>>>>>>For Dragan.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Excuse the paraphrase of (I think) Oscar Wilde. For one of your lists:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hairdressing:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>US Bang = UK Fringe
>>>>>>US Pompadour = UK Quiff.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Not sure of the US terms but men can have sideburns, sideboards or louse-ladders.
>>>>>
>>>>>Perfect - none of the expressions make any sense to me, except sideburns (which is only something I know, and it does make _some_ sense, but not much :). The last is ingenious, though :).
>>>>
>>>>BTW, Dragan, you're always going on about the paucity of words in English, well it seems the US is richer:
>>>>
>>>>US Suspenders (keep your trousers up) - UK Braces
>>>>US Retainer (shape the teeth) - UK Braces
>>>
>>>A retainer and braces are not the same thing. Here typically braces are worn for a couple of years and then when the braces are removed, a retainer is worn during the night only. Are both really referred to as 'braces' in the UK? Braces are attached and a retainer is not.
>>
>>I've never heard of someone wearing a retainer on his teeth here - that's why, whn I heard the expr. on a US prog t'other day my ears pricked up.
>>
>>A retainer would be a fee paid to a solicitor (lawyer) to secure his services, or a domestic servant, such as a butler, such as, in the book/film by Viv Stanshall (Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band), "Sir Henry at Rawlington End", the reference to the ancient butler: "Old Scrotum, the wrinkled retainer"
>>
>>:-)#) (wearing braces)
>
>that little plastic thing the orthodontist gave my son is a retainer and that was in Bristol. Maybe everyone has bad teeth in Brighton.

Don't know, but they seem to inherit them in Bristol! :-)~

I thought you replied earlier that they were the both called braces?