American Cultural Imperialism 2 (Return of Procycling)

girofan

:evil: :evil: :evil: Here we go, rant of the week.

Procycling is at it again. The cover this month refers to Boonen's "BUTT."
As in "They are writing songs of love, BUT not for me!" Or, do they mean his backside, bottom or arse. Whichever it is, why the americanism?
They then follow this up with pp30, "Do the math." For a start most British people do not use this slang expression, but if they do they are incorrect, as it should be, "Do the arithmetic." 2x2=4 is not maths but arithmetic.
In past issues they also have used that awful word beloved of all Americans, "snuck" to mean in more educated circles, sneaked. You sneak up on someone. You do not snuck up on someone. Sneak is the present or future tense. Sneaked is the past tense.
THERE IS NO SUCH WORD AS SNUCK :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
The question is, do you cringe every time you open a copy of Procycling. More to the point will the moderator inform the editor!

iainf72

ProCycling is published both in the UK and the US AFAIK.

girofan

I know iainf72 that ProCycling is published in several countries but why does the British edition have to contain all this Americana?

sonicred007

it doesn't make it any more or less informative, or does it?

don't sweat the small stuff as they say

it's a specialist/niche magazine - it's sole purpose is to have pages of editorial designed to sell advertising that will appeal to the specialist/niche reader, who will consequently buy stuff.

sad, but true - they're only bothered in our ability to consume more cycling gear, not grammar, punctuation or cultural identity

sonicred007

Runners World is same sometimes too - not that really helps in any way

Big Red S

girofan wrote:

:evil: :evil: :evil: Here we go, rant of the week.

Procycling is at it again. The cover this month refers to Boonen's "BUTT."
As in "They are writing songs of love, BUT not for me!" Or, do they mean his backside, bottom or ars*. Whichever it is, why the americanism?

'Butt', as in the abbreviation for 'buttock', is an Old English term.
Whole swathes of US English are 'more' English than current British English, because there are plenty of terms they still use regularly that we've replaced with French ones, or just deprecated in favour of something else.
We've even had our go at respelling words, though it was to pretend they were Anglo Saxon (rather than French) rather than to make the language any easier.

They then follow this up with pp30, "Do the math." For a start most British people do not use this slang expression, but if they do they are incorrect, as it should be, "Do the arithmetic." 2x2=4 is not maths but arithmetic.

Arithmetic is a branch of maths.
And, if we want to be /really/ pedantic, 'math' is more the correct term, since the English term 'mathematics' is from the latin plural term* for 'all things mathematical' (which the phrase often isn't used for).

*itself from the greek.

Restless_legs

girofan wrote:

I know iainf72 that ProCycling is published in several countries but why does the British edition have to contain all this Americana?

I agree, Jeez maaan, it sucks ass!

LangerDan

You wouldn't be the same "girofan" who said this on the thread about Treks:
" I hate to say it but the likes of Trek, Specialized et al got there Mojo workin' and are cheaper than a lot of European manufacturers!"

or this on the Eurosport thread: " but I recieve International Eurosport thru an analogue signal"

Kettles, pots?

sonicred007

LOL :P

McBain_v1

I don't know about Americanisms in ProCycling, but I doubt that we (as a nation) can claim to be paragon's of virtue when - until recently - we had Fat Boy Prescott regularly mangling the English language :oops:

"Set in train"
"Most gutted"

I could go on, but I'm afraid I'll vomit :?

girofan

:oops: :oops: Thanks Big Red S, you learn something new every day. Unfortunately I still don't like it in Pro Cycling, although as pointed out I'm as lazy as the next man in using 'across the pond' slang! :!: :!: :!: