:00 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 144
member
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member
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which leads to another oddity as the only 'transom' I had ever heard of before referred to the back of a boat.
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#53847
01/29/2002 12:29 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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but a transom means merely a cross-beam, and from thence gets taken to apply to many individual features by association (boat transom, transom window, etc) ps - I woke eh-nigma by mistake, and she likes 'transpacific' for transom
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#53848
01/29/2002 12:38 PM
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679
addict
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addict
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but a transom means merely a cross-beam, and from thence gets taken to apply to many individual features
by association (boat transom, transom window, etc)
I worked in architecture, in a former life, and a transome (yes, there was an 'e' on the end for some reason) was the horizontal section of wood which bisected a window's sash. The vertical equivalent is a mullion. I've never heard of a transom window but I can guess that one above a door is so called for the divide between the window and door frames.
Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd rather NOT look it up.
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#53849
01/29/2002 2:55 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
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'round here we sometimes refer to a "gentleman of the road" as a Paraffin lamp ( tramp ) or just plain paraffin for short.
the Duncster
the Duncster
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#53850
01/29/2002 2:58 PM
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Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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#53851
01/29/2002 3:02 PM
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Forgive my pasting from my ten buck CD dictionary:
ran[som 7tran4s!m8
n.
5LME traunsom, prob. altered < L transtrum, crossbeam, lit., that which is across < trans: see TRANS36
1 a crosspiece in a structure; specif., a) a lintel b) a horizontal crossbar across the top or middle of a window or the top of a door
>2 a small window or shutterlike panel directly over a door or window, usually hinged to the TRANSOM (sense 1b)
3 any crosspiece; specif., a) the horizontal beam of a gallows or cross b) any of the transverse beams attached to the sternpost of a wooden ship c) the transverse, aftermost part of a boat with a square stern
over the transom by unsolicited submission, as to a publisher: said of a manuscript, etc.
I did it mostly because I got a laugh out of the last phrase, about submitting a manuscript by throwing it through the transom window of the editor's locked door.
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#53852
01/29/2002 3:09 PM
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tran·som (trăn'səm)
n.
1a. A horizontal crosspiece over a door or between a door and a window above it.
b. A small hinged window above a door or another window.
2. A horizontal dividing bar of wood or stone in a window.
3.A lintel.
4. Nautical.
a. Any of several transverse beams affixed to the sternpost of a wooden ship and forming part of the stern.
b. The aftermost transverse structural member in a steel ship, including the floor, frame, and beam assembly at the sternpost.
c. The stern of a square-sterned boat when it is a structural member.
5. The horizontal beam on a cross or gallows.
[Middle English traunsom, probably alteration of Latin trānstrum, cross-beam, from trāns, across. See trans–.]
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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#53853
01/29/2002 3:15 PM
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da clue's in da name.... fan·light (făn'līt')
n.
Architecture. A half-circle window, often with sash bars arranged like the ribs of a fan.
Chiefly British. A transom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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#53854
01/29/2002 3:44 PM
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679
addict
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addict
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fan·light (f?n'l?t')
n.
Architecture. A half-circle window, often with sash bars arranged like the ribs of a fan.
Chiefly British. A transom.Ah!! This explains that old British film - Gassie by fanlightI don't usually confuse my words but in your exception I'm willing to make a case
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#53855
01/29/2002 3:46 PM
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I thought it would be something like that. So Xrefer had it backwards and wrong, both. What the USns call a fanlight the Brits call a transom and what USns call a transom the Brits call ___________.
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#53856
01/29/2002 4:03 PM
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Not sure about that, Faldage. I recognise both descriptions as denoting windows over doors, but my mental image of a fanlight is always semicircular, whereas t'other suggests a rectangular shape. Rubrick, thanks for that vote of condfidence - I aim for the exceptional, but sometimes miss my mark
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#53857
01/29/2002 4:16 PM
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a fanlight is always semicircular, whereas t'other suggests a rectangular shape.
I think USns always think of the transom as being openable. Dunno if that holds for fanlights, too.
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#53858
01/29/2002 5:00 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I think USns always think of the transom as being openable.
Well, not quite. My house has a painful* number of transom windows, none of which open.
*because it's very hard to find window treatments for them
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#53859
01/29/2002 5:02 PM
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think of the transom as being openable
Well, at least theoretically.
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#53860
01/29/2002 5:17 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Must I continually correct myself? Yes! Or someone will do it for you... I meant A figurative high pitched voice not a real high pitched voice. Well, why didn't you say so
I was going to say "...the whimpy nasal sound of the french..." but I didn't want to insult a whole nation.One and a half, actually®.Hi, belM
Must I be scrutinized by every Tom, Dick, and Jazzo?Yes! But it'll be alright, nobody really® cares...I'm glad you left Harry out of this, he's sensitive *that way.
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#53861
01/29/2002 5:20 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I am tempted to log off, and create a new user name...
Casandra!
didn't i say-- back at the beginning..transom windows are, i think are different than fan lights.. a fan light is a semi circle window above a door.. and it is fixed.
a transom is rectangluar, and opens by turning on a pivot
and this goes to you too dr. Bill... i pointed out i only really knew transom being used in the idiom "to come in over the transom"-- ie an unsolicited manuscripts.. same post back at the beginning..
i would edit that to say a transom doesn't have to open..
and sparteye- the correct window treatment requires a little bit of artistic skill. go to craft shop and buy 1) glass etching kit or 2) glass paint kit.
either etch a pattern on the glass (etch glass passes light, but cut down on glare..) or using "glue on" strips that look like lead, create (buy/copy)a stained glass design.
a real big advantage is.. transoms are fairly high up, and no one gets too close, so it looks good even if its not perfect.. You can practice on basement/ ground floor windows.. or on drinking glasses.. plain jane Libby's etch up nicely!
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#53862
01/29/2002 5:26 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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a fan light ...is fixed.
a transom ... opens by turning on a pivot
Yeahbut© you're one of USn, helen. What do the Brits say?
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