What's the matter?

[Leiard]

I did not find "What's the matter?" in the database, so I wanted to ask whether this is more an American or a British idiom.
Thank you!

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum.

It's certainly very common in BrE.

[GoesStation]

I would qualify what's the matter?​ as an idiom, not slang.

[MikeNewYork]

It's very common in the US also.

[emsr2d2]

I wouldn't call it an idiom or slang. It's a simple direct question which you would aim at someone when you think, for some reason, that they have a problem of some kind.

[GoesStation]

I consider it an idiom because the noun matter changes its meaning in the fixed phrase the matter (with).

A.A. Milne, no champion of slang, wrote a whole poem about something being the matter:

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?


What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I've promised her dolls and a daisy-chain,
And a book about animals - all in vain -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?


What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's perfectly well, and she hasn't a pain;
But, look at her, now she's beginning again! -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?


What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I've promised her sweets and a ride in the train,
And I've begged her to stop for a bit and explain -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?


What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain,
And it's lovely rice pudding for dinner again!
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

[MikeNewYork]

Not one of the finest Milne examples.

[GoesStation]

I've always quite liked that one. There's no accounting for taste, eh?

[Leiard]

Thank you all! :)

I thought the phrase wouldn't be BE because in two or three dictionaries I found, it were tagged as American English.
For example: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dict...t-s-the-matter

[tantrum]

What's up? What happened?

Carole, what's the matter? You don't seem happy.