Ever since I heard Ray Romano say, in an episode of his TV show when they visited Italy, ‘does anyone here speak American?’ I’ve often wondered if, being an English speaker, there were two very distinct different versions of the language.
Spelling wise, there is.
You say color, I say colour, you know the sort of thing.
But then there are words like ‘heater’.
Yes, like a lot of people I thought the word means a device that warms you up in winter, or when it’s cold.
Apparently not, and this is where it pays to know a little about the American language, though maybe not necessarily that one Ray was talking about.
For instance, a heater – is a gun apparently, and an expression used often during the 1930s through 1950s, particularly in films.
Quite loses all of its magic though when you yell out to your friend, throw me a heater will you, and it’s not the gun!
Give him a heater, no, not because the recipient is cold, but it is an instruction from the catcher to the pitcher – yes, it’s another name for a fastball.
And what do you know, all three definitions turn up in an American dictionary, the one referring to the gun being labeled ‘dated’, and, yet another adds the notation ‘slang’.
I’m betting Humphrey Bogart used the term more than once in a gangster film.
There are other definitions, but none so colorful as that for the gun and the fastball, except perhaps for the short winning streak at the casino.
Thrills, Spills, and just a dash of Romance 
What do they say… divided by a common language? But we get what you mean… most of the time 😉
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Canadian English is closer to British English in terms of spelling, and my mother-tongue is Swiss-German, not English, but to me a heater is a thingy you plug into a wall that emits heat. 🙂
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Me too. And a funny story, when we moved to Queensland, we were greatly surprised when we moved into the house, there was no heater.
Of course, a year later, we realised why there was no need for one, the temp never fell below 15 degrees centigrade.
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Lol. 😉
I can’t even comprehend this…
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A little something you may find interesting… https://www.amazon.com/Speaking-American-History-English-United/dp/0190232609/
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I love learning the differences between American English and English English. And It’s interesting to hear what I thought were exclusively British words move across the pond. A friend of mine used “wonky” recently. We live in the rural Midwest, so it’s no like we are exposed to many British speakers except on TV.
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What still surprised me is that the same word can have a completely different meaning in either country, so when travelling, you need to be careful sometimes.
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There’s a large volume of borderline slang finding its way into both languages at the moment. The ‘heater’ becomes easier to envisage in terms of ‘packing heat’ for example. It does seem the gangster era in America is responsible for a lot of American English, whereas Cockney rhyming slang is at the root of some modern UK English, Interesting, isn’t it, that swearwords and sexual references seem to cross the water more readily than anything else?
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I hadn’t looked at that aspect, but you’re right. Perhaps swearwords are a universal language of their own
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Reblogged this on Momentary Lapse Of Sanity.
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