In 1887, Oscar Wilde wrote in The Canterville Ghost that "we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language." As this section shows, Brits (and some Americans as well) have been fascinated by America's special "spin" on the English language!

Americanisms, by Richard Grant White (Atlantic Monthly, 1878)

An Englishman on Americanisms (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1887)

"It is impossible to take up an American newspaper without reading of certain persons who are designated by such terms as scallawags, kickers, bolters, mud-slingers, cranks, dudes, bulldozers, dead-heads, loafers, roustabouts, mugwumps, etc."

Some Things We Say and Do in America, by Deliverance Dingle (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1888)

The English Language in America, (Century Magazine, 1889A)

"There is no divine right in matters verbal vested in English speakers on the other side of the sea. Our language is not lent us by them on the condition that it shall not be tampered with, but is our own to mold or forge to all the purposes of our multifarious and peculiar practical and intellectual life."

American Slang, Catchwords and Abbreviations, by Dora de Blaquière (Girl's Own Paper, 1894)

No common language? Brits found American terms like "greased lightning," "tangle-leg" and "pan out" to be quite entertaining!

Wild Flowers of English Speech in America, by Edward Eggleston (Century Magazine, 1894A)

Folk-Speech in America, by Edward Eggleston (Century Magazine, 1894B)

The Origin of "O.K.", by Prof. W.S. Wyman (Century Magazine, 1894B)

Debunking the myth that "OK" was the result of Andrew Jackson's illiteracy, and suggesting instead that the word came to us from Jackson through his knowledge of the Choctaw language.

Southern Dialect, by Val Starnes (Century Magazine, 1895B)