What about disposable tissue you blow your nose on? We call it kleenex even that that's a brandname. I do hear "tissue" by usually in the context of "have an issue? here's a tissue."; "snot rag" is the rude version.
Say ‘bangs’ to a British person and perhaps they’ll imagine thunderstorms or fireworks - the word is used in the onomatopoeic sense to refer to a loud noise. In America, though, the term bangs refers to a shorter section of hair which is cut straight across the forehead – what is called a fringe in Britain. The word bangs first started being used in 1878 and is thought to have stemmed from the adverbial use of bang to mean ‘abruptly’ – the hair is cut bang off. When used adverbially in Britain, however, the word bang translates to ‘exactly’ or ‘directly’ – for example: ‘the train arrived bang on time’ or ‘I tripped bang in the middle of the road’.
"Bang" in Brenglish is the noise an explosion makes. I don't know how the expressions like 'bang on' that @Gramps49 mentions come to derive from it, but they are widely used.
In the hair context, I've never heard it used to mean a fringe, but I have, very occasionally, heard 'bangs' used as an alternative to 'bunches'.
In case that expression itself isn't familiar in the, US, bunches are what we call the girl's hairstyle where the hair is tied, with ribbon or some sort of elastic into two clumps one on each side of the side of the back of head.
Recently I read an American book where a girl was described as having "dog ears". I assumed that was what you describe as "bunches", but I haven't heard that term before.
strangely enough, "tissues" is one of the rare cases where we don't use the brand name in our house
we talk about doing the Hoovering, for vacuum cleaning, and Sellotape for any sticky tape.
strangely enough, "tissues" is one of the rare cases where we don't use the brand name in our house
we talk about doing the Hoovering, for vacuum cleaning, and Sellotape for any sticky tape.
I've heard that the Australian equivalent to (UK) Sellotape and (US) Scotch tape is Durex. It has been known to lead to occasional cross-cultural awkwardness.
strangely enough, "tissues" is one of the rare cases where we don't use the brand name in our house
we talk about doing the Hoovering, for vacuum cleaning, and Sellotape for any sticky tape.
I've heard that the Australian equivalent to (UK) Sellotape and (US) Scotch tape is Durex. It has been known to lead to occasional cross-cultural awkwardness.
Bang is a multipurpose word. It is an activity you might need a condom for, a sharp sound, but has to be plural to mean hair "bangs". Bang also means something that happened suddenly. "So here I am in the meeting and bang the boss says <something startling>"
strangely enough, "tissues" is one of the rare cases where we don't use the brand name in our house
we talk about doing the Hoovering, for vacuum cleaning, and Sellotape for any sticky tape.
I've heard that the Australian equivalent to (UK) Sellotape and (US) Scotch tape is Durex. It has been known to lead to occasional cross-cultural awkwardness.
I have no doubt that you've heard that, but we've not heard it for decades - and even then it was not common.
Bunches = "pigtails." One bunch is a ponytail. And "fringe" in the U.S. is something you find on carpets and upholstery--or really, really horrible shirts.
Bunches in my experience do not equal pigtails. In bunches, the hair is held close to the head by some elastic, and then hangs loose. In pigtails, the hair is plaited (braided) and then held at the end by some elastic. Greta Thunberg has pigtails. Though possibly hers are too long to be pigtails proper, just plaits.
A quick image search of bunches pulls up a variety, some cute, some weird. The same of pigtails pulls up images of both styles, and Wikipedia suggests a wide interpretation of the term, so I can see where LC is coming from. But where I grew up, pigtails were always plaits.
I wore my hair in pigtails most of my childhood in NW PA They were two braids. Others around me said that pigtails were not braided. Maybe the difference was because my mom was raised in Florida.
My definition was Southern California. I never had enough length in hair to braid, so it was exploding pigtails all the way. No plaits. Can't do plaits even today, unless I do a lot of them--hair much too thick and too much of it. It's that Cherokee heritage, I'm telling you.
I wore my hair in pigtails when I was a little girl: hair parted in the centre, then gathered on each side of the head with elastics, usually above the ears. No braiding was involved. The gathered hair hung down in curly loops like... a pig's tail.
In my parlance, Greta Thunberg wears her hair in braids.
I may have read the word "plaits" and figured out from context what was meant. I would have pronounced it the same as "plates." It was only when I was watching The Great British Baking Show that I heard the word "platted" bread and could not figure out what was wanted. Did platted mean flattened, like plateau? When they produced braided loaves I understood. Platted (plaited) is utterly unknown here as a word for braid.
My mother plaited my hair into pig tails as a child. Sometimes my aunt would do my braids. On a side note once my mother was in the hospital and my father had to do my hair. He said, "Well I know how to braid the horse's tail so guess I can do yours."
Not round my way. Braid is a fabric term, with strands of yarn woven into a narrow strip - the weaving is usually diagonal, a complex plaiting arrangement. I have a vague image of Sami (Lapp) braids, which may not be diagonal.
And from geography, braided rivers, with criss-crossing streams between shingle banks.
Not hair.
I remember stories by Zenna Henderson in which her People "plaited the twishers" to use their power. I'm wondering if that was in the American editions or if the ones I read had been Britishised.
I remember stories by Zenna Henderson in which her People "plaited the twishers" to use their power. I'm wondering if that was in the American editions or if the ones I read had been Britishised.
The word was actually "platted," not "plaited," though I grant it might have been derived from "plaited."
When I think of plaits I think of something flat, like a broad ribbon. A braid in a woman's hair doesn't seem very plait-like.
Maybe we're getting it from the same source, whatever that is. I tend to think of something that is looser and therefore flatter--the part up on the head is of course flat to the head, and the hanging down bits are still not particularly tight or fat (and therefore not so three-dimensional.) But that might just be the result of seeing endless illustrations of people with pale, fine hair described as "in plaits"--you couldn't get a proper three-dimensional braid out of that stuff if you tried. When I think "braid," I'm thinking of something sufficiently tightly woven that it could theoretically be used for rope, or at least cord. Something like what you see on old American Indian photos.
Another way of getting at it--I read novels where some idiot tries to pull a girl by her plaits and the plaits rip at least partly from the scalp. If you tried to do that with an American braid, you could drag the whole girl by the braids. Nothing loose, flat or whispy about them.
What do you call French braids? The ones that are not dangling free but within the head of hair? In the 1970s sophisticated men wore them with fringed shirts.
Thanks for the Henderson spelling, LC. I wondered when I posted it, but couldn't get at the books to check. I always assumed, from the description in the books, that it was a process not unlike plaiting.
I'm thinking it would be interesting to find why we have these two words used for a pair of related things, but with opposite meanings according to where the users of the words live. At which point in time did they separate? Were they used differently in the home countries, and an existing difference became fixed on crossing the ocean?
Just checking in my Old English dictionary. There is a root word for braid with a meaning, along with a lot of others which are hard to relate to it, of weaving and knotting. Plait doesn't appear, unless as "plett" with the meaning "fold". That seems to come from Latin, via French, and be related to pleat. And pleating does not include any crossing over or knotting action. Odd. I was wondering whether colonists from the part of Britain with dialect related to Norse had dominated the development in America, and it looks as though that might be true.
strangely enough, "tissues" is one of the rare cases where we don't use the brand name in our house
we talk about doing the Hoovering, for vacuum cleaning, and Sellotape for any sticky tape.
I've heard that the Australian equivalent to (UK) Sellotape and (US) Scotch tape is Durex. It has been known to lead to occasional cross-cultural awkwardness.
I have no doubt that you've heard that, but we've not heard it for decades - and even then it was not common.
See, I was just going to say someone had been having Stercus Tauri on. I've got no recognition of that term, whereas I'd probably understand both Sellotape or Scotch tape.
When I went out to Australia in 2002 I was warned about the Durex confusion, and then found it wasn't an issue. No one warned me about thongs however....
And thank you for the reminders about Zenna Henderson. They will be good comfort reading.
I remember the ‘durex’ confusion from the ‘80s with an Australian lad studying over here in the UK. He told us how it had caused some concern with his landlady...
strangely enough, "tissues" is one of the rare cases where we don't use the brand name in our house
we talk about doing the Hoovering, for vacuum cleaning, and Sellotape for any sticky tape.
I've heard that the Australian equivalent to (UK) Sellotape and (US) Scotch tape is Durex. It has been known to lead to occasional cross-cultural awkwardness.
I have no doubt that you've heard that, but we've not heard it for decades - and even then it was not common.
See, I was just going to say someone had been having Stercus Tauri on. I've got no recognition of that term, whereas I'd probably understand both Sellotape or Scotch tape.
I first heard it in the early 70s from an Australian post grad student in Aberdeen. I still remember the occasion when it was explained to him. But yes, that's a long time ago.
Yes, well, we've established in a different thread that to you they are. But I'm a middle-aged man and I have some difficulty remembering much of Kindergarten in '79.
Comments
Bangs
Say ‘bangs’ to a British person and perhaps they’ll imagine thunderstorms or fireworks - the word is used in the onomatopoeic sense to refer to a loud noise. In America, though, the term bangs refers to a shorter section of hair which is cut straight across the forehead – what is called a fringe in Britain. The word bangs first started being used in 1878 and is thought to have stemmed from the adverbial use of bang to mean ‘abruptly’ – the hair is cut bang off. When used adverbially in Britain, however, the word bang translates to ‘exactly’ or ‘directly’ – for example: ‘the train arrived bang on time’ or ‘I tripped bang in the middle of the road’.
Yeah, I guess "dunny paper" would be a thing. People I know wouldn't often say "dunny".
Maybe I'm just struggling because until now there hasn't been much of a reason to talk about toilet paper in social settings.
In the hair context, I've never heard it used to mean a fringe, but I have, very occasionally, heard 'bangs' used as an alternative to 'bunches'.
In case that expression itself isn't familiar in the, US, bunches are what we call the girl's hairstyle where the hair is tied, with ribbon or some sort of elastic into two clumps one on each side of the side of the back of head.
Paper hankies in this house.
we talk about doing the Hoovering, for vacuum cleaning, and Sellotape for any sticky tape.
"Bang" as a transitive verb can also mean "have sex with" -- usually spoken of the male in P-I-V sex.
DIY condom...
Bang is a multipurpose word. It is an activity you might need a condom for, a sharp sound, but has to be plural to mean hair "bangs". Bang also means something that happened suddenly. "So here I am in the meeting and bang the boss says <something startling>"
For no reason, except it's a genius song and he dances and bangs so well: I Want to Bang on the Drum All Day.
I have no doubt that you've heard that, but we've not heard it for decades - and even then it was not common.
A vest in the UK is underwear. A leather one doesn't sound comfortable.
A quick image search of bunches pulls up a variety, some cute, some weird. The same of pigtails pulls up images of both styles, and Wikipedia suggests a wide interpretation of the term, so I can see where LC is coming from. But where I grew up, pigtails were always plaits.
MMM
*south east England
Vest:US::waistcoat:UK
In my parlance, Greta Thunberg wears her hair in braids.
I may have read the word "plaits" and figured out from context what was meant. I would have pronounced it the same as "plates." It was only when I was watching The Great British Baking Show that I heard the word "platted" bread and could not figure out what was wanted. Did platted mean flattened, like plateau? When they produced braided loaves I understood. Platted (plaited) is utterly unknown here as a word for braid.
And from geography, braided rivers, with criss-crossing streams between shingle banks.
Not hair.
I remember stories by Zenna Henderson in which her People "plaited the twishers" to use their power. I'm wondering if that was in the American editions or if the ones I read had been Britishised.
The word was actually "platted," not "plaited," though I grant it might have been derived from "plaited."
Maybe we're getting it from the same source, whatever that is. I tend to think of something that is looser and therefore flatter--the part up on the head is of course flat to the head, and the hanging down bits are still not particularly tight or fat (and therefore not so three-dimensional.) But that might just be the result of seeing endless illustrations of people with pale, fine hair described as "in plaits"--you couldn't get a proper three-dimensional braid out of that stuff if you tried. When I think "braid," I'm thinking of something sufficiently tightly woven that it could theoretically be used for rope, or at least cord. Something like what you see on old American Indian photos.
Another way of getting at it--I read novels where some idiot tries to pull a girl by her plaits and the plaits rip at least partly from the scalp. If you tried to do that with an American braid, you could drag the whole girl by the braids. Nothing loose, flat or whispy about them.
I'm thinking it would be interesting to find why we have these two words used for a pair of related things, but with opposite meanings according to where the users of the words live. At which point in time did they separate? Were they used differently in the home countries, and an existing difference became fixed on crossing the ocean?
Just checking in my Old English dictionary. There is a root word for braid with a meaning, along with a lot of others which are hard to relate to it, of weaving and knotting. Plait doesn't appear, unless as "plett" with the meaning "fold". That seems to come from Latin, via French, and be related to pleat. And pleating does not include any crossing over or knotting action. Odd. I was wondering whether colonists from the part of Britain with dialect related to Norse had dominated the development in America, and it looks as though that might be true.
See, I was just going to say someone had been having Stercus Tauri on. I've got no recognition of that term, whereas I'd probably understand both Sellotape or Scotch tape.
And thank you for the reminders about Zenna Henderson. They will be good comfort reading.
MMM
I first heard it in the early 70s from an Australian post grad student in Aberdeen. I still remember the occasion when it was explained to him. But yes, that's a long time ago.
Yes, well, we've established in a different thread that to you they are. But I'm a middle-aged man and I have some difficulty remembering much of Kindergarten in '79.