Help with vocabulary

[pne]

Ever since Amy outgrew her pram, she's been sitting in something we call Buggy in German.

I wasn't sure what to call it at first, so I went with stroller.

However, it seems that this is a predominantly US word, and I'd like to use a British word instead. I'm not sure what word is used for those things, though -- I got the vague impression that they used to be called pushchairs but that buggy is becoming common as well.

Can you (UK English speakers) help? Is there, perhaps, a difference between the two (e.g. a pushchair is simpler than a buggy); is the difference regional; are both words synonyms and in common use; is pushchair old-fashioned; etc.?

Here's a poll with a couple of images:

[Poll #990858]

Thank you!

Comments

[purple-pen.livejournal.com]

I've never used the word pushchair for anything. I don't see it as something different from a buggy - I just don't use the word.

To me, a stroller is some kind of wheeled contraption which a baby pushes by itself while learning to walk, like this (http://www.toy-choice.co.uk/products/141/). But Googling for images using the term 'stroller' suggests most people don't agree with me!

[denial-land.livejournal.com]

I recall being taught something like "perambulator". I might be totally off, in which case you may laugh at me. I know that my American friends would call the things pictured in the poll "stroller". Here in Germany we called it "buggy".

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Pram is a contraction of perambulator.

[denial-land.livejournal.com]

ah, of course! That makes sense! Thanks.

[kake]

To me, a pram is something for smaller children. It's not open at the front, so the baby is more protected; the opening is towards the person pushing the pram. Like this.

(Argh. I still owe you spices. I'm sorry.)

[denial-land.livejournal.com]

so the things in the pictures above you'd also call pushchair?

About the spices: I'll move out of my current place in a month, so.. it's either now or never ;)

(kind of.. :P)

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

A push chair is like a chair, ie it has a bottom and a back and sides. A buggy has a top and a front as well. Buggy is becoming more common as a term because those red things are becoming more common and the the humble pushcair is not an aspirational status symbol. As long as you don't go with stroller you'll be fine.

[thethirdvoice.livejournal.com]

I'd have thought it was the other way round, so that the middle item was definitely a buggy, with the other two being either.

[karen2205]

I think of buggy as old fashioned and pushchair as more modern/formal, but I think the two terms are interchangeable for 'devices-for-transporting-babies-&-toddlers-that-aren't-prams'.

[arthur-sc-king.livejournal.com]

Here in Canada, it's almost all "strollers". What the Brits would call "pram" or "perambulator" was almost always "baby carriage" here. (That's the kind where the baby lies on his/her back in something that resembles a tub on wheels with a half-lid.) I don't think I've ever heard anyone call any sort of baby carrier on wheels a "buggy".

And I take it you're a Tom Slick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Slick_%28cartoon%29) fan? ("Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Rubber baby buggy bumpers.")

Rubber baby buggy bumpers

[pne.livejournal.com]

And I take it you're a Tom Slick fan?

Nope; never heard of him.

I knew the phrase as a tongue-twister, but don't associate it with any particular source.

Re: Rubber baby buggy bumpers

[arthur-sc-king.livejournal.com]

Ahh. You know the George of the Jungle movies? They're based on an old animated TV series (same title) made by the same guys behind Rocky and Bullwinkle. In each half-hour episode, there'd be a George of the Jungle cartoon, a Tom Slick cartoon, and a Super-Chicken episode. Tom Slick was a race car driver with his sidekicks, and there was a villain/foil who kept trying to stop Tom from winning the race (always failing, of course). In one episode/race, the villain keeps trying to collide with Tom's car and knock him off course. But Tom's sidekicks save the day by attaching (you guessed it) rubber baby bugger bumpers to his car, so instead the villain bounces off the track.

Yeah, it's pretty stupid. %-)

BUGGY.

[jc.livejournal.com]

Prams are for newborns who lay on their back under a duvet.

[ubykhlives.livejournal.com]

I would call these all prams. (After all, perambulator roughly means one that walks around, so I don't see any problem using the word for any baby-carriage-type contraption.)

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

We used to just call them pushchairs, I think buggy is newer, and more interchangeable with pushchair, ie both are in common usage for pretty much the same thing.

http://www.mothercare.com the UK baby gear retailer is probably the definitive word on the subject...

http://www.argos.co.uk too. Having looked I think stroller/pushchair seem to be what the manufacturers want us to call them...

[conuly]

I'd call those all strollers, unless I saw them reclined. Then I might call them baby carriages, but usually I'd use that word for the ones that don't sit up at all.

But I'm not from the UK :)

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Though I think the second one has a special name also. Like travel stroller or something.

[conuly]

Umbrella stroller. Because it folds up like an umbrella.

[arthur-sc-king.livejournal.com]

I forgot that one, thanks! Here in Canada, I've mostly heard it in reference to the flimsier cheaper ones (i.e. picture 2 above, not pictures 1 or 3), since they fold both vertically and horizontally to make a narrow package not unlike a folded umbrella. (Strollers like #1 and #3 tend to only fold front-to-back, and stay as wide as they are unfolded.)

Hope that makes sense.

Unrelated...

[lnbw.livejournal.com]

I did get your invitation to Facebook, but I'm not using it (and don't plan to). Just so you don't think I'm ignoring you. ;)

[allegrox.livejournal.com]

American here.
While I'd call all of those things strollers, I might expect the first and third to also be called carriages because they're more enclosed. Or I suppose they could also be buggies. "Stroller" seems to suggest something smaller or simpler in form.

I've never heard anyone actually use the word "pram" (I'd know they're talking about one of these things, but most Americans probably wouldn't have a clue). And a "pushchair" is more like ... a chair that you push. It doesn't necessarily suggest that you're pushing a baby. I think I once heard someone use it for what I would call a wheelchair, though that seems like a stretch.

[allegrox.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot that baby carriages usually recline, but I don't think it matters much here.
Also, the first and third could be buggies. That word seems sort of marked, maybe dialect, but not enough that it would sound weird (maybe it's just my perspective).

And I hope someone besides me also remembers the childhood tongue-twister "rubber baby buggy bumpers", though I've never actually seen a baby buggy with bumpers.

[leighbug]

I think I filled the poll out correctly...it's after 1 am, so I blame anything on the time.

I'd call all of those strollers. Pretty much, anything is a stroller in the US (at least here in Colorado). The smaller one is also called an umbrella stroller, which means it's small and folds up really small. The bigger ones are sometimes called travel systems, which means a carseat can be fitted in it, for smaller babies, and then when they're bigger, the back can recline.

Although I saw a stroller recently that was the perfect combination of the two...fairly small with a large basket under for storing diaper bags, shopping bags, stuffed animals, all that stuff. I love that the umbrella strollers are small, but I can't fit anything in them if I need to take stuff, and they tip if you put bags on the handles. The big ones are just...big and cumbersome.

They really need to have parents design strollers.

[sedesdraconis.livejournal.com]

oh, darn. I mis- didn't read the poll instructions. I thought it meant for me to put which non-UK dialect in the first text field, and then my answers in the various fields. Sorry.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Well, you can change your answers (http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=990858&mode=enter), you know.

(In general: click on the poll number at the top, then on 'Fill out Poll'.)