Shoo-in

Wow, 3rd post in the last several hours after weeks of nothing.  Must be a lucky day.  In my previous post, I had originally used the term "shoe-in."  But upon Googling "shoe in," I ran across this page, which says that it should be spelled "shoo-in."  (This is now corrected in the previous post.)

The origin of the term "shoo-in," it seems, comes from horse racing, when a horse was so much faster than the rest that one could merely shoo it to the finish line rather than having to use more extreme measures.

The website has an impressive list of common English errors.  It reminds me of a book Michele has about common mistakes in English, though this website seems to include some idioms (e.g. shoo-in) and cultural references as well.

Speaking of errors, here is an embarrassing misspelling that occurred over the entirety of a television ad I saw today.

Dr. Who?  Oh dear...

British English

I did some searching for British English phrases.  Here are some of my favo(u)rites, along with their American English translations.  Some of them may be more commonly used than others.

• agony aunt = advice column writer
• approved school = juvenile hall
• bedsit = studio apartment
• boardies = swimming trunks
• bum bag = fanny pack
• bumf = useless paperwork
• cagoule = parka
• cleg = horse-fly
• compere = emcee
• courgette = zucchini
• crotchet = quarter note (in music)
• dodgems = bumper cars
• electric fire = space heaters
• engaged tone = busy signal
• fairy lights = Christmas lights
• gaffer tape = duct tape
• gutties = tennis shoes
• hundreds-and-thousands = sprinkles
• ladybird = ladybug
• minim = half note (in music)
• OAP = senior citizen
• off-licence = liquor store
• pram = baby-carriage
• sleeping policeman = speed bump
• Tipp-Ex = Wite-Out
• vegetable marrow = squash (vegetable)
• Y-fronts = tighty whities
• zebra crossing = crosswalk

Now that I'm looking over this list again, it's kind of top-heavy.  Lots of words that begin with 'a,' 'b,' and 'c.'  But looking over the Wikipedia article I got these from, that list is kind of top-heavy too.  Oh well...