In England a /hack/ is not a public coach, but a horse let out at hire, or one of similar quality. A life insurance policy is usually not an insurance policy at all, but an /assurance/ policy. What we call the normal income tax is the /ordinary/ tax; what we call the surtax is the /supertax/.[10] An Englishman never lives /on/ a street, but always /in/ it. He never lives in a /block/ of houses, but in a /row/; it is never in a /section/ of the city, but always in a /district/. Going home by train he always takes the /down-train/, no matter whether he be proceeding southward to Wimbleton, [Pg110] westward to Shepherd's Bush, northward to Tottenham or eastward to Noak's Hill. A train headed toward London is always an /up-train/, and the track it runs on is the /up-line/. /Eastbound/ and /westbound/ tracks and trains are unknown in England. When an Englishman boards a bus it is not at a /street-corner/, but at a /crossing/, though he is familiar with such forms as Hyde Park /Corner/. The place he is bound for is not three /squares/ or /blocks/ away, but three /turnings/. /Square/, in England, always means a small park. A backyard is a /garden/. A subway is always a /tube/, or the /underground/, or the /Metro/. But an underground passage for pedestrians is a /subway/. English streets have no /sidewalks/; they always call them /pavements/ or /footways/. An automobile is always a /motor-car/ or /motor/. /Auto/ is almost unknown, and with it the verb /to auto/. So is /machine/. So is /joy-ride/.
An Englishman always calls russet, yellow or tan shoes /brown/ shoes (or, if they cover the ankle, /boots/). He calls a pocketbook a /purse/, and gives the name of /pocketbook/ to what we call a /memorandum-book/. His walking-stick is always a /stick/, never a /cane/. By /cord/ he means something strong, almost what we call /twine/; a thin cord he always calls a /string/; his /twine/ is the lightest sort of /string/. When he applies the adjective /homely/ to a woman he means that she is simple and home-loving, not necessarily that she is plain. He uses /dessert/, not to indicate the whole last course at dinner, but to designate the fruit only; the rest is /ices/ or /sweets/. He uses /vest/, not in place of /waistcoat/, but in place of /undershirt/. Similarly, he applies /pants/, not to his trousers, but to his drawers. An Englishman who inhabits bachelor quarters is said to live in /chambers/; if he has a flat he calls it a /flat/, and not an /apartment/;[11] /flat-houses/ are often /mansions/. The janitor or superintendent thereof is a /care-taker/. The scoundrels who snoop around in search of divorce evidence are not /private detectives/, but /private enquiry agents/. [Pg111]