I blame YouTube, how many more Americanisms are we going to have to suffer ?

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I was going to have a go about alumin- um. But after it was first invented by the Danes the process for smelting was first patented by an American so I suppose it’s fair doos, and they can call it what they want.
But in actual fact it was Sir Humphrey Davey who confused everything which led the Americans to call it that.
 
I would imagine that the early "post" drills were attached to things like a timber frame.

See what I did there!!

The older drills here were not large freestanding units, but rather something assumed to be attached to a standing beam, etc. Not sure about the metalwork side.

Pillar drill is one I've never heard used here, either - but google will turn it into items to buy if searched in the US. Post drill gives us the older post drill type in the US - not sure what it returns if you enter it from the UK.
I suppose I should have guessed, entering post drill here in the UK comes up with a great big drill for drilling post holes i.e. holes for fence posts
 
Increasingly used in the UK:
"protest" not followed by "against", which actually changes its meaning to the opposite, as in:
"to protest your innocence",
"to protest against your innocence".
 
Increasingly used in the UK:
"protest" not followed by "against", which actually changes its meaning to the opposite, as in:
"to protest your innocence",
"to protest against your innocence".

profess would be used instead of protest in the next to last example - at least in the US.

The English language didn't originate here, but we have fixed a lot of the errors in it, so far! :)
 
I was going to have a go about alumin- um. But after it was first invented by the Danes the process for smelting was first patented by an American so I suppose it’s fair doos, and they can call it what they want.
But in actual fact it was Sir Humphrey Davey who confused everything which led the Americans to call it that.
yes it was the Brits who changed the original American spelling on that one.
 
oh they do do traffic circles but not many of them

Three in a row where I grew up. Surprised not to see them as much after moving away and I grew up in a tourist town (Gettysburg, as in Civil War battle). summer traffic was high (tiny town, about 1.7 million visitors a year back then - not sure about now) and one-late roundabout with yields for all coming in, whereas the prior two had right of way through for the main route.

Kept them guessing!

As a youngster, it became popular to run to one end of town and back through the center and around the "Square" (which confused me as a kid because it was a circle). After a while, if you were spotted going through the square 3 times in an hour, you received a non-safety fine (it didn't go on your record, but it cost you money). This was in the 1980s and 1990s when muscle cars sort of had a temporary revival among younger fellows - they're more expensive now and an old man's game.
 
yes it was the Brits who changed the original American spelling on that one.

We figured that you added the extra syllable either due to an impediment or just to be sassy. English men with piles of manners (selectively used, other times not) are thought of as sassy here.
 
I wouldn't say the cramp vs clamp thing is down to American influence, at least in my experience.

I was taught they are cramps, no arguing. Okay, fair enough.

Not sure its a generation thing either. I work with people older than me, and all the non wood related trades call them clamps. They don't strike me as YouTube watchers.
 
I wouldn't say the cramp vs clamp thing is down to American influence, at least in my experience.

I was taught they are cramps, no arguing. Okay, fair enough.

Not sure its a generation thing either. I work with people older than me, and all the non wood related trades call them clamps. They don't strike me as YouTube watchers.
That’s interesting, I wonder if it can be pinned down as to when it started to be used certainly all the books I had when I was of school age for woodwork had it as a cramp, I’m 65 by the way.ian
 
Vise instead of Vice. Doesn’t even sound right.
Clamp for Cramp that one is almost ubiquitous now, in case you didn’t know a clamp is that bit of wood on the end of a breadboard, or something that fastens onto a tube. I think in this case it was just easier for people like Axminster to copy the American way.
Lumber instead of Timber. I think I’m right in saying that lumber in the UK is used to refer to trees before they are cut up.
Jointer for Planer
Tote for Handle.
Is it just me? Am I getting too old?

I find these things real annoying.
 
Just looked. In 2017 they had over 7,000. They are here in Canada as well. So this is a reverse of Americanisms. We are being Britishized....again.

Pete

So you have around the same amount as one town here (Milton Keynes).
 
As an American once proposed "A plan for improving the English language"

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet.

The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
 
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