Soft and Squishy

I went to a local food establishment today that was founded in England. They have fantastic posters of food and wonderful phrases under each of these pictures. I thoroughly enjoy going there because the food is fresh and because it reminds me of how different British English is from American English.

One of the posters has a picture of a cauliflower floret coiffed with some herbs and two eyes made out of olives and the sign says ‘Soft and Squidgy’. The picture is supposed to look like a lamb or a sheep on the fields. It makes me smile to see how the same concept and idea is stated almost the same way but spelled differently. We often say ‘squishy’ here in the States but our British counterparts say ‘squidgy’. I love it!

This made me think of some other fun ones that I recall from past stories or just from my hearing the differences in talking to people. The Brits often call their raincoats ‘mac(k)s’ as in a Macintosh. But Americans often think of their computers when we talk about ‘macs’. Or even a simple tool as an eraser is named a ‘rubber’ in UK. I’m sure whenever they say that to Americans; we chuckle because we think of it as meaning something else. (You know what we think; I’m not going to tell you)

Yes language is fluid and it can be fun but is language soft and squishy/squidgy? That I don’t know. You’ll have to let me know.