Thank you, Angus. A gentleman of eloqution, wisdom and wit.
Saltydog- there's a lot of words that America likes to THINK it invented, but we British were using when the Pilgrim Fathers were still trying to decide which way is West.
Then of course you have Spanish and French influence on words. And- most controversially- many early settlers to the colony were poor and not overly educated and described everything in somewhat simplistic terms and given the lack of reading/writing skills of the time (all world, yes even Gt. Britain
) many words were written phonetically- hence why so many words are without "u" for example.
But of course (before America throws cruise missiles at me (and misses and hits France) I must stress that I DO like America and I am sure that they've evolved greatly in the past 400 years.
I never misunderestimate them!
(sorry for the O/T)