ArcaMax

Call it the British Invasion. No, it's not the war that started 250 years ago. It's the current all-out assault on the U.S. by British terms and expressions.

American executives, for instance, have adopted the Britishism "take a decision" for "make a decision." Likewise, it's now so "veddy" British among the limey-loving set to speak of "queuing up" instead of "lining up" and going on "holiday" instead of "on vacation."

Meanwhile, trendy publications, such as The New Yorker, brazenly brandish British spellings. When adding "-ing" or "-ed" to a two-syllable word, the magazine's editors now follow the U.K.'s practice of doubling the word's final consonant, e.g., "offerred," "labelling."

By contrast, we Yanks double the consonant only when the last syllable of the word is stressed, e.g., "occurred," "beginning," but not when the first syllable is stressed, e.g., "offered," "labeling." It makes me feel like cancelling ... er, canceling my New Yorker subscription.

Those rascally redcoats have even invaded the sanctum sanctorum of American English -- our cliches.

According to my email buddy Corny (hey, he's from Illinois), the worn-out expression "at the end of the day" is a British import. He reports that, while living in England during the 1980s, he was "gradually somnambulized by its overuse in their press and daily chat."

So if "at the end of the day" is a Britishism, I guess the sun DOES set on the British Empire after all.

And you can add to the list of pond jumpers:

-- absent, meaning "without" as in "absent evidence, we can't proceed"

-- suss out (figure out)

-- bonkers (whacky, absurd)

-- vet (to examine)

-- keen to (eager to)

-- roundabout (traffic circle)

-- mobile pronounced "MOH-bile" (cellphone)

-- gobsmacked (dumbfounded)

-- cheers (goodbye)

-- go missing (disappear)

David Reik of West Hartford, Connecticut, even detects a whiff of London fog in the growing tendency of Americans to treat collective nouns as plurals. He cites three sentences in American newspapers to prove it: "The team are sailing three days a week"; "The family are proud of their ancestry"; "The government work closely with the organization."

Red-blooded American Anglophobes should banish these sentences to their Anglo-files and prepare for a showdown at the U.K. corral. Don't fire until you see the heights of their "I's."

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Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

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