[Ads-l] 2 new (British) words: webs and trabs

[Andy Bach]

On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 4:22 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> Are British "trainers" like American "sneakers"?

So I gather; more generic than the "Nike waffle trainers" which is where I
heard it here.

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/32653/footwear-runners-sneakers-trainers

They are also known as trainers (British English), sandshoes, gym boots or
joggers (Australian English), running shoes, runners or gutties (Canadian
English, Australian English, Hiberno-English), sneakers, tennis shoes
(North American English, Australian English), gym shoes, tennies, sports
shoes, sneaks, tackies[1] (South African English and Hiberno-English),
rubber shoes (Philippine English) or canvers (Nigerian English).

and, apparently, BE has "daps" and, possibly, "plimsols".   "sneakers",
they claim, is a British invention:
In the 1800s, a London police officer developed a rubber-soled shoe in
order to catch criminals in the act quietly. He called his invention
"sneakers". The name derived from the fact that the rubber soles of the
shoes made them noiseless. The term "sneaker" was also used in 1887 by
Boston Journal of Education:
“It is only the harassed schoolmaster who can fully appreciate the
pertinency of the name boys give to tennis shoes — sneakers.”

On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 4:22 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Are British "trainers" like American "sneakers"?
>
> DanG
>
> On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 3:14 PM, Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > "trainers" here refers to training (I assume, running) shoes:
> >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 

a

Andy Bach,
afbach at gmail.com
608 658-1890 cell
608 261-5738 wk

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org