to clean the bathroom and the kitchen, hoover...

[GeneD]

So many chores to do! I need to clean the bathroom and the kitchen, hoover and change all the beds. From the exrcises. The author is British.

What is a hoover?

 

[GoesStation]

Gene, Hoover is a verb in British English. It's not generally used in American English, though I think most Americans would understand hoover up to mean "clear off", without necessarily associating it with the verb ​vacuum.

 

[SoothingDave]

Hoover is a brand of vacuum cleaners in the US, but it is not used here as a generic stand-in as it is in the UK.

 

[GeneD]

That's really interesting because I hadn't heard the word "hoover" before I saw it in those exercises. So it's a brand name which became a "normal" word, right? I guess it's not as common in the UK as "to vacuum", is it? I googled "hoover", and at first glance it seems a fairly new word. Do the British hoover more often than vacuum?

 

[GeneD]

So "vacuum" is the champion so far, right?

 

[Raymott]

'Vacuum' is more common than 'hoover'. But they were the only two terms tested for. Are you sure this was a championship bout?

 

[GeneD]

Are you sure this was a championship bout?

Figuratively speaking, why not?

But they were the only two terms tested for.

Are there any other terms? (Till today I knew only "vacuum".) And I don't mind testing them to find out which is the winner (that is, the most common verb with the meaning "to vacuum"). lympic:

 

[emsr2d2]

Ngram result notwithstanding, I (and pretty much all my friends and family) use "hoover" as the verb, not "vacuum". We use either "hoover" or "vacuum cleaner" as the noun.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Gene, Hoover is a verb in British English. It's not generally used in American English, though I think most Americans would understand hoover up to mean "clear off", without necessarily associating it with the verb ​vacuum.

It might not be used everywhere in the US, but it's common where I live.

It comes from the Hoover brand of vacuum cleaner, but it's usually used to mean devour: Jake and Elwood hoovered all the pizza and guzzled all the beer.

You can also use it as a noun: My cat's a real hoover.

There are other meanings as well. You can see them if you Google hoover slang.

 

[jutfrank]

Ngram result notwithstanding, I (and pretty much all my friends and family) use "hoover" as the verb, not "vacuum". We use either "hoover" or "vacuum cleaner" as the noun.

I completely agree with the above. Because of this, my feeling is that in everyday speech at least, the verbs hoover and do the hoovering are more frequent than vacuum and do the vacuuming.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I completely agree with the above. Because of this, my feeling is that in everyday speech at least, the verbs hoover and do the hoovering are more frequent than vacuum and do the vacuuming.

Probably in the UK. In the US, most of us vacuum.

 

[emsr2d2]

Learners might have noticed another difference between BrE and AmE - when it comes to household chores, BrE speakers use "do the XXX" more than just the plain verb.

I need to do the hoovering.
I'm just going to do the washing up. (That means to wash the dishes.)
I have to do the washing/laundry.

 

[GeneD]

Ngram result notwithstanding...

Maybe Ngram illustrates the situation in all varieties of English (AmE, AusE, CanE, etc.)? If that huge percentage of "hoover" usage (which Ngram shows) tells us about the situation in Britain only (or mostly), then this word is very likely most common there.

 

[GeneD]

Learners might have noticed another difference between BrE and AmE - when it comes to household chores, BrE speakers use "do the XXX" more than just the plain verb.

I need to do the hoovering.
I'm just going to do the washing up. (That means to wash the dishes.)
I have to do the washing/laundry.

Not further than yesterday, having to find the difference between "washing" and "washing up" (somewhere on UsingEnglish), I had the chance to know that, in the US, they don't do the washing, they do the laundry (if I remember correctly). I can't recall what Americans do instead of "washing up" though. (I only flipped through that thread.)

 

[Rover_KE]

They do the dishes.

When Americans say they're going to wash up, they're going to wash their dirty hands after working or before eating.

 

[jutfrank]

Probably in the UK. In the US, most of us vacuum.

Yes, sorry, I should've made it clear I was talking about England. I'm not so sure about the UK as a whole.

 

[GoesStation]

We may also do the dishes.

For laundry, we generally do the laundry.

 

[emsr2d2]

I've always found it quite amusing that American kids have to wash up before dinner and British kids have to wash up after dinner.

(And that there is no connection between the two activities.)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Learners might have noticed another difference between BrE and AmE - when it comes to household chores, BrE speakers use "do the XXX" more than just the plain verb.

I need to do the hoovering.
I'm just going to do the washing up. (That means to wash the dishes.)
I have to do the washing/laundry.

We do, too - do the wash, do the ironing, and so on.