BEN YAGODA

A spot on guide to how and why Americans have become so bloody keen on Britishisms for good or ill The British love to complain that words and phrases imported from America from French fries to Awesome man are destroying the English language But what about the influence going the other way Britishisms have been making their way into the American lexicon for more than 150 years but the process has accelerated since the turn of the twenty first century From acclaimed writer and language commentator Ben Yagoda Gobsmacked is a witty entertaining and enlightening account of how and why scores of British words and phrases such as one off go missing curate early days kerfuffle easy peasy and cheeky have been enthusiastically taken up by Yanks After tracing Britishisms that entered the American vocabulary in the nineteenth century and during the world wars Gobsmacked discusses the most used British terms in America today It features chapters on the American embrace of British insults and curses sports terms and words about food and drinks The book also explores the American adoption of British spellings pronunciations and grammar and cases where Americans have misconstrued British expressions for example changing can t be arsed to can t be asked or