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

[Lynne Murphy]

Kathleen Miller said:
> 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.)
>
> Does anyone know of any other examples, either way, where one of us has one
> word to describe something and the other uses many?

Well, most Americans don't say 'busking', but the AHD does have 'busker' and the
example therein comes from Kathleen's own New York Times.  But I disagree that
this is the case of the British having one word for something and Americans
having many (or do you mean by 'many' that Americans use a phrase?).  I think for
Americans, busking counts as begging/pan-handling.  So, if you put up a 'no
begging' sign, the buskers would be out of luck.  But BE separates busking and
begging.  I think the OED definition has a musical emphasis only because that's
what people usually do when they busk (definition by prototypicality, rather than
by restriction).  You could be a mime and be a busker. But the difference between
busking and street-performance isn't music--it's money.  One can be a street
performer who's got a grant from the NEA and no hat or open guitar case in front
of you to collect coins.  But busking has to involve the on-site collection of
money (or attempts at it).

Unfortunately, being a busker doesn't mean that you actually have to know how to
play the instrument you're holding.  There should be signs that read "No
Tone-Deaf Busking."

Lynne