10 Everday American Words That Are Totally Inappropriate In Britain

7. Drugstore

If an American tourist were to approach you in the middle of the street and request that you tell them where to get drugs there is no doubt that you would be intimidated, confused and offended by the notion that you are someone with contacts in the criminal underworld of destitution and depravity. The tourist was in fact attempting to locate the nearest pharmacy, yet the misreckoning has its foundations in the seemingly never ending disparity between our own vernacular and the vocabulary of the United States. The rhetoric used by successive governments, the media, and that of slang has reinforced the idea that drugs are almost ubiquitously illegal; in America the drug/pharmaceutical manufacturers have such unwavering political influence that the language surrounding drugs is less negative; illegal drugs are still vilified and condemned, yet the ability of pharmaceutical companies to explicitly advertise their own products allows the term drug to be used in a far more pervasive manner without suffering undue vilification and contempt.