I reckon that the three words I’ve written the most about over the years are (alphabetically) “bits,” “clever,” and “university.” (To find the posts on them, please use the search function in the right sidebar.) What they have in common is that all three have traditionally been used differently in the U.S. and U.K., and … Continue reading “University” Gets Major Ink

The “university” saga continues. Most recently, I looked at Americans talking about being “at university” or “in university” instead of the traditional “in college.” (I will note there was pushback against the idea of “in university” being a thing. See the comments to the post.) Yesterday, I heard a new one (for me) on National … Continue reading (Going) “to university”

On previous occasions, I’ve addressed Americans using, in various circumstances, the British term “university” rather than “college,” which Americans traditionally use even in reference about institutes of higher learning that indeed are universities. That is, someone who graduated from Pennsylvania State University would say he or she “went to college” there, or “when I was … Continue reading “At university”

There is really no excuse for Quartz, an American-based publication, to use “university” rather than “college” in this headline. For one thing, “university” is three words letters longer.

“The set subject of our novelists is information; the set obsession of our dons is what it does to our intelligence.”–Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, February 14, 2011

College students, but complicated. Institutions of higher education are traditionally “universities” in the U.K. but in the U.S. (and Scotland!), the term “college,” the OED notes, “has come to be interchangeable with ‘university.’” The traditional English meaning of “college,” meanwhile, is given by the OED as a “society of scholars incorporated within or in connection … Continue reading “University students”

Apologies for the long gap in posting — I have been in Melbourne, Australia, leading a study abroad program for the University of Delaware, and pondering whether the preferred spelling is “brekky” or “brekkie.” The program is winding down and I have a free moment, so wanted to tardily report on Lynne Murphy’s annual U.K.-to-U.S. … Continue reading “Fit” Carries the Day

I’ll get to the subject of this post in a minute, but first wanted to note that a couple of days ago, the blog had its three millionth page view. Luckily, I was there and ready to take a screen shot. So hooray for us. Just goes to show that, for a committed and interested … Continue reading “Soccer” and Other WOTY Candidates

I noted in 2020 that “in Britain, ‘pensioner’ might refer to a person who is no longer working but is not necessarily receiving a pension: what Americans would call a ‘retiree.’” However, “American uses of ‘pensioner,’ what few there are, tend to refer specifically to people getting (often particular) pensions.” Yesterday’s mail brought the first … Continue reading Non-Pension-Getting “Pensioner” Sighting