British 🇬🇧 vs 🇺🇸 American ENGLISH

[Remi]

I am keen to see what else is spoken/named different vs
And maybe any comments/ideas WHY this or that is named/called different?

[Remi]

Also

[Remi]

Most people who use this phrase says

As live in the UK, I prefer to say
’‘Another day, another shilling’’

[Revels]

Sort of related, people need to stop saying “reach out”

[davidwalton (Award Winning Hot Coral Analyst)]

I lived in the US for a while. Once when a friend there rented a new apartment and invited us to see it, I said ‘there’s not enough room to swing a cat in here’. That took some explaining…

[Remi]

Maybe I got what you want to say, but as not native English speaker, I probably would ask you to explain me it too

[Remi]

@Revels

“reach out”

What’s wrong with ‘‘reach out’’?

[davidwalton (Award Winning Hot Coral Analyst)]

Here we go…

As a description of space, if you grab a cat’s tail and start circling around quickly (like an Olympic hammer-thrower), if the cat hits the walls, it’s a small space.

EDIT: This is a theoretical comment. No cats were harmed in this production.

[N26throwaway]

Yup, I’d need that one explaining too!

I’m just picturing someone trying to swing a cat in a room.

I probably fall squarely in the middle. I lived in America for much of life, and have more friends and family over there than I do here, and talk to them more frequently than I do brits too.

[Remi]

I definitely understood it now
Thanks

[N26throwaway]

Ah, so in this case it’s a literal thing not an idiom! (I hate idioms) So I was right after all! Although I was picturing the cat being held by it’s front paws. That’s how I’d swing it.

[Remi]

@davidwalton

if you grab a cat’s tail

I love this conversation
It took only a few seconds to move from Englist subject to swinging across the room ‘‘picture’’

[Revels]

It’s an Americanism that needs to stop. Just say contact.

[breville_monkey]

I blame depeche mode

[Dunsford (Colin Robinson)]

On the cooking ingredients I had to look up arugula first time I saw it in an American recipe.

Eruca vesicaria

[Rat_au_van (Em)]

It’s cilantro that gets me every time

[Dunsford (Colin Robinson)]

Ah yes, that one too!

Coriander

[HoldenCarver (Nick)]

I always annoy my parents by saying oregano () instead of oregano ()

[davidwalton (Award Winning Hot Coral Analyst)]

Aluminum already.

[SouthseaOne (Michael)]

Living in Portsmouth, I of course get told repeatedly how many of these stock British phrases come from Royal Navy origins

Square meal is one example

So I am happy/sad to report that the cat in question is not one of our small feline friends, but in fact a cat o’ nine tails