The Authentic Eclectic
It’s Not Unusual To Add An Ounce of Flounce
And Whilst We’re On The Subject…
The Scots, and I daresay the rest of those who hail from the British Isles, are prone to using words some North Americans find unusual.
I’ve seen flounce mentioned twice in a fortnight as being a significant word choice. Yet “flounced off in high dudgeon” is an absolutely standard phrase that various family members and friends throughout my life have used innumerable times. This is not hyperbole.
I can understand a writer mentioning that a phrase is generally not American in origin, or that they find it interesting.
But I cannot understand anyone who calls themselves a writer being perplexingly proud of having a vocabulary that includes words they weren’t taught in school.
I’m not perturbed in the least when I read words that are generally specific to North America— such as burglarized, y’all, or fanny pack. I wouldn’t ever use those words, but I accept that they’re probably standard to some.
A brief aside to mention that the first time I heard the phase fanny pack was whilst living in California. And I thought she said fanny pad, which was a rather lowclass term for sanitary protection in the slums of my youth. So that was a…
