July 23, 2004

Have the British Hijacked Americans' Language?

To the Editor:

I just read Ben Yagoda's "American Idioms Have Gone Missing" (The Chronicle Review, June 18). While many of his idiomatic observations are spot on, I have used or heard several of these expressions since childhood. Growing up in Ohio in the 1950s and '60s, my friends and I would regularly ring someone up on the phone. ... I have an acquaintance who has used "at the end of the day" for years. I'm also amused that "sell-by date" is labeled a Briticism, when grocery-store