Why do Americans call it a yard?
In American landscape vocabulary the term yard connoted an enclosed space, generally contiguous to a building and associated with specific activities related to that building.Why do Americans call their gardens a yard?
Because in the US garden is a cultivated patch of flowers or food crops, and yard is generally a grassy lawn or an uncultivated expanse.What do Americans mean by yard?
a unit for measuring length, equal to 3 feet. A2. an area of land in front of or behind a house. (Definition of yard from the Webster's Essential Mini Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)What do British people call their yard?
In British English, these areas would usually be described as a garden, similarly subdivided into a front garden and a back garden.Is Yards British or American?
The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.9144 meter. A distance of 1,760 yards is equal to 1 mile.Why Do American Homes Suck?
Why is 3 feet called a yard?
A yard was originally the length of a man's belt or girdle. In the 12th century, King Henry I of England fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to the thumb of his outstretched arm. A yardstick is equal to one yard or 3 feet.Is a yard called a garden in England?
In British English, a garden is a piece of land next to a house, with flowers, vegetables, other plants, and often grass. In American English, the usual word is yard, and a garden refers only to land which is used for growing flowers and vegetables.What do Americans call a bedroom?
The good news here is that American and British English use the same words to describe most of the rooms in a house: bathroom, bedroom, dining room and kitchen.Do British people say couch or sofa?
Etymology. The term couch originally denoted an item of furniture for lying or sleeping on. Couch is predominantly used in North America, Australia, South Africa, and Ireland, whereas the terms sofa and settee (U and non-U) are most commonly used in the United Kingdom and India.Why do British call apartments flats?
The etymology of flat originates from the Old English word “flett,” dating back to the 1300s. The term means level and in one plane, which nowadays relates to many different things, such as a deflated tire, lying prone, and a dwelling on one story. Hence, the term flat is used to describe a one-level apartment.What do Americans call a garden Centre?
A garden centre (Commonwealth English spelling; U.S. nursery or garden center) is a retail operation that sells plants and related products for the domestic garden as its primary business.What is the American version of garden?
The words yard, court, and Latin hortus (meaning "garden", hence horticulture and orchard), are cognates—all referring to an enclosed space. The term "garden" in British English refers to a small enclosed area of land, usually adjoining a building. This would be referred to as a yard in American English.What do Brits call a bathroom?
In British English, "bathroom" is a common term but is typically reserved for private rooms primarily used for bathing; a room without a bathtub or shower is more often known as a "WC", an abbreviation for water closet, "lavatory", or "loo". Other terms are also used, some as part of a regional dialect.What do posh people call a settee?
It's quite normal for a sofa to be referred to as a couch or a settee without raising any eyebrows or causing any confusion. While all three terms are now used to describe the same thing, they all have quite different origins and meanings!What do posh people call the sitting room?
There are days when we unselfconsciously call it the 'Drawing Room' and others days when that sounds too 'posh' and it becomes the 'sitting room' or 'the sitting room at the front of the house' or at a push 'the formal sitting room' (which sound terrible naff)…but basically, what we really mean is the nice sitting room ...What do Americans call garages?
In the United States, the term parking structure is used, especially when it is necessary to distinguish such a structure from the "garage" connected with a house. In some places in North America, "parking garage" refers only to an indoor, often underground, structure.What do Brits call Americans?
Yankee is sometimes abbreviated as “Yank.” People from all over the world, including Great Britain, Australia, and South America, use the term to describe Americans. (In Spanish, it's spelled yanqui.) Sometimes, it's a negative description.What is the British word for garbage?
Rubbish is a synonym for garbage or trash. The word is more commonly used by speakers of British English than by speakers of American English. The noun rubbish also means writing or speech that is worthless, untrue, or nonsense, especially in British English.What is front garden called in UK?
On a residential area, a front yard (United States, Canada, Australia) or front garden (United Kingdom, Europe) is the portion of land between the street and the front of the house. If it is covered in grass, it may be referred to as a front lawn.What is the Old English word for garden?
The root of the word “garden” comes from the Old English geard, meaning fence, enclosure, or courtyard, and the Old Saxon gyrdan, meaning to enclose or gird. These words are closely related to our modern words “yard,” “girth,” and “guard.” Medieval gardens were physically enclosed.What is a vegetable garden called in England?
Like many things in life though (IKEA furniture, for example), defining an English vegetable garden is not as simple as it seems. It's anything but straightforward, and to make matters more confusing, you may find it is also called a kitchen garden, a cottage garden, a potager garden, or just a garden.Why is 12 inches called a foot?
Here is what our units were based on:The measurement we use today called “foot” is 12 inches long and was actually the length of King Henry I's foot. The inch was the length of 3 grains of barley end-to-end or the width of a man's thumb. The length between someone's outstretched arms was called a fathom.