A Lover of All Things English

Erin Moore ’98 clarifies Britishisms and Americanisms in That's Not English.

Erin Moore and her bicultural guide (below)
Photograph by Fiona Saunders

Even as a young literature student at Harvard, Erin Moore ’98 already yearned to be on the other side of the Atlantic, where the authors she studied lived, breathed, and wrote. In junior year, long before the College institutionalized study-abroad programs, she took a year off, got her first passport, and departed for King’s College London.

Today, she lives on a busy road in London with her British-American husband, their daughter, Anne, who speaks with a London accent, and their almost year-old son, Henry. Now that her Anglophile dreams have come true, Moore has turned herself into a witty commentator on the cultural and linguistic differences between the British and Americans, all through the lens of her lifelong passion: the English language. In her first book, That’s Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us, published in the United States this March, Moore analyzed 30 English words—including “toilet,” “dude,” and “scrappy”—that she thinks shed light on deeper cultural phenomena that setthe two countries apart. Her charming little chapters have earned praise from critics and readers alike: “a bloody gem,” one British reader raved in an Amazon review.

Moore grew up surrounded by oceans in Key West. After college, she moved to New York and worked for 10 years as an editor at Penguin Group USA, sifting through thousands of book proposals to pick out half a percent of real gems. She was paid to read—the dream of an English concentrator. But for the final two years, her job required commuting between London and New York, a lifestyle she grew weary of. Finally, she says, she decided to switch from “midwifing” books to writing them, and moved permanently to London.

 

“I can’t think of any reason to write a book other than to entertain people,” she declares. The light-hearted tone of That’s Not English belies the research involved: more than a year of combing through books, periodicals, TV shows, and other materials reflective of popular culture. Moore was determined not to write what people in publishing call a “Google book”—one hastily put together through online research. Though the Internet was a useful starting point, she often quickly found herself in the stacks of the British Library, uncovering the source of an idiosyncratic turn of phrase. Her original list of 100 words was gradually whittled down to 30—only those with an intriguing story made the cut. There are personal touches as well: In the chapter on “knackered,” a word with grisly origins frequently used by British parents to mean “exhausted,” Moore recounts her own experience giving birth in her adopted country, where a diaper becomes a “nappy” and a crib becomes a “cot.”

Moore can talk all day about the differences between Brits and Yanks. For one, she says, Americans wear their patriotism on the outside much more than Brits do—“not showing off” is the cornerstone of British culture. But for all her Anglophilia, Moore still admits to being incredibly homesick on July 4. Asked which culture she wants her children to identify with, she can’t choose. “I want them to be aware of the differences,” she replies. “I like the idea that they can grow up to be bilingual in English.”

Click here for the September-October 2015 issue table of contents

Read more articles by Zara Zhang

You might also like

Saluting the 2025 Centennial Medalists

Four alumni of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are honored.

International Student Ban Casts a Shadow on Harvard Commencement

Graduates discuss Trump's moves as students and alumni hold rallies

The Shape of Sound

Jessica Shand blends math and music.

Most popular

This is How Universities Die

Higher ed thrived in Berlin and Beijing. Then government stepped in. 

Harvard President Responds to Secretary of Education

Alan Garber outlines steps the University has taken, and emphasizes compliance with the law.

Harvard Medical School Renames Diversity Office, Revamps Recruitment Program

The latest in a broader rollback of DEI at the University

Explore More From Current Issue

Why Taxi Drivers Don’t Die of Alzheimer’s

Explaining taxi and ambulance drivers’ protection against Alzheimer’s disease.

Biology's "Mirror Organisms"—And Their Dangers

Life forms built from left-handed DNA and RNA could threaten Earth’s plants, animals, and insects.

The Franklin Stove—A Historical Climate Change Adaptation

Historian Joyce E. Chaplin reinterprets an early era of invention, industrialization, and climate challenge