Things you were shockingly old when you learned

Anyway, I like Ste's one. It feels like exactly the kind of thing that happens to me, with a word that's close enough to what you think it means that you can go through your whole life under a misapprehension. A bit like Americans and Britons meaning different things by 'frown'.

Ste if you lived in like, Florida or Georgia you would know. walking from dry air-con out into the actual air, the humidity is like an almost tangible wall that you enter into.

xpost hold on now

As I understand it, Tracer, Americans think of frowning as something you do with your mouth (hence “turn that frown upside down”). To most British people it’s something you do with your forehead.

I'm just lolling at the idea of what a brow-smile would look like

There's an old Fusco Brothers comic where one of them puts a fan in front of a closed window, and the punchline is "it's not the heat, it's the stupidity."

xpost https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71jS6IwbL2L._SL1200_.jpg

That reminds me I have a distinct memory of a colleague describing the weather as 'close' in my first graduate job and me being shockingly old to have no idea what she meant. "Close, close, you know, humid!" she said. She was only a few years older than me but I guess I'm getting on a bit now too.

I always thought 'close' was a Scottish expression, I've never heard anyone in England use it.

This is wild

So 'turn that frown upside down' is nonsensical in the UK?

that Chrysalis thing is cute to know!

reminds me of the architect Craig Ellwood - one of the founders, shortly after World War II, had arbitrarily picked that name for a contracting firm, after a "Lords and Ellwood" liquor store out front of their office. he liked it so much that after the office closed, he legally changed his own name to Craig Ellwood, under which sobriquet he then founded a prolific West Coast modernist architecture practice.

Chrysalis Records was named after its founders, Chris and Ellis.

This is good.

(xp)

this frown thing is a stunner.

i always thought "close" air meant when it's like stuffy inside and maybe there's a bad smell and you want to open up a window.

Wait, so what do non North Americans think of the frown emoticon? :( etc. There are no brows, there is no forehead, it's the upturned mouth that makes it "sad."

We are aware that an upturned mouth denotes unhappiness tbf.

loll

Resting Brit Face

frown = disapproval/worry, not sadness.

here we go

frown = believing that you are a Viking of sleep iirc

I always thought 'close' was a Scottish expression, I've never heard anyone in England use it.

She was a Mancunian, but I think I've heard it elsewhere in England since.

frown = disapproval/worry, not sadness.

Yeah, hence frown lines aka worry lines

well if we set up a "Things you were shockingly old when you learned" wiki we wouldn't have to go over this again.

You also frown when you're concentrating.

Or can do.

I can confirm this, or you might stick your tongue out like janet from the secret seven

Ha, yes, I do that.

I was not aware of the "frown" distinction. It's definitely something you do with your brow to me, whereas puting is done with the mouth when you're annoyed or sad (but now also something people do in Instagram pictures)

I've definitely heard people say "close" when it comes to weather.

I always thought 'close' was a Scottish expression, I've never heard anyone in England use it.

― Authoritarian Steaks (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 2:15 PM (two hours ago)

Midlands reporting in: I understand and occasionally use 'close' in this context.

North West here, yeah 'Close' definitely used 'round arr way.

We use “close” that way in Ireland too.

Also the south west of England.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdg4mLErl8I

I use "close," and I'm in Philadelphia. So do my parents and other people I know.

So I could have been using it all along instead of humid, doh!

I use 'close', didn't think there was anything odd about it. It's a good word to describe what it is!

I can confirm this, or you might stick your tongue out like janet from the secret seven

I learnt 'frown' from Enid Blyton, I'm sure. Frowning was a bit like a milder 'scowling'.

the night was sultry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1sgug6prw

The odd use of "close" I heard when I was younger was my mom asking me to "close the light" when I left the room. I used to think that was just one of her peculiar expressions, but then I learned it was fairly common in Quebec where she grew up, since in French you fermez la lumière so why wouldn't you open and close lights in English too? There are several such odd expressions I hear there stemming from direct translations from French that don't quite work in English.

Okay I admit that for most of my life, I thought that when UK people said it was "time for tea," they literally just had a cup of tea. Like, I didn't realize it entails an actual meal for large parts of the island.

xp

There's actually a wikipedia page for Quebec English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_English) full of expressions I hear all the time, though not generally from people whose first language is English.

my neighbors and uh, sorta unofficial godparents almost? from mid 20th century bkln, very italian american, often said "close the light," which baffled me. i never asked them about it.

Another amusing direct-translation fail, from an old roommate from Equador: apparently the Spanish word for "namesake" can be used to address someone that actually is your namesake, so if he wanted to greet someone who happened to have the same name as him, he'd say "hey namesake, how ya doing?" He did that for years before learning that doesn't work in English.

eu usage of frown is a totally new on e on me

John Prine says “Cathy was closing the lights” in Far From Me, so maybe it’s not just a Quebec thing.

There's actually a wikipedia page for Quebec English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_English) full of expressions I hear all the time, though not generally from people whose first language is English.

I've been known to use: 'delay' (in the sense of 'délai'), 'soft drink' (all the time, I would never say 'soda' or 'pop'), 'pass' (occasionally, when talking about the bus), 'dep' (it would be extremely weird not to if you live here), 'metro' (instead of 'subway' – always, without exception), 'stage' (instead of 'internship' – sometimes), 'terrace' (pronounced à la française, obviously – 'terr-uhss' is utterly alien to me), 'take a decision' (had to force myself to stop saying that one when I was younger), 'we're Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, etc.' (sometimes), I drop the 'do' when asking questions (sometimes, in colloquial settings), I definitely distinguish between 'marry' and 'merry', I pronounce all place names like a local (duh), and that's about it, really. Also, 'all-dressed' and 'cégep' are hardly false cognates.

I never use 'close the lights' because it was drilled into kid me that you're not supposed to say 'fermer la lumière' either.

grew up hearing close = humid from my coal-mining elders in western pennsylvania, which may well have come from their coal-mining elders in the uk

xp I would never say 'soda' or 'pop'

or 'pepsi'?

I mean, if it's an actual Pepsi, sure. Unless you're talking about the obsolete slur, in which case… no, definitely not.

he'd say "hey namesake, how ya doing?" He did that for years before learning that doesn't work in English.

it works even if it's not a thing, and anyone who didn't enjoy him doing it to them is lame and dull