QUERY: British "Word" v. American "Words"

[Kathleen Miller]

Walking down the street in London one day I saw a sign that said "No Busking."
After spending the day afraid that I was busking and didn't know it, I asked
someone.

He told me it meant, "playing a musical instrument on the street for money.
What do you call it in America?" I had to answer him, "playing a musical
instrument on the street for money" since no synonym came to mind. Pan handling
and street performing just don't seem right since neither specify the playing
of a musical instrument. (The OED does allow "entertain in the streets" but the
definition does have an emphasis on music.)

They've done it to me again. This quote from the wire last week, "The Cannes
Film Festival may or may not be a shrine to cinema, but one thing it certainly
is: an adventure playground for liggers, the camp-followers who have developed
the skills of free-loading and gate-crashing to a fine art." Ligging, from lig
a dialectical variant of lie.

I've always wondered what to call those expert champagne/hor d'oeuvre balancing
schmoozers one sees at DC parties, but I don't think "ligging" would catch on
here. Sponging? Free-loading?

Does anyone know of any other examples, either way, where one of us has one
word to describe something and the other uses many?

Can anyone think of American equivalents that sound as unique as ligging and
busking?
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