As for the United States, it's probably a result of the Revolution. That's why we used the words "hotel," "restaurant," "cafe," etc. generally before they became common usage in England. It's also why tea wouldn't become popular until the arrival of iced tea but why coffee has been a hit since Boston. There was a Francophile craze immediately post-Revolution that was reinvigorated with the Louisiana Purchase that led to the aforementioned name changes. It's also useful to recall that despite being among the earliest English colonies, the 13 original ones never benefitted from anything even approaching the British civil and foreign service bureaucracies that dominated the later colonies. It's actually an odd bit of history.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-22 04:58 am (UTC)