24 Apr
2012
24 Apr
'12
6:20 a.m.
On 04/23/2012 03:03 PM, David Riley wrote:
On Apr 23, 2012, at 3:54 PM, Mouse wrote:
Yeah, we call them "slippers" here too in the Colonies. A lot of
clothing slang makes it across fairly intact, with the notable
exception of "pants" (which is what we call our trousers, much to
the confusion of our British friends).
It took me a while to get used to referring to sneakers rather than
trainers. Hearing people talking about guys wearing suspenders ('braces' in
UK English) takes much longer to adjust to :-)
I can't really think of any other examples - 'bath robe' vs. 'dressing
gown', I suppose - but you're right, there's a very high degree of
commonality. I found that US English is quite regionalized too, so even if
a different term (to UK English) exists in one part, it doesn't necessarily
mean that it's different across the whole country (the same is true of
pronunciation).
cheers
Jules
[...]
slippers [...]
(Not sure how well slippers translates into West Pondian but
lightweight house shoes...)
That's roughly what my (North American) eye read it as; I think that,
at least in that usage, it's one of those words that doesn't need
translation when it crosses the Atlantic.