AMERICANISM

AMERICANISM. A usage or custom peculiar to, or common in, the US. The term refers primarily to English words and phrases that acquired a new sense (bluff, corn, lumber) or entered the language (OK, raccoon, squash) in what is now the US, but also to features of pronunciation, grammar, and sentence structure. The term has often been used contrastively, especially in the US, with BRITICISM. ‘Bilingual’ lists, drawn up for both academic and popular purposes, commonly contrast items in pairs, one being identified as the American usage, the other as the British equivalent (or vice versa). The following list contains a number of pairs of words and phrases (Briticisms first, Americanisms second) widely regarded as distinguishing AmE from BrE: accommodation (uncountable), accommodations (countable plural), with regard to rooms in hotels, etc.; aluminium, aluminum; anticlockwise, counter-clockwise; biscuit, cookie; bonnet, hood (of a car); boot, trunk (of a car); candy floss, cotton candy; caravan, trailer (pulled by a car); cornflour, cornstarch; cot, crib; drawing pin, thumbtack; fanlight, transom; founder member, charter member; goods train, freight train; high street, main street (of a town); hoarding, billboard; jumble sale, rummage sale; lift, elevator; the abbreviations maths and math; nappy, diaper; noticeboard, bulletin board; noughts and crosses, tick-tack-toe; number plate, licence plate (for a road vehicle); pavement, sidewalk; petrol, gas(oline); post code, zip code; return ticket, round trip ticket; right-angled triangle, right triangle; a rise, raise (in salary); rowingboat, rowboat; sailing boat, sailboat; silencer, muffler (on a car); single ticket, one way ticket; skirting board, baseboard; sledge, sled; sweets, (hard) candy; torch, flashlight (powered by batteries); windscreen, windshield (on a vehicle); zip, zipper. See AMERICAN ENGLISH AND BRITISH ENGLISH.