Blogginatrix

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Americanisms

Since I moved to another country, I noticed I use a lot of Americanisms. Maybe I used them before and just never noticed it. I don't know. All I know is that I'm saying things like this a lot.

If these aren't American per se, tell me why you think that. I'm looking for terms that are most commonly American, meaning other groups might have heard them but would never use them. These are in alphabetical order, where "(rare)" or "(common)" means "rare or common for me."

Interjections:

     aw, CRAP
     bite me
     blow me
     cheese (see: geez)
     Christ on a crutch (rare)
     criminy
     cripes
     crumbs
     dag; dagnabbit (rare)
     dang; dangit (common); ding-dang it
     dude!; whoa, DUDE; dude: WHAT. THE. FUCK.
     gee (common); gee willikers (rare); gee whiz
     geez; geez Louise
     goldangit it
     goldurn
     golly
     gosh; gosh-darn it
     holy schlamoley! (extremely rare)
     holy Jesus! (very rare)
     holy smokes! (rare)
     oh, Jesus fuck
     jeepers
     jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick! (rare)
     nasty; that's NASTY (pronounced n'YASTY)
     nuts (my very favorite)
     okey-dokey; okily-dokily
     phooey
     shoot
     shucks; aw, shucks
     spiffy
     suck me
     swell
     tarnation (rare)
     that's somethin; that's really somethin'
     whoa, nelly
     wickety-wack; boom, wickety-wack
     yes, indeedy!

Noun phrase fillers that I'm not so sure are American, but which I don't much hear up here unless I'm saying them:

     whadjamacallit
     whadjamafuck
     whats['is/her]face
     whatz(er/is)fuck
     whoozit, whoozits

I use these Yiddish words all the time and am only 99% sure I know what I'm saying:

     putz (rare)
     schlep
     schlemiel (rare)
     schmuck

Adjectives:

     bizarro
     'tardo

Metaphors and similes:

     (like/madder than) a beehive poked with a stick

Imperatives and other verbs:

     git; git lost
     go the whole nine yards
     scoot
     scram
     'splain, 'splainin' (for "explain")
     wangle
     wrassle (rare)

Names to call people:

     buddy
     bunky
     dickwad
     dickweed; dillweed
     pal
     nincompoop
     nitwit
     twerp

I'll continue to update this one. I think this is funny.

And, yes, I noticed that most of these are the most putrid of mild would-be profanities. A few of them are colorful uselessly profane interjections. This is because I'm American.

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