1122. This week, we look at two subtle but persistent differences between American and British English: why Americans say "math" and Brits say "maths," and why Americans are "in the hospital" while Brits are "in hospital." Then, we look at the historical meaning of the word "spendthrift" and introduce some wonderfully obsolete insults like "dingthrift" and "scrapethrift."
1122. This week, we look at two subtle but persistent differences between American and British English: why Americans say "math" and Brits say "maths," and why Americans are "in the hospital" while Brits are "in hospital." Then, we look at the historical meaning of the word "spendthrift" and introduce some wonderfully obsolete insults like "dingthrift" and "scrapethrift."
The "maths" segment was written by Samantha Enslen, who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.
The "spendthrift" segment was written by Karen Lunde, a career writer and editor. These days, she designs websites for solo business owners who care about both words and visuals. Find her at chanterellemarketingstudio.com.
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. Today, we're going to talk about British and American differences between "math" and "maths" and "in the hospital" versus "in hospital." And then we'll talk about the term "spendthrift."
by Samantha Enslen
Today we’re going to answer two related listener questions. First, Erin asked whether we have ever done a tip about “maths” vs “math.” “I say ‘I like math,’” Erin wrote, “but I increasingly see more people saying ‘I like maths’ [with an ‘s’]. Is it regional?”
And another listener asked why she hears some people say “in the hospital,” and others “in hospital.”
In regard to the first question, there’s a short answer and a long one.
The short answer is that this is a regional difference between the US and the UK. In the US, we tend to talk about “math,” and in the UK, people talk about “maths.”
Here’s why.
Let’s start by establishing that both of these words are short for “mathematics,” the science of numbers and their operations. The word comes from the ancient Greek “mathimatikós.” Its root means “to learn.”
As an aside, if you’ve ever wondered why someone who seems to know everything is called a “polymath,” it’s because the “math” part of “polymath” ultimately goes back to the same root, so a polymath is simply someone who has learned a lot.
In the US, “mathematics” was first shortened to “math” in the mid-1800s. The Journal of the American Education Society from 1829, for example, lists “Math., Rhet., and Hist.,”—short for mathematics, rhetoric, and history—as sophomore classes.
In 1899, Jack London wrote a letter describing his soon-to-be-wife, Bess Maddern, as “well up in the higher math … but not in general culture.” His attitude may hint at why their marriage lasted five short years and ended in a contentious divorce.
In the UK, around the same time, a different abbreviation was taking hold. Citations from 1911 onward show “maths” being used as the standard term in magazines, letters, and books. And that’s the term that’s still used today.
If you ask someone why they say “maths” instead of “math,” they might say it's because "mathematics" has an S on the end, or they may give what seems like another logical answer. It’s because the word “mathematics” is plural. See the S on the end?
Problem is, “mathematics” isn’t plural. It’s singular. It describes a thing—a field of study—not many things. The S on the end doesn’t indicate plurality; rather, it means something totally different. It functions as a “noun marker,” turning the adjective “mathematic” into the noun “mathematics.”
The letter S does the same thing when it turns the adjective “acoustic” into “acoustics,” “pediatric” into “pediatrics,” and “politic” into “politics.”
This use of the letter S isn’t very common in English, so it’s no surprise that people took the S in “mathematics” as a marker that the word was plural.
So … is the use of “maths” wrong in the US? Nah, it just sounds a little out of place. You could argue that since it's not what we say in the US, or since we usually don't include letters at the end of words when we're abbreviating, or since if people are thinking of it as plural, "maths" developed from an incorrect interpretation of linguistics, it should be banished. But … that’s not gonna happen. The word has been increasing in use in the United States dramatically since about the year 2000 and shows no sign of stopping. That’s simply what people say in the UK and in other countries influenced by the UK. And as long as people around the world keep watching the “Great British Baking Show,” (yay) “Doctor Who,” and “EastEnders,” it’s probably going to keep spreading.
And here’s the “hospital” question from Cathy that turns out to be related:
Hey this is Cathy from Maryland. I have a question for you. So when I read a novel that's written in England they would prefer to be in hospital Americans refer to it and being in the hospital. What why do British people stay in the hospital and American State in the hospital. Just wondering. Thank you."
Cathy is right. People in the UK say they are “in hospital,” and people in the US say they are “in the hospital.” There doesn’t seem to be any logical reason why we use the word “the” here. It’s rarely added for similar terms.
For example, if you were attending college, you wouldn’t say you were “in the college.” You’d say that you were “in college.” And if you had ended up on the wrong side of the law, you wouldn’t say you were “in the prison.” You’d say that you were “in prison.”
There are certain instances, though, when you would use the word “the.”
To wrap up, “maths versus math,” and “in hospital” versus “in the hospital” are regional differences between UK and US English. There’s no established reason these differences developed — at least none that we can pinpoint for sure. Some things we’ll just never know — even if we try to do the maths.
That segment was written by Samantha Enslen, who runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.
by Karen Lunde
Grammar Girl listener Kate Morrical Towne wrote in with this question:
I learned that the word "spendthrift" confuses a lot of my well-educated friends and family! They thought that since it contains "thrift," it means someone who is good with money. Any idea why this word is apparently self-contradictory?
Thanks for the fun question, Kate!
If “spend” means to use up money, and “thrift” means to save it, then surely a spendthrift is . . . what? A cautious spender? A clever budgeter?
Nope! It's none of the above. A spendthrift is someone who spends money recklessly. In other words, the “thrift” in "spendthrift" is doing some serious historical cosplay. "Spendthrift" is one of those words that sounds like it should mean the exact opposite of what it actually means.
Let’s take a closer look at this wonderful little word and meet some of its weird and whimsical cousins from centuries past.
The reason "spendthrift" confuses us is that the meaning of the word “thrift” has changed over time.
Today, "thrift" usually means frugality — wise spending, smart saving. We might call someone "thrifty" if they're always finding the best deals.
But when "spendthrift" first entered the English language in the 1500s, "thrift" had a broader meaning. It came from the verb "thrive" and originally meant "prosperity" or "wealth" — the stuff you had because you were thriving.
So, put the parts together: “spend” + “thrift” = someone who spends their prosperity. A spendthrift was someone who squandered their fortune, not someone good with money. It made perfect sense back then. And the word stuck, even as "thrift" narrowed in meaning over the centuries.
Today, that evolution makes "spendthrift" sound like a word having an identity crisis. But it’s really just carrying around a piece of its historical baggage. Kind of like a thrift-store jacket with an old bookmark in the pocket.
“Spendthrift” was d money. Here are some of the wonderfully obscure "thrift"-related words that once colored the language—and that might just deserve a comeback.
First, there's "dingthrift." This word is a banger—literally. A dingthrift is someone who smashes through their wealth. The "ding" comes from an old verb meaning “to knock” or “drive away.” So a dingthrift is someone who knocks away their thrift—a reckless spender, much like a spendthrift. First spotted in the mid-1500s, it’s a word that deserves to be yelled across the tavern at a friend who just bought the third round of drinks.
Now we flip to the opposite extreme. A "scrapethrift" is a miser, someone who scrapes and scrounges every last coin and hoards it. Imagine Ebenezer Scrooge counting his pennies by candlelight. And here's a little bonus trivia: “scrape-penny” and “nipfarthing” were real words, too, for similarly stingy folks.
Then we have "wanthrift." We us rave it. But "want" can also be a transitive verb meaning "to lack." Think of the line from the movie "The Knight's Tale" where the evil knight, Adhemar, tells the hero, William, "You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting," meaning "lacking" — a line that actually goes back to the Book of Daniel in the Bible. So a "wanthrift" is literally a lack of thrift. This word was used in Scotland as far back as the 1500s, sometimes as a general noun for wastefulness, and sometimes to describe a person who was bad with money.
And now for something a little more wholesome. "Handythrift" referred to the earnings from manual labor — basically, the money you made with your own two hands. It’s not about spending or saving, but earning. It showed up in the late 1500s and likely had more traction in working-class and Scottish circles. So while the spendthrifts were throwing away their fortunes, the handythrifts were out here earning theirs the honest way.
English doesn’t form compound insults the way it used to (with the exception of some excellent modern swear hybrids we won’t talk about here). But these "thrift"-compounds tell us something fun about how language used to work. You’d take a behavior—like dinging your savings or scraping it together—and stick it onto "thrift," like verbal LEGO blocks. And just like that, you had a new character type.
Today, only "spendthrift" survives in common usage. And it’s still pulling double duty: giving us a vivid image of someone blowing through their wealth while quietly reminding us that “thrift” once meant “the wealth you could lose.”
So the next time someone tries to use "spendthrift" to mean a money-savvy saver, you can gently steer them toward the truth. And maybe even toss in a "dingthrift" or "scrapethrift" for good measure.
That segment was written by Karen Lunde, a career writer and editor. These days, she designs websites for solo business owners who care about both words and visuals. Find her at chanterellemarketingstudio.com.
And you know what? This week, I am plum out of familects. I need your stories if we're going to keep doing this segment so give me a call at the voicemail line with the story of a word or phrase your family uses just among yourselves. You can tell me about your friendilects too — that fun inside language you only use with your friends.
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Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to Dan Feierabend in audio; Morgan Christianson in advertising; Nat Hoopes and Rebekah Sebastian in marketing; and Holly Hutchings, director of podcasts who likes to go out to lunch more than dinner. And I do too; it's a nice way to break up the day.
I'm Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl and author of the tip a day book, "The Grammar Daily."
That's all. Thanks for listening.