Say no to the get-go! Americanisms swamping English, so wake up and smell the coffee

Matthew Engel

By Matthew Engel

UPDATED: 21:01 GMT, 29 May 2010

It happened early this month, shortly after the first cuckoo. I heard it, I swear I heard it. The first get-go of spring. It was on the BBC Breakfast programme on May 11: a presenter was wittering, and distinctly said that something-or-other had been clear 'from the get-go'.

From the what?

Actually, I know all about the get-go or, worse still, the git-go. It's an ugly Americanism, meaning 'from the start' or 'from the off'. It adds nothing to Britain's language but it's here now, like the grey squirrel, destined to drive out native species and ravage the linguistic ecosystem.

Empire State Building in New York

The British have been borrowing words from America for at least two centuries

We have to be realistic: languages grow. The success of English comes from its adaptability and the British have been borrowing words from America for at least two centuries.

Old buffers like me have always complained about the process, and we have always been defeated.

In 1832, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was fulminating about the 'vile and barbarous' new adjective that had just arrived in London. The word was 'talented'. It sounds innocuous enough to our ears, as do 'reliable', 'influential' and 'lengthy', which all inspired loathing when they first crossed the Atlantic.

But the process gathered speed with the arrival of cinema and television in the 20th Century. And in the 21st it seems unstoppable. The U.S.-dominated computer industry, with its 'licenses', 'colors' and 'favorites' is one culprit. That ties in with mobile phones that keep 'dialing' numbers that are always 'busy'.

My dictionary (a mere 12 years old) defines 'geek' as an American circus freak or, in Australia, 'a good long look'. We needed a word to describe someone obsessively interested in computer technology. It seems a shame there was never any chance of coining one ourselves.

Nowadays, people have no idea where American ends and English begins. And that's a disaster for our national self-esteem. We are in danger of subordinating our language to someone else's  -  and with it large aspects of British life.

Enlarge   Engel's terrible ten

Yet no one seems to care. The stern old type of English teacher has died out and many newspapers cannot now afford 'Prodnoses', the last-line-of-defence sub-editors who used to guard the language with a thick pencil.

Sometimes, the language can be improved by the imports. The British would never be able even to define the deficit had we not adopted the American billion (a thousand million) to replace our old hardly used billion (a million million).

I accept that estate agents find it easier to sell fancy apartments rather than boring old flats. And it's right that our few non-passenger trains should carry freight not goods, because that's a more accurate description of the contents.

But the process is non-selective and almost wholly one-way. And it works very strangely. Almost all the parts of a car have different names in America, yet there is no sign of hood replacing bonnet, or the trunk supplanting the boot.

Meanwhile, the most improbable areas of activity are terminally infected. Take the law. Ask any lawyer and they will explain: witnesses in British courts do not testify, they give evidence; nor do they 'take the stand' to do this, they go into the witness box. They do things the American way in media reports of court cases, though  -  day after day.

We are witnessing a transatlantic takeover in politics as well. This month, Britain acquired a National Security Council. Last year, it gained a Supreme Court. There is talk that the House of Lords will be renamed the Senate.

It also used to be understood that, while American politicians 'ran' for office, British politicians always 'stood'. I liked that: it implied a pleasing reticence. Now in Britain both words are used interchangeably and in this month's General Election candidates stood and ran at the same time. No wonder they kept falling flat on their faces.

Then take sport, where Britain's national tastes are totally different from those of the Americans. I happen to belong to the .0001 per cent (approx) of the British population who count as baseball fans. This makes it even more offensive to me when politicians parrot phrases such as 'three strikes and you're out' although they haven't got the foggiest idea what it means.

Technical baseball terms are everywhere. We constantly hear about people 'stepping up to the plate'. For some weird reason, cricket coaches are especially fond of this one. And ideas keep coming from the baseball position of 'left field'. Wouldn't silly mid-on be more appropriate?

And so, hi guys, hel-LO, wake up and smell the coffee. We need to distinguish between the normal give-and-take of linguistic development and being overrun  -  through our own negligence and ignorance  -  by rampant cultural imperialism.

We are all guilty. In the weeks after 9/11 (or 11/9, as I prefer to call it), British journalists, and I was one of them, solemnly reported that the planes had been hijacked by men waving box-cutters, even though no one in Britain knew what a box-cutter was. Very few of us bothered to explain that these were what we have always called Stanley knives.

But it is time to fight back. The battle is almost uncertainly unwinnable but I am convinced there are millions of intelligent Britons out there who wince as often as I do every time they hear a witless Americanism introduced into British discourse.

Stand up and say you care. Feel free to write with your favourite horrors. Come out of the closet. Or better still, the cupboard. 


Matthew Engel is a columnist on the Financial Times. Send your pet hate Americanisms to englishincrisis@gmail.com. 




 

Comments (23)

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I visit the USA a lot. I also have American family members, so I am used to hearing many of these words and phrases. Here is my list of Americanisms, some of which are creeping in over here Taps=faucets, road=pavement or blacktop, pavement=sidewalk, holiday=vacation, toilets=restrooms, scones=biscuits, biscuits=cookies, takeaway=carryout, motorway=freeway, curtains=drapes, jam=jelly, jelly=jell-o, car park=parking lot, handbag=purse, purse=wallet, wallet=billfold, junction=intersection, trousers=pants, bed quilt=comforter, cushion=pillow, garden=yard, cinema=movie theater, torch=flashlight, nappies=diapers, tights=pantyhose, waistcoat=vest, jumper=sweater, worktop=countertop, cupboard=closet, shopping trolley=shopping cart, primary school=elementary school these are just a few, there are hundreds more! I also have to wonder why Americans park on a driveway, yet drive on a parkway...... There are still many differences. It is still English, but not as we know it

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Mr Engel, Please be assured that you are not alone! My pet hate is the way that any pc is configured to US English as standard. Of course it can be told to use UK English but mine have always had a tendancy to reset to US. Any other language can be removed from the memory but American is there for good. If anyone can tell me a reliable way to purge it from my pcs PLEASE post: everything I've tried so far says it will remove it at the next reboot but it never does.

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I'm a dual citizen & my Brit husband & I have had some very strange & funny problems with our English misunderstandings when we first got together. Even though I've lived in Britain longer than I did in the States and have tried to adapt to English ways of speech, I actually fuse the two together & use phrases & grammar interchangeably. This was a point of humour when I was studying to be a teacher of English as a Foreign Language - my poor students learned both styles of English without me realising it! As an American, my favourite Brit English expression is to "she fell pregnant"! OH dear!!!!!

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British news readers saying 'downtown' instead of 'central' makes me wince. They say it all too often these days.

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We are fast becoming the 51st state of the union. It's not only the Americanisation of the English language but most of our traditions. Penny-for-the-guy is now trick-or-treat. Kids now go to proms and we have vacations instead of holidays. Father Christmas is now Santa Claus. Everyone says "hi" instead of "hello" and if I see another sportsman giving another hi-fives I'll lose it! We have the chavvy stretched limos for hen nights. Enough is enough, please lets preserve what is left of our language from the colonials

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Actually one can not blame it all on the Americans... We have the new 'uz' from north of the border when its clearly 'us' with an 'S' not a 'Z'. Also instead of 'you' we now have 'choo'.which is an insult to the English language. And what about those on our BBC treasure hunting shows, no longer do they go to the 'auction' to sell their buys, they go to the 'Oction' I just turn the programme over when I hear a presenter such as Jenny Bond use that irritating pronunciation.

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My pet hates are the use of 'program' instead of 'programme' and 'airplane' instead of 'aeroplane'. I can just about stomach 'computer program' but 'TV program' sets my teeth on edge. Any use of 'airplane' by a Brit is frankly murder of the language of Shakespeare!

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I understand the point your making, hope this article does not offend Americans though, it's a nice country and American people are really very nice.

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Or is it ex-pat ? Why bother with the entire word ? It is so Anglo Saxon. Trust me, you have never communicated until you have put together 'off' & 'of' !! The combination is a necessity in American journalistic prowess. The book fell off of the table. Go figure !!

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Has anyone noticed? The word something no longer exists. The majority of the British population including Newscasters (who should know better) now says somethink. The word is something WITH A "G", not somethink WITH A "K". Come on Britain, start speaking English.

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