How do you say “headbutt” in American English?
Headbutt is a British term, how do you say the same thing in American English? I am interested in both the verb and the noun.
single-word-requests word-choice word-usage american-english
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
|
show 1 more comment
Headbutt is a British term, how do you say the same thing in American English? I am interested in both the verb and the noun.
single-word-requests word-choice word-usage american-english
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
3
Unless in the UK it means something other than whacking someone else's head with one's own head, it's the same in the US.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
@1006a all the dictionaries say it is British and merriam webster doesn't have it. I wonder why. Thanks.
– Happy
15 hours ago
I imagine it originated in the UK, but it's a pretty transparent combination of two common words with the plain meaning of those two words combined, so it transfers easily. I do associate it slightly with so-called (in the US) British "soccer hooligans", but that's because of a stereotype associating the action with British "hooliganism"; we don't really have a better term for when American knuckleheads do it. Compare the idiom butt heads, which Oxford Dictionaries lists as American.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
It's also called a 'Glasgow kiss'.
– Nigel J
14 hours ago
I had no idea it could be any different in the U.S. until I saw this question. (I am a native North American.) I am honestly surprised it's not in M-W. But this dictionary entry says it's a valid U.S. word. And most of the sources I've found don't mention anything about the word being British. Since I'm doing my searches in the U.S., if the word were exclusively British, this would be explicitly pointed out.
– John Y
10 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
Headbutt is a British term, how do you say the same thing in American English? I am interested in both the verb and the noun.
single-word-requests word-choice word-usage american-english
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
Headbutt is a British term, how do you say the same thing in American English? I am interested in both the verb and the noun.
single-word-requests word-choice word-usage american-english
single-word-requests word-choice word-usage american-english
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
edited 15 hours ago
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
asked 15 hours ago
Happy
19528
19528
3
Unless in the UK it means something other than whacking someone else's head with one's own head, it's the same in the US.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
@1006a all the dictionaries say it is British and merriam webster doesn't have it. I wonder why. Thanks.
– Happy
15 hours ago
I imagine it originated in the UK, but it's a pretty transparent combination of two common words with the plain meaning of those two words combined, so it transfers easily. I do associate it slightly with so-called (in the US) British "soccer hooligans", but that's because of a stereotype associating the action with British "hooliganism"; we don't really have a better term for when American knuckleheads do it. Compare the idiom butt heads, which Oxford Dictionaries lists as American.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
It's also called a 'Glasgow kiss'.
– Nigel J
14 hours ago
I had no idea it could be any different in the U.S. until I saw this question. (I am a native North American.) I am honestly surprised it's not in M-W. But this dictionary entry says it's a valid U.S. word. And most of the sources I've found don't mention anything about the word being British. Since I'm doing my searches in the U.S., if the word were exclusively British, this would be explicitly pointed out.
– John Y
10 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
3
Unless in the UK it means something other than whacking someone else's head with one's own head, it's the same in the US.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
@1006a all the dictionaries say it is British and merriam webster doesn't have it. I wonder why. Thanks.
– Happy
15 hours ago
I imagine it originated in the UK, but it's a pretty transparent combination of two common words with the plain meaning of those two words combined, so it transfers easily. I do associate it slightly with so-called (in the US) British "soccer hooligans", but that's because of a stereotype associating the action with British "hooliganism"; we don't really have a better term for when American knuckleheads do it. Compare the idiom butt heads, which Oxford Dictionaries lists as American.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
It's also called a 'Glasgow kiss'.
– Nigel J
14 hours ago
I had no idea it could be any different in the U.S. until I saw this question. (I am a native North American.) I am honestly surprised it's not in M-W. But this dictionary entry says it's a valid U.S. word. And most of the sources I've found don't mention anything about the word being British. Since I'm doing my searches in the U.S., if the word were exclusively British, this would be explicitly pointed out.
– John Y
10 hours ago
3
3
Unless in the UK it means something other than whacking someone else's head with one's own head, it's the same in the US.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
Unless in the UK it means something other than whacking someone else's head with one's own head, it's the same in the US.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
@1006a all the dictionaries say it is British and merriam webster doesn't have it. I wonder why. Thanks.
– Happy
15 hours ago
@1006a all the dictionaries say it is British and merriam webster doesn't have it. I wonder why. Thanks.
– Happy
15 hours ago
I imagine it originated in the UK, but it's a pretty transparent combination of two common words with the plain meaning of those two words combined, so it transfers easily. I do associate it slightly with so-called (in the US) British "soccer hooligans", but that's because of a stereotype associating the action with British "hooliganism"; we don't really have a better term for when American knuckleheads do it. Compare the idiom butt heads, which Oxford Dictionaries lists as American.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
I imagine it originated in the UK, but it's a pretty transparent combination of two common words with the plain meaning of those two words combined, so it transfers easily. I do associate it slightly with so-called (in the US) British "soccer hooligans", but that's because of a stereotype associating the action with British "hooliganism"; we don't really have a better term for when American knuckleheads do it. Compare the idiom butt heads, which Oxford Dictionaries lists as American.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
It's also called a 'Glasgow kiss'.
– Nigel J
14 hours ago
It's also called a 'Glasgow kiss'.
– Nigel J
14 hours ago
I had no idea it could be any different in the U.S. until I saw this question. (I am a native North American.) I am honestly surprised it's not in M-W. But this dictionary entry says it's a valid U.S. word. And most of the sources I've found don't mention anything about the word being British. Since I'm doing my searches in the U.S., if the word were exclusively British, this would be explicitly pointed out.
– John Y
10 hours ago
I had no idea it could be any different in the U.S. until I saw this question. (I am a native North American.) I am honestly surprised it's not in M-W. But this dictionary entry says it's a valid U.S. word. And most of the sources I've found don't mention anything about the word being British. Since I'm doing my searches in the U.S., if the word were exclusively British, this would be explicitly pointed out.
– John Y
10 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
The meaning of the constituent words head and butt are obvious enough, and the concept of butting heads is quite commonplace, so no American native speaker would likely be confused by the compound term headbutt.
The headbutt seems to be more common in association football (soccer) than in the major North Americans sports. It isn't a named infraction in any sport I'm familiar with — it would just fall under intentional foul or boarding or unsportsmanlike conduct and so on, like a punch or a kick or other physical strike. I would thus be unsurprised to see a higher prevalence in British as opposed to American usage, and the reverse true, say, for beanball or backcourt.
A COHA search turns up no instances of headbutt — but it does return head-butt and head butt from the 1990s onwards. What may have occurred is that head butt being more common in the UK, the closed compound was lexicalized earlier than in the US, where headbutt in journalistic sources only took an upswing after Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final.
While this is just a theory, a crude Ngram suggests that head butt remains more common than headbutt in works printed in the U.S. — but also that head-butt is still more prevalent than headbutt in the British corpus as well, as of 2008:
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
1
Another way to say this is that the UK and the US have slightly different spellings for the exact same concept.
– Mitch
13 hours ago
Also, while soccer isn't very popular in the U.S., "professional" wrestling and other forms of fighting or show-fighting are, and you hear headbutt used in those contexts all the time. (I'll stress that you hear the term used, so you can't tell if it's hyphenated or open or closed. Even if you see it written, how confident can you really be that they spelled it "correctly" anyway?)
– John Y
10 hours ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f478757%2fhow-do-you-say-headbutt-in-american-english%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
The meaning of the constituent words head and butt are obvious enough, and the concept of butting heads is quite commonplace, so no American native speaker would likely be confused by the compound term headbutt.
The headbutt seems to be more common in association football (soccer) than in the major North Americans sports. It isn't a named infraction in any sport I'm familiar with — it would just fall under intentional foul or boarding or unsportsmanlike conduct and so on, like a punch or a kick or other physical strike. I would thus be unsurprised to see a higher prevalence in British as opposed to American usage, and the reverse true, say, for beanball or backcourt.
A COHA search turns up no instances of headbutt — but it does return head-butt and head butt from the 1990s onwards. What may have occurred is that head butt being more common in the UK, the closed compound was lexicalized earlier than in the US, where headbutt in journalistic sources only took an upswing after Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final.
While this is just a theory, a crude Ngram suggests that head butt remains more common than headbutt in works printed in the U.S. — but also that head-butt is still more prevalent than headbutt in the British corpus as well, as of 2008:
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
1
Another way to say this is that the UK and the US have slightly different spellings for the exact same concept.
– Mitch
13 hours ago
Also, while soccer isn't very popular in the U.S., "professional" wrestling and other forms of fighting or show-fighting are, and you hear headbutt used in those contexts all the time. (I'll stress that you hear the term used, so you can't tell if it's hyphenated or open or closed. Even if you see it written, how confident can you really be that they spelled it "correctly" anyway?)
– John Y
10 hours ago
add a comment |
The meaning of the constituent words head and butt are obvious enough, and the concept of butting heads is quite commonplace, so no American native speaker would likely be confused by the compound term headbutt.
The headbutt seems to be more common in association football (soccer) than in the major North Americans sports. It isn't a named infraction in any sport I'm familiar with — it would just fall under intentional foul or boarding or unsportsmanlike conduct and so on, like a punch or a kick or other physical strike. I would thus be unsurprised to see a higher prevalence in British as opposed to American usage, and the reverse true, say, for beanball or backcourt.
A COHA search turns up no instances of headbutt — but it does return head-butt and head butt from the 1990s onwards. What may have occurred is that head butt being more common in the UK, the closed compound was lexicalized earlier than in the US, where headbutt in journalistic sources only took an upswing after Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final.
While this is just a theory, a crude Ngram suggests that head butt remains more common than headbutt in works printed in the U.S. — but also that head-butt is still more prevalent than headbutt in the British corpus as well, as of 2008:
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
1
Another way to say this is that the UK and the US have slightly different spellings for the exact same concept.
– Mitch
13 hours ago
Also, while soccer isn't very popular in the U.S., "professional" wrestling and other forms of fighting or show-fighting are, and you hear headbutt used in those contexts all the time. (I'll stress that you hear the term used, so you can't tell if it's hyphenated or open or closed. Even if you see it written, how confident can you really be that they spelled it "correctly" anyway?)
– John Y
10 hours ago
add a comment |
The meaning of the constituent words head and butt are obvious enough, and the concept of butting heads is quite commonplace, so no American native speaker would likely be confused by the compound term headbutt.
The headbutt seems to be more common in association football (soccer) than in the major North Americans sports. It isn't a named infraction in any sport I'm familiar with — it would just fall under intentional foul or boarding or unsportsmanlike conduct and so on, like a punch or a kick or other physical strike. I would thus be unsurprised to see a higher prevalence in British as opposed to American usage, and the reverse true, say, for beanball or backcourt.
A COHA search turns up no instances of headbutt — but it does return head-butt and head butt from the 1990s onwards. What may have occurred is that head butt being more common in the UK, the closed compound was lexicalized earlier than in the US, where headbutt in journalistic sources only took an upswing after Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final.
While this is just a theory, a crude Ngram suggests that head butt remains more common than headbutt in works printed in the U.S. — but also that head-butt is still more prevalent than headbutt in the British corpus as well, as of 2008:
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
The meaning of the constituent words head and butt are obvious enough, and the concept of butting heads is quite commonplace, so no American native speaker would likely be confused by the compound term headbutt.
The headbutt seems to be more common in association football (soccer) than in the major North Americans sports. It isn't a named infraction in any sport I'm familiar with — it would just fall under intentional foul or boarding or unsportsmanlike conduct and so on, like a punch or a kick or other physical strike. I would thus be unsurprised to see a higher prevalence in British as opposed to American usage, and the reverse true, say, for beanball or backcourt.
A COHA search turns up no instances of headbutt — but it does return head-butt and head butt from the 1990s onwards. What may have occurred is that head butt being more common in the UK, the closed compound was lexicalized earlier than in the US, where headbutt in journalistic sources only took an upswing after Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final.
While this is just a theory, a crude Ngram suggests that head butt remains more common than headbutt in works printed in the U.S. — but also that head-butt is still more prevalent than headbutt in the British corpus as well, as of 2008:
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
answered 14 hours ago
choster
36.3k1483133
36.3k1483133
1
Another way to say this is that the UK and the US have slightly different spellings for the exact same concept.
– Mitch
13 hours ago
Also, while soccer isn't very popular in the U.S., "professional" wrestling and other forms of fighting or show-fighting are, and you hear headbutt used in those contexts all the time. (I'll stress that you hear the term used, so you can't tell if it's hyphenated or open or closed. Even if you see it written, how confident can you really be that they spelled it "correctly" anyway?)
– John Y
10 hours ago
add a comment |
1
Another way to say this is that the UK and the US have slightly different spellings for the exact same concept.
– Mitch
13 hours ago
Also, while soccer isn't very popular in the U.S., "professional" wrestling and other forms of fighting or show-fighting are, and you hear headbutt used in those contexts all the time. (I'll stress that you hear the term used, so you can't tell if it's hyphenated or open or closed. Even if you see it written, how confident can you really be that they spelled it "correctly" anyway?)
– John Y
10 hours ago
1
1
Another way to say this is that the UK and the US have slightly different spellings for the exact same concept.
– Mitch
13 hours ago
Another way to say this is that the UK and the US have slightly different spellings for the exact same concept.
– Mitch
13 hours ago
Also, while soccer isn't very popular in the U.S., "professional" wrestling and other forms of fighting or show-fighting are, and you hear headbutt used in those contexts all the time. (I'll stress that you hear the term used, so you can't tell if it's hyphenated or open or closed. Even if you see it written, how confident can you really be that they spelled it "correctly" anyway?)
– John Y
10 hours ago
Also, while soccer isn't very popular in the U.S., "professional" wrestling and other forms of fighting or show-fighting are, and you hear headbutt used in those contexts all the time. (I'll stress that you hear the term used, so you can't tell if it's hyphenated or open or closed. Even if you see it written, how confident can you really be that they spelled it "correctly" anyway?)
– John Y
10 hours ago
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f478757%2fhow-do-you-say-headbutt-in-american-english%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
3
Unless in the UK it means something other than whacking someone else's head with one's own head, it's the same in the US.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
@1006a all the dictionaries say it is British and merriam webster doesn't have it. I wonder why. Thanks.
– Happy
15 hours ago
I imagine it originated in the UK, but it's a pretty transparent combination of two common words with the plain meaning of those two words combined, so it transfers easily. I do associate it slightly with so-called (in the US) British "soccer hooligans", but that's because of a stereotype associating the action with British "hooliganism"; we don't really have a better term for when American knuckleheads do it. Compare the idiom butt heads, which Oxford Dictionaries lists as American.
– 1006a
15 hours ago
It's also called a 'Glasgow kiss'.
– Nigel J
14 hours ago
I had no idea it could be any different in the U.S. until I saw this question. (I am a native North American.) I am honestly surprised it's not in M-W. But this dictionary entry says it's a valid U.S. word. And most of the sources I've found don't mention anything about the word being British. Since I'm doing my searches in the U.S., if the word were exclusively British, this would be explicitly pointed out.
– John Y
10 hours ago