Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

OK, not the first time the mysteries of American English to British people and vice-versa have been discussed, but I just wondered if there were any particular phrases that have cropped up in films (aka movies) that people have found particularly perplexing.

The particular prompt for this post is that I've finally got round to using the internet to deciphering a line from my all time favourite film that has confused me for decades, on all the umpteen occasions I've watched it.

The film is Billy Wilder's "The Apartment", the scene is where CC Baxter's next door neighbour Dr Dreyfuss is warning Baxter about the risks of his apparent fast living, with particular reference to the number of women he apparently takes back to his flat. Sometimes, notes Dreyfuss, Baxter has a "twi-night double header". I kept thinking "What the hell did he just say? It sounded like twi-night double header, but twi-night is not a word." But, I just learnt, in baseball circles over there it apparently is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleheader_(baseball)

[Stumpy Pepys]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

"The DA is busting my ass / I've got the DA's office on my back"

I know I can look this up, but I still don't really know what a district attorney does.

[Toro Toro]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Same as the DPP, more or less.

[Reed John]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Not sure DPP stands for.
The District Attorney is usually elected, but they also have a bunch of Assistant DA's. All of them are lawyers. They're the ones who represent The People in criminal trials. Around here, our DA actually tries some cases in court herself, but in big cities, I think they just manage all the ADA's. At least, that's how it is on Law & Order. Do you not have that on tv where you are?

States have Attorneys General who run state level investigations and prosecutions. The Federal Government's AG is in charge of the Justice Department but I don't know how much direct control they have over stuff like the FBI. I should pay more attention. UA would know.

[Toro Toro]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Director of Public Prosecutions. As the name suggests, they have the same function as the DA in terms of deciding which cases are pursued, though they usually hire council to do so rather than prosecuting themselves. Also not an elected position. But for purposes of the quotes, it's the closest equivalent.

[ursus arctos]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

As Reed's post intimates, a significant difference between a District Attorney and the Director of Public Prosecutions is that the former is a local office in the US, whereas the latter is a national office in the UK.

As a general rule, each county in the US will have its own District Attorney, which has the effect of charging decisions being more local and less uniform than they would be in a national system.

For federal crimes, the DA equivalent is the local United States Attorney (one per judicial district, many states having more than one), though US Attorneys are subject to supervision by the (federal) Attorney General (currently Eric Holder) in a way that is more similar to the way the DPP and Crown Prosecution Service work in the UK. Also unlike (most) DAs, USAs are appointed, not elected.

This gives me yet another opportunity to remind everyone that in contrast to the situation in much of the world, the large majority of criminal prosecutions in the US are on the state (rather than federal) level and are thus brought by local officials like county district attorneys. This is important for all kinds of reasons, but to pick just one current example, any decision to prosecute Darren Wilson (the cop who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson) will be made by local officials and their decision cannot be directly overruled by the federal government. Should Missouri decide not to charge Wilson, the only recourse the federal prosecutors would have would be to find a federal crime they could charge Wilson under (most likely a criminal violation of a federal civil rights statute). Alternatively, they could potentially charge him with a civil violation of a similar statute.

Gauss may be cheered to know that the "twi-night doubleheader" or indeed any kind of doubleheader is pretty much extinct at the major league level. In yet a further demonstration of the owner's greed, in the rare cases where two games are scheduled on the same day, they are now almost always separate admissions (with a couple of hours between games instead of 20 or so minutes). All kinds of doubleheaders (including twi-nighters) still exist in the minor leagues and amateur game.

Wilder was known for being a baseball fan, but the term would have been broadly understood by the general public in the US at the time of the film (and for a couple of decades after its release).

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Thanks ursus, that was interesting, background-wise and otherwise-wise.

[treibeis]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

In one episode of Top Cat, Benny the Ball swallows a diamond and has to have his stomach X-rayed. It turned out he'd had a pastrami sandwich for lunch.

I had no idea what pastrami was. And when I asked my father, he said it was "just one of those American words that they make up".

[hobbes]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

He must have a rye sense of humour.

[Ginger Yellow]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

What a load of baloney.

[Renart]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Speaking of cured meats, the word "saveloy" threw me for a loop in Withnail & I. I figured out from context that it was a sausage, but didn't know if it was a particular kind of sausage, a brand name, or a regional term, etc.

[ursus arctos]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Pork sausages sort of like a frankfurter, though more highly spiced, and preternaturally red.



Common at fish and chips places, and supposedly sometimes served battered and fried.

[caja-dglh]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Sometimes? It is the only way they are served in Scotland.

Personally I prefer the deep fried haggis myself. Or the deep fried double cheeseburger - two burgers and a bit of processed cheese between, battered and lobbed in the fryer like a grenade.

[Renart]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

At first I thought the idea of a battered and fried sausage was weird, but that's pretty much what a corny dog is, and I eat two of those once a year at the State Fair of Texas.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Sometimes? It is the only way they are served in Scotland.

It's the only way anything is served in Scotland isn't it?

[Reed John]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Renart wrote: At first I thought the idea of a battered and fried sausage was weird, but that's pretty much what a corny dog is, and I eat two of those once a year at the State Fair of Texas.

Never heard it called a corny dog. Just corn dog or pronto pup. I think Pronto Pup is the brand name of the kind at the Minnesota State fair.

[Jah Womble]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Sloppy Joe: that was the foodstuff we seemed to be force fed when I was at school in Wyoming. Few UK residents know what one is, however - basically a mince sandwich in a bun. The name is therefore self-explanatory.

[Ginger Yellow]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Whenever we had sloppy joes at home, which wasn't often to be fair, it was always with a hard taco rather than a bun.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

I don't think I've ever eaten saveloy, in fact the only time I can recall noticing it in my presence is when I was doing a Saturday job as a teenager at Asda back in 1980. Mind you, I'm pretty unobservant, so I dare say it's been available in plenty of chippies where I've queued up for fish and chips.

I always assumed that it was made largely of brains, because I once heard the etymology. But apparently it's now transcended its etymology and is usually brains-free. A bit like how the "mincemeat" used in "mince pies" around Christmas time in Britain has no meat in it these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saveloy

[Gangster Octopus]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

In all the times that I've been in chippies, I've always seen saveloys on offer, but I've never seen anyone buy one.

[Renart]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Reed John wrote: Never heard it called a corny dog. Just corn dog or pronto pup. I think Pronto Pup is the brand name of the kind at the Minnesota State fair.

There are competing claims on its origin. The Fletcher's stand at the Texas State Fair claims they invented it, and they sell them as "corny dogs," and since my family is from Texas that's what we've always called them. "Corn dog" is the most common term around the country, though, I think.

[WOM]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Gangster Octopus wrote: In all the times that I've been in chippies, I've always seen saveloys on offer, but I've never seen anyone buy one.

In a chippy in Worthing, I swear I saw a saveloy or a sausage that was battered like fish. Did I make that up, or is that a thing?

[ursus arctos]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

If you had read the thread, you would know that that is a thing (and is evidently de rigeur in Scotland).

[WOM]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

I stopped reading around District Attorney and skipped down to encased meats. It's the usual path, I suspect.

[Patrick Thistle]

Transatlantic linguistic bewilderment

Battered sausages are quite common in chip shops.

One phrase that causes transatlantic confusion mong the Americans I meet over here on internships is 'I'm pissed'.

USA: I'm angry!!
UK: I'm super-drunk. (and I love you...!)

I've also noticed said interns use 'bastard' as a very mild term of abuse, but then apparently 'ass' is vulgar. Definitely the other way round over here.

I remember reading Garfield cartoons as a kid and wondering why Garfield 'beat up on' Odie, when he could just 'beat up' Odie.