Scientist Compiling English-American Dictionary

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 55, 21 February 1949, Page 5

Scientist Compiling English-American Dictionary

“Your president has introduced me as an oceanographer, but he didn’t tell you I am also a lexicographer. As I travel round I am compiling a dictionary of characteristic American and New Zealand words. With so many of your girls married to Americans, it is important we Americans should know the meaning of some of the terms you use.” So'said Dr. R. C. Miller, Director of the Californian Academy of Science, during an address to the Te Aroha Rotary Club. Dr. Miller was a member of a party from the Pacific Science Congress which, recently paid a short visit to Te Aroha. “When you talk of ‘alighting’, you mean to get down from a bus or car. But if you told an American bus driver you wanted to alight, he would look at you and probably offer you a match.” The Doctor continued that he had discovered that our “bubble and squeak” was equivalent to their “hash.” A ’companion of his got a little mixed and asked for “bubble and squirt.” He said that when Americans talked of a bonnet they meant something to put on one’s head, but we used it of

something on the front end of a car. In America, that was called a hood. “It took me a great deal of research to find out what a hogget is. I have now learned that it is an adolescent sheep.” Dr. Miller next referred to the different pronunciation in the word “laboratory” and said he could not make out at first what place New Zealanders were talking about. “We put more emphasis on the “labour” and less on the “tory.” “Tea,” he went on, “appears to be something New Zealanders start at seven in the morning and continue tii midnight, with occasional breaks for eating, work and recreation.”

During his address the speaker told a story about the curate who was called upon at the last minute to preach a sermon in the vicar’s place. Explaining his lack of preparation, he told the congregation, “I am sorry I have had no longer to prepare. I must rely on the Lora. The next time I preach to you 1 hope to give you a better sermon.”