(no subject)

[randomness]

I remember when the phrase "at the end of the day"--meaning "in the final analysis", or "when you get down to it"--was a distinctly British phrase. If you heard it being used by someone, they were either British, or they'd picked it up there.

Sometime in the last decade or two, it crossed the Atlantic, and now it's not much of a marker at all, as I hear it in general use in the States.

Anyone else have this memory? Or have a more exact idea of when it might have happened?

Comments

[denyse.livejournal.com]

Intriguing. I have always used that phrase, but picked it up from the dang brits in my youth. Never really noticed it wasn't used here.

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

I know it was still pretty British in 2001, when I was over there for a conference. (And a presenter said it about every 38 seconds.)

[dpolicar]

I had picked it up by the mid-90s, long before I was being exposed to Britishisms with any regularity.
I know this, because I worked for a startup, and would often respond to it by saying "Yeah, well, at the end of the day it's often tomorrow morning." (By which I meant, the final-analysis consequences of doing X might not be the most important factor.)

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

Oh, is that what "At the end of the day" meant in Les Miz? :-)

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

I can remember using it over 15 years ago - so maybe its a regional thing as well?

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I was never aware of this as a Britishism-- I can't remember a time before I was familiar with this usage. (Obviously, there was such a time, I'm just not aware of it.)

[kateorama.livejournal.com]

I didn't know it was a British thing before, I just noticed that suddenly I was hearing it everywhere, to the point of annoyance.