4/29/2023 0 Comments Whats a cuppaThat’s because tea in Britain can refer to a meal. Your friend is right to say that it’s frequently connected with food. It can have that meaning in the UK, but not by any means always. Quite why Americans have taken it to their collective bosoms isn’t clear, though it does seem to be used very often in a tongue-in-cheek manner, as a mock-serious way of affecting to be British about consuming the drink.īy spot of tea, Americans usually mean a cup of tea by itself. Some dictionaries report it’s mainly a British expression, but the written evidence shows the balance has tilted heavily towards the US in recent decades. British newspapers include enough examples to show that it’s still about, though not to anything like the same extent as in the US. The phrase a spot of tea is certainly known in the UK as well as the US - the letter writer is wrong to suggest it isn’t used this side of the Atlantic - though it sounds old-fashioned to me, being more my parents’ generation than mine. Would you discuss this in your newsletter?Ī It depends on who you are, where you are, how old you are, and even what you mean by tea. I asked a British friend about the letter and he said that spot of tea is used in Britain, but that it doesn’t mean having a cup of tea, but to having tea with food. Though he was born and bred in England, he had heard only Americans using the phrase and that the British would say cuppa instead. Q From Gary Mason: In a recent letter to the editor in the Tucson daily newspaper, the writer claimed that spot of tea is an Americanism.
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