ASp has had the excellent idea of starting three new word-threads recently. In that spirit:

Here in the US we would speak of renting a car for the weekend, but I understand you brits would call this hiring a car. In brit-speak, what is the distinction between rent and hire?

my off-the-cuff, can-speak distinction is this: you rent things, but hire people

Many things can be hired. I remember Cal Coolidge's reply to suggestion that Britain's war debts to us be reduced, and he replied: "They hired the money didn't they?"

I remember Cal Coolidge's reply to suggestion that Britain's war debts to us be reduced, and he replied: "They hired the money didn't they?" -wwh

Now Doc, aren't we walking too many exaggerated miles barefoot in the snow to a unheated schoolshack to be
believed by the cosmopolitan people on this board? If you heard Coolidge's remarks on the British war debts on the radio in 1925, you must have been about zero years old.

By the way, Did the Brits ever paid us back?

Dear Milum: In 1925, I was seven years old. I remember listening to presidential election on the radio about that time, but never heard Coolidge.Incidentally Coolidge had more ability than you might gather from some of the slanted history books.

Personally I would rent a hire car.

the Duncster

>you rent things, but hire people

Funny, I would never hire a person, only recruit or employ them, although I might use the term "hire and fire" just because of the way it sounds. I have also seen occasional signs on windows (maybe McDonalds) saying "we're hiring" and people would understand it. Maybe that is where the main difference lies, because we do not, in general, use hire for people we do not need to use replace the term with rent when referring to things.

In running a course for management boards of voluntary organisations we used to say that the main role of the board was to hire and fire the chief executive. Sadly one useful North American philosophy for boards of voluntary organisations never really crossed the pond - "give, get or get off".

I would:
* recruit (possibly using a recruitment agency), employ, contract or "take on" a person
* hire (short term) or lease (longer term) a car (although I see that companies such as Avis and Hertz use the term "car hire and rental" to hedge their bets) - also hire: tools, clothes, bikes almost anything
* rent or lease a flat

Interesting that Avis and Hertz hedge their bets in the UK by advertising "car hire and rental." In the US (and, per boronia's post, Canada as well) it's always rental. Here it's true that one hires people. Not so many years ago families who employed domestic helpers referred to them as a "hired man" or a "hired girl." (As in Robert Frost's wonderful poem "The Death of the Hired Man") These labels were commonly used in parts of New England.

In a similar vein, I wonder if the term "baby sitter" has become more or less universal. Isn't "nanny" the preferred term in the UK, or is that reserved for an ongoing arrangement? I remember when baby sitting was called "keeping house" (at least in the backwoods of NE); then in 1948 a movie called "Sitting Pretty" popularized the term baby sitter.

Dear jmh: In US, "recruit" means to hunt for talent. But many are called, and few are chosen.

Dictionary: to seek to enroll (students) in a college, university, etc., as for the purpose of playing a varsity sport

>I wonder if the term "baby sitter" has become more or less universal. Isn't "nanny" the preferred term in the UK, or is that reserved for an ongoing arrangement?

We'd only use a baby sitter for an evening or so, even if it were a regular evening, usually a teenager, family member or friend.
A nanny would look after a child in your own home (like Mary Poppins) and you can still get Norland Nannies with an updated uniform, although most don't wear uniforms.
A child-minder would be registered with the local authority to look after children in their own home
A nursery nurse or worker would look after children in a nursery (babies up) or a pre-school nursery (2/3 up).
I suppose the people who work in playgroups (organisations registered with the pre-school playgroup association) are called playgroup workers or something like that.

[blue}A child-minder would be registered with the local authority to look after children in their own home.[/blue}

Never heard child-minder, but I love it. It sounds so...no-nonsense, so Mary Poppins. That's another of those terms that makes the Brits so endearing to the American ear.

OOps! I blew the blue.

Dear jmh: In US, "recruit" means to hunt for talent. But many are called, and few are chosen. Dictionary: to seek to enroll (students) in a college, university, etc., as for the purpose of playing a varsity sport

It is interesting to look it up using onelook.com. The entries appear fairly similar, it is the example sentences for recruit in the Cambridge dictionary that give away the different usages. You have the military sense of recruit, I think (eg Raw recruit), interesting that we use it for business recruitment too. I wonder if it was ever used in the US in that sense and was replaced by "hire" or if it was it always so.

I also note that the term "hire purchase" is described as only British and Australian. What would be the US term?
--------------------------------------------------------
recruit(from Cambridge International Dictionary of English)
noun, verb
(to persuade someone to become) a new member of an organization, esp. the army
The raw recruits (=new soldiers) were trained for six months and then sent to the war front. [C]
Charities such as Oxfam are always trying to recruit volunteers to help in their work. [T]
Even young boys are now being recruited to the army. [T]
a recruiting centre/officer
recruitment
noun [U]
The recession has forced a lot of companies to cut down on graduate recruitment.
It's all part of a recruitment drive intended to increase the party's falling numbers.
He works for a recruitment consultancy in London.
--------------------------------------------------------
recruit(from Cambridge Dictionary of American English)
verb [T]
to persuade (someone) to become a new member of an organization
The coach spends a lot of time recruiting the top high school athletes.
recruit
noun [C]
a new member of an organization, esp. a military organization
----------------------------------------------------------
Main Entry: 1re·cruit Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
Pronunciation: ri-'krüt
Date: 1643
transitive senses
1 a (1) : to fill up the number of (as an army) with new members : REINFORCE (2) : to enlist as a member of an armed service b : to increase or maintain the number of <America recruited her population from Europe> c : to secure the services of : ENGAGE, HIRE d : to seek to enroll <recruit students>
2 : REPLENISH
3 : to restore or increase the health, vigor, or intensity of
intransitive senses : to enlist new members
- re·cruit·er noun
Main Entry: 2recruit
Function: noun
Etymology: French recrute, recrue fresh growth, new levy of soldiers, from Middle French, from recroistre to grow up again, from Latin recrescere, from re- + crescere to grow -- more at CRESCENT
Date: circa 1645
1 : a fresh or additional supply
2 : a newcomer to a field or activity; specifically : a newly enlisted or drafted member of the armed forces
3 : a former enlisted man of the lowest rank in the army

---------------------------------------------------------
hire(from Cambridge Dictionary of American English)
verb [T]
to start to employ (someone)
You ought to hire a lawyer to handle your taxes.

hire
noun [C]
an employee
Those retiring will be replaced by new hires.
------------------------------------------------------
hire(from Cambridge International Dictionary of English)
verb [T]
to pay to use (something) for a short period or to pay (someone) to do a job temporarily, or esp. Am to start to employ (someone)
How much would it cost to hire (AM USUALLY rent) a car for a fortnight? [T]
You could always hire (AM USUALLY rent) a dress for the ball if you can't afford to buy one.
I had to hire a gardener for a couple of months when I broke my leg.
We ought to hire a public relations consultant to help improve our image. [+ obj + to infinitive]
ESPECIALLY AMERICAN Our continuing success means that we will need to hire a hundred more staff over the coming year.

(British and Australian) Hire purchase (Am Installment plan) is a system of paying for something in which the buyer pays part of the cost immediately and then makes small regular payments until the debt is reduced to nothing.
Something bought on hire purchase is usually more expensive because an interest charge is added to the original price.

hire
noun [U]
There's a camping shop in town that has tents for hire (AM USUALLY rent) at £10 a week.
How much would it cost for the hire (AM USUALLY rental) of a moped for the weekend?
They run a hire car business (=a business renting cars to people).
He had an accident while he was driving a hire car (=a car that had been hired).

hired
adjective [not gradable]
a hired car
The police believe he was killed by a hired assassin.
My mother has a hired help (=She pays someone to help her in her home).

hiring
noun [C usually pl]
The office has completely changed in the past few weeks because there have been so many hirings and firings (=a lot of new people have been employed and a lot of others have lost their jobs).
----------------------------------------------------------

>Well ain't that bloody typical - 4 million Zilders count fer nuttin', as usual.

Max, we must untie - we'll write to the reference books immediately.

>we use a saucy abbreviation instead

I was trying to ketchup with posts tonight but it is a hopeless plan. I'm getting a bit browned off and it's time to hit the sack.

thes remids me that on a thread called terms of endearment I mentioned that I sometimes call Peggy "Mustard Bean." It's because
"You mustard bean a beautiful baby,
Cause Baby won;t you look at you now..."

Baby sitters and au pairs about ten years ago got a lot of bad publicity about having injured their charges.
I am reminded of overhearing a couple of homeward bound baby sitters on a bus in outskirts of Boston. One was complaining bitterly about her charges having made so much noise she couldn't enjoy her rock and roll tapes. Her companion said smugly: I don't have that problem. I turn on the gas in the oven and shove their heads in until they shut up."

To my edu-gator friend, and other new folks: you can correct your mistakes or change your wording, if you like. In your own posts only, you should see a second icon right next to the Reply to this Post one. Click on that one, and you'll be given a screen whereby you can edit all you like, then re-submit it.
As an aside, deletions can be interesting. It occasionally happens that someone posts something from another post--but, subsequent to the new posting, the original one or the relevant part of it, gets deleted. So, people are sometimes left wondering where a particular quote came from, since it is no longer visible!