Borrowed Americanisms

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liaconn

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Playdate

Anyone else find this expression really, really annoying? And what other Americanisms grate on you?
 
Half them I can't post here, but I vividly remember an eight year old Irish kids being severely adminished by his Mum as he got into her car outside the Rotunda one day when something occured and the little lad exclaimed -

"BEEEE-AATCHH!"

"Did you just call your mother a bitch!?" exclaimed his Mum.

"Wha'? No, I - all the guys say that," said the genuinely confused little boy.

"S'all right Caroline - I caugh my little fellah saying in out the back garden to his friend the other day - its dem American TV programs!" said her friend who was with her.

Good job he hadn't called her a "Ho".
 
I prefer some americanisms though- for example 'fall'. So descriptive and yet simple.
 
Watergate was incredible
Now we have:
Bertiegate
Drunkgate
AIBgate
Badhairgate if Catherine Zeta Jones is photographed on a windy day

Lazy journalism from hacks who think they are the next Woodward and Bernstein


"Do the math" is another one
It's Maths or Mathematics, it is not Math
 
Vanilla said:
I prefer some americanisms though- for example 'fall'. So descriptive and yet simple.
Click to expand...

I quite like many of the the American neologisms and prefer them to many old fashioned military or biblical allusions such as..

Line Management
Open a new front.
Top Brass
sacraficial lamb etc.

I think new words and phrases are great and think that we Irish should keep the tradition going by inventing new ones!
 
micmclo said:
Watergate was incredible
Now we have:
Bertiegate
Drunkgate
AIBgate
Badhairgate if Catherine Zeta Jones is photographed on a windy day

Lazy journalism from hacks who think they are the next Woodward and Bernstein


"Do the math" is another one
It's Maths or Mathematics, it is not Math
Click to expand...

You forgot Cowan' gate
 
ajapale said:
I quite like many of the the American neologisms and prefer them to many old fashioned military or biblical allusions such as..

Line Management
Open a new front.
Top Brass
sacraficial lamb etc.

I think new words and phrases are great and think that we Irish should keep the tradition going by inventing new ones!
Click to expand...

But PLAYDATE?????? WTF?

Just say 'he's going over to a friend's house'. or 'one of his pals in school asked him over'.

I don't say I'm going for a 'chatdate' or a 'cupofcoffeedate'. :(
 
As long as we are talking about phrases we like or use I confess to have used the following -

"...from the get-go..."

"...like..."

"...hot..."

"...babe..."
 
liaconn said:
But PLAYDATE?????? WTF?

Just say 'he's going over to a friend's house'. or 'one of his pals in school asked him over'.

I don't say I'm going for a 'chatdate' or a 'cupofcoffeedate'. :(
Click to expand...

Sorry liaconn,

"Playdate" is embedded in my 11-year old's lexicon as "playday" and is used interchangeably amongst the Mums.

"Playdate"
"Playday"

Dare I say it - "who knew"?
 
I suppose the ultimate Americanism has to be the "Department of Defense"...
 
Unless you play baseball you do not call people to "touch base"

We're deep in the fourth quarter
A Hail Mary has nothing to do with religion, it's a last ditch attempt to save the day
That team is the winningest team around

If you screwed over a colleague I'd say you were out to "hang them"
That's being replaced by "throw them under the bus".
It means the same thing
 
onq said:
Sorry liaconn,

"Playdate" is embedded in my 11-year old's lexicon as "playday" and is used interchangeably amongst the Mums.

"Playdate"
"Playday"

Dare I say it - "who knew"?
Click to expand...

I've a friend who uses 'playdate' all the time and it sounds so stupid even though she's really intelligent. I keep expecting her to start talking about 'sidewalks' and going out to the 'backyard'.
 
and going out to the 'backyard'.
Click to expand...

Now, Liaconn, I'm totally confused.

Where else would you be going? Hello?

I'm a country gal :))) and we always used that term.

Marion
 
liaconn said:
But PLAYDATE?????? WTF?

Just say 'he's going over to a friend's house'. or 'one of his pals in school asked him over'.

I don't say I'm going for a 'chatdate' or a 'cupofcoffeedate'. :(
Click to expand...
I don't mind playdate - we don't have a short alternative ourselves - just the long-winded versions you mention. Much easier ('tis the season for new kids at school to make new friends) to say 'we'll arrange a playdate' than 'we'll arrange for your son to come to our house or my son to go to your house' or 'we'll arrange for them to play together in one of their houses next week'. Playdate is succinct - it is a bit of a weird word but there isn't really an alternative.
 
Marion said:
Where else would you be going? Hello?

Marion
Click to expand...

Exactly!

We must have been 'posher' than you, Betsy Og, our haggart was actually one of the fields, each field having its own name- eg 'the field with the tree in the middle', 'the mushroom field', 'the coarse meadow' and so on.

I'm now immune to 'playdate' too.

I love talking to my american sister-in-law, we sometimes get completely confused and befuddled. The other day she sent my dad an email telling him '... and you know what you can do with...household implement'. Oh how I laughed when dad rang me, astonished at what his daughter-in-law was saying to him.
 
Betsy, the word is "haggart" not "haggard" like when you do something wrong, you wade in with a haggart of apologies . . .

Haggard means something else . . . although you could have a haggard haggart.
 
Betsy Og said:
A real culchisim is to use the word "haggard" to refer to a backyard - which I agree is not an Americanism.
Click to expand...

We have a back yard and a haggard but we pronounce it haggart. The backyard is concreted while the haggart isn't. The big hay cocks were there and a sick cow was let sleep there at night.
 
...the one I found infiltrated has into my brain earlier today - so subtly that I forgot about it when posting here previously..."bigtime"
 
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