Hubs and Spurs

American English to British English Dictionary

F - J

Facecloth

Factory Outlet

An Outlet Mall is a collection of such shops.

Faculty

Fajita

The fajitas that I've seen, as sold in McDonald's and Taco Bell, are very similar to burritos or enchiladas, in that they consist of a soft flour tortilla wrapped around its contents. The difference lies in the contents and the flavour of the sauce.

However, I have received an EMail message from Jon Harrison who lives in the town of Harlingen near Brownsville in the southernmost part of Texas. Jon tells me that the dish originated in southern Texas, and that the Spanish word fajita means "beef skirts". He says that the word refers to the cut of beef, which he describes as being a thin, tough cut of beef which was inexpensive until it recently became popular. To make it editable, it is tenderised by marinating in a highly-spiced sauce. It is then barbecued (usually cooked over an open fire) and served with more hot sauce or "pico de gallo" (a fresh mixture of chopped peppers, onions, garlic, tomato and as Jon nicely puts it, other quasi-secret ingredients. Jon says it makes truly excellent eating, but is nothing like a burrito. Jon goes on to stress that a fajita is a piece of meat, like a steak is a piece of meat. He says you could eat a fajita by wrapping it in a tortilla, and most people do, but the tortilla is not part of the fajita.

Faucet

Fender

File Tape

Fire Truck

First Nation

Flagman

Flashlight

Flea Market

Floors

Football

Forty-Niner

Fries, or French Fries

Frontage Road

Fronton

Frozen Yoghurt (US spelling Yogurt)

Garage Sale

Gas Pedal

Gas Station

Gateway

Gearshift

Grade Crossing

Greenbacks

Ground

Gumbo

Gyros

[Many thanks to John Hayes (jnhayes@austin360.com) for contributing this entry.]

Subsequently I've obtained various other descriptions of gyros:

Greek spiced beef and a yoghurt garlic sauce on pita bread, sometimes with lettuce and tomato.

A pita stuffed with meat or chicken, often using a lot of garlic.

The best gyros are made from chunks of lean pork pressed on the single skewer of a specially designed vertical rotisserie-like device. The cooked meat is then packed into a pita along with a yoghurt, cucumber and garlic spread, tomatoes and onions. However, cheap gyros are made using ground meat.

Gyros are similar to doner kebabs.

Hamburger, Beefburger, Cheeseburger, etc.

A beefburger is beef alone (no bun, no salad, no sauce).

A burger or hamburger is beef (not ham!) in a bun, usually together with some form of salad and some kind of sauce.

A cheeseburger is a hamburger with not only meat, salad and sauce but also a layer of cheese.

There is one additional term used in the USA and Canada: you often see "hamburger meat" on sale in supermarkets.

See also Sandwich

Hiatus

Looking at the dictionary, it would appear that the American and Canadian usage is the more correct.

Hispanic

Hoagie

Hockey

Hogan

Homemaker

Homer

Homestead Association

Hot Wings

The "gateways" where each airline's flights across the Atlantic land in the USA and Canada are almost always the same as their hubs.

Different airlines have different hubs, although many hubs are shared by several airlines. A quick look at an airline's route map will identify their hubs immediately.

Human Resources (HR)

Any company which calls its Personnel Department "Human Resources" is surely revealing a great deal about how it regards and treats its employees.

Idaho (the state).

Means of identification - driving licence, etc.

Intersection

Inuit

The British meaning of "IRA" is also widely understood in America and Canada.

Jai Alai

Jambalaya

Jet Stream

John Doe

Joint