The Top 10: Words Known Better in the US than in the UK

The far end of the common language that divides us

You say garbanzo, I say chickpea (Getty/iStock)

This list of words was the by-product of research in 2018 into why some words are widely understood even though they are rarely used, and vice versa.

Here are the 10 with the biggest difference between the US and the UK.

1. Manicotti. Large tubular pasta. Italian, plural of manicotto, muff. Known by 90 per cent of Americans and 16 per cent of British.

2. Ziti. Ditto. A bit smaller; big macaroni. Italian again.

3. Tilapia. African freshwater fish.

4. Garbanzo. Chickpea. Spanish.

5. Kabob. Kebab.

6. Kwanzaa. African-American festival, harvest feast; an alternative to Christmas; from Swahili meaning “first fruits”.

7. Crawdad. Freshwater crayfish.

8. Hibachi. Small barbecue pan, from Japanese.

9. Sandlot. A piece of unoccupied land used by children for playing.

10. Acetaminophen. Paracetamol. Known by 93 per cent of Americans and 33 per cent of British.

The top eight are food-related, then. The commonly cited examples of American English, such as faucet and eggplant, seem to be reasonably well-known in the UK. Other words in the Top 20 are: conniption (fit of rage), chigger (or jigger: flea) and goober (fool; peanut).

The opposite top 10, of words better known in the UK than the US, are less food-oriented. The biggest difference, apart from tippex and biro, which were proprietary names, is “tombola”, known by 97 per cent of British people and 17 per cent of Americans (from Italian tombolare, somersault). The rest of the list: yob (backwards slang), gazump (Yiddish), abseil (German), naff (possibly from Polari), plaice (“not commercially available in the US”), judder, chiropody (US: podiatry), korma (from Urdu) and bolshy (short for Bolshevik).

Other proprietary names in the UK list included “dodgem”, which was, paradoxically, an American trade mark in the 1920s. Other UK words in the Top 20 include quango, pelmet, brolly, chaffinch and escalope (known by 91 per cent of British and by 19 per cent of Americans).

Next week: MPs better known for other things, starting with Geoffrey Chaucer.

Coming soon: Non-royal palaces.

Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk