American parents report that their children are speaking with English accents and using British words — “mummy” rather than “mommy” — after watching the UK animated television series Peppa Pig.
And last week the website Not One-Off Britishisms, which tracks the movement of UK words to the US, reported an increased use of the British parliamentary term “backbencher” to describe American politicians. The recent surge has been prompted by the election to Congress of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with the sceptics saying that for all the attention she gets “she’s just a backbencher”.
I contribute to the study of transatlantic word-swaps by noting the phrases that go the other way. In January I wrote about the rise of the US-style “ advocating for” in UK press reports (“advocating for a second referendum”) when for decades simply “advocating” had been enough.