Originally Posted by
freetors
I get slightly annoyed at hearing Brits' and Aussie's version of a knobby tire, the "knobbly".
They do the same thing for the carburetor. Our shorthand word is "carb", there's is "carby".
They both sound like something a child would say.
The Aussies and maybe the Brits and others? call a Mercedes a "Merc" pronounced Merk. It took me a while to figure that one out while watching an Aussie tv series. I thought they were referring to a Mercury car, formerly marketed by Ford in the US (and elsewhere?). Or a Mercury outboard. That's what real American English uses the word Merc/Merk for.