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British English A to ZEd
Thoroughly revised and updated, this authoritative language reference provides American equivalents for nearly five thousand Briticisms and explains the history of each expression, with information on pronunciation, punctuation, language usage, and style. Simultaneous.
430 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 11, 2015
A handy resource for us non-Brits writing (or attempting to write) stories with characters who speak actual English.
February 2, 2012
It’s often said that the first day on a job is the most memorable. That has certainly held true for my past two jobs. My first day on the news desk of the local newspaper took place on a day when there were three major fires and a gas explosion in town. The person who was in charge of training me had both her hands in casts due to carpal tunnel syndrome and I ended up being her arms while she taught me how to use the computer system, what the page processing system was, and how to move pages off the floor with lots of late-breaking stories and tight deadlines.
In my current job, my first day was less exciting, but no less memorable. I was handed nine workbooks that were in the silvers (a final printing stage where the printer sends you print-outs of the negatives) and told to proof them. Nothing too exciting, except that the books were all in Mandarin Chinese. I did end up finding some mistakes, but no, I don’t know the first thing about Mandarin Chinese, nor have I ever learned any Oriental languages.
My second task on this job continued to task my language abilities. I was assigned a seminar to write on housekeeping for housekeepers in the Asian-Pacific region. It would be written in English—British English. Yet another language I was familiar with only in how it coincided with my own. So we went searching for a reference book that would help us “translate” as we wrote. The book we ended up getting was British English: A to Zed by Norman W. Schur. It describes itself as a “rigorously researched, wickedly witty, and eminently useful collection of nearly 5,000 Briticisms (and Americanisms).
In the spirit of being “wickedly witty,” it opens with several quotes about the American and British forms of English, some funny, some merely supportive of the need for such a dictionary. A sampling:
“When the American people get through wit the English language, it will look as if it had been run over by a musical comedy.”
--Mr. Dooley (Finley Peter Dunne)
“The English and the American languages and literature are both good things; but they are better apart than mixed.”
--H.W. and F.G. Fowler in The King’s English Oxford, 1906.
“Giving the English language to the Americans is like giving sex to small children; they know it’s important but they don’t know what to do with it.”
--Morton Cooper as reported in The Times (London), Nov. 1, 1974
“If it weren’t for the language, you couldn’t tell us apart.”
--Bob Hope, to the British in a television program
“…the English talk funny.”
--William Safire, in On Language, New York Times, October 2, 1983.
Most of the book is in dictionary format, offering the British word on the left, the American word on the right, and a definition of the two below. For example:
nappy n. diaper
A diminutive of napkin, and the everyday word for diaper, which is seldom heard in Britain.
The book also contains two rather useful appendices. The first covers the general differences between British and American English. This appendix covers syntax, pronunciation, spoken usage and figures of speech, and punctuation and style. Certainly the figures of speech are what make up the majority of the dictionary entries, but the other areas are equally interesting. When it comes to syntax, one of the main differences is in the use of prepositions. “Britons live in rather than on such and such a street.”
Other syntax differences include definite articles (Brits leave them out more frequently than Americans), compound nouns (Americans go for shorter words for the first half of a compound noun, Brits lengthen them), noun-verb agreement when dealing with collectives, and the use of who and other pronouns.
There is also a section devoted to spelling differences. The most common ones are the British using -our for word endings where Americans use -or. Also the British use -reand -ise where Americans use -er and -ize.
The second appendix is one of glossaries and tables. It includes:
* Currency
* Financial terms
* Units of measure
* Numbers
* Automotive terms
* Musical notation
* Slang
* Food names
* Botanical and zoological names
* Britain, Briton, British, English, etc.
* Cricket terms
* Connotative place-names
* Connotative names of periodicals
I must confess. While we found this reference book interesting and entertaining, our deadline was too pressing to allow us to read and memorize the entire book in order to effectively write the seminar according to contract. We used it to check on some phrases, and then hired an exchange student from England to read our seminars and “translate” them into the appropriate language for us.
Nonetheless, if you are a fan of linguistics and enjoy learning of the differences between American English and its mother tongue, I encourage you to take a look at this book. It may even make your next viewing of those delightful British sit-coms a bit more whimsical.
In my current job, my first day was less exciting, but no less memorable. I was handed nine workbooks that were in the silvers (a final printing stage where the printer sends you print-outs of the negatives) and told to proof them. Nothing too exciting, except that the books were all in Mandarin Chinese. I did end up finding some mistakes, but no, I don’t know the first thing about Mandarin Chinese, nor have I ever learned any Oriental languages.
My second task on this job continued to task my language abilities. I was assigned a seminar to write on housekeeping for housekeepers in the Asian-Pacific region. It would be written in English—British English. Yet another language I was familiar with only in how it coincided with my own. So we went searching for a reference book that would help us “translate” as we wrote. The book we ended up getting was British English: A to Zed by Norman W. Schur. It describes itself as a “rigorously researched, wickedly witty, and eminently useful collection of nearly 5,000 Briticisms (and Americanisms).
In the spirit of being “wickedly witty,” it opens with several quotes about the American and British forms of English, some funny, some merely supportive of the need for such a dictionary. A sampling:
“When the American people get through wit the English language, it will look as if it had been run over by a musical comedy.”
--Mr. Dooley (Finley Peter Dunne)
“The English and the American languages and literature are both good things; but they are better apart than mixed.”
--H.W. and F.G. Fowler in The King’s English Oxford, 1906.
“Giving the English language to the Americans is like giving sex to small children; they know it’s important but they don’t know what to do with it.”
--Morton Cooper as reported in The Times (London), Nov. 1, 1974
“If it weren’t for the language, you couldn’t tell us apart.”
--Bob Hope, to the British in a television program
“…the English talk funny.”
--William Safire, in On Language, New York Times, October 2, 1983.
Most of the book is in dictionary format, offering the British word on the left, the American word on the right, and a definition of the two below. For example:
nappy n. diaper
A diminutive of napkin, and the everyday word for diaper, which is seldom heard in Britain.
The book also contains two rather useful appendices. The first covers the general differences between British and American English. This appendix covers syntax, pronunciation, spoken usage and figures of speech, and punctuation and style. Certainly the figures of speech are what make up the majority of the dictionary entries, but the other areas are equally interesting. When it comes to syntax, one of the main differences is in the use of prepositions. “Britons live in rather than on such and such a street.”
Other syntax differences include definite articles (Brits leave them out more frequently than Americans), compound nouns (Americans go for shorter words for the first half of a compound noun, Brits lengthen them), noun-verb agreement when dealing with collectives, and the use of who and other pronouns.
There is also a section devoted to spelling differences. The most common ones are the British using -our for word endings where Americans use -or. Also the British use -reand -ise where Americans use -er and -ize.
The second appendix is one of glossaries and tables. It includes:
* Currency
* Financial terms
* Units of measure
* Numbers
* Automotive terms
* Musical notation
* Slang
* Food names
* Botanical and zoological names
* Britain, Briton, British, English, etc.
* Cricket terms
* Connotative place-names
* Connotative names of periodicals
I must confess. While we found this reference book interesting and entertaining, our deadline was too pressing to allow us to read and memorize the entire book in order to effectively write the seminar according to contract. We used it to check on some phrases, and then hired an exchange student from England to read our seminars and “translate” them into the appropriate language for us.
Nonetheless, if you are a fan of linguistics and enjoy learning of the differences between American English and its mother tongue, I encourage you to take a look at this book. It may even make your next viewing of those delightful British sit-coms a bit more whimsical.
September 12, 2019
Obviously this is a book to USE or to browse through----NOT to read cover to cover.
I had checked this title out of the library about 10 years ago and it has been on my mental list to buy since then. Last week I found a used copy online.
Now I have to clear a spot on my charside table so that it will be handy for look-ups as I read (I read a lot of books by British authors).
BTW, my copy is the 5th printing of the 1987 edition. Goodreads does not have a picture for this edition. Its cover has portions of the Union Jack and the Stars & Stripes.
At some point I shall have to find out if the 2007 edition is significantly different..
From watching British movies & TV I expect that one addition would be "mobile" = cell phone. Its pronounced with a long "I" to rhyme with "mile". I just looked in my edition of the book and, as I expected, that word is NOT included. In 1987 cell phones were RARE.
I had checked this title out of the library about 10 years ago and it has been on my mental list to buy since then. Last week I found a used copy online.
Now I have to clear a spot on my charside table so that it will be handy for look-ups as I read (I read a lot of books by British authors).
BTW, my copy is the 5th printing of the 1987 edition. Goodreads does not have a picture for this edition. Its cover has portions of the Union Jack and the Stars & Stripes.
At some point I shall have to find out if the 2007 edition is significantly different..
From watching British movies & TV I expect that one addition would be "mobile" = cell phone. Its pronounced with a long "I" to rhyme with "mile". I just looked in my edition of the book and, as I expected, that word is NOT included. In 1987 cell phones were RARE.
October 11, 2013
Being the Anglophile that I am, this book was right up my alley. I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who said that England and America were separated by a common language........and how true it is. This is almost a reference book to the everyday English spoken in England. Colorful phrases like "Bob's your Uncle" and "Money for jam" make this book such fun. Many of the words and phrases have been adopted by Americans but the majority will be unfamiliar. This book is for the armchair traveler, the person getting ready to set out on a trip to England, or an Anglophile. It is also a book that can be read in-between larger tomes since you can read a few pages at a time, put it down, and pick it up a week later. It is "top hole"!!!!!
August 8, 2017
Format is bad
It's a good book and very interesting content. However the Kindle version is formatted very poorly after the letter K to the point that it is unreadable. Wish I'd actually be able to read the latter half of the book.
It's a good book and very interesting content. However the Kindle version is formatted very poorly after the letter K to the point that it is unreadable. Wish I'd actually be able to read the latter half of the book.
May 24, 2014
An indispensable reference for me when I started dating a British girl. It remained very handy through the first couple years of our marriage.
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January 17, 2014I come to this from a slightly different angle, since, though I had read some British books before I went to Australia, I found that Australian English was another beast entirely, one so strange that, like early stuffed specimens of the platypus, unfamiliar people might well think it a hoax, cobbled together for amusements from parts of other beasts.
Aussie English is very far from a simple duplicate of lower-class British English. It's complicated by Irish, Scottish, and Welsh English, heavily spiced and accented from the Gaelic, with added regionalisms from places like the Channel Islands, the Hebrides, etc. Then words from various Aboriginal languages are peppered in (though most of those have become internationalized), and quite a few Americanisms. So Aussie English isn't that useful as a guide to British English.
In an episode of the tv show Scarecrow And Mrs King, the mother (played, as so many mothers in older shows were, by Beverly Garland) comes in an picks up the book her distracted daughter has dropped. "I see you're like me", she says. "You always like reading a good dictionary."
Well, so do I. And from what I've gotten to so far, this one seems fairly good, though I gather it's not too well indexed. It's entertaining, and the charming apologies in advance of the lexicographer for any inaccuracies that might have crept in bode well. But I won't know for sure until I get to the end.
I haven't tried looking things up via the index: I just read straight through. I should probably test the index sometime, but I probably will just put the book in my reference section.
This edition is dated, and the author is aware that in many cases, he is reporting usages that are already on the way out. I used a halfpenny coin in London as late as 1978, for example, and prices were still quoted in halfpennies. But they were already on the way out at that time, and probably they still exist in private collections--but you'd be unlikely to get one in change in an ordinary transaction.
This means that this edition is more useful for trying to decipher British novels from earlier ages. The tables at the end are even more useful for measurements, etc.
Aussie English is very far from a simple duplicate of lower-class British English. It's complicated by Irish, Scottish, and Welsh English, heavily spiced and accented from the Gaelic, with added regionalisms from places like the Channel Islands, the Hebrides, etc. Then words from various Aboriginal languages are peppered in (though most of those have become internationalized), and quite a few Americanisms. So Aussie English isn't that useful as a guide to British English.
In an episode of the tv show Scarecrow And Mrs King, the mother (played, as so many mothers in older shows were, by Beverly Garland) comes in an picks up the book her distracted daughter has dropped. "I see you're like me", she says. "You always like reading a good dictionary."
Well, so do I. And from what I've gotten to so far, this one seems fairly good, though I gather it's not too well indexed. It's entertaining, and the charming apologies in advance of the lexicographer for any inaccuracies that might have crept in bode well. But I won't know for sure until I get to the end.
I haven't tried looking things up via the index: I just read straight through. I should probably test the index sometime, but I probably will just put the book in my reference section.
This edition is dated, and the author is aware that in many cases, he is reporting usages that are already on the way out. I used a halfpenny coin in London as late as 1978, for example, and prices were still quoted in halfpennies. But they were already on the way out at that time, and probably they still exist in private collections--but you'd be unlikely to get one in change in an ordinary transaction.
This means that this edition is more useful for trying to decipher British novels from earlier ages. The tables at the end are even more useful for measurements, etc.
April 8, 2016
This is a great lexicon for understanding British words and phrases, and at the very least, it will make you understand all the Beatles' lyrics better.
I learned expressions like "chuffed," which I thought was being irritated, perhaps because it's close to "huffed." But in fact, when you're chuffed, you're really happy about something.
This book is entertainingly written, so you can almost read it like a narrative. I was amazed at how many Dickens expressions are still retained in the queen's slang, and if I were ever in a tough part of London, at least I would know what the tossers were calling me.
This is a great reference book to keep near you whenever you are reading British mysteries or British anything. My conclusion on it is "cor!" You'll have to buy it to find out what that means.
I learned expressions like "chuffed," which I thought was being irritated, perhaps because it's close to "huffed." But in fact, when you're chuffed, you're really happy about something.
This book is entertainingly written, so you can almost read it like a narrative. I was amazed at how many Dickens expressions are still retained in the queen's slang, and if I were ever in a tough part of London, at least I would know what the tossers were calling me.
This is a great reference book to keep near you whenever you are reading British mysteries or British anything. My conclusion on it is "cor!" You'll have to buy it to find out what that means.
December 23, 2007
A handy reference book for Americans reading British books or watching British TV shows, trying to puzzle out the various slang terms. Obviously this reference gets out-of-date quickly, so you'll want to pick up a more recent version than the 1991 version.
August 4, 2007
I love this dictionary and read it through like a novel. Watch out for that zebra crossing!
June 28, 2013
Really interesting to read.
February 28, 2011
Very cool edition to have. Interesting phrases and words.
October 1, 2014
Smashing! We watch a fair amount of British television, and this was very helpful in understanding the Queen's English.
December 30, 2021
As an Australian, I was curious as to how much of our language had British as proposed to American origins. It seems that there is more American usage than I expected. But it was not conclusive, because it is unclear how common some of the idiomatic expressions are. (And I struggle to think that anyone would call themselves a Brownite these days.)
Reading a dictionary cover to cover is probably not the best entertainment (The Devil's Dictionary excepted). And if you encounter an unfamiliar word you are better off going to a conventional dictionary.
The descriptions we tend to be variable in length and quality. I stopped when it told me that a "bun" (Br) is the same as a "squirrel" (Am) with no further explanation. I have gone away puzzled. Are we talking about a bread roll, a hairstyle or a small furry animal (perhaps a bunny)? I went to Google, but this seems to defeat the purpose of having a "definitive guide" to British English.
Reading a dictionary cover to cover is probably not the best entertainment (The Devil's Dictionary excepted). And if you encounter an unfamiliar word you are better off going to a conventional dictionary.
The descriptions we tend to be variable in length and quality. I stopped when it told me that a "bun" (Br) is the same as a "squirrel" (Am) with no further explanation. I have gone away puzzled. Are we talking about a bread roll, a hairstyle or a small furry animal (perhaps a bunny)? I went to Google, but this seems to defeat the purpose of having a "definitive guide" to British English.
May 30, 2023
As someone who reads a lot of British literature (Dickens, Christie, what have you), I very much enjoyed reading this book about the difference between English (in Great Britain) and English (in The United States of America).
The first and main part of the book is set up in alphabetical order, and covers terms like Circus (they have traffic circuses, rather than traffic circles), First Floor (the floor above the main floor), Leave (an English student who leaves school has graduated, not dropped out), Lift (which is our Elevator), Navvy (a construction worker), and Widdershins (counter-clockwise). There are several appendixes, covering topics such as Money, Weights and Measures, and Cricket.
It should be noted that the latest incarnation of this book is from 2013, so it may be a little out of date; having said that, this was a most enjoyable read.
The first and main part of the book is set up in alphabetical order, and covers terms like Circus (they have traffic circuses, rather than traffic circles), First Floor (the floor above the main floor), Leave (an English student who leaves school has graduated, not dropped out), Lift (which is our Elevator), Navvy (a construction worker), and Widdershins (counter-clockwise). There are several appendixes, covering topics such as Money, Weights and Measures, and Cricket.
It should be noted that the latest incarnation of this book is from 2013, so it may be a little out of date; having said that, this was a most enjoyable read.
July 12, 2019
My goodness, it took me long enough. Though it seemed like it was a lot of cricket terms that I read, and I still don't understand the game. But there where quite a few words and phrases I'd never heard/read before. If I had known it was going to take me this long I would have skipped to the end and just read the Index, but then I would have missed all of the explanations.
August 19, 2023
Interesting description of how a single language divided by time and an ocean can drift.
April 17, 2024
Fun sociological/linguistic perspective on the UK
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July 23, 2017There is some great info in this book. Unfortunately, the ebook version of this is really hard to work with. There are no hyperlinks, so if the book directs you to another entry, you can't easily go there and back. Since I bought this as a companion for some of the word usage I am encountering when reading the books in the Rebus and Shetland series, this deficit makes it difficult to use for that purpose. I wish I could set this book as one of my default dictionaries on the Kindle.
Because of the value of the information, I did buy the print version of this book.
Because of the value of the information, I did buy the print version of this book.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews