On 13-Jul-2008, Einde O'Callaghan <einde.ocallaghan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote in message <6dtr2kF4cgppU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
> Arumugham wrote:
>
> > British English------------American English
> >
> > AUTUMN------------------- FALL
Both "autumn" and "fall" are used in AmE.
> > BAG -------------------------SACK
As are both "bag" and "sack", although one or the other might be
more common and/or have slightly different denotations in different
regions.
> > BARRISTOR ----------------LAWYER
>
> A barrister is a particular type of lawyer (a word also used in
> Britain), who specialises in arguing cases in court. I think Americans
> would refer to this person as an attorney.
"Lawyer" and "attorney" are largely synonymous in AmE, although the
latter is somewhat higher register and pretty much the only one
found in formal situations, and certainly in official titles. (For
example, no one would ever refer to *"the Lawyer General of the
United States" or *"the District Lawyer of Los Angeles County".) In
this sense, "lawyer" vs. "attorney" is very similar to "cop" vs.
"police officer".
In any case, there's certainly no nomenclatural distinction between
lawyers who specialize in arguing cases in front of a judge in
court and those who normally don't, unlike BrE "barrister" vs.
"solicitor".
> Another type of lawyer in
> England, Wales and Ireland (the terminology is different in Scotland) is
> a solicitor - you'd go to him for legal advice or write a will.
>
> > BISCUIT --------------------COOKIE
Note that "biscuit" is used in AmE, the distinction being, very
broadly, that cookies are sweet and biscuits aren't. (If anything,
biscuits are salty.)
> > CAR PARK------------------ PARKING LOT
> > CA****ER -------------------TELLER
>
> In a supermarket I think you call the person collecting the money at the
> till a "check-out clerk". In Britain you could call this person a
ca****er.
Yes, but in AmE you can also call a supermarket check-out clerk a
"ca****er", and only "ca****er" is used for, say, the person you pay
in a restaurant (or to whom your waiter or waitress takes your
money or credit card, and from whom they bring back your change, if
applicable).
And of course, in AmE a "teller" is the person behind a bank
window, where you got cash from, or made deposits to, your account
in prehistoric times before Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) became
ubiquitous.
[...]
--
Jim Heckman
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