Content-Type: text/shitpost

A Brit once mocked me for using the word “burglarize”. He correctly pointed out that it means the same thing as “burgle”. A burglar is someone who burgles, and then Americans have an ornate and superfluous word for something that is done by a burglar.

This complaint continues to bug me, for several reasons. First, because this guy was perfectly content to say “orientate”, a Britishism we do not use here which means that same as “orient”. And second, because “burgle” itself is an American back-formation from “burglar” that we invented in the 1860s, and the Brits were not shy about mocking us for “burgle” that time. In fact, “burglarize” is older than “burgle”.

Okay, whatever. Brits have been mocking the American language for centuries now. Let them go ahead. We all know who won that argument.