8 Words Americans Surprisingly Don't Use - Part 1

[@davidray6962]

Queue is just the sound of the first letter, with the other letters standing quietly in line.

[@LindaC616]

They're sitting. They're French, so it's always a sit in with that lot

[@nathanlaoshi8074]

@@LindaC616 Not nearly as much sitting-in is done as energetic (e.g. violent) street protests. They can be fun, as long as you don't park your car nearby (it will literally be toasted).

[@karenmorrisette5027]

Lol, Que is just a letter in the alphabet, it does nothing to explain what's happening. Not like LINE-UP does.

[@frankhooper7871]

The ueue aren't standing in a line! They're most obviously in a queue 🤓

[@LindaC616]

@@karenmorrisette5027 it's French for "tail"

[@Koumajutsu]

Queue is actually more common in American English than you might expect. We just don't use it to describe the act of standing in a line waiting for something. We do use it to describe inanimate objects, or non-physical things that are ordered for some action. E.G. a message queue, or a work order queue

[@CalLadyQED]

I have definitely come across the word in computer programming/computer science.

[@shoople46]

very common when playing multple player games. one has to queue up for the next match

[@gosnooky]

Yeah, I'm a programmer and when I think queue, I think of a FIFO data structure or anything there the first in is the first out, like messaging/event systems.

[@Rainears129]

Taken a business class or two, and queue theory is also used there.

[@coyotech55]

Yes, true. I hadn't thought of that.

[@DellaSinoui]

I had a friend in college who went to England for summer vacation. When she checked into her hotel, she was shocked when the concierge asked her what time she wanted to be knocked up in the morning. That same phrase is used here in the states but has a very different meaning!

[@triarb5790]

I said to my boyfriend's mate, when he was driving us somewhere "Shall I be nice and do the route for you?" ( in England that 'ou' is pronounced with the digraph 'oo' sound) . Very strange looks exchanged between my BF and his mate, and lots of giggles later, I learnt what 'root' means in Australia. It landed me the moniker "Nice Route"

[@peterjf7723]

In industrial towns there would be knocker uppers who would go round the streets with a long pole tapping on people's windows to wake them in time for work.

[@wharpblast264]

@@triarb5790 I never heard an American use the word rout. How would it be pronounced ?

[@UtilityCurve]

@@wharpblast264 Like the British say "row" meaning an argument or dispute plus an ordinary "t" sound.

[@tylarjackson7928]

@@UtilityCurve Not necessarily. The pronunciation can go either way. There's a famous American song called "Route 66" that says it to rhyme with "root".

[@NitFlickwick]

First time I went to England, I got a blister. I needed a bandaid and some acetaminophen from the pharmacy. The hotel staff could not figure out what I wanted. I eventually found out I needed a plaster and some paracetamol from the chemist. This is a 100% true story.

[@OllamhDrab]

Heehee. I had that experience the other way around when some UK inlaw was looking for paracetamol. :)

[@MM-kd3cb]

I believe it, my daughter went to Cambridge and after a few days of hiking to various places like King’s Lynn and pubs for pitchers of Pimm’s cup she had a blister on a foot. She was directed to Boot’s the chemist and was lost trying to find bandages (plasters) antibiotic ointment (don’t recall what the UK term for it was) and acetaminophen (don’t recall that either). She had a bit of a cold from the flight and was absolutely lost trying to decipher the various cough and cold preparation descriptions, like chesty cough

[@katbryce]

@@MM-kd3cb acetaminophen is paracetomol. They should know what antibiotic ointment is. The most common brand is Germolene, and people sometimes call it that.

[@AlyKatKitty]

😂

[@kevvywevvywoo]

@@katbryce antibiotic creams are only available with a doctor's prescription in the UK. Germolene is an antiseptic and can be bought off the shelf.

[@Negeta]

“Queue” is used fairly common online in games in which you have to wait to get into a match. After you ready up, you get to sit in queue. I think you can tell that it’s a fairly niche word still given it’s frequently misspelled as “que.” If people match-make alone, they’ll even call it “solo queueing.” So it ends up not being a line in the tradition sense, but people still wait their turn to get into a match.

[@Culdcepter]

And if it's not bad enough, we can spell it cue, as in cue ball for pool tables, or hitting your cue when acting. I used to spell it this way when I was waiting for the dungeon queue in Warcraft to pop because I just didn't know it at the time.

[@Hydra360ci]

I don't use all those letter to spell it though.... Que.... or Q.

[@matteo-ciaramitaro]

In America the word queue tends to be used more akin to an ordered list that gets processed in small batches, which is closer to how its used in programming as well. So it's definitely being used a lot because of things like Netflix, Spotify, youtube etc. I still use the word list for things though, like a shopping list, todo list etc. The word line seems to be the most common way for when you have to wait behind people for something. We have phrases like line up, get in line, cutting the line, wait in line to go with it.

[@Hydra360ci]

Just don't ask me how to spell it... cause I ain't gonna be spelling it that way.

[@matteo-ciaramitaro]

@@Hydra360ci itll go the way of you and get spelled just the letter q lol

[@lemonz1769]

A list and a queue is not the same thing. A “shopping queue” or a “to-do-queue” would not mean the same as list in AmE or BrE.

[@matteo-ciaramitaro]

@@lemonz1769 I didn't say the word list and queue mean the same thing. That wouldn't be accurate. what I said is accurate to American English. Im describing usage not defining anything...

[@MyLatin1]

I live in the southern US and I can attest to the fact that the word cheeky is used a lot where I grew up usually followed by the word for someone born out of wedlock.

[@karenmorrisette5027]

You mean "cheeky bast___" lol. My granny used it a lot in the 70s along with peckish and she was all southern US. Lol

[@alanlight7740]

I've certainly heard both used in the southeast, but not as extensively as I suspect they are used in Britain. And it's usually "cheeky little [irregular]".

[@cmillivol98]

Can confirm as a Tennessean😂

[@bowez9]

Southern English has more in common with British English than the rest of the US does.

[@rosehawke2577]

I've used it too here in Alabama, but I suspect it's something I picked up.

[@Ziegque]

I grew up in one part of the Midwest and now live in another. Peckish and cheeky are familiar to me, but I don’t often hear them in everyday speech; they are probably more familiar to older generations and those who are well read. Queue has entered American usage through exposure to British television shows, I think. As an American, if you use words like peckish and queue, you will probably get a look that says, “who is he trying to impress?”

[@reidleblanc3140]

Another midwesterner. Eh, I use queue all the time and it's normal in my groups. Peckish though... we don't use it. cheeky is used ALL THE TIME.

[@Isaacrl67]

Aside from that, 'queue' is used extensively in computer technologies and other engineering/science realms. I also remember going to Gov't offices and having to 'take a number', with the segmented displays that were labeled 'Next in Queue' with the numbers. Actually, the more I think about it the more I remember examples.. I also had a CD player in the 90's that and an 'enqueue' function that would queue the tracks into memory as a sort of rudimentary playlist.

[@dianef4227]

Cheeky was often by people stereotyping gay men. Seen less often now.

[@debbiesims138]

I remember peckish from my younger years. I think from my Mom. German heritage. I'm just guessing.

[@ajworden]

My Grandmother, born in 1912, used “peckish” all the time.

[@jacktion1546]

Peckish wasn’t an uncommon word when and where I grew up. It’s definitely a word I still occasionally use, and no one has ever questioned me on its meaning. Queue is actually a very common word in certain specific locations here in the states; namely theme parks. I’m not sure when, but at some point park management discovered the word and LOVED it. They started calling lines queues, and then the employees started calling them queues, and then regular park-goers, and so on and so on. But that’s the only place that any of us use the word. I don’t queue up for the checkout at the grocery store, I wait on line.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

It made me very proud -- and provided a moment of much-needed relief -- to learn that there was a queue of people . . . watching the queue of people who were queueing up . . . to get into the ACTUAL queue of people who were queueing up to see Her Late Majesty lying in state . . . and that the main queue itself was so enormous, it showed up on satellite images. We've done it. We have achieved Peak British. RIP, Your Majesty.

[@Itsgonnabeok1325]

My job is IT tech support. Phone calls wait in a “Queue”. I use queue multiple times a day.

[@rowynnecrowley1689]

Call center, here. Constantly hearing, (or rather reading), "No bathroom breaks, we have calls in queue."

[@m.h.6470]

also in programming: you "queue up data" for processing.

[@melc277]

Same here. I wrote it 5x today

[@dmvrant]

Yes, I also do tech support and those tickets in the queue never end...

[@kaymuldoon3575]

Yes, and queue is often used when multiple people are sharing a printer. Your document can be in the “print queue.” But yeah, we typically use the term “line,” like standing in line.

[@benjaminklein9333]

I think the word Queue has come up for me in America when referring to two things: digital queues for managing data tickets at my job, and referring to the physical space in which people stand in line for theme park attractions. For instance, “Both Disney and Universal spend much time and money developing intricately themed queues for their e-ticket attractions.” It’s a great word that needs to be used more often.

[@JosephAland]

Call centers also use queue to refer to the people on hold waiting to speak with a representative. "We have 15 customers in the account queue and 10 in the general queue."

[@t_ylr]

I think the difference for Americans is a queue is passive, but a line is active. So a call center places you in the queue, but you line up for checkout at the grocery store.

[@reidleblanc3140]

@@t_ylr yeah, I think so. (trying to diagnose my own speech patterns is hard though.) I do use queue in the british sense in situations where I might be speaking in the presence of a non-American, because it's a more specific word

[@freethebirds3578]

If you read stories on Reddit, you will find queue all the time, but 99% of the time it's a misspelling of cue, as in "cue ominous music".

[@t_ylr]

@@freethebirds3578 i could be wrong but I think that is a correct spelling in the context of theater and movies. Like actors read off of cue cards not queue cards.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Saran Wrap was originally a product of Dow Chemical Corp and was made from the polymer polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC). It was a superior type of plastic wrap, but was also comparatively expensive and came with more environmental concerns than the cheaper polyethylene that comprises nearly all the plastic wrap sold in the US now. The word Saran came from the names Sarah and Ann, wife and daughter of one of the Dow employees involved in the first commercial use of the polymer, which was shoe insoles for tropical army boots, not food wrap.

[@oktayyildirim2911]

Wow! That's really interesting, Supreme Leader!

[@loismiller2830]

Thank you dear leader

[@marklar7551]

Okay, so in warehouse work, the film is stretch wrap around the palletized boxes. Why? Because it works best when you put the pressure on it to stretch it as it gets activated by the tiny bit of heat caused from the pull and adheres better since it wands to retract back.

[@DemPilafian]

​@@marklar7551 Be very careful about upstaging the _Glorious Supreme Leader._

[@luminescentlion]

The PVDC is vastly superior to polyethylene though so even with Saran wrap changed over the meat industry still regularly packs food with PVDC.

[@zorgon60]

My dad used to tell me the joke "queue" is pronounced that way because the other 4 letters are waiting thier turn.

[@Gu1tarJohn]

As another person commented: In IT in the US, we use the word "queue" A LOT. Often referring to the print queue for a printer, but also in other cases.

[@davidray6962]

Flyover can also mean a simple aerial display by aircraft - typically in connection with another event, for example at a football game.

[@KJones-qs7ju]

As in, Blue Angels' "flyover"

[@Birdbike719]

Yes, this is the most common way I've heard it used. But i watch a lot of football so...

[@kevvywevvywoo]

yes we have aeroplanes perform flyovers at events such as Football Matches too.

[@steveszigethy]

Speaking of queues, my mom is from NJ near NYC and says she's standing "on line," while my Dad is from NJ closer to Philly (where I also grew up), where we stand "in line." Madness.

[@LegendStormcrow]

That's fine. I live in Texas and can't understand anyone Creole or Cajun.

[@MeItsMeLol]

You’re right, your mom is mad if she thinks she’s standing on line, just kidding LOL. Seriously, I don’t understand “on line” other than as a term relating to using the internet. You’re standing IN A LINE, hence in line, no one is standing on a line, so no idea how that wackadoodle expression ever caught on in the mid-Atlantic. And as far as I know, “on line” is only used in the mid-Atlantic area, the rest of us are all patiently waiting in line. Again only kidding re your mom, please don’t be offended.

[@NHT2]

How have I gone so many years watching this cheeky bastard without subscribing? Well, that ends today!

[@lizboettcher8898]

I'm American, and a papercrafter. I follow one or two British crafters on KZbin, and when I first started watching them, it took me a while to figure out what they meant by "kitchen roll" ... I call it paper towels! 😁

[@RosLanta]

Brit here, to us paper towels are in a stack rather than rolled up - most commonly found in a public area (eg in public toilets to dry your hands after washing). In home kitchens the sheets are almost always rolled around a cardboard tube, hence kitchen roll.

[@RosLanta]

@A A It is very common! Probably more in some regions than others

[@webwarren]

@A A First time I ran into a Britishism for TP, it was (decades ago) in a women's magazine interview with Jayne Seymour (the actress), who was discussing her then-relationship with an American. She asked about where the "loo rolls" were, and the fellow in question asked what she wanted with Lou Rawls (a musician)...

[@MuljoStpho]

@@RosLanta Usually here in the US that stack of paper towels in a public bathroom would be in a dispenser on the wall. One sheet hangs out the bottom and you pull the sheet (with both hands) and it breaks away from the rest of the stack as it pulls the next sheet into position. I have seen places where the stack was just left out on a counter instead, but it turns into a mess since everyone drips all over the whole stack while getting what they need off of it. Although it's been a while since I last saw that type of dispenser for them anyway. A lot of places switched over to an automated dispenser. It's got an actual roll inside, and the roll is one continuous piece instead of being pre-cut and it gets cut by an edge on the dispenser. A specific amount hangs loose under the dispenser and you pull to cut it off and then the machine automatically lets more of the sheet out.

[@RosLanta]

@@MuljoStpho That is all true of the UK too

[@BDUBZ49]

Laurence's American accent needs to make more appearances. Love it.

[@oktayyildirim2911]

It really threw me off whenever he did it, because it sounds like a totally different person to me. I've heard so many more American voices, so hearing one type that I'm familiar with coming from a guy that normally speaks in an unfamiliar accent is just so incredibly bizarre.

[@MrIronose]

Me too.

[@lorienolte3988]

I could listen to him all day saying “water” in his American drawl-waahh derr

[@bryndelmano6134]

Almost twenty years ago, when I taught second grade, I had "Queue" as the "Word of the Day". I'll bet the one student who thought it was great, still uses it.

[@billcarroll986]

I'm in my mid 50's, and I use 'peckish' often enough, and have for years. Though born and raised on the American side of the pond, I pepper my speech with a lot of British words and idioms, because I like to play with language and find different ways to say things. I've always been fascinated by the nuts and bolts behind the old saying that America and Britain are two countries separated by a common language.

[@brianjones8800]

I grew up in Alabama. I also like to mix up words here and there. Every now and then I'll use the term "bloke" to refer to a male that I don't know. I also feel like "A bit" is not common in American english. We would usually say "A little" or "A little bit."

[@arcanewyrm6295]

@@brianjones8800 We Americans also don't generally use the plural, "bits", the same way, either. Where we would commonly say "pieces" or "parts" in reference to smaller things that make up a larger thing, it's far more common to hear them referred to as "bits" (as in, all the little bits fell out of the package when it broke open) on the eastern side of The Pond.

[@HariSeldon913]

@@arcanewyrm6295 I'd say more in conjunction with 'pieces'. 'Bits' on its own is usually a group of things that fit in the end of a drill or impact driver.

[@arcanewyrm6295]

@@HariSeldon913 Well, of course there will be exceptions. That's a good point though, I didn't think of those.

[@benwagner5089]

I'm guessing peckish might be more common in rural areas where people see chickens a lot and have potlucks. I have a Southern aunt who's always like: "Oh I'm not really hungry dear. I'll just have a" (snatches a leg of chicken to put on her plate) " bit of this and maybe a" (grabs a crabcake off the platter) "bite of that."

[@maggiemacha5552]

I'm particularly fond of the British term Gobsmacked! I find it really sums up a shocking situation so well, better that any of the American words!

[@allenwayne2033]

Well, we use "dumbfounded" and "flabbergasted" but yes, I also like "gobsmacked". Somehow to me, it sounds like being hit in the face with a pie". :)

[@karenmorrisette5027]

@@allenwayne2033 "gobsmacked" always makes me laffing, sounds like you was hit in the face with a handful of wet dough, lol.

[@trudygreer2491]

@@allenwayne2033..reminds *me* of Gobstoppers..

[@brucetidwell7715]

@@allenwayne2033 Since "gob" is a British slang term for "mouth," I guess it does kind of mean that.

[@blindleader42]

@@allenwayne2033 Add "dumbstruck" to that list.

[@tfsheahan2265]

I hadn't encountered the term "peckish" until I met my wife, and she was raised in the Virginia/Tennessee border area, so at least it's still used there. I inferred it to mean that one has enough of a appetite to look for something to eat, but not yet actual hunger. A useful concept that doesn't seem to have an alternative way to express it.

[@fezmey6117]

Having lived in middle Tennessee my whole life, I can say that "peckish" is a word that I have known most of my life. I can say that "cheeky" was also well understood without needing to be explained.

[@michaelp.5469]

I'm from North Carolina and have lived all over the state. People here use the term peckish as well. It's not as common as just saying I'm a little hungry, but it's definitely part of normal conversation.

[@evilbob840]

I'm from Maryland, "peckish" isn't super common, but it isn't unknown either. It generally means hungry, but not too bad yet.

[@pollysshore2539]

I’m in Western NC, very close to TN and peckish was used frequently here. You don’t hear it as much as you used to but it’s still used. One of the archaic words I miss the most is my great grandmother saying, “ascared”. “That rattle snake bit me in the chicken coup and I was ascared.” True story.

[@kathykrisko3228]

With the exceptions of argy-bargy and brolly, I think I've heard all of these used in one form or another. My mother was from the South (of the U.S.) and my experience has been that, at least in previous generations, some southerners tended to use British expressions more than people elsewhere in the country. Also, my Rombauer cookbooks ('Joy of Cooking') which I have from my mother use the term 'potatoes baked in their jackets', so that's how I've known them.

[@ajs11201]

I've known some American restaurants to call baked potatoes "jacket potatoes." To my American ear, it sounds a bit formal, but by no means unheard of.

[@cratorcic9362]

Alabama and Kentucky especially follow this rule, for some reason. Kentucky makes sense, given just how much of the population are connected to Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand by the Thoroughbred industry. Alabama is kinda the odd one out, there

[@alanlight7740]

Until recently the southern states saw far less immigration since 1800 than the northern states did, so more of the population had British roots. Even the new spellings did not catch on in the south until after the war. I have books printed in Charleston in the 1830s through 1850s, and even a book or two printed on one of the surviving presses after the war, that use the traditional spellings still used in Britain and Commonwealth countries. So depending on how old the common British usage is it may be more prevalent in the southern states than elsewhere. Of course there are many terms that entered common use in Britain in the 20th century that never got any traction here.

[@kathykrisko3228]

@@cratorcic9362 Ha, my mother was from Alabama and I was born in Kentucky, so...

[@danmarsh5949]

"Queue" is used by computer people to mean a list of tasks that the computer must perform. Probably the place that "regular people" are most likely to see that usage is when referring to multiple things being sent to a printer; they go into the "print queue." I do say "peckish" from time to time, but it's an affectation, much like saying that I could "nosh" (I'm neither English nor Jewish). I probably picked the former word up from consuming British media, and the latter from consuming American media.

[@lisahinton9682]

@Dan Marsh I've also heard "You are fifth in the queue" when on hold with a company, though I do not remember which company it was. I remember being a bit surprised that they'd chosen that word, and then next time I called, I heard, "There are four people ahead of you in line" as I waited on hold. :::sigh::: I was all excited that perhaps the "queue" of my childhood (my mother was English and married my American dad) might have finally made the transfer into American usage, too, but alas!

[@artkincell]

My daughter (she's 31) uses 'peckish' all the time. She discovered the word whilst (see what I did there?) writing a paper for college. She's used in her daily vocabulary since.

[@broken4096]

As a computer person, I totally agree. Like my favorite author, JRRT describes a "gross", 12 dozen, ( Bilbo's birthday party invitations ) I find it inappropriate to use for people, only objects.

[@kodegadulo]

@@broken4096 A person who buys food wholesale by the gross, and sells it retail by the dozen, was called a “grosser”, but the spelling evolved into “grocer”.

[@RosheenQuynh]

This just reminded me that Simmers also use "queue" lol

[@luminescentlion]

I'm from New Hampshire and Queue and Line are both used based on how formal/posh you want to be.

[@lisahinton9682]

My English mother (I am American) used "peckish" to mean "a bit hungry," as in could go for a full meal soon or a snack now. It was not interchangeable with the simple "hungry," as it had to do with the degree of hunger one was experiencing. Has the definition changed? Same with cheeky - it could mean "a bit mischievous" as you mentioned, or it could mean "obnoxiously disobedient," or "obnoxiously sneaky and up to no good," depending on context. I know when I was coming up, I definitely didn't want to hear that word coming from her lips - it pretty much meant we were about to "get flattened." And I know you know what _that_ means. eh, Laurence?

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Peckish is mostly archaic at this point. I think the only times I've ever heard it used are in older movies. But, it is a word that has been used in America. OTOH, I do think that cheeky is starting to catch on a bit thanks to movies like Austin Powers and actual British imports.

[@tammypearre5033]

My son uses peckish. His paternal grandmother used it. We are American. She was born in the 1920s

[@haileybalmer9722]

I live in the Pacific Northwest and I use peckish exactly as Lisa defines it. Everyone seems to know what I mean when I say it, and I've heard other people use it around here. My granny used to say she was a "might bit peckish." I have no idea where she got that, but I use it, too. When I'm feeling cheeky :)

[@InSearchofaFeministUtopia]

I use peckish all the time. I picked it up from my father, who grew up in eastern Kentucky. My guy, who us from southern Illinois, had never heard it until he met me.

[@rtyria]

@@tammypearre5033 Same. Peckish is common in my (American) family, especially among older family members (1940's & 50's).

[@lindajack1391]

Flyover - is what we call a display of military aircraft for a parade or football game or somesuch event as well as the central part of the US which is often disparaged by the east and west coasts

[@RJ-hx5nb]

The Blue Angels did a flyover our town or stadium.

[@KevinLeroyGrant]

As someone who's been in marching band for a while, I've seen quite a few

[@jamesslick4790]

In PA the term "Flyover ramp" is used as the name of the roadway feature.

[@LindaC616]

Flyover of the Nazca lines in Perú

[@ADayintheLifeoftheTw]

Old school Bay Area used to use the term brolly. We all used cheeky. Peckish was also pretty common. Jacket potato was around, but only the oldest of the old used that term. Queue is used regularly. But old school Bay Area accent's had alot in common with RP.

[@captaincool3329]

As an Aussie, I can attest that we also use cheeky, brolly (somewhat), jacket potato and queue. We say overpass instead of flyover, but- as a train buff- flyover is used as part of my railway jargon, specifically for when one stretch of line crosses another by means of an overpass. In regard to cling film or plastic wrap: such terms would be understood, but generally people call it by the brand name; for me, glad wrap or cling wrap. And by the way, we also like having argy-bargy.

[@brucehewson5773]

Darwin has a "fly_over", as in the over pass from Bagot Road to Stuart Highway. Much more than an Overpass, as it does a flying right sweeping turn as well as just going over.

[@tanasarahdesign3781]

Cling film was a rather generic term. The brands became important at some point because one type stuck to anything and the other only stuck to itself, thus my grandmother would have both types to use dependent on the application. She would specify which brand to get out of the cupboard. Something in the formula of Saran Wrap changed and now that is no longer the case, they all seem to be the same. Now I call them all plastic wrap which is what they usually say on the box and I don’t buy Saran Wrap anymore. They tried to make the product safer but they made it irrelevant.

[@victorherron2767]

L.B, FYI, I grew up in East Tennessee and lived here most of my nearly 70 years, and people in my family and circle of friends have always used "peckish" in exactly the same way you describe. Never thought about it, but perhaps that's something left over from our largely Scots/Irish/English heritage (?). Best wishes.

[@lisbetsoda4874]

Am I right in assuming that peckish means "a little bit hungry" as opposed to "i am famished"?

[@thedatatreader]

In perhaps the most ironic fashion, I first heard the word "cheeky" in the (Somewhat) US biased Mel Gibson Patriot film and thought it was so interesting that I adapted it into my regular speech. It was cool to hear it used in regular conversation by people I met from Britain much later.

[@oddaudiocrafting]

When I was a teenager I went to Australia with a group of teens from the (American) Midwest -- during one bus ride, one of the other kids asked "What does kwee-wee mean?" It took our Australian guide a bit of time to figure out that this was from a road sign that said "Do Not Queue Across the Intersection" Though that was my first remembered exposure to the word queue, I do feel like I am more likely to encounter it now than 20+ years ago in America.

[@LegendStormcrow]

You are, but it's used differently stateside. It's not an action you take yourself, unless you are lining up things.

[@PentaSquares]

A kiwi is a person, a bird, a mythical beast which shoots lasers out of its eyes, and a fruit

[@Hydra360ci]

Big furry grape with a bunch of seeds....

[@kathenson606]

My favorite British word is bespoke. I watch a lot of British tv in America and I had to look that word up. I love it

[@caulkins69]

I've noticed Americans have started using "bespoke" in recent years. There's even a New York-based subscription box company called Bespoke Post.

[@kevvywevvywoo]

It's not a word in common usage. It is often used in a pretentious or grand manner to describe something purpose built, such as in a Brochure for kitchen cupboards or a hand-tailored suit.

[@theramblingzone]

I still use "peckish" here in upstate NY. But now that I think about it, I never hear anyone else use the word, other than my sister.

[@jessetingle9055]

1. Peckish appears in my vocabulary at least once a week. 2. Flyover can also refer to when a military aircraft flies over an event venue during the national anthem (the melody of which was, incidentally, composed by an Englishman). 3. I first encountered the word queue when faffing about with print jobs in Windows OS. I thought it was pronounced like "quay" and to this day don't understand why the developers chose that particular word. --an American

[@LegendStormcrow]

Apparently "peckish" is used in about half the US.

[@CalLadyQED]

I had thought "faffing about" was uniquely British. Americans "play with" and "mess around in" things.

[@LegendStormcrow]

@@CalLadyQED I've never heard faffing, but there is a phrase that's quite similar sounding. It's, uh, NSFW.

[@Which-Craft]

"snogging" is a British word that always cracks me up. also, a British colleague used "the penny finally dropped" when speaking to me once, and I knew what it meant because, well, Doctor Who, but he mistook me as not understanding when in fact I was questioning in my head which of us he was referring to lol

[@webwarren]

"Snogging" kind of gets me because of its acoustic similarity to "snot" (nasal mucous). Also, it's sometimes difficult to tell, contextually, whether one is discussing kissing or coitus (or something in-between).

[@fadedjem]

@@webwarren The sexual ambiguity ia kind of the point of 'snogging'. It's a gross word but one that fills a lexical gap when you're describing a kiss that is clearly and unambiguously sexual. 'French kissing' has never caught on, at least in Britain, whether that's because it sounds pretentious, doesnt have the same onomatopoeiaic value as 'snogging', or just because it's two words and we naturally prefer to use one.

[@WalterWD]

This ☝🏻 hahaha

[@DerekWitt]

I'm American. I do use "queue," but only to refer to a data structure (in computer science/programming). It's FIFO (First-In, First-Out). But can easily recognize queue as used in British English. So, it's not too much of a foreign word to me. As for flyover, I tend to use this term differently (Kansas being referred to as "flyover country" to my dismay). However, I refer to bridges such as in your example as overpasses.

[@christopherhanley4807]

And then there's "back-over flip"(see Robert Guillaume, Ozzy Smith, and Sha Na Na. just saying.)

[@jenniferk9242]

I watch so much British TV that a few words and phrases have slipped into my otherwise very American vocabulary, but nobody knows what I'm talking about when I use them 😂

[@Cricket2731]

😆🤣😅😂

[@elizabetha2601]

Same here!

[@eileenmcgroarty9757]

Same here! I use peckish and brolly..

[@paulamiles9559]

I got gasps and ghastly stares at work for saying I was " fagged out". I excused myself " too much Inspector morse "

[@SeventhEve]

Yeah, I didn't realize 'peckish' was British, probably started watching Monty Python too early in life xD

[@avlisk]

There was a song called "Bus Stop", a hit by the Hollies in the mid 1960's. It was decades before I knew they were singing about standing in line. In 2022, queue is becoming much more common now. Note: I'm from Boston, and we never used the word.

[@LinNoOne]

That time my son's primary school sent a letter home saying to make sure your child wears a "vest and pants" beneath the uniform really confounded this American mom. Had to call the school secretary to hash it out. The "pants" part was easy to sort, but the "vest" took awhile for me to properly translate

[@jamesfischer2427]

Vest? Oh, you mean a Wife-beater...

[@coyotech55]

So what did they mean?

[@LinNoOne]

@@coyotech55 tank topand underwear

[@joaniekleiner3624]

When I visited England (many years ago) I was very confused by some words. Collywobbles, Bob’s your uncle, Codswallop, Hank Marvin, Zebra crossing.. to name a few. But my very favorite was/is Plimsoll.

[@lisahinton9682]

@joanie kleiner I am hearing "Bob's your uncle" more and more here in the USA. I even heard it on a KZbin video of a clip of a TV show (though I don't remember what show it was, or who said it, or why) recently, and was quite surprised.

[@jonesnori]

@@lisahinton9682 I was surprised when I heard it was British. I thought I had heard it growing up in the South, but it's possible that I picked it up reading British novels.

[@OliveDNorth]

Collywobbles is British? My born-and-raised-in-Michigan dad said that. And I've used codswalloped myself.

[@kevvywevvywoo]

plimsoll meaning a sort of rubber sports shoe is a rather archaic term in the uk these days

[@alicialexists]

"Peckish" entered my vocabulary when I was in middle school, thanks to British KZbinrs. Now, I can confuse most of my American friends and family members every time I forget that they don't know that word.

[@kohaku_amba]

One of my favorite words from Britain that you did not mention is "Dapper". I've always been fond of that word.

[@deanbianco4982]

Dapper is used in America. Ask anyone over the age of 60!

[@veronapaisley6915]

"Dapper" means "Smart/Smartly dressed". A "Dapper Don" is a stylishly well dressed man in formal attire.

[@tookitogo]

Yeah, “dapper” is definitely used in USA.

[@jonesnori]

It's also used to describe female and nonbinary people who prefer to dress in a way that's usually considered formal and masculine. So 3-piece suits, say, designed for the wearer's curvier body, but in such a way as to minimize the curviness. I think that's right - it was explained to me, but I may not have described it perfectly.

[@kevvywevvywoo]

@@jonesnori not in the UK. Dapper just means 'smart'.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

"Welcome to customer service!" "Hi-" "Your call is very important to us, you have been placed in a queue. Please hold" "Wait-" *worst music known to mankind intensifies* Queue, aka the "Oh I have to wake up so early during my vacation so I could join the line virtually and get a guaranteed spot to ride this special, popular attraction" word to a Disney World visitor...it's sad how complicated it has become

[@annfrancoole34]

If your call is that important to them why are you down at the end of the queue 🤣🤣😄😄

[@BostonMassacre]

As a North Carolinian we do use queue somewhat often and I’ll hear peckish here and there usually from older folks.

[@CoasterKid13]

It's funny that I've lived in the US my whole life, but "queue" has been in my vocabulary for nearly 20 years now (I'm only 32) because I played way too much Roller Coaster Tycoon as a kid (and adult) and that game was made by a British designer.

[@joshuarosen465]

Computer engineers use the term Queue all the time, it's used by other engineers also, queuing theory is a field of study because queues are important to all sorts of systems.

[@john_g_harris]

I've often wondered why it isn't called standing in line theory.

[@charlesjohnson9879]

Yep.

[@dinglewhompus]

i live in the southern us and we always called the thing to seal off dishes in the fridge "cling wrap"

[@thelionsshare6668]

Between junior high and high school, my parents and I went to Britain, the first time for any of us. At the airport, somehow all the passengers wound up in an area to either wait to get their luggage, or be processed. I forget which. What I do remember is a sign that said "Please stand in the queue." We were wondering if there was a giant Q painted on the ground somewhere.

[@Kitsunemel]

Having lived in the US for almost 40 years, in 7 states and having visited twenty or so more. I can safely say that “Queue” is used very commonly by a vast majority of people.

[@jefffarris1288]

I completely disagree. It is used quite a bit on websites, but I've never in my life heard i t used in spoken American English.

[@lemonz1769]

Not nearly as much or as in as many contexts as it is in British English. In American English we “line-up” we don’t “queue-up.” At grocery store there is a “check-out line” not a “check-out queue.” In American English queue is generally used in specific contexts usually in business or technology. Of course there may be some people in some regions that use it like a Brit but that is the exception not the rule.

[@coyotech55]

@@jefffarris1288 It's not used for people waiting in line here. You tell people get in line, or line up. In England they'd use queue in place of line. It's used for digital things quite a bit - packets of data or jobs to be processed in order.

[@JohnSmith-ls3um]

Americans have a tendency to use widely known brand names as stand-ins or in lieu of the item names. Saran Wrap is one example but you also have Band Aids for bandages, Vaseline for petroleum jelly, Q Tip for a cotton swab, Tupperware for plastic food storage containers, Jacuzzi for a hot tub or spa, and Chapstick for any lip balm. There are many, many more examples….

[@iiismyfav]

Hi Laurence, I love your channel. I’m a Bostonian- born & raised. We always use the term queue when we refer to the print jobs waiting to come out on the printer. In Boston we’d say Aahgie- Baahgie 😉

[@fastfoodisgross]

i was gonna say bostonian here and i've definitely heard/used queue and peckish. cling wrap/plastic wrap are both used in the house as well

[@trudygreer2491]

An American "Lost In The Flyover" is how East Coasters stand "on line" whereas out West we stand "in line"..

[@jonesnori]

@@trudygreer2491 I thought "on line" was a NYC area usage. I certainly never heard it where I lived in Massachusetts, Georgia, or North Carolina.

[@trudygreer2491]

@@jonesnori Thanks for the clarification!

[@ecclestonsangel]

Laurence, we actually do use flyover here in the US, and it means the same as it does in the UK. PS: so sorry about the Queen. Many of us here were very fond of her. She's the only monarch I ever knew. She will be missed.

[@AngloFrancoDane]

Visiting a friend in London, she called me before I left my hotel to walk over to her place and asked if I would mind picking up some bog rolls. Well, I had heard of the term "bog standard" and so I stopped at a bakery and bought some pretty standard looking breakfast rolls. Imagine my surprise (and her frustration) to learn that bog rolls means toilet paper rolls.

[@ksyrahsyrah4983]

FLYOVER: As a person in one of those flyover states, we, too, use this term when describing a very specific feature of a roadway. Flyovers, generally, are like an elevated off ramp which connects with another roadway seamlessly. This elevated ramp “flies” over the other lanes of traffic, not requiring any stopping…or slowing, …depending upon how daring you are.😉

[@freeshrugs63]

Hi. I haven't heard "flyover" used like this, in Texas, Kansas, California or Oregon. Are you perhaps from one of the northern states? Just curious.

[@katiecline8554]

​@@freeshrugs63 I live in Texas and I've heard it used quite frequently, particularly in Austin. Maybe it's popularity varies more by city than by region?

[@blackbuttecruizr]

Smart Alec would probably be the closest to cheeky...

[@Torgo1969]

Bold, insolent. I call dogs and cats cheeky every now and then.

[@HLR4th]

Little Devi too

[@JohnnyAngel8]

Oh, smart aleck is good. I like that one. I couldn't think of anything except "impish", but that is seldom seen. More often we see "mischievous".

[@LindaC616]

I use cheeky a lot when I eat something tiny that isn't necessarily the best for me..."a cheeky spinach bagel from Clement's"

[@robviousobviously5757]

smart-a$$, probably isn't an exact fit.. but close?

[@drdebbiejackson]

Knew several of them except brolly, flyover, and clingfilm. Something else I learned recently is saying "ta" for thank you.

[@aeonise]

Living in one of those flyover states as I do, I was a little surprised to hear that Americans don't use several words that the Americans around me definitely use on the regular. While we don't use flyover here in the way you described, we do use cheeky and peckish quite often, queue occasionally (I happen to use it more, being a software developer), and I've even heard clingfilm a few times. I'm reasonably certain I don't live in an odd enclave of British immigrants in the center of this country, but I've been wrong before.

[@bistromathics6]

same

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

While I haven't travelled the US extensively, I have been to several places and worked with Americans here in the UK, and there are wide variances between dialects in different regions. The big difference is that America is a big place, and has populated over a shortish time from many places and so the variations change slowly as you move around. Here in the UK its possible to travel 20 miles and find an accent you can barely understand.

[@Gavagirl23]

I've heard flyover in a very small number of instances in the US; when I lived in Austin, the big bridge where highway 183 went over I-35 was called the "183 flyover". There are two other instances in Oklahoma City where I-44 crosses I-235. I haven't ever heard it used for smaller surface street crossovers though.

[@theTeslaFalcon]

My dad used "peckish" sometimes. He said it related to the way chickens use their beaks to peck around looking for food. Today we'd call it "the munchies": when you're hungry but you don't want a big meal, and you don't really know what you want to eat.

[@DamonNomad82]

I always got "peckish" mixed up with "peevish" as far as meanings went. I guess being the first can lead to being the second!

[@markbradley7323]

Over here you get the 'munchies' after smoking dope.

[@theTeslaFalcon]

@@markbradley7323 Where is here? I've had the munchies plenty of times. I've never even seen dope.

[@Mibbitmaker]

I first heard "peckish" on Monty Python, where I probably learned a few British terms. Though "cheeky" sticks out in my mind most from an SNL sketch where Mike Meyers played an English child. Also prominently used by Craig Ferguson on Late Late Show later. "Bumbershoot" was used on Mystery Science Theater 3000 when Mike did his first Invention Exchange, an umbrella with gutters like alongside a roof, referring to it as a "gutter-bumber-chute" (spelling in the MST3K episode guide book), even chanting the name in encouragement.

[@LegendStormcrow]

Much of the US uses peckish.

[@gregm766]

The first time I heard "queue" was when I was in Disney World in the winter of '83. A Brit asked if I was in the queue for a ride. Me being somewhat bright 17-year-old, knew what queue meant and stated the no, I was not in the queue (in line). As for "cheeky", every American Monte Python knows what it means, "say no more, say no more, nods as good a wink to a blind bat"

[@ixchelssong]

Bugger. My grandmother used that frequently, especially in reference to my brother and me. "You little buggers!" 🤣🤣🤣😂 Don't think I heard that word from anyone else in the U.S. But her people were Scottish.

[@carultch]

You probably had no idea that it refers to sodomy, expressed with contempt and disapproval for it. It might as well be the F-word, the way it is used in Britain and Australia.

[@ixchelssong]

@@carultch Yes, I didn't know that when I was a child, (but do now) 🙂 And when my grandmother said it, I think she was always laughing. She was always cute that way! 😁

[@stevestruthers6180]

This is a word that is commonly used in Canada. Even though it refers to sodomy, it's actually considered a more polite word than 'fuck'. I remember when I was a kid I was playing around with an adding machine Dad brought home from work. Mum admonished me before I got near it, saying "Don't bugger it up". 'Buggered' can also mean broken, finished. And for what it's worth, most of my ancestry is Scots.

[@icedcoffee8561]

Peckish is used in the south east of the US fairly often.. and the American equivalent of saying someone is cheeky is calling them a clown, but that term is only used by the younger generation.

[@maidenfly6600]

I'm American and in my family we use the word ornery to mean playfully mischievous. It wasn't until I was grown up that I found out some people use ornery to mean mean-spirited.

[@nrrork]

Yeah, I only knew the latter. Because it's what my mom always accused me of being 😣... Hell, she just did a couple weeks ago. So it confused the hell out of me when I once heard Tweety Bird described as "ornery". In that first definite, it fits perfectly, but I never heard of it until... now...

[@rowynnecrowley1689]

Ornery in my household always meant cranky or argumentative.

[@Urroner]

In Utah, ornery is pronounced without the first "r," as awnery. In high school, one day I did a poll on how to spell ornery and only like 5% got it right. Most of people tried starting it with "hon."

[@SuprousOxide]

I thought ornery meant more obstinate and disagreeable. But it could be more a case where I just didn't know what my parents were talking about

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@Urroner If only 5% got it right, then it really means that 95% of the people got it right, the 5% need to invest in better dictionaries.

[@SeliahK]

Peckish - I use this (and with the same meaning, yes) fairly often. I also grew up hearing it in use. Queue - we seem to have a different usage of it. We do use it, but it seems to be limited to very specific uses. Computer or electronics in specific. So, a song might be "queued" up in a playlist, or a document is in the "queue" of a printer waiting to be printed, Cheeky - Again, I use this often, and I heard it all around me growing up (I'm NY State born and raised). Gobsmacked - OMG, I love this word and I use it regularly. Like Cheeky and Peckish, I did indeed hear it used around me as a kid, although if I'm being honest, not until my pre-teen years. Perhaps it's just not caught on across the whole country yet?

[@mandiduncan5437]

I’ll add that queue is used sometimes to refer to lines of people waiting for things in the US as well: call centers call their external phone lines (where the customers hold for an agent) the phone queues. I’ve also sometimes seen it when talking about actually physically standing in line, but that’s pretty rare.

[@draco4540]

i haven't heard the word gobsmacked in years. i'm from upper peninsula of michigan. i'm 58 yrs. old. it seemed like the word gobsmacked was semi-common. it was used just enough for people to be familiar with the word. in the last 20 to 30 years, i haven't heard the word all that often.

[@TheRavenCoder]

All these are used in WA state as well. Additionally, I've seen queue used to refer to lines at amusement parks and such.

[@TheEudaemonicPlague]

When did he bring up "gobsmacked"? Looking at what you mentioned just before it, I'd have guessed it came right after "cheeky", but not, "cling film" follows it. Either way, it's another regional slang term, and gob is Irish for mouth. I have seen it used plenty in American fiction, but rarely spoken. I'm pretty sure the reason I've seen it in fiction, is because I've read a lot of old books.

[@Randall1001]

In NY we use "peckish." I've heard friends say "I'm feeling peckish, let's get a nosh." I mean... I've said it too. And we *certainly* use "queue." I mean, that's relatively common. I think more British idioms get into the zeitgeist here.

[@PixelatedH2O]

I'm aware of other meanings but I know the word "queue" more as a noun than a verb. The queue is the physical location, while the people inside it are lined up. Example sentence: The line in the queue for It's A Small World was 80 minutes.

[@sarahheld3761]

One word I think the difference is hilarious. Fanny!

[@LindaC616]

Now, now...😄

[@LightHalcyon]

Flyover is used here but mostly as a technical term in the traffic/engineering word and it is different from how “overpass” is used

[@Name-ps9fx]

"Queue" is a word that symbolizes what it means: First letter is heard, and the others stand quietly in the line.

[@vincem3748]

lol

[@debpike4774]

Love this channel. Hello from Canada !!

[@edwarddore7617]

I've loved word peckish since I first heard it on Wallace and Gromit, and it makes sense, you're just kind of in the mood to snack, maybe not have a meal.

[@aletheaglenn6656]

A flyover is when airplanes fly over an area. Like an air show.

[@mountainmolly2726]

Disney World refers to the lines for its rides as queues. I have no idea why. It's the only instance I can think of when it's used that way here. One British usage that always catches my attention is "scheme" simply meaning a plan. Here in the US, "scheme" usually has a slightly nefarious context.

[@jonesnori]

Yes! I've gotten into trouble here using it in the British way.

[@jennifernielsen599]

Disney World - I was thinking the exact same thing!

[@rahmit47]

Another British word is "dodgey". I heard it used in British comedy shows as "a dodgey old man" and "don't buy dodgey petrol". I had to ask a British friend about the definitionof the word "dodgey", since what sort of word could apply both to an old man as well as to petrol/gasoline?

[@carmium]

"Cheeky" is more often used with children: "Don't be cheeky when I ask you to do something" or sometimes "cheek" as a synonym for sass.

[@webwarren]

Where I work (Target stores), "cheeky" is a design of women's underwear in which one's cheeks are a bit more exposed than in some of the other designs.

[@Rebel9668]

I do use queue but when I do folks mistake me thinking I'm saying cue. I use peckish, but usually only when I'm around a particular Uncle who likes to use words uncommon for here. I generally follow that with, "I think I'll have a nice repast and then a long repose."

[@JohnnyAngel8]

Repast ... lol, my father would use that word jokingly. A word for peckish that Americans use would be "famished".

[@pacmanc8103]

@@JohnnyAngel8 Peckish isn’t famished - it’s slightly hungry, not starving, as in famine.

[@rtyria]

My father would add an invitation to a little "social intercourse" (conversation). He also loves uncommon words.

[@shelleytorok1406]

And when you are replete from your repast you can announce "My sufficiency has been suffonsified and any more would be obnoxious to my taste." (And, yes, suffonsifiied IS a real word 😄😄) I had an uncle that said that whenever he was offered a second helping at a meal and thought it was nonsense until I looked it up LOL

[@frankhooper7871]

My grandfather used to use the word "endeavour" rather than "try" - which is why my mother, as a child, thought the Lord's Prayer ended with "forever endeavour, Amen"

[@ellasmommy9278]

I think I have to use argy-bargy next chance I get. • Brolly? I think I'll stick with umbrella, but I thought bumbershoot was British as well and I'm kind of fond of the word parasol even though those are not good for rain. • I love the word cheeky and use it whenever it's appropriate. • Saran wrap is plastic wrap or as you call it cling film. • When I hear flyover I think of pilots. Overpass makes more sense to me. • I must be secretly British because I say peckish a lot, well at least when I'm hungry. For some nibbles. Although I do like cream and sugar in my tea. Which people have actually asked me at restaurants, are you English? And I say do I sound like I'm English? • I've never heard jacket potato before. • A lot of Americans use queue. Maybe not around you, but we definitely use it. Not a lot of people can't spell it from Q to que. I tend to stick with people who can spell queue correctly. Although we generally say we're standing in line, we like to know when we're next in queue. So I guess it's not a substitute for line.

[@RunstarHomer]

My grandmother was born in England, although you'd never know it from her accent. She moved to the US when she was little and speaks just like any other American, except for one tiny piece of vocabulary that she's held onto: "peckish".

[@OldWhitebelly]

Nice choices! Here in California, our Roads Department (CALTRANS) actually DOES use the word "flyover" for overpasses, specifically those connecting one road to another like in freeway interchanges, in spite of the fact that virtually no one uses the word and very few even recognize it. In many circles in the US peckish and cheeky are used, but the speaker likely means to be using a British-ism. Both words have shades of meaning that are missing elsewhere. And really, that's what makes English so much fun/so infuriating-there are ten words for everything, all with subtle differences in meaning. Another for your list, and a fine word- kerfuffle.

[@alisont.6940]

Interesting - I've never heard it used in California.

[@SCSilk]

@@alisont.6940 same.

[@traffic.engineer]

Darn....someone already said it...

[@WalterWD]

Haha you said freeway. Such a California word rarely heard in the Midwest lol

[@traffic.engineer]

@@WalterWD Freeway is a road with control access that allows for "free flow" traffic. An expressway is high-speed road but can still have intersections, signals, and driveways. A freeway is an expressway with the addition of control access. All freeways are expressways, but not all expressways are freeways.

[@CheersNE]

I learned the word "peckish" from Wallace and Gromit🐶 in the 80s and love to use it!

[@jeffcook3747]

Hi Laurence! I think the closest thing to cheeky might be calling someone a sly fox or “you little devil". PS, not denying it but i lived in Massachusetts for 41 years not far from Boston (about 40 minutes away) and i never heard anyone use the word "queue". It was always waiting in line...or on line if you're from New York (gross)

[@springsaber]

Also goofy

[@jonesnori]

It's not gross; it's just different. Variety is the spice, etc.

[@rochellegriffin]

For cheeky, the closest word I can come up with is "stinker." This is usually used as a way to amusedly tell off a child, like when my nephew steals one of grandma's wigs and her glasses and wears them around the house -- "you little stinker!" It's not generally used on adults. Very fun video, thanks!

[@carlabrown6849]

Yes we use “stinker” for a cute and slightly mischievous child.

[@musewolfman]

You can combine them together for the delightful "oh, you cheeky stinker."

[@letolethe3344]

My mom used "you little dickens" this way occasionally. She's from N.C.

[@michaelrains64295]

I thought of “scamp.” It has a more youthful implication but similar disposition.

[@0011peace]

@@carlabrown6849 The SNL pardy of PBS show Simon as Brittish Simon says cheeky monkey monkey often being term of slang for children

[@JeremyWS]

Words on this list that I have used (as an American, myself) are: peckish, cheeky, and queue. If we had reformed the spelling of queue, we probably would've spelt it que. This is because in American English it is extremely uncommon to see the letter q not followed by the letter u. We will even have to two letters next to each other in names where the standard qu sound is not heard, e.g.: Jacqueline. One word that I have used that has the standard qu sound but doesn't have a qu in it is qwerty. So yea, the word is used. Also, I'm not from Boston. I liked this video.

[@Primalxbeast]

Qwerty doesn't have a "u" because it's a list of the first 6 letters on a standard keyboard.

[@TequilaToothpick]

The Q in Queue is followed by a U though......

[@jimrodarmel8512]

As I understand it, English doesn't have any words using Q not followed by U except for recent foreign borrowings. Often Q in foreign words will represent a more guttural variant of K, a sound we use so little in English that many native English-speakers can't hear the difference. It's common in Inuit and Arabic, and Arabic has a specific letter for it, similar to the letter for the K sound. The letters are called qaf and kaf respectively.

[@baigandinel7956]

The QU thing is an English feature, not an American English one, though American English does drop some phonetically superfluous letters to words at the margins. Queue may have to retain some extra letters because QU is pronounced KW, not KY. So I think technically the first UE is signifying that this is a silent U, as in 'unique,' and therefore, should be pronounced as a C as in "cue."

[@LegendStormcrow]

On top of u not being in qwerty, it's not the qu sound, but a q-wuh sound.

[@blackbuttecruizr]

In IT Queue is a common term, used to describe work tickets that are in a particular "queue" waiting to be actioned.

[@LindaC616]

Netflix, too 🙂

[@LindaC616]

And gmail

[@patriciawinkler3939]

I love your channel because you always make me laugh. Ever think of doing stand-up? Perhaps you already have. Thank you!

[@marioni116]

In 1972 I went to college (or, as they say in Canada "university") at the University of Guelph in Ontario. The first time I went to a bank, I saw a sign that said "Queue here". I had no idea what that meant. There were lots of other words and phrases that confused me, but one instance I remember in particular was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with some other people. Someone asked me to hand them a serviette. Oh, then there was the time in Spanish class the teacher used the word "zed". I gave myself away as a gringo (that's what the teacher called me) when I asked what that meant.

[@danieloutloud9151]

Had to look up serviette because you didn't say what it meant and I'd never heard that word before .

[@dizzydaisy909]

You do know Universities and Colleges are different things right?

[@marioni116]

@@dizzydaisy909 The difference is people here in U.S. (at least in my circle) talk about going off to college, regardless of whether it is a university or college. I have never had anyone here ask me where I went to university.

[@someguy2135]

I am in my mid 60's and live in the USA. I remember when people stood "in line." Now, for some reason, people stand "on line." I would guess it had to do with our computers and smartphones which are on line most of the time.

[@PatrickCordaneReeves]

As a kiddo, I watched Power Rangers. One of the big villains was Lord Zed, which to me sounded like a really awesome villain name. I had no clue that his name just meant Lord Z(ee). He even had a "Z" on his chest, which to me was the abbreviation for Z-e-d. Apparently, in non-US places, the Z spelled out the entire name!

[@briandoyle6792]

My Grandmother was born and raised the US by her English mother. My Grandmother used to use English names and terms. She used to use the word Clingfilm for plastic wrap, Queue and every once in a while use the word cheeky to describe someone. However, not only did my Grandmother use the word Peckish I've heard other Americans use it as well. It may be age related because I remember my Grandfathers referring to pants as Trousers.

[@willscott4785]

Pants means trousers in the north of England. In the south it means underpants.

[@LegendStormcrow]

Yeah, you're going to have to specify if you mean underpants trousers or pants trousers. Also, peckish is used in the US in a multitude of places.

[@cathystewart2268]

We use the term queue in a bit of a different way. I’m most familiar with as a term for a list of things to do as in when my boss asks “what do you have in your work queue this week?”

[@katiecline8554]

As several people mentioned below, I do use the word flyover regularly, but for the much larger curved structures that "fly over" other highways. I hear it a lot in Austin, both in traffic reports and regular speech. I don't remember coming across it much outside of Texas cities, but that may just be because that's where I've done most of my driving, and we have a lot of rather large flyovers. But what you showed in the video we would call an overpass.

[@draco4540]

there used to be a s.a.c. air force base (strategic air command), near where i live. the air base had b-52 bombers and nuclear warheads. it was common to hear people talk about "flyovers", in terms with the military jets and bombers flying overhead.

[@markcarbaugh3994]

I wonder how many people actually have seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? It’s a favorite of mine. And I introduced it to my kids and they love watching it over and over as much as I do.

[@LindaC616]

I have, but I'm over 40

[@angelcat2865]

I have

[@jonesnori]

I saw it in the Sixties, I think, but my housemate and I just watched it again when it ran on TV. It's a very silly movie, but I enjoyed it as a kid.

[@DrRChandra]

I didn't really know what "queue" meant until I was in college, in my Computer Science classes. It's quite prominent in programming, as well as for documents waiting to be printed (print queues).

[@2wheelpartsguy]

BELL END is one of my favorites

[@jamesslick4790]

I use "bell end" quite often and I'm from Pittsburgh, LOL.

[@spinalobifida]

Probably another one Americans don't use much is "bugger". That's one of my go-to words out in public if I hurt myself or get annoyed.

[@hatjodelka]

I've seen it used in an American kids cartoon but in the sense of someone who bugs you. There were complaints as it's considered to be a swearword here in the UK as the association is with buggery and therefore not suitable for a kids cartoon. If I stub my toe or drop an egg on the floor I'm likely to say buggeration. Sir Terry Pratchett referred to his Alzheimers as the embuggerance.

[@LindaC616]

When I was younger I used to use it for for someone who was being naughty. Like that "cheky little bugger". But I'm old

[@hatjodelka]

@@LindaC616 I think it is considered more of a swearword in the the South of England than in the North. I'm old too!

[@Caseytify]

Queue is frequently referred to by programmers, along with stack. LIFO (last in, first out) & FIFO (first in, first out) are two more common types. Helpful in generation or maintaining linked lists.

[@walterrutherford8321]

A FIFO stack is a queue. But I don't know if there is a common name for a LIFO stack. Just stack?

[@bryancorrell3689]

Queue has become more common the last couple decades, but it's used almost exclusively for computer related activities. You queue up to get in an online game or documents are in the queue for printing. The closest American equivalent to cheeky is probably fresh, but the latter carries a bit more negative connotation. We also watch a lot more British television these days. So many of the terms are known in the US, but typically wouldn't be used unless one were attempting to sound English. Argy-bargy is a new one on me, though.

[@MyNameIsBucket]

I'd say "queue" is commonly used in the US in all sorts of contexts... EXCEPT FOR specifically standing in line.

[@DiacriticalOne]

We use “peckish” all the time (“How you doing?” ‘OK - feeling a bit peckish, so I’m getting a snack.”). Always have.

[@lennyhikes2781]

When I hear the word peckish I think of a chicken pecking around in the dirt looking for insects to eat.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

It's mostly archaic, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are people out there that use it ironically, or who just didn't get the memo.

[@jabbertwardy]

Yes, I hear it all the time here in the States... Maybe it's regional? My dad says it all the time (and he's not British nor related to any Brits)

[@danieldimitri6133]

We use the word queue with computers mostly. I suppose it could be used for any sequencial list but yeah we dont use it socially. Technically its a queue when you pick a number at the dmv or are getting served in a line for fast food. But we just line up and dont distinguish it from lining up for other reasons like some kind of organized formation. The word queue isnt wrong here its just unexpected and not in a social vocabulary. But some of those things seem extremely colloquial. Cling wrap is fine just not in our vocab and i could probably understand cheeky and not think its too out there but i could imagine even if familiar a brit could see that argy-bargy or brolly would be something pretty unique to the locale. I might be surprised if an Aussie said argy bargy but i could be wrong about that.