n license plate. I already wrote about this under my entry for “registration” and I’ll be damned if I’m writing any more.
Category: Travel & Transport
The most common British words or British English terms related to cars (or parts of cars), travel and transport generally.
n 1 old-fashioned bus. This is a quaint word, dating back to the times when buses were open at the rear and had a conductor ready to meet you. An omnibus is essentially one step technologically forward of a tram. 2 concatenated episodes of a week’s worth of television or radio series (typically soap operas) often screened at the weekends (also called “omnibus edition”). The Latin word “omnibus” means simply “for all,” which could explain both of these etymologies. I’m just saying that because I can’t be bothered checking either of them. I can’t even be bothered checking the Latin – someone just told me it. For all I know it’s Latin for pig-fucker.
n sidewalk. Brits call the part that cars drive on “Tarmac.” I wonder how many holidaymakers have been run over as a result of this confusion. Well, probably none really. I digress. Historically, “sidewalk” is in fact an old, now-unused British English word meaning exactly what the Americans take it to mean.
n pedestrian crossing. An area of the road, marked with black and white stripes, where traffic lights stop cars so that pedestrians can cross. A contraction of “PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossing.” Yes, I know that would be “pelicon.” People were stupid back then.
n gas. An abbreviation of “petroleum,” much like “gas” is an abbreviation of “gasoline.”
n fender-bender. An event towards the more sedate end of car accidents – you’re unlikely to hear on the news that fourteen people were killed in a multi-car prang and ensuing fireball on Wednesday evening.
1 n flat tire. In the U.K., puncture is used to describe the offending tire itself rather than just the hole in it: We had to pull over because we got a puncture. 2 infraction (universal).
n pron. “key” the place in a docks where boats are loaded and unloaded. The word exists in American English, but the British pronunciation can cause blank stares.
tow truck. The vehicle that comes to collect you when you have either legitimately broken down or are too boneheaded to change a tyre. It’s really not that hard. There are instructions in the glove box. And I mean you too, girls.
n licence plate. While Americans can have anything they fancy on theirs, and they bear little pictures of sunny beaches and legends like “Ohio – The Flour Biscuit State” and such, the Brits have slightly more plain affairs and less choice about what goes on them. Well, no choice at all, in point of fact. As the government changed their systems of number/letter combinations a good few times, however, there is a lively secondary market in plates that look like they say something.
adj round-trip ticket. As you probably know, it just means that you’re planning on coming home again.
n traffic circle; rotary. The device put into the road as a snare for learner drivers and foreigners. Everyone has to drive around in a circle until they see their selected exit road, at which point they must fight through the other traffic on the roundabout in a valiant attempt to leave it. Roundabouts do exist in the U.S. (predominantly in Massachusetts) but in the U.K. they’re all over the place – there is no such thing as a four-way-stop.
n sedan. The cars that, well, aren’t estates or sports cars. The kind your dad and the dentist have. They are called saloons in the U.K. because they usually have wooden swing doors, spittoons and people tend to burst into them waving a gun and saying something about the car not being big enough for two of us. Them. Us. I see why people hate learning English.
n railroad tie. The very large blocks of wood which go between the rails and the ground on a section of railway line.
n on-ramp/off-ramp. A road that runs parallel to a major one, allowing you to gain or lose speed safely while joining or leaving the main road.
n underground pedestrian walkway. Built to enable you to cross the road safely, urinate or inject heroin. Brits do not call the London underground train system the “subway.” They call it the “underground.”