Monday, September 8, 2008

But He is British

In addition to getting whipped by Roger Federer in the U.S. Open final, Andy Murray has had to suffer the indignity of being called English.

Former tennis player Wendy Turnbull, an Australian now commentating for the BBC, says: "It was funny, I was upstairs in the players' lounge and I heard some Americans go 'Oh, the Englishman won.'

"Then someone said 'He's Scottish!' and the others said 'We meant to say British, not English.' So Americans are correcting other Americans and saying he's Scottish."

I thought this was informative.

GB, UK, BRITISH ISLES PRIMER

England, Scotland, Wales = Great Britain

Northern Ireland + Great Britain = United Kingdom
BUT many will use "Britain" as shorthand for UK, not just GB

GB also includes Isle of Wight, Scillies, Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands, but not Isle of Man and Channel Isles

Great Britain + Republic of Ireland + Channel Isles + IoM = British Isles

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