Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English

Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English - Paperback

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Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English
  • Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English
Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English - Paperback

Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English - Paperback

by Ben Yagoda
$18.31
$18.31
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Hardcover $24.95 Paperback $18.31

Book Overview

A spot-on guide to how and why Americans have become so bloody keen on Britishisms--for good or ill

The British love to complain that words and phrases imported from America--from French fries to Awesome, man!--are destroying the English language. But what about the influence going the other way? Britishisms have been making their way into the American lexicon for more than 150 years, but the process has accelerated since the turn of the twenty-first century. From acclaimed writer and language commentator Ben Yagoda, Gobsmacked! is a witty, entertaining, and enlightening account of how and why scores of British words and phrases--such as one-off, go missing, curate, early days, kerfuffle, easy peasy, and cheeky--have been enthusiastically taken up by Yanks.

After tracing Britishisms that entered the American vocabulary in the nineteenth century and during the world wars, Gobsmacked! discusses the most-used British terms in America today. It features chapters on the American embrace of British insults and curses, sports terms, and words about food and drinks. The book also explores the American adoption of British spellings, pronunciations, and grammar, and cases where Americans have misconstrued British expressions (for example, changing can't be arsed to can't be asked) or adopted faux-British usages, like pronouncing divisive as "divissive." Finally, the book offers some guidance on just how many Britishisms an American can safely adopt without coming off like an arse.

Rigorously researched and documented but written in a light, conversational style, this is a book that general readers and language obsessives will love. Its revealing account of a surprising and underrecognized language revolution might even leave them, well, gobsmacked.
ISBN9780691262314
Author Ben Yagoda
PublisherPrinceton University Press
GenreEducation and History
FormatPaperback
PublishedMarch 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages288
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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About Ben Yagoda

Ben Yagoda is the author, coauthor, or editor of fourteen books, most recently Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English (Princeton University Press, 2024) and O. Henry: 101 Stories (Library of America, 2021). He has written about language, writing, and many other topics for the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review and Magazine, Slate, The American Scholar, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and publications that start with every letter of the alphabet except X and Z. Yagoda has been awarded Guggenheim and MacDowell Fellowships to support his writing about O. Henry. His podcast, "The Lives They're Living," focuses on people whose achievements deserve renewed attention; episodes have included Gene Seymour on Ishmael Reed, Michael Tisserand on Jules Feiffer, Carrie Courogen on Elaine May, and Dwight Garner on Calvin Trillin. Yagoda lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Alias O. Henry is his first novel.

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