POA book differences

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

A question was asked over on main  which referenced the POA  differences 
section of the Lexicon.
_http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/differences-pa.html_ 
(http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/differences-pa.html) 
I'd never looked at it before and I was intrigued by some of the  
differences. UK page refs are in brackets. Comments? Explanations?
16 (18) 'reporter' for 'newsreader': 
These are two different things in the UK. A reporter researches and writes  a 
news report. They *may* present it. A news reader is primarily (though not  
exclusively) a presenter. 
41 (35) 'wastebaskets' for 'bollards':
These are two completely different things, a  bollard being a kind of  
substantial post, usually of metal. The substitution also upsets JKR's  
alliteration: 'bushes and bollards, telephone boxes and trees'.
60 (49) 'scampered' for 'scarpered'.
Although very similar, these words have quite different nuances.  
'Scampering' implies a kind of levity of both movement and intent, it has an  innocence 
about it, it's the sort of thing children and young animals do,  whereas 
'scarpering', frequently in the combination 'scarpering off' tends to be  used when 
one is getting away from trouble, often deserved. 
60 (49), 'racing' for 'haring'.
Don't you have hares?
80 (63) 'gorilla-ish arms' for 'Gorilla arms'
Just included that because it irritates me that the US publishers seemed to  
think that their readers couldn't cope with metaphor.
93 (73)  'assigned us' for 'set us':
Is 'set' unfamiliar in this sense in US English??
105 (81)  'crooked' for 'wonky':
So what *do* you call a three legged donkey in the US?*
143 (108)  'Gryffindor hasn't' for 'Gryffindor haven't':
In the UK, it is common (and acceptable) usage to follow a collective noun  
by a verb in its plural form. JKR is here (and later with Slytherin) using the  
name of the house as a collective noun representative of its many members. Is 
 the US change pedantic, or does it reflect normal usage?
144 (109)  'spanking good' for 'cracking':
This one just amused me as it seems to be the substitution of one rather  old 
fashioned British descriptor for another. Or is 'spanking good' US  usage?
160 (120) 'a moment later' for 'next moment':
Is this really only British idiom? JKR does rather over use it, but it  seems 
to be changed frequently.
191 (142)  'know it' for 'know it off':
I think actually that the 'off' goes with the 'by heart' that follows it;  
the substitution is therefore of 'by heart' for 'off by heart'.
230 (170)  'party hats' for 'cracker hats'.
Why on earth was this subsituted? I know you don't have Christmas crackers  
in the US, but the whole subject had already been introduced at the start of 
the  scene with Dumbledore saying 'Crackers!' and offering one (helpfully, if  
awkwardly, explained in the US edition as a noisemaker) to Snape. Surely the  
reader could be expected to carry that information for the length of one  page?
254 (188) 'only' removed from, 'Only we need...'
Don't get this.
284 (209) 'neither' for 'nor':
Had no idea that that little word was particularly British in this  context.
304 (244) 'applauding' for 'clapping':
Again, I didn't realise that clapping was a British usage. So how does the  
psalm translation go, then? 'And the trees of the field shall break into  
applause'?
307 (226) 'Fred Weasley chucked' for 'Fred Weasley had chucked'.
Why change the tense of the action?
~Eloise
*Sorry. This is an example of a typically bad cracker joke. 
Q. What do you call a three-legged donkey? 
Ans: Wonky.
Oh dear. It's even worse than I thought.


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