Britishisms invade the US

Whenever I hear Americans use the term “cheers” to mean thanks, I think of that “SpongeBob SquarePants” episode where he raises his pinky finger in the air to look fancy. The gesture alone conjures an image of Brits sipping tea (the episode is even called “Tea at the Treedome”).

This nod to British culture isn’t just happening in children’s cartoons. Use of words and phrases that were formerly considered exclusively British, or Britishisms, has become something of a linguistic fad for Americans. 

As University of Delaware English professor Ben Yagoda confirmed in a New York Times article last year, Britishisms are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. He even started a website to track the rise of British slang in America, “Not One-Off Britishisms.”

Some British terms have become so popular that most Americans probably wouldn’t know they came from across the pond. For instance, the term “ginger” has surpassed the American term “redhead” in popularity when describing someone with naturally orange hair. In fact, you might even think it sounds weird to call someone a redhead today.

Another one, in all its irony, is “soccer.” Yes, soccer — the uniquely adopted American term for what the rest of the world, especially Britain, calls football. Upper-class English citizens used the term “soccer” through the majority of the 19th century until it was replaced by “football” in the 1880s. By this time, however, American football was already in the process of becoming popular in the United States, which is why the term didn’t stick over here.

There’s something about Britishisms that seem more elegant than Americanisms, which could explain why Americans are using them more and more. Long-time Netflix customers will recall the company’s use of “queue” instead of the bland term “list,” in reference to movies that one desired to watch (something that has recently been changed to the more American, yet equally as boring, “my list”). Once Netflix replaced video stores across the nation, the word “queue,” another Britishism, also became nationally popular as an integral part of the movie-streaming process from Netflix.

Now that the binge-watching of movies and shows has become a phenomenon (largely thanks to Netflix), Americans are more exposed to Britishisms than ever before (since perhaps the Revolutionary War). British entertainment and blockbuster hits such as the James Bond and Harry Potter franchises have found immense success in America, allowing Britishisms to run rampant on our television screens and into our everyday language.

Another explanation could be the lack of American translations for certain British words. For instance, there is no true American equivalent to “cheers,” which has connotations of camaraderie and which lands somewhere between formal and informal speak. “Thank you” seems too stiff, while simply “thanks” is generally reserved for friends or informal relationships. In this case, “cheers” fills a void when searching for a tone that fits just right. In fact, according to a poll on “Not One-Off Britishisms,” 60 percent of participants said that using “cheers” as an email sign off was “perfectly fine.”

Though they are similar, British English and American English have historically been considered separate languages. But over the past two years, the dividing lines have slowly been dissolving, as both American and British English have crept into the vocabulary of the opposite culture. While it is unrealistic that Americans will transition from “cheers” to “cheerio,” this linguistic phenomenon shows no sign of abating.