On 11/10/12 01:04, tony cooper wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:05:31 +0100, Jack Campin
> > wrote:
>
>>> I am in the UK and nowadays see many TV chefs and newspaper writers use
>>> the term "to blitz" to mean to use a blender for a short period of time.
>>>
>>> What's wrong with "use the blender" or even "blend" instead of "blitz"?
>>>
>>> Presumably the verb "to blitz" has come from American English but why
>>> is it so widespread when all it doesis replace a perfectly good existing
>>> word?
>>
>> Since Britain got much more thoroughly blitzed than the US and has
>> retained the folk memory of its blitzification with a lot of
>> circumstantial detail, I'd expect it to be an indigenous British
>> usage.
>>
>> "Blitz" in BrE more often means "clean thoroughly".
>
> Quite a few Americans, and this one included, have a container of
> Blitz polish in the closet. Blitz is best-known for a jewelry
> cleaning polish and treated jewelry polishing cloths.
>
> The company was founded in 1912 and the products were developed then.
> The company's history page does not say if the original name of the
> company or the product was "Blitz", though.
>
> I associate "blitz" with WWII, but have no idea when the word was
> coined.
>

My immediate guess regarding its American usage as the name of a
jewellery polish would be its similarity to "glitz".

Pretty much all British usage derives from the use of "blitzkrieg" in
British newspaper headlines from the beginning of WWII onwards.

It's a great sounding word but, in agreement with the original poster, I
must say I find its recent and incessant use by people such as Lorraine
Pascale to mean simply "blend" an irritating pathetic attempt to be
"down with the kids" - much like the dancing/tracking captions
(mimicking certain mobile phone apps) which seem to have first appeared
on the same show but are now infecting a number of others.

I,JM