5 ms·

I was surprised that 'kebob' isn't a well-known word in the UK. I believe it's a 'kebab' in the UK, which seems so close. As a Canadian I was disappointed to f

• sdflhasjd 5y ago
  Kerbside is listed as being unknown to americans so people do seem sensitive to spelling
  • raverbashing 5y ago
    Makes me want to say "yes I am sensitive to spelling. Especially to misspelled words ;) " (especially as curb having the same origin as curve) but yeah, it's not hard to see what it means.
    • anfilt 5y ago
      Seems like it was spelled that way looking at the etymology to differentiate kurb and curb. Seems like when horses were still prominent curb referred to a strap used on horses. https://www.etymonline.com/word/kerb#etymonline_v_1818 https://www.etymonline.com/word/kerb#etymonline_v_1818 Basically, curb was a type of restraint meant to hold back. So a curb/kurb on the street is just a tiny retaining wall holding back dirt. Some times it is fun to look at etymology. Also makes phrases "like curb your ambition" make more sense.
  • ziftface 5y ago
    Wait is it really called a "kerb" in the UK?
    • bambataa 5y ago
      The “kerb” in the UK is the step between the road surface and the bit the pedestrians walk on. More properly “kerbstone” I guess.
      • compsciphd 5y ago
        in the US its just called a curb and a curbstone
    • iamacyborg 5y ago
      No, we call it a pavement
    • lbriner 5y ago
      Something to remember is that not very long ago, many words didn't have an accepted spelling, they were spelled phonetically. Although Curb would sound correct since it might be to curb things on the road from hitting the pavement/sidewalk, spelling it as kerb would have been OK. Bill Bryson talks about this in one of his books (long time ago, I can't remember which) and it explains weird things like why the US pronounce Derby as it sounds but the Brits call it so it sounds like Darby.
    • elevaet 5y ago
      Yes, and they also spell the things on your wheels "tyres"! "Mind you don't scrape your tyres on the kerb!"
• dagw 5y ago
  'kebob' isn't a well-known word in the UK. I believe it's a 'kebab' in the UK, They probably thought it was a trick question. Chucking in a word that sounds kind of like a real word, but spelled 'wrong'.
  • ralferoo 5y ago
    Quite a lot of restaurants in the UK also spell it as kebop, so I'd have thought many people would also be able to guess kebob.
    • kcartlidge 5y ago
      > many people I guess you've seen it somewhere so your observation is equally as valid as mine, but I've lived (UK) in the North West, Midlands, and South West, and have worked in London, and I've never seen the word kebop anywhere ever.
• Accacin 5y ago
  The only people here (UK) and the people buying houses. You have no idea what it means, then you really care what it means all of a sudden :D
• tagoregrtst 5y ago
  Why were you surprised? Aside from the government mandated minimum CND content the majority of media Canadians consume is American. Then consider that that, percent wise, the number of English speaking Canadians in Hollywood are over represented wrt non California (again, English speaking) North Americans. Then the family mixing between Canadians and Americans is huge. Most famously the families of the draft dodgers, but Im always surprised by the number of Americans who tell me they had a Canadian grandparent. Finally, like my uncle (who also lived in and travelled extensively in the USA and CND) told me when I first arrived to the US from Canada: there’s a larger difference crossing North America East-West than there is North-South. Look at MN. They sound like they’re from Thunder Bay. In short; Canadians help make US media, Canadians consume US media, Canadians are intermarried w/ Americans and demographically its as hard to distinguish an urban Canadian (Vancouver, GTA) from an urban American (Seattle, Jersey) as it is to distinguish a flyover Canadian from a flyover American.