In the 1800s, the pronunciation really took off when Charles Bradlee wrote the famous alphabet song and included zee instead of zed to rhyme with me, essentially solidifying the newer pronunciation as the de facto diction for Americans.
In England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, India, Canada (usually), and New Zealand, Z is pronounced as zed. It's derived from the Greek letter zeta.
English speakers in other Commonwealth countries also prefer the pronunciation zed. As zed is the British pronunciation and zee is chiefly American, zed represents one of the rare occasions in which most Canadians prefer the British to the American pronunciation.
In most English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom, the letter's name is zed /zɛd/, reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta (this dates to Latin, which borrowed Y and Z from Greek), but in American English its name is zee /ziː/, ...
zed. Zee is the American way of saying the letter z. Zed is the British way.
'Innit? ' is a contraction of the tag question 'Isn't it? ' and people use it to prompt a response from the listener. So if someone says 'Nice weather, innit?
What does it mean? Another word for friend. Common in Britain as well, but used even more enthusiastically by Aussies, who pepper the ends of their sentences with a longer, stretched out “maaaaate” that conveys friendliness and establishes a relaxed bond between the speakers.
Hunky-dory: Use this to describe when something is OK, cool, normal or "all good." ("Everything is hunky-dory over here!")
bruv. In the US, we have friend terms like bro and bruh. In the UK, they have bruv. Bruv is short for brother, as in “fellow; buddy.” It's a familiar term typically used between male friends, close relations, or even actual brothers.
Etymology. The term brassiere, from French brassière, was used by the Evening Herald in Syracuse, New York, in 1893. It gained wider acceptance in 1904 when the DeBevoise Company used it in their advertising copy—although the word is actually French for a child's undershirt.
Not because of the dual nature of the breasts themselves, but because the garment came in two parts and was laced together. That's probably why the modern woman doesn't put on “a pair of bras” in the morning. Now that the garment is in one piece, the pluralness isn't there anymore.
By 1911, it's in the Oxford English Dictionary. But it wasn't until 1914, when the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Mary Phelps Jacob a patent, that we officially got an invention called a "brassiere."
People from Australia call their homeland “Oz;” a phonetic abbreviation of the country's name, which also harkens to the magical land from L. Frank Baum's fantasy tale.
There are a few things you will notice straightway when you talk to Australians (or Aussies for short). First, they tend to add the word “aye” to many sentences – but don't worry about that, it doesn't really mean anything. Secondly, they LOVE to use slang. Lots and lots of slang.
In the course of conversation the tag "eh" is often used merely to check that the person you are talking to is listening and following what you are saying. A mere prefunctory "Yeah" is all that is required in response. Thus the questioning force of "eh" is reduced.
A training bra (also trainer bra, starter bra, or first bra) is a lightweight brassiere designed for girls who have begun to develop breasts, at Tanner stage II and III. The training bra is intended to be worn during puberty when the breasts are not yet large enough to fit a standard-sized bra.
According to some, the phrase “pair of pants” harkens back to the days when what constituted pants—or pantaloons, as they were originally known—consisted of two separate items, one for each leg. They were put on one at a time and then secured around the waist.
The word 'pants' comes to us from an Anglicization of the character's name, "Pantaloon." The word comes from the name of a stock figure in the commedia dell'arte, a form of Italian comic theater popular throughout Europe from about the 16th to the mid-18th century.
After the straight-fronted corset became fashionable in the early 20th century, a bra or "bust supporter" became a necessity for full-busted women because the straight-fronted corset did not offer as much support and containment as the Victorian styles.
The half-cup bra creates a round cleavage that can be enhanced by underwire to support and sculpt the bust. It tends to cover less of the chest than the classic model. The half-cup bra is cut more horizontally than the classic model for less of a plunge effect.
Mary Phelps Jacob (also known as Caresse Crosby) patented the most frequently referenced modern brassiere in 1914, after making one from two handkerchiefs to wear under an evening dress. Although her design was not a huge commercial success, the “bra” was established as an essential underpinning by 1917.
A caveat: 'Love', 'sweetie' and the like are not regarded as traditionally 'masculine' – and while an adult male might call a child or a woman 'love', more 'blokey' terms are preferred. Naturally, English has a whole host of terms for this too – pal, mate, chum, cocky, bro, dude…
Bloke. Just like the quintessentially American dude, bloke is the stereotypical way of referring to a British man.