Lotta Americanisms creeping into British English. Once upon a time, it woulda been trainers…
London photo of the day: sneakers?
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That said, I’ve never actually heard someone say the word ‘sneakers’.
1992. Good flick, that. ;)
Converses? Aren’t they a kind of modern plimsole?
It still is ‘trainers’.
I think it’s just because it’s an American brand, trying pointedly to advertise itself as an American brand. I’ve never heard a single person say ‘sneaker’ when they meant trainer. A sneaker is a person who sneaks.
Interesting, cause I could sworn a trainer is a person who trains. Not to be confused with cross-trainers, which are shoes. :)
Very droll, but I was of course referring to UK usage.
I don’t think we use ‘trainer’ as much in that sense in the UK. It’s creeping in, but not that common. Where US acquaintances, for example, talk about their riding trainers, we say teacher/instructor.
The only time I hear it is when people talk about their personal trainer at the gym, but that’s very much an Americanism that we’ve absorbed.
American company, doesn’t localise its advertisements (deliberately or through laziness)…
“Sneaker” does actualy predate “Plimsoll” as a term for a rubber-soled shoe: 1887 or 1895, vs 1907. “Trainers” got started in the late 1960s, and the term became very popular in the UK in the early 1980s on one of the waves of paid endorsements by sporting figures.
Good point. They were plimsolls when I was at school – although they were those black canvas school plimsolls with the elastic bit at the front.
Converse – American company who naturally don’t realise/understand/care that other countries don’t speak American.
These were known as “baseball boots” in my youth.
I think there may still be some virtue in advertising plimsolls in an American style outside the USA – given how driven by fashion that market is, almost any aspect of the campaign can become an important one.
Lotta Britishisms creeping into American English too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/fashion/americans-are-barmy-over-britishisms.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Linguistic/cultural exchange, hurray!
When I was young, we called them “tennis shoes”. And yet we rarely used them to play tennis…
Yes, tennis shoes. Also, “tennies”, though I’m not sure it that was a Californiaism, where I grew up, or a mid-western thing I got from my mom, who grew up in Cleveland.
also pumps or daps
I have relatives in Michigan–which is part of the Midwest–and I have never heard them use that term. Then again, maybe they just used it when I wasn’t around…
The term “tennies”, that is. I heard the term “tennis shoes” all the time.