Here's a topic that we've partly done before, but it heads to the top of the to-blog-about list just because most of the heavy lifting has already been done for me. John Wells (of Phonetic Blog fame) wrote to say:
And now for your commenting pleasure, the almost entirely non-linguistic footnoted digressions!!
*And when we say put the kettle on in AmE, we almost certainly mean putting it on the (AmE) stove/(BrE) hob. When BrE speakers say it these days, they usually mean 'switching the kettle on', as almost no home (or office) is without an electric kettle. It's probably the case that it's our lesser interest in tea that's kept us from having electric kettles--we have automatic coffeemakers instead. I'm in the US at the moment, and had a moment of reali{s/z}ation about the ubiquity of coffeemakers yesterday. I was in our local nirvana of a supermarket, looking to buy a little caffeinated instant (I drink coffee so milkified it doesn't really matter). I was initially surprised to find LESS supermarket choice for this item in the US than in the UK. I mean, many of the UK supermarkets I use would fit (not at the same time, of course) into the produce section of more than a few of the US supermarkets that I visit. (Supermarkets are a major tourist destination for Better Half and me.) Given that for any other non-nation-bound product [with the possible exception of cheese] there seems to be twice to ten times as much selection in an American supermarket as in a UK one, I had expected to be able to find a small jar of caffeinated instant coffee. (There were some larger jars, but not many. I saw no fair trade options. Ended up buying a box of little (AmE) packets/(BrE) sachets, but only one brand offered those.) And then it dawned on me: nearly everyone has a coffeemaker; almost no one has an electric kettle--of course there's not much market for instant coffee. In the UK, in any place where people gather there will always be a kettle, ready to serve tea--and almost always a jar of instant coffee as a nod to the non-tea-drinkers.
**Which just reminds me of several encounters I've had with a few older English people who aren't terribly interested in showers, preferring baths. I recall one in particular who declared that he couldn't see how having the water wash over you would get you really clean. I replied, in a characteristically brash American manner, that I viewed baths as an opportunity to wallow in one's own filth. (They're lovely for a sit and a think, but not what I would use to get clean.) He claimed that the filth would be left in the (BrE) bath/(AmE) tub. And I countered "No, because the soap with which you remove the filth floats, and so as you raise yourself from the tub [bath], you pass the lower half of your body through a film of soap, dead skin, and dirt, which clings to your skin until your next bath rearranges it." He had no answer to this. I like to think that he went home and took a shower. Of course, the relative paucity of decent water pressure in British showers may be at the root of any British-held beliefs that showers are insufficient cleaners. The combination of poor water pressure and (in some places, like where I live) very hard water does indeed slow down the removal of filth.
Not sure if you've written about BrE washing up / doing the washing up = AmE washing/doing the dishes.Thanks for all that, John! By the time I was old enough to help out, my parents had a dishwasher, but I still learned how to wash dishes 'properly' from my grandmother. She taught me that the right way to do it is to first put the kettle on,* so that after you've set the dishes in the drainer, you can pour boiling water over them in order to kill any lingering germs. My grandmother did not have OCD. This is just the way things were done. I doubt many Americans would do that today, but we would run some clean water over dishes to get the soap off. When I've seen English people not doing that, I must admit, I've been [more than] a little uneasy.**
Who's going to do the washing up?
There was some washing up on the draining board waiting to be done.
As well as a kitchen, scullery, and larder/pantry, in the house where I grew up we also had a wash-up (room devoted to washing up). We boys had to help my father with the washing up there.
Nowadays of course we use a dishwasher (a term obviously of American origin, and still in competition in BrE with washing-up machine).
You'll have heard of the British couple dismayed to be greeted on arrival at friends' house for dinner with Would you like to wash up before we eat? (= BrE 'wash your hands')
Lastly, have you noticed how in Britain we assume that you don't need to rinse the (BrE) washing-up/(AmE) dishes in clear water, while in America you do so rinse them?
And now for your commenting pleasure, the almost entirely non-linguistic footnoted digressions!!
*And when we say put the kettle on in AmE, we almost certainly mean putting it on the (AmE) stove/(BrE) hob. When BrE speakers say it these days, they usually mean 'switching the kettle on', as almost no home (or office) is without an electric kettle. It's probably the case that it's our lesser interest in tea that's kept us from having electric kettles--we have automatic coffeemakers instead. I'm in the US at the moment, and had a moment of reali{s/z}ation about the ubiquity of coffeemakers yesterday. I was in our local nirvana of a supermarket, looking to buy a little caffeinated instant (I drink coffee so milkified it doesn't really matter). I was initially surprised to find LESS supermarket choice for this item in the US than in the UK. I mean, many of the UK supermarkets I use would fit (not at the same time, of course) into the produce section of more than a few of the US supermarkets that I visit. (Supermarkets are a major tourist destination for Better Half and me.) Given that for any other non-nation-bound product [with the possible exception of cheese] there seems to be twice to ten times as much selection in an American supermarket as in a UK one, I had expected to be able to find a small jar of caffeinated instant coffee. (There were some larger jars, but not many. I saw no fair trade options. Ended up buying a box of little (AmE) packets/(BrE) sachets, but only one brand offered those.) And then it dawned on me: nearly everyone has a coffeemaker; almost no one has an electric kettle--of course there's not much market for instant coffee. In the UK, in any place where people gather there will always be a kettle, ready to serve tea--and almost always a jar of instant coffee as a nod to the non-tea-drinkers.
**Which just reminds me of several encounters I've had with a few older English people who aren't terribly interested in showers, preferring baths. I recall one in particular who declared that he couldn't see how having the water wash over you would get you really clean. I replied, in a characteristically brash American manner, that I viewed baths as an opportunity to wallow in one's own filth. (They're lovely for a sit and a think, but not what I would use to get clean.) He claimed that the filth would be left in the (BrE) bath/(AmE) tub. And I countered "No, because the soap with which you remove the filth floats, and so as you raise yourself from the tub [bath], you pass the lower half of your body through a film of soap, dead skin, and dirt, which clings to your skin until your next bath rearranges it." He had no answer to this. I like to think that he went home and took a shower. Of course, the relative paucity of decent water pressure in British showers may be at the root of any British-held beliefs that showers are insufficient cleaners. The combination of poor water pressure and (in some places, like where I live) very hard water does indeed slow down the removal of filth.