the_gneech | A Bazillion Belated Birthdays!

Speaking of getting back into the swing of things, I did make a New Year's Resolution last year about keeping up with birthdays, and yet most of this year I've been made of fail on that score. So for all you people who've had a birthday since September 30, Belated Happy Birthday!

This offer extends (but is not limited) to

blacktigr,

klepsydra,

kuddlepup,

lukebacca,

paulofcthulhu,

robin_d_laws,

kesh,

gamera_spinning,

chipuni,

zhivagod,

rhanlav,

ccroft,

panthras,

emsworth,

eddiecanis,

_litho_,

fferret,

michelelight,

benbear,

wielder13,

spikedpunch,

balloonpup,

ozarque,

vik_thor,

jbadger,

doodlesthegreat,

goodluckfox,

maxgoof,

raka,

muskrat_john,

silussa,

raemonde, and

bauchle

To treat contemptuously; to villify. To bauchle a lass, to jilt a young woman.
—John Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808

Americanisms as Foreign Words

On this date in 1737, Englishman Francis Moore penned in his diary the first written denouncement of an Americanism — a practice carried on by his countrymen for the next two centuries. The offending word, bluff, had been adapted by Americans from its traditional but now largely forgotten British meaning of a jutting ship's prow, to also describe a somewhat similarly shaped piece of land atop an embankment. Moore described one view of Savannah, Georgia: "It stands upon the flat of a hill; the bank of the river (which they in barbarous English call a bluff) is steep, and about forty-five foot perpendicular." Long afterward, English lexicographer and grammarian Henry Fowler continued the assault on Americans and their patterns of speech in The King's English (1906), writing scornfully, "Everyone knows an Americanism when he sees it," and "Americanisms are foreign words, and should be so treated." For more forgotten Americanisms, visit www.ForgottenEnglish.com/informal_english.htm.