There's been much debate on these pages in recent days about the spread of Americanisms - outside the US. Here, American lexicographer and broadcaster Grant Barrett offers a riposte.
Today respective leaders of the US and the UK still talk about the "special relationship" that started during WWII, and though it irks some, Americanisms still pervade British language, just as Britishisms are creeping into American language.
When Matthew Engel wrote here earlier this month about the impact of American English on British English, he restarted a debate about the changing nature of language which ended in dozens of suggestions from readers of their own loathed Americanisms.