The British love to complain that words and phrases imported from America from French fries to Awesome, man! are destroying the English language. But what about the influence going the other way? Britishisms have been making their way into the American lexicon for more than 150 years, but the process has accelerated since the turn of the twenty-first century. From acclaimed writer and language commentator Ben Yagoda, Gobsmacked! is a witty, entertaining, and enlightening account of how and why scores of British words and phrases such as one-off, go missing, curate, early days, kerfuffle, easy peasy, and cheeky have been enthusiastically taken up by Yanks. Rigorously researched and documented but written in a light, conversational style, this is a book that general readers and language obsessives will love. Its revealing account of a surprising and under-recognised language revolution might even leave them, well, gobsmacked.
