US Lexicon

Last update:
21-Jan-2004
©1996-2008
Mike Todd

Where it's not obvious: BE = British English, AE=American English and

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G (movie rating)
	In the US movie rating system, G is the lowest and most general classification - that is, suitable for all audiences, including children.
Gallon AE
	0.833 (approx) gallons BE The American gallon is smaller than the British gallon by about a fifth. So, when you see petrol at $1.20 a gallon, in British terms that's really about $1.44 a gallon. The US gallon is smaller simply because the Americans stuck with the Queen Anne wine gallon they first adopted (defined as the volume of a cylinder of 7inches diameter and 6 inches long, or 231 cubic inches), whereas the British eventually adopted the Imperial gallon, which was defined as the volume of 10 pounds of water. As an aside, despite what some people in the UK seem to believe, American measures of distance are the same as the British. For more detail see American Weights and Measures in the Encyclopedia.
Garage sale
	A bit like a car boot sale, but at home and in the garage When Americans want to clear out their homes, they will frequently hold a garage sale (also sometimes called a yard-sale, and in New England, a red-tag sale). Here an individual household (or sometimes a group of households) will put their unwanted clothes and household items on display for anyone to see and buy. Sometimes there are great bargains to be had.
Gas
	petrol All Americans refer to the liquid that is used to fuel cars as gas (short, of course, for "gasolene"). BE only ever refers to this as petrol (short for "petroleum"). Gas, in BE is what is burned in an gas oven or gas fire.
Geek
	an unpopular intellectual Surprisingly, the word actually started in 16th centruy BE, where (as geck or geke) it meant a fool or simpleton. In the early part of the 20th century it was applied to a certain type of carnival performer, but by the end of the 20th century it was being applied to someone who had little or no social life, and who was particularly studious. It was also applied to those who buried their heads in computers.
Given name
	Christian name
Gold Rush
	There wasn't just one Gold Rush. In reality there were three major gold rushes in US history. The first, and most famous, was the discovery of gold at John Sutter's California sawmill in 1848, which led to the great gold rush of 1849 (hence the term forty-niners). The second gold rush was in 1858 in Denver and was responsible, following three years of fortune hunters arriving, for making Colorado a US territory. The third was in 1897, and was located in Canada's Klondike.
Goober peas
	peanuts Not exactly a very common term, but it is sometimes heard. It comes from an African word for the peanut, nguba.
GOP
	Republican party The Gee-Oh-Pee is the Grand Old Party, a nickname for the Republican Party. It first appeared in the 1880s, although nobody is too sure where it came from, other than it is likely to have been modelled on GOM, which was the Grand Old Man the British nickname for Prime Minister Gladstone
Gotten
	There is probably no other so-called Americanism that rankles some British speakers than gotten. Yet the word has its roots in proper British English, and this past participle of "get" is most definitely not an Americanism. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use back to the 4th century, and Shakespeare used it a number times. For example, Henry VI, Part 3, Act 3, Scene 3 ... WARWICK Oxford, how haps it, in this smooth discourse, You told not how Henry the Sixth hath lost All that which Henry Fifth had gotten? So, it is certainly no Americanism, although these days its use is more or less confined to the USA, and even some Americans despise its use, arguing that it is "ugly". Despite this, the construction remains in begotten, forgotten and in the more directly linked ill-gotten. For a bit more on this, see my page on the subject over in my "encyclopedia".
Grade crossing
	Level crossing
Grade school
	Elementary, or Primary school (occasionally also any school arranged by grades) As in Britain, American children start school at 5- or 6-years-old, although they may have attended kindergarten or pre-school. Grade school is their first proper school, and schooling thereafter is reckoned by grade. They start at first grade, and work there way up (kindergarten is sometimes called K-grade). They will usually leave grade school after the sixth grade (at age 11/12) and move on to junior high school for grades 7-9, and then on to high school for 10-12. However, there is some variation in the way that different school districts handle this and there have been many changes in recent years. Occasionally, grade school may also refer to secondary schools, up to 12th grade.
Graham Crackers
	Digestive biscuits (approx) Biscuits made from Graham flour, a whole-meal flour named after Sylvester Graham, who promoted good health in the mid-1800s, and who saw meat, alcohol, sex and white flour as a major health threat. They are similar to the British digestive biscuit, and are often used in making biscuit bases for flans etc in much the same way as the digestive biscuit is.
Graft
	Back-hander
Grand Jury
	There is no direct UK equivalent. A grand jury sounds very "mighty", but in fact it is simply a jury of at least 12 people (but no more than 23) which will hear the facts of a case and decide whether or not there are sufficient to justify bringing the case to a full criminal trial. The name comes from the fact the jury can be 12-25 people, whereas a normal criminal or civil trial has a petty jury (from the French, petit, meaning small) of between 6 and 12 jurors.
Granola
	Muesli (approx) This is a breakfast cereal, made from mixed grains and nuts. Although it was first sold in the 19th century (probably as Granula, sold in the 1830s as part of the Sylvester Graham, of Graham Crackers fame, following), and was taken up by John Harvey Kellogg (who introduced it at his spa in Battle Creek), it didn't achieve great popularity until the 1970s. It is now also available as a Granola Bar.
Grits
	Ground corn meal A common side-dish for breakfast, particularly in the southern states. It is basically corn kernels, hulled and ground. Similar in texture to semolina and very close to polenta, it has relatively little taste so that salt, butter or sugar may be added at the table. Hominy grits are similar, but the word hominy refers to corn that has been soaked in a caustic solution and then washed (the result being called hominy and the grits that are then prepared from it are called hominy grits)
Ground Beef
	Minced Beef or Mince
Groundhog Day
	February 2nd Arising from many European superstitions, Groundhog Day marks the day that determines whether or not winter will continue for a further six weeks. The story goes that, if the groundhog emerges on February 2nd and sees its own shadow, it goes back underground, and winter will continue for six more weeks. However, if there is no shadow, the groundhog stays out and spring is just around the corner. The particular custom in the US derives specifically from German farmers who settles in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where their custom of spotting the badger failed, because there were no badgers here - so they adjusted their folklore to match the abundant groundhog.
Gumbo
	A soup, usually thickened with okra pods, with vegetables and also containing meat or seafood. Filé Gumbo is the same, but is thickened with the leaves of the sassafras tree.
Gurney
	(Hospital) Trolley Basically, a table or stretcher on wheels used in hospitals to transport patients.
Gyro
	A pita-bread sandwich, with beef or lamb. A bit like you might get at a British kebab take-away.