A cautionary guide to the words that mean something entirely different on each side of the Atlantic
British and American English share enough vocabulary to lull visitors into a false sense of security, right up until a single word produces a reaction wildly out of proportion to what was actually said. This guide catalogues the most reliable hazards, following this paper’s earlier examination of why certain words simply do not translate.
Fanny
The single most reliably catastrophic entry on this list. In American English, fanny refers innocently to the backside, suitable for a fanny pack or a mild parental scolding. In British English, the word refers to specific female anatomy and carries considerably more weight, meaning an American tourist innocently mentioning their fanny pack in Britain has, without any intention whatsoever, said something that will be remembered by everyone present for years.
Pants
In American English, pants means trousers, entirely unremarkable. In British English, pants means underwear, making the American sentence I love your pants considerably more alarming to a British listener than the American speaker ever intended. British English also uses pants as a standalone adjective meaning bad or disappointing, a usage covered in this paper’s Top British Slang survey and entirely unrelated to trousers of any kind.
Rubber
American English uses rubber to mean condom. British English uses it, cheerfully and without any second meaning whatsoever, to mean an eraser, leading to a memorable category of confusion when American exchange students ask British classmates, in complete innocence, whether they can borrow a rubber.
Bum bag versus fanny pack
Given the fanny problem above, British English has quietly developed its own alternative term, bum bag, describing the identical item worn around the waist, and neatly avoiding the entire category of catastrophe the American term risks on British soil.
Knock up
American English uses this phrase to mean impregnate. British English, somewhat more innocently, uses it to mean waking someone by knocking on their door, a usage that predates the American meaning by some distance and has caused its own share of confused silences whenever the two collide unexpectedly in conversation.
The general rule for visitors
This paper’s advice, consistent throughout its coverage of transatlantic language differences, is straightforward: assume nothing translates safely, and when in doubt, pause before saying anything involving body parts, undergarments or waking someone up, and ask a local first. The pause has saved considerably more dignity than it has ever cost.
A note on comedy value
This paper’s regional and international desks agree that the fanny confusion remains, by a wide margin, the most reliably entertaining transatlantic mishap on record, and several staff members maintain a private, unofficial tally of American visitors overheard using the word innocently in earshot of British colleagues who have chosen, kindly, not to intervene until afterward.
The British equivalent hazard
Fairness requires noting that British speakers are not immune to their own version of this trap when visiting America, particularly around the word fag, used in British English to mean a cigarette and carrying an entirely different and considerably more sensitive meaning across the Atlantic. This paper’s advice runs identically in both directions: assume nothing, pause before speaking, and ask a local first.
A closing thought
This paper’s overall advice to any transatlantic visitor, in either direction, remains unchanged from its earlier coverage of prat’s failed export: languages that share most of their vocabulary are, in some ways, more dangerous than those that share none at all, since the shared words lull speakers into assuming understanding where none, in fact, exists.
One more for the list
Homely deserves a brief mention: complimentary in American English, describing a warm and welcoming space, and considerably less flattering in British English, where it can imply plainness bordering on unattractiveness when applied to a person rather than a room. An American guest praising a British host’s homely appearance has, more than once, produced a silence this paper’s readers have described in letters as memorably long.
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