Is this the same English???

[martinlivings]

This week's Alien Loves Predator comic is highly appropriate for us here in the UK. You wouldn't think there would be that many differences from Australia, with only 200-odd years of slight separation, but they keep hitting me in the face.

Is this the same English language? Sometimes I wonder...

Some examples:

• PANTS - in Australia, this refers to trousers or slacks. In the UK, pants are underpants. Very confusing.
  
• VEST - Izz hit this one the other day. Here, a "vest" is what we'd call a tank top or a singlet, at least in women's fashion.
  
• THONGS - everyone knows this one. Back in Oz, I wore thongs all the time. Here, they'd be called flipflops, and thongs are g-strings.
  
• DADDY LONGLEGS - now this one confounded me. I heard UK people talking about all the daddy longlegs this year, and I was very confused, because I hadn't seen a single one. Then I saw something on the BBC about them, and realised that in Australia a daddy longlegs is a spider, but here it's a freakin' fly! And not just any fly. It looks like a mutant mosquito, with long legs (well duh!). Here is what the British call a daddy longlegs, and here is what we sensible Australians call one!

There's heaps more, but they'll do for the moment. Does anyone else have examples to suggest? splanky? speshal_k?

Comments

[azhure.livejournal.com]

I dunno, but that crane fly is gross!

[martinlivings.livejournal.com]

True, but harmless, apparently, despite looking like a huge mossie!

[possbert.livejournal.com]

My first encounter with one of these buggers was in a hotel room in Aberystwyth in Wales. It was too intimidating for me to try and get it out of the window.