Alright, this get this
English thing out of the way.
First off, a bogey is an enemy vehicle...
(ie: "Sir, we got a bogey at nine o'clock). Not to be confused with a boogie (something a schoolboy flicks at his chums) or the "Boogie Man." There is no "Bogey Man" that I know of. Of course, if he's flying an enemy aircraft, I suppose it would be easier to say, "Bogey Man at nine o'clock," than, "Boogie Man flicking a boogie in a bogey at nine o'clock..." Otherwise, saying there is a bogey flying at one from the nine o'clock position would mean that someone tossed a railroad truck at you. Effective maybe, but not practical...
Secondly, a train is something that travels on wheels
on a railroad. The railroad is a road made of rails. Trains arrive at a train station, railroads do not arrive at a railroad station, they are always there. Now, I admit that there is an argument for calling it a railroad station as one calls a petrol station a "petrol station" and not an "auto station." Still, Americans go to great lengths to reduce the size of words used to denote a thing as we have to fit more into a shorter space as we always have an awful lot to say--even when nobody else wants to hear it...
Now, lest all you Brits think the word hemorrhage goes one way, here are a few examples of words that are taking hold in America, despite our best efforts to stop them...
"
Spot On." This is becoming popular for its brevity. We would normally say, "right on the money." As most of us in the middle class seem to have less and less of the stuff, we prefer to bring up money as little as possible. And keeping with the "pack as many words and concepts into a single sentence or thought," concept, "Spot On" is, well, spot on...
"
Winge." Popular only because it sounds funny and Monty Python used it a lot.
"
What's this then?" We usually use, "What the ____," (insert appropriate "personal favorite" swear word in the blank). Americans have started using the British phrase as we think it somehow makes us appear more cultured and smarter. Or course, it only works on each other--the rest of the world is not so easily fooled...
(Signature withheld to protect the American...)
