hamper

Filed Under American Culture (アメリカの文化), 1 word difference | Leave a Comment

The word hamper means to make something difficult to do but in American English it also refers to a box where you put dirty laundry and it British English it refers to food and beverages packed as a gift.

Popularity: 28%

Apr

21

Passover

Filed Under American Culture (アメリカの文化), etymology | Leave a Comment

Today starts the Jewish festival of Passover. Passover is the festival that commemorates the 400 years that Jews were enslaved in Egypt. Now, this writer isn’t exactly sure how many years the Jews spent enslaved in Egypt, but a number of sources indicate about 200 years and yet even others indicate 100 years.

Anyway, the word Passover refers to the time that God sent an avenging angel to kill the first born son of the Egyptians, but spared the Israelites (in other words, the Jewish people). The angel knew which homes were Jewish because the Jews painted their door posts with the blood from a lamb. So in other words, the homes where “passed over” by the angel.

Popularity: 34%

Feb

14

Cupid

Filed Under American Culture (アメリカの文化), vocabulary | Leave a Comment

Today is Valentine’s Day and you will hear phrases containing the words related to love like heart, roses, etc. One of the words often used but maybe not understood by non-native English speakers is the word “Cupid“. Cupid is the name for the god of love in Roman mythology. You call someone Cupid if they are trying to introduce a man and a woman to each other, like “I appreciate you help in introducing me to someone, but you don’t have to play Cupid.”

Popularity: 29%

Jan

11

front-runner

Filed Under American Culture (アメリカの文化), vocabulary | 1 Comment

Politics is front and center in America right now and the word front-runner is used to express the person currently in the lead, in other words, the front-runner is the person in first place. In Japanese, this is called yuusei 優勢（ゆうせい） and as of today the front-runner in the democratic nomination for president of the United States, is Barack Obama, or is Hillary Clinton. Well, we definitely know it is not John Edwards. Good luck to all the candidates and hopefully they will each have a chance to be the front-runner.

Popularity: 49%

Dec

25

Christmas - Deck the Halls

Filed Under American Culture (アメリカの文化), etymology | 1 Comment

Today is Christmas, a holiday which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. But the word “Christmas” is a combination of the words “Christ” and “Mass“.

The word “Mass” means death and was originally created by the Roman Catholic Church, and belongs exclusively to the Church of Rome. This seems strange since Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. A search on “origin of Christmas” will display an abundance of information, so I will let you do that search and leave you with one last phrase: “Deck the halls…”

Deck the halls means to decorate, but more in a lavish way (in Japanese, 豊かに、たっぷりに飾る). So you can use it like this:

Assistant: Boss, what should we do to prepare for the party?
Boss: Just deck the halls with whatever you got.

Popularity: 39%

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