Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Variant of Briticism.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Same as Briticism.
Wiktionary
- n. A word, phrase, idiom, or expression peculiar to the English language as spoken chiefly in Great Britain.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. an expression that is limited to English as spoken by Englishmen (especially as contrasted with American English).
- n. a custom that is peculiar to England or its citizens.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an expression that is used in Great Britain (especially as contrasted with American English)
- n. a custom that is peculiar to England or its citizens
Etymologies
- British + -ism (Wiktionary)
Examples
“And Coakley might have lost in any event, simply because a by-election (do we get to call them that or is that just a Britishism?) held during a period of economic angst usually hurts the incumbent party.”
“A lot of American style guides, however, have finally decided to dismiss the whole thing as a Britishism.”
“But the past year has seen major publishers, as well as the chains, release dismal financial reports; publishing stalwarts such as Dan Menaker, Jane Friedman (Publishers Weekly's "Publishing Person of the Year" for 2006) and many others who seemed untouchable have abruptly found themselves, in that peculiar Britishism, "made redundant.”
“Lane delivers a stock, and rather rote, Britishism: "Nothing good ever came of seeking revenge.”
William Bradley: Mad Men's Sensational Season Finale -- HuffPost Review
“Hoovering I think is a Britishism rather than a Canadianism”
“Hoovering I think is a Britishism rather than a Canadianism, because I distinctly remember having to look it up when I was a kid and couldn't find it because my parents' dictionaries are too prescriptivist.”
“Let me clarify that "knickers" is a technical term for fencing pants, not a Britishism for underwear.”
“I don't really hear Cordelia Kenn's voice in accent, and though there are times when a Britishism will throw me, she doesn't sound done up in phoney dialect the way the dialogue in Harry Potter movies often do.”
“Did I miss the memo specifying that the Britishism whinge would be supplanting the more familiar whine this year?”
“The London Times headline reads, "Barack Obama Action May Put Paid to Comparison With Jimmy Carter" ( "put paid to" is a Britishism that means "finish off").”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘Britishism’.
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Monovocalic Proper
Capitalized words with only one of the vowels, with that vowel used at least three times. See also Monovocalics.
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