21st century american english compendium : a portable guide to the idiosyncrasies, subtleties, technical jargon, and conventional wisdom of american english

519 Pages·2006·11.38 MB·English

by  Marvin Rubinstein

21st Century
AMERICAN ENGLISH
COMPENDIUM
Third Revised Edition
21st Century
AMERICAN ENGLISH
COMPENDIUM
Third Revised Edition
A Portable Guide to the Idiosyncrasies,
Subtleties, Technical Jargon, and
Conventional Wisdom
of American English
Marv Rubinstein
Formerly Adjunct Professor,
Monterey Institute of
International Studies
Schreiber Publishing
Rockville, Maryland
21st Century American English Compendium
Third Revised Edition
by Marv Rubinstein

Published by:
Schreiber Publishing
Post Office Box 4193
Rockville, MD 20849 USA
[email protected] www.schreibernet.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording
or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from
the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
The article on translating proverbs was reprinted with the kind permission of
Translation Review.
copyright © 1997, 2000, 2006 by Marvin Rubinstein
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rubinstein, Marvin.
21st century american english compendium third revised edition : a portable
guide to the idiosyncrasies, subtleties, technical jargon, and conventional
wisdom of american english / Marv Rubinstein.— 3rd rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-88400-316-8 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-88400-316-7 (pbk.)
1. English language--United States--Glossaries, vocabularies, etc. 2. English
language--United States--Grammar--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. English
language--United States--Translating--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4.
Americanisms--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title: Twenty-first century
American English compendium. II. Title: American English compendium. III. Title.
PE2835.R83 2006
423'.1—dc22
2006004296
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface..................................................................................vii
Acknowledgments...................................................................ix
Foreword...............................................................................xii
Introduction...........................................................................xiv
Guide to the Use of This Book................................................xvi
Chapter 1: American Spoken Here—English Understood..........19
Chapter 2: Proverbs, Slogans, and Aphorisms..........................37
Chapter 3: Popular American Expressions...............................93
Chapter 4: Proverbial Commentaries.....................................105
Chapter 5: Similes and Metaphors Indicating Extremes...........119
Chapter 6: American Slang and Colloquialisms.......................127
Animal Kingdom............................................................129
Arts and Entertainment..................................................137
Business and Industry....................................................140
Food, Drink, Cooking, and Culinary Arts..........................143
Games and Sports..........................................................150
Human Body, The..........................................................154
Legal, Law Enforcement, and Crime...............................165
Medicine.......................................................................167
Military.........................................................................168
Senses and Feelings.......................................................171
Transportation...............................................................172
Chapter 7: British vs. American English (and Vice Versa).......175
British-American...........................................................178
Automotive, Aircraft, and Transportation.........................226
American-British...........................................................231
Chapter 8: Worldwide English................................................291
Australian and New Zealand English...............................292
Indian English................................................................296
Irish English...................................................................297
Scottish English..............................................................301
South African English.....................................................302
Chapter 9: Foreign Words and Phrases Frequently Used
in English......................................................................305
Latin.............................................................................307
French...........................................................................311
German.........................................................................315
Italian............................................................................317
v
Japanese.....................................................................319
Spanish..........................................................................321
Yiddish..........................................................................324
Chapter 10: Common American Legal Terms.........................327
Chapter 11: Common American Medical Terms......................355
Chapter 12: Business Colloquialisms, Slang and Acronyms.......409
Chapter 13: Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Initialisms...............419
Acronyms, General.........................................................421
Abbreviations and Initialisms...........................................426
Clothing.............................................................426
Streetsand Roads426
Times and Dates................................................426
Medical, Science, and Math................................427
Radio and Television..........................................427
Weights and Measures.......................................428
Degrees and Titles.............................................428
Geography.........................................................430
Businesses and Organizations.............................431
Commerce and Education...................................432
Grammar, Literature, and Writing........................435
General Use......................................................436
Chapter 14: Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Initialisms in the
Computer, Internet and Communications Industries...........439
Chapter 15: From Where Do You Hail?..................................451
Chapter 16: For the Symbol Minded.......................................465
Chapter 17: Currencies of the World......................................473
Chapter 18: International Measurements................................477
Chapter 19: The Birds and the Trees......................................481
Animal Kingdom Terminology.........................................482
Flowers.........................................................................490
Birds.............................................................................493
Fish...............................................................................496
Trees............................................................................499
Color Commentaries..............................................................501
Postscript.............................................................................502
Bibliography..........................................................................503
Index....................................................................................510
vi
PREFACE
I certainly wish this book had been available when I first arrived in the
United States from Japan. It would have saved me countless hours of
browsing through numerous dictionaries and other source material. It
would have accelerated my understanding of American culture, as
expressed in its language. Most important, it would have helped me
achieve fluency and linguistic subtlety sooner and certainly would have
added grace and flavor to my early English speech and writing.
At the time of my arrival, I was 17, a freshman in college. Having
attended an international school in Japan where all the classes had
been conducted in English and French, both my written and spoken
English were very good. My grammar was perfect; my vocabulary
was quite extensive; I had read Shakespeare as well as many literary
classics. And yet, and yet. . .
That was 22 years ago. Since then I have watched American
television, read popular fiction extensively, and conversed with a wide
variety of people from all over the United States, as well as the rest of
the world. After achieving Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, I worked
in a variety of fields, including mental health, advertising, retail, and
management consulting. I have been a professional translator of
Japanese and teach Japanese to English translation students at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS).
These experiences have given my English the breadth and depth
that it lacked when I arrived in the United States. I now consider English
to be my first language, not because it was the language I first spoke in
my life, but because it is the language in which I am able to express
my thoughts with the highest degree of fluency. Most people who
converse with me believe that English is my native language. Achieving
this, however, took 22 years of dedicated exposure to the language
with all its quirks and flavors.
Even with my language background, a book such as this is very
useful. For most translators and students of English, who are not so
fortunate in their training and experience, the book can be a timesaver
at least and under some circumstances a lifesaver. The majority of my
students are native speakers of Japanese, while some are native speakers
of English and some of a third language. The challenges that face each
of these groups are quite different. For the native speakers of Japanese,
comprehension of the source text is usually not a problem, although the
vii
nature of the texts faced by professional translators can be quite daunting
in its complexity and difficulty, even for native speakers. The problem
lies in the smooth, effective communication of the content of the source
text in appropriate English.
What exactly is meant by appropriate English? First and foremost,
the meaning must be accurate, which is achievable through the use of
dictionaries and reference material. However, accuracy is not enough.
There are other factors such as good grammar, language register, and
style.
When I compare the works in English submitted by native speakers
of Japanese to those submitted by native speakers of English, there is
often a certain awkwardness, even when the grammar and vocabulary
are excellent. I believe this stems from the lack of cultural context.
Their English lacks fluency.
In this book, Marv Rubinstein makes a valiant attempt at defining
the less tangible cultural qualities which go into the concept of fluency
in a language, and provides a road map of a shortcut to achieving fluency
in the American language. Students of the American language, native
speakers and non-native speakers alike, can learn a lot from his
observations. One of the author’s most striking characteristics is his
correct, colorful, and creative use of the American language. His
students at MIIS have been extremely fortunate to have taken his course,
Quixotic English, and this book is as close as one can come to capturing
the spirit of that course. I have been honored to have made the author’s
acquaintance and to have been given the opportunity to write this
preface, and hope to remain his friend for years to come.
From those of us who work with languages, “Thank you, Marv!”
Tanya Sobieski
Professor GSTI, MIIS
Pacific Grove, CA
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Necessity is the mother of invention. There was apparently a need for
this book so, with the necessary help of both the professors and the
students at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, the author
was able to invent or write it. For starters, I wish to thank Diane DeTerra,
Dean of the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, for
encouraging me to teach the course on which this book is based, a
course with a tongue-in-cheek title—Quixotic English.
I also owe a great deal to other professors of the MIIS Graduate
School of Translation and Interpretation for helping to head me in the
right direction, and particularly to Professor Tanya Fumiko Sobieski
for providing the Preface to this book, as well as being of great help in
correcting and polishing the sections involving Japanese vocabulary.
Arigato gozaimasu to Tanya, who is affectionately known by her
students as Sobi-chan. (-Chan, used as a suffix in Japanese, is a
diminutive term of affection, much used for children and lovers.)
Muchas Gracias also to Professor Lydia Longstreth Hunt who
provided yeoman (or should I say yeo-woman) service in correcting
my execrable Spanish and bringing up to par any Spanish terminology
I have used (or misused) in the chapters on Proverbs and The Birds
and the Trees. Many thanks or Vielen dank are also due Professor
Manfred J. Heine for similar assistance with and correction of German
words and phrases. A good friend, Ling Lau, a former MIIS student
and a professional translator and interpreter, has provided assistance
with the Chinese terminology.
Perhaps even more so, I owe a debt of gratitude to students in the
GSTI Division, and particularly to those in the Japanese/English
Section, for making me aware of their needs in the areas covered by
this book, for fielding questions from time to time, and for providing
additional material when requested.
Even my children have contributed to this book. My daughter
Sari and her fiance Chris Thomas sent me helpful material on what I
choose to call “Youthspeak,” the hip language of teenagers and young
Americans. My son Jonathan—Executive Vice President of Apple
Computers—reviewed the sections on Computer Acronyms and
Abbreviations to make sure I committed no grievous errors. His good
friend, Tom Berry, of Galileo Systems LLC, was also very helpful in
this area. My other son, Doctor Jay, has provided assistance and editing
ix
of the chapter on medical terminology.
Many who assisted me in the first edition of the Compendium
contributed additional material for this new version. I thank them for
their continuing help. In addition, I wish to thank Cesar and Sylvia
Chelala, Yuko Kashiwagi, Carol Lof, Pedro and Rebecca Mateo-
Gelabert, Shoko Matsuzaka-Koestler, Cynthia Raymond and Louise
Takata for help with the sections on Colors and (in the 2nd edition) on
Baby Talk. Yuko made an additional contribution by writing a
complimentary review of the first edition for the ATA Chronicle.
Particular thanks to my Publisher, Morry Schreiber, for his
assistance in preparing this book for publication, for letting me take
advantage of his many years of experience in translation and
interpretation, and particularly for contributing portions of Chapters
One and Six. My thanks also to his able editor, Morgan Lehr, who
spent countless hours bringing this book into its present form.
Most important, if not for my wife, Chie Hamaguchi Rubinstein, I
would never have been at the Monterey Institute, would never have
taught my course in Quixotic English, and never would have even
thought of writing this book. I thank her for this experience, for her
continuing emotional support, and for her love, which is deeply
reciprocated.
x