Thanks to everybody who entered the competition to win a signed copy of my book Gobsmacked! by suggesting future NOOBs entries. I had said there’d be one winner, but two people sent in words or phrases I intend to write about, so I will mail each of them a book. If one of them is you, send me your address via the contact form on this page, and I will mail/post you your copy.
The first winner is RevStuart79, who suggested “proper fit,” meaning, in current American lingo, “super [sexually] hot.” This was actually brilliant, since, just a day or two before, I had a chat with my daughter Lizy Yagoda, who suggested my looking into Britishisms used on the American version of Love Island, one of those Britishisms being “proper fit,” and another being “chat” especially as a noun. I resolved to do a post on Love Island-isms, and the Rev’s comment furthered my resolve.
The second winner is longtime commenter David Griggs, who had two suggestions. The first was “Brit,” meaning a British person. I hadn’t thought of this as having British origin, but it does; I will look into it further and report on it. David’s other suggestion was the phrase “make do and mend,” which I had never encountered but which he said showed robust U.S. use in Ngram Viewer. I looked into it a little bit, and learned it was a World War II slogan to promote frugality. But it’s had much less global impact than “Keep Calm and Carry On,” and I think most of the U.S. hits comes from mentions of a Connecticut rock band that took the phrase as its. However, it does show up a bit in recent U.S. fashion journalism, so I may cover it. Stay tuned.
Again, thanks for your comments and for reading. I intend to keep calm and carry on.
notoneoffbritishisms.com 