An American woman has highlighted an everyday British word that is considered so offensive in the United States, she insists she couldn’t even say it out loud.
Amber Kacherian, a well-known TikToker who has almost a million followers, currently resides in the UK and often shares her experiences of cultural surprises, ranging from slang terms to puzzling food names.
In one of her most recent videos, she caused a stir on both sides of the Atlantic by pointing out three seemingly harmless English words that hold vastly different, and sometimes inappropriate, meanings in the US.
Amber starts the video with a warning: ‘British people – do not say these words in America unless you want people to look at you very strangely.’
The first item on her list is the humble classroom essential, a rubber. ‘In America, the word ‘rubber’ means something very different,’ she says.
‘So, my British friends, please be warned that if you walk into a store in America and ask for a rubber, the item you receive is not going to be an eraser.’
In the UK, of course, a rubber is an everyday stationery item, but across the pond it’s slang for a condom.
While Brits might not bat an eye, Amber’s point struck a chord with fellow Americans who recalled their own awkward encounters with British terminology.
TikToker Amber Kacherian revealed the three English words she doesn’t dare use in the US
Next up was the classic UK cupboard staple of whipped cream in a can, more commonly known in Britain as squirty cream. Amber could barely contain her disbelief.
‘I did not believe this one until I saw it for myself,’ she laughs in the video.
‘You heard that right – squirty cream. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to say that on here.
‘And yes, this is 100 per cent real. This is really and truly, honest to goodness, what they call it.’
Still incredulous, she adds: ‘I went to a store in the UK and I saw it on the shelves there, I saw it with my own eyes and to this day I think I’m still not fully recovered.
‘I have no words. My British friends, I think you knew exactly what you were doing when you did this.’
Her advice for any UK travellers planning a trip stateside is not to go asking for rubbers and squirty cream unless you want some puzzled stares.
But it was her final example that she says she ‘can’t even say’ out loud, and one that left her genuinely shaken.
At the top of her list was the British slang term for a cigarette, a fag, a word which is exclusively used as a slur against gay people in the US
The word in question is a British slang term for a cigarette – fag – a word which, in the US, is exclusively used as a slur against gay people.
‘I can’t even say the word on here or I’ll get cancelled,’ says Amber. ‘Let’s just say it’s a horribly offensive slur that you will never, ever hear come out of my mouth.
‘It’s ‘flag’, but without the L. But please don’t ever say that word in America. Probably just don’t ever say it anywhere, ever, just to be safe.’
Amber explains how she discovered that the word is also used in Britain to describe a variety of meatball, thanks to faggots, a famous UK meat product.
Filming herself in front of an image of the packaging of Mr Brain’s Six Pork Faggots, she asks her UK followers: ‘For my friends in the UK, my question is: what is the fascination with this word? Why does everyone love using this word?
‘Does it mean something else in the UK? In America you cannot say this word ever, but in the UK they’re just casually throwing it on packages of meatballs.’
While Amber’s video was meant in jest, it sparked a flurry of passionate responses in the comments, particularly from Brits defending the language.
One viewer wrote: ‘Cream that you squirt from a can is logically called squirty cream. ‘Americans call a pair of glasses “eye glasses” and are not in a position to criticise.’
Brits rushed to the comments to defend their language quirks, arguing English dialects are much older than American ones
Another was quick to point out the history behind the words: ‘The word “f*ggt” is older than your country. As a food item the name was used from at least the mid-19th century, they are not meatballs as such but rather they are made from offal.’
A more blunt take came from another user who simply wrote: ‘As the English language comes from England we are correct and the USA is wrong. It really is that simple.’
And one commenter said: ‘I am a UK resident and I had absolutely no idea that Americans didn’t know this stuff and now I can’t stop laughing! What the heck do you call squirty cream then?’
Amber’s video also reignited interest in the origins of the controversial cigarette slang.
Linguists point out that the British slang term fag, meaning a cigarette, actually predates the homophobic slur.
The latter meaning may have originated in English public boarding schools, where younger boys (known as ‘fags’) were tasked with menial chores for older students, the Think Queerly blog reports.
The term may have evolved from faggot, originally a bundle of sticks – later associated with women’s domestic labour and, eventually, the younger boys who performed those duties.
As the word developed, it gained the slur connotations, though these did not become mainstream until the early 20th century.
