Page:The American Language.djvu/119

Rh first floor, but upon the ground floor. What he calls the first floor (or, more commonly, first storey, not forgetting the penultimate e!) is what we call the second floor, and so on up to the roof—which is covered not with tin, but with slate, tiles or leads. He does not take a paper; he takes in a paper. He does not ask his servant, "is there any mail for me?" but, "are there any letters for me?" for mail, in the American sense, is a word that he seldom uses, save in such compounds as mail–van and mail–train. He always speaks of it as the post. The man who brings it is not a letter–carrier, but a postman. It is posted, not mailed, at a pillar–box, not at a mail–box. It never includes postal–cards, but only post–cards; never money–orders, but only postal–orders. The Englishman dictates his answers, not to a typewriter, but to a typist; a typewriter is merely the machine. If he desires the recipient to call him by telephone he doesn't say, "phone me at a quarter of eight," but "ring me up at a quarter to eight." And when the call comes he says "are you there?" When he gets home, he doesn't find his wife waiting for him in the parlor or living–room, but in the drawing–room or in her sitting–room, and the tale of domestic disaster that she has to tell does not concern the hired–girl but the slavey and the scullery–maid. He doesn't bring her a box of candy, but a box of sweets. He doesn't leave a derby hat in the hall, but a bowler. His wife doesn't wear shirtwaists but blouses. When she buys one she doesn't say "charge it" but "put it down." When she orders a tailor–made suit, she calls it a coat–and–skirt. When she wants a spool of thread she asks for a reel of cotton. Such things are bought, not in the department–stores, but at the stores, which are substantially the same thing. In these stores calico means a plain cotton cloth; in the United States it means a printed cotton cloth. Things bought on the instalment plan in England are said to be bought on the hire–purchase plan or system; the instalment business itself is the credit–trade. Goods ordered by post (not mail) on which the dealer pays the cost of transportation are said to be sent, not postpaid or prepaid, but post–free or carriage–paid.