John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

American English to British English Dictionary - Punctuation Marks, Signs, Digits and Numbers

The numerical entries on this page are in numerical order, not alphabetical order. For example, 101 lies between 76 and 800, not before 2%.

*

I believe that in lifts (elevators) in the USA, the button for the exit floor, which will normally be the ground floor, often has an embossed asterisk beside the floor number. This is primarily intended for the benefit of blind people but it may also be useful if you are caught in a lift and the light fails but the lift is otherwise operative. (This information is based solely on observation. I have not seen it confirmed elsewhere.)

$

Dollar sign. According to the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing: "The origin of the $ sign has been variously accounted for. Perhaps the most widely accepted explanation is that it is the result of the evolution of the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. This theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, explains that the "S" gradually came to be written over the "P", developing a close equivalent to the $ sign. The $ sign was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785."

( and )

Round brackets are often called parentheses in American English.

{ and }

Curly brackets are often called braces in American English.

#

This sign, a musical "sharp", looking like a small noughts and crosses board, is called a hash sign, but is read as "number". You often see it in the credits of American films and television programmes, for example "Gangster#1", "Gangster#2", which would be read as "Gangster number one", "Gangster number two".

People in the USA and Canada sometimes wrongly call the hash sign a Pound sign. I think this is probably because on many early computer keyboards the two symbols were on the same key and were given the same ASCII code. A "shift in/shift out" system or an escape sequence was used to set printers so as to produce the desired symbol. Even now one symbol can be changed to the other when it is transmitted in an email message or via a web site, etc. However, I have received comments that this theory may not be correct since use of the hash sign to mean a Pound sign may predate computers.

This mistake also extends to the very occasional use of the hash sign in shops to mean a Pound unit of weight, where "lb" should be used. Another area where you may encounter the mistake is in instructions for responding to automated telephone inquiry systems, where the hash button is fairly frequently incorrectly referred to as the Pound button.

~

A tilde (~) over the letter n (ñ) changes its pronunciation to "ny". For example the name of the town of Cañon City, Colorado is pronounced "Canyon City" and the climate phenomenon El Niño is pronounced "El Ninyo". This use of the tilde comes from Spanish.

2% Milk

Semi-skimmed milk. Also called low-fat milk.

23 Skidoo (Twenty-Three Skidoo)

See Twenty-Three Skidoo.

24/7, 24 x 7, 24 by 7

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In other words, always operative, always open, never closes, or all the time.

49

Often used, especially in California, to refer to the Californian Gold Rush of 1849. The 49'ers (or forty-niners) were those who took part in the gold rush. In what is surely more than a coincidence, California State Highway 49 winds its way through that part of the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains where gold was found.

49th Parallel

See separate article.

76 and '76

Any mention of 76 (or '76), or "The Spirit of 76" (or '76) is almost certainly a reference to the American Declaration of Independence in 1776.

86 (Eighty Six)

To refuse to serve an unwelcome customer at a bar or restaurant. Idiom Site offers a possible explanation of how the term came to be used (external link verified Dec-02).

101

A basic introduction to any subject. From the practice common to many universities and colleges of using this number to refer to a foundation course in any particular subject - Physics 101 being the foundation course in Physics, for example. A document described as being a 101 is somewhat similar to an Internet FAQ in its purpose, although it probably does not have the question and answer format.

311
  1. In some US cities, a non-emergency telephone number for contacting the police.

  2. In some US cities, a telephone number for contacting the city authorities to report problems such as faulty street lights, potholes in roads, etc.

  3. The name of a pop group (which unfortunately makes it more difficult to find references to the other meanings in Internet search engines).

401(k)

Sometimes written 401k.

Dave Krupka of Bolingbrook, Illinois kindly sent me this description:

This is a retirement funding plan, also known as "deferred compensation". It's got an odd name because it refers to a section number of the tax code. I've seen it written both ways, although the "401(k)" version seems preferred.
In the late 1970's the Internal Revenue code was changed to allow employers to take out money from employees' pay checks before income taxes. These funds are then held in a special account, often with additional contributions by the employer. The funds are invested and the worth continues to grow.
The advantage is if you earn $X per year, but have $Y placed in a 401(k) account, at the end of the year the IRS (Internal Revenue Service, equivalent to the UK's Inland Revenue) taxes you only on $X-Y. Meanwhile that Y amount of money is earning dividends from investment, which are not taxed either. Yet, that is.
When you retire (at the age of at least 59.5) you can begin withdrawing funds from the account. THEN the government gets its taxes, but only on the amount you are withdrawing. And, as an added advantage, since you are usually in a lower income bracket when you retire, the tax rate is lower.
You can withdraw cash earlier at a substantial penalty, or without penalty for certain emergencies.
A friend of the family who does retirement plans says it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and advises all his clients to put all the cash they can spare into these.

511

 According to some sources there is a move to introduce 511 as a national telephone number for current road and traffic information across the whole of the USA. I get the impression that this plan is still in a very early stage of being implemented. According to a news story in USA Today 14-Jul-03, Washington State was the sixteenth state to start using 511 as a traffic information telephone number.

800, 877 and 888

In the USA and Canada telephone numbers with area codes of 800, 877 and 888 ("800 numbers", "877 numbers" and "888 numbers") are toll-free, like British 0800 numbers. In the USA and Canada you sometimes need to put a 1 before the 800, 877 or 888, so you often see the numbers quoted as 1-800-..., etc. See the Telephones and Telephone Numbers section for more information.

9-11 or 9/11

A shorthand reference to the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC which took place on the 11th of September 2001. In US date format (mm/dd), 9/11 is the 11th of September.

911

In most if not all parts of the USA and Canada the telephone number for contacting the emergency services (fire, police and ambulance) is 911, equivalent to the British 999 number. This number must only be used in an emergency.

"X - Y" or "X and Y", and "X above (or below) 500"

 My thanks to Dave Krupka of Bolingbrook, Illinois who supplied the following explanation:
When the media refer to a sports team being "X and Y" or "X - Y" the first number is the number of wins and the second is the number of losses. Since the major league baseball season consists of 162 games, it's common to refer to the team's performance in two ways:
To illustrate a trend in recent games they will say they have won or lost a certain number of recent games, such as "the Cubs have lost 6 of the last 9 games", or "the Cubs have won 4 of the last 5".
For an overall season record they will say that the team is X number of games above (or below) 500. This is a play off batting averages (times at bat divided by number of hits). If a batter has gotten a hit every time at bat he is said to be "batting a thousand", which has become a common idiom in non-sports settings for succeeding every time. The correct number is, of course 1, but it is written 1.000. If he is successful half the time then the number is .500 or just spoken of as 500. So as the season progresses and the numbers get bigger, instead of saying the Cubs are 45 - 55 they will say they are "5 games below 500".
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American English to British English Dictionary

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Most recently modified 28-Mar-04