We were walking through the glasshouses at the Cambridge Botanic Garden when I spotted a sign that made me laugh. It said, “No perambulators beyond this point.”
“Look at that! Isn’t that funny? It says ‘perambulator’!” I laughed.
“What’s a perambulator?” asked Jon, puzzled. Jon is from Calgary in Canada.
“A pram.”
“What’s a pram?”
That stumped me. “Erm. It’s a chair with wheels. You push babies on it.”
“Oh, a stroller!” Jon clarified.
This exchange, too, was funny to me so I recounted it to Di when I got home.
“In Australia, we say ‘pram’,” I explained to Di. “If you said ‘stroller’, we’d understand but I think ‘pram’ comes more naturally.”
“What do the English call it?” Di asked.
“It said ‘perambulator’!”
Di started laughing. She laughed a lot. Yeah, I thought it was funny too, but not as funny as Di seemed to find it.
“That makes so much sense!” she said. “It’s like ‘before walking’.”
I was confused for a second, then I got it. “No, no! Not pre-ambulator! Per-ambulator!”
A tropical flower in the glasshouse.
The reason we went to the Botanic Gardens was that it was Apple Day.
I ate my very first toffee apple. My next task is to try a caramel apple.
It’s a bit funny how words have different meanings in different parts of the world. In America, Entree is the main course. What do people say in England for entree/appetizer?
It’s entree or appetiser here as well. I think ‘starter’ is very common too.
You know what’s funny? I think ‘menu’ is meant to refer to a set menu or sequence of dishes. If you are choosing what to eat, then strictly speaking, you are dining ‘Ã la carte’.
See Le Menu vs. La Carte