The British love to complain that words and phrases imported from America—from French fries to Awesome, man!—are destroying the English language. But what about the influence going the other way? Britishisms have been making their way into the American lexicon for more than 150 years, but the process has accelerated since the turn of the twenty-first century. From acclaimed writer and language commentator Ben Yagoda, Gobsmacked! is a witty, entertaining, and enlightening account of how and why scores of British words and phrases—such as one-off, go missing, curate, early days, kerfuffle, easy peasy, and cheeky—have been enthusiastically taken up by Yanks.
After tracing Britishisms that entered the American vocabulary in the nineteenth century and during the world wars, Gobsmacked! discusses the most-used British terms in America today. It features chapters on the American embrace of British insults and curses, sports terms, and words about food and drinks. The book also explores the American adoption of British spellings, pronunciations, and grammar, and cases where Americans have misconstrued British expressions (for example, changing can’t be arsed to can’t be asked) or adopted faux-British usages, like pronouncing divisive as “divissive.” Finally, the book offers some guidance on just how many Britishisms an American can safely adopt without coming off like an arse.
Rigorously researched and documented but written in a light, conversational style, this is a book that general readers and language obsessives will love. Its revealing account of a surprising and underrecognized language revolution might even leave them, well, gobsmacked.
Ben Yagoda has published more than a dozen books, including Will Rogers: A Biography; About Town: “The New Yorker” and the World It Made; When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse; and The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing. He is professor emeritus of English at the University of Delaware. His blog, Not One-Off Britishisms, has been visited more than 3 million times.
"The wash of cultural globalization, where everything is available all the time, has made it easier for words to flow into as well as out of the American word hoard. . . . Gobsmacked! is a collection of the hundred or so wittiest and most interesting entries from [Yagoda’s blog] — kerfuffle, pillock, twee, nonstarter and, of course, gobsmacked."—Dennis Duncan, Washington Post
"It is possible that the British need 'Gobsmacked!' more than their American cousins. The Americanisation of British English is well known; the Britishisation of American English, not so much...A country not sure what influence it still does—or should—have in the world might like to know that the superpower across the ocean still fancies the mother country and its culture."—The Economist
"Part of this book's delight is that it's not just about language—it's about Yagoda's research, resourcefulness, and diligence. . . . In Gobsmacked! Yagoda has written a fun, informative exploration of our language."—Christopher J. Scalia, Washington Free Beacon
“One could do worse than to have a lie-in with this valuable and entertaining book, in which Ben Yagoda gets his Britishisms sorted for our benefit. Brilliant, in the best American sense!”—Mary Norris, author of the New York Times bestselling Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
“The best exploration of British and American lexical variation and change that I’ve ever read. Or, to put it in the terms of this book: it’s brilliant, gobstoppingly spot-on, streets ahead of anything else.”—David Crystal, author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
“Ben Yagoda is one of our most insightful and entertaining commentators on language and culture. In Gobsmacked!, he focuses his formidable talents on an original and fascinating story: Britain’s growing influence on U.S. speech. If you’ve ever wondered why you have suddenly started saying things like cheeky, dodgy, or twee, you’d be bonkers not to devour this wonderful book.”—Fred R. Shapiro, editor of The New Yale Book of Quotations
“Despite my decades of experience with English on both sides of the Atlantic, and all my academic study of its varieties, Ben Yagoda’s delightful book taught me things I had not yet realized about the British influence on American speech. As anyone acquainted with Yagoda’s writing might expect, his book is both fascinating and fun.”—Geoffrey K. Pullum, University of Edinburgh
