A portion of coffee that is consumed on a single occasion. A cup of coffee; some coffee; coffee. In American English, “a coffee” can also refer to an informal afternoon social occasion at which coffee and other light refreshments are served. “Jeff Israely’s journey was a little shorter—just round the corner from his apartment in Rome to have a coffee and a chat with his local barista, Vincenzo.” (Time, June 14, 2007)/”You grabbed the car keys and set off to your destination not worrying about whether your friends knew that you were headed to the mall, then to the grocery store, then you might stop for a coffee and, oh yeah – you needed gas, too.” ([Newport News, Va.] Daily Press, blog post, March 8, 2011). Google Ngram.

This is a one-off post, if you will pardon the expression, because as far as I know, this usage appears in only one American publication. Backing up a bit, I am referring the the past participle form of the verb to get, which in British English is got and in American English is gotten. So, for example, we would say, “By that time I had gotten angry”; they, “got angry.” (This shouldn’t be confused with the very American “got” used to mean “have,” e.g.,”I got plenty of nuthin’.”) The distinction had appeared as early as 1908, when (as quoted in Garner’s Modern American English), a writer in Blackwood’s Magazine observed:

“America need not boast the use of ‘gotten.’ The termination, which suggests either wilful archaism or useless slang, adds nothing of sense or sound to the word. It is like a piece of dead wood in a tree, and is better lopped off.”

The American magazine I referred to earlier is The New Yorker. Among its several stylistic peculiarities (spelling the word “marvellous,” putting an umlaut over the second o in “cooperate”) is an insistence on this “got.” The normally very sharp Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage claims that “English speakers in North America seem to use both got and gotten in a way that is almost freely variable.” However, of the four sources the book cites for got, four (Calvin Trillin, Alexander Woollcott, Peter Taylor, and John Cheever) are New Yorker writers, with Russell Lynes the only outlier.

The New Yorker seems to have developed its affection for got early. Its online archives gives examples from the early 1930s, including a James Thurber Talk of the Town piece from 1931:

“An African novelist was supposed to speak at the Women’s Club of Maplewood, New Jersey, and the girls were all excited. He didn’t show up, and two days later they discovered he had got into a fist fight with a plasterer in a speakeasy and had landed in jail instead.”

That was one thing in the speakeasy era, but the usage seems seriously weird today. However, one comes upon it nearly every week in the magazine, including, very recently, a Lawrence Wright article from February 14, 2011: “When she was a young child, her stepfather had got the family involved with Scientology.”

This affectation bugs me so much that I started a Facebook group called “Get the New Yorker to Use ‘Gotten’ Instead of ‘Got.'” Call me crazy, but 135 people have joined, including some actual New Yorker writers, one being none other than Lawrence Wright. I guess he is trying to effect change from within. Good luck, Lawrence!

Preposition. Among. Note: at this point, “amongst”–like “whilst,” “amidst,” and “oftentimes”–is quite prevalent in “unofficial” writing, such as blog posts, Facebook, Twitter, and student writing, but has not yet penetrated the American mainstream. Give it time. “A wicked straight-faced satire of despair and false hope amongst the hip.” (Michael Sragow, The New Yorker, October 10, 1994, capsule review of the film “The New Age”)/”Narcissism an epidemic amongst Millenial students.” (Blog post, March 3, 2011).

Early, as in the early stages of  something. Usually preceded by “it’s” or “it’s still.” Paul Gigot: “It’s early days. It’s still early days.” Arthur Laffer: “It is early days.” (Fox News Broadcast, April 13, 2009.)/”Still, it’s early days. I want [New Jersey Governor Chris] Christie to rise to full truth-telling from half.” (Matt Miller, Washington Post, February 23, 2011) Google Ngram.

Noun. Can, as in “tin of soup.” Adjective form “tinned” also common Thanks to Ellen Magenheim.”How happy are the girls on the cocoa tin…” (John Ashbery, “A Sweet Place,” poem published in the New Yorker, October 28, 2002)”/[Gabrielle Hamilton] describes foraging in her mother’s pantry — which her father had not cleaned out, “the way a griever won’t empty the clothes closet of the deceased spouse” — and learning to improvise meals out of canned sardines and tinned asparagus.” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, February 25, 2011. Note: Kakutani’s use of both “canned” and “tinned” is a perfect example of the awkward reach for a synonym that Fowler’s Modern English Usage derides as “elegant variation.”)

Adj. Superb, perfect. “For the lemony, pan-seared garlic chicken with baby spinach and a mashed potato gratin ($21), he suggests the ’97 Edmeades zinfandel, which is a spot-on pairing.” (Los Angeles Magazine, May 2000)/”The vision President Obama laid out in his State of the Union — future forward and focused on winning the clean energy race through innovation, freeing business to compete and investing in research and education — was spot on.” (Huffington Post, January 27, 2011) Google Ngram.

Adj. Flabbergasted; speechless. Note: “gobsmacked” is a relatively new U.K. slang term; its first Oxford English Dictionary citation is from 1985. It derives from a word for “mouth” used in northern England, “gob.” “When I saw Minority Report, I was gobsmacked by it…” (Roger Ebert, Slate, July 3, 2003)/”[In the film, How Do You Know, Paul] Rudd registers a little soft, and not nearly stunned or rancorous enough, for a guy who’s been gobsmacked by fate.” (Time Magazine, December 17, 2010) Google Ngram.

Right away; immediately. (Thanks to Laura Zuccardy.) “And as if for extra emphasis, [Monica Seles] broke Huber straight away in the opening game of the second.” (New York Times, August 19, 1995)/”Oh, he apologized/then and brought me straight away/a new machete,/with which I sliced/the brisket….”  (Bob Hicok, “A Night Out,” published in The New Yorker, May 31, 2010). Google Ngram.

Noun. Television host or personality. “In dialect, [“rip”] is a combining form for expressions like rip-stave, rip-snort and the airheaded television presenter’s rip-‘n’-read.” (William Safire, New York Times, October 31, 1999)/“Two-times Super Bowl winner [Deion] Sanders, now a popular television presenter, played as a kick and punt returner, cornerback and later a wide receiver.” (Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2011) Google Ngram.

Adj. Good, clever, well-conceived or -executed. Very commonly used in the U.K., generally to express rather less enthusiasm than in the U.S. (indeed, it is frequently noncommittal or ironic), and to refer to a an experience, quality, idea, or other intangible, as opposed to a person. The abbreviation “brill” has not penetrated to the U.S., as yet. “It was brilliant to program the Beethoven before the Carter.” (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, December 9, 1998)/”I jumped on one of those little sleds,” [Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Raul] Ibanez said, “and went down a hill. It’s brilliant. Whoever came up with that – phenomenal.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, February 21, 2011)