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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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#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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Don't faint, Faldage, I agree with you exactly.
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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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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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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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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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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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Odd, parafin = wax in French not kerosene. Are you sure it means kerosene??
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I see no-one's answered no. 5. It's candy floss.
Bingley
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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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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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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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No American I know uses "mortician"
I think the morticians themselves do.
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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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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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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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Pooh-Bah
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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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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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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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to say wallet you must use a high pitched voice.huh??
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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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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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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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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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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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'round here we sometimes refer to a "gentleman of the road" as a Paraffin lamp ( tramp ) or just plain paraffin for short.
the Duncster
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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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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–.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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think of the transom as being openable
Well, at least theoretically.
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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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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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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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>you're one of USn, helen. What do the Brits say?
Not to put words into their mouths, but I'm sure they'll agree that Helen's one of USn!
TEd
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I'm sure they'll agree that Helen's one of USn!Hey! I'm the pedantic nitpicker here !
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What do the Brits say?
Hey!
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Dublin is suddenly British? Hey, back. As an ex-pat Kiwi in Britain, I can categorically state that the British use the word ... for the little window over the door. In Zild, however, all small windows, whether over a door or over a larger window, are known as fanlights. And a lot of them are hinged at the top and are opened by the use of a screw turned by a cord loop. Which inevitably either breaks or gets caught up in the screw mechanism, which in turn inevitably seizes solid so that the only way you can get the damned window open is to unscrew the whole damned contraption and heave in the bloody rubbish bin! If it's your own home you then go out and buy a sliding catch type of thing. If it's a flat (apartment to you benighted people east of LA), you either nail it shut permanently or let the damned thing flap. [pant-pant-pant -e]
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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My house has a painful* number of ... windowsWell, what else WOULD windows be full of??
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And in "Aussie" we say Fairy Floss...
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To be honest, I don't think I've ever called it anything except the window over the front door. If a window's made up of small slats that open and close by being swung round a horizontal axis, I'd call it a louvre window, is that what you mean by a transom?
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I would agree that fanlights are fixed. They're particularly popular in Georgian architecture and you get some people who make whole studies about them. They come in a wide variety of patterns - mine has a number of interlocking oval shapes filling in the semi-circle, others look a bit like the sun with rays coming out of them, some are much fancier. If it's just got plain glass in it, then odds on the original was removed at some point and you've just got a poor imitation. The fanlight is also usually where the house number is put.
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made up of small slats that open and close by being swung round a horizontal axisNot quite. The transom would be like one giant louvre rather than a bunch in parallel. Louvre transom \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
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worthy of hangin' in the Louvre, ol feller!
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Pooh-Bah
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In American architecture, fanlights were typical to the Adam, Colonial Revival, and Early Classical Revival styles. As was already mentioned, fanlights can be variously decorated; one very common version here is the spider light, in which the muntins and glazing are arranged to appear like a spider web.
Transoms can be made to open several ways; a pivot opening has the pivot in the middle of the window pane, so that it spins to become perpendicular to the frame; a hopper window pivots out from the bottom of the pane; and an awning window pivots out from the top of the pane.
"Window" comes from "wind holes," early openings which served principally to provide draft and emit smoke from internal fires.
The components of a window are:
head jamb sill sash frame muntin glazing
If in a wood-frame wall, the structure above the window is supported by a header; if in a masonry wall, the structure above the window is supported by a lintel.
And to complete the list of windows by opening type ... other windows can be fixed, single- or double-hung, casement, sliding or louver.
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Dear Faldage: Does the Louvre have any louvers?
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