Aww ... look at the little bitty pressie!

Brits like to cute-ify their words. Cute-ify, you ask? Well, you know, make cuter. Cuten them up. I know, I know, “cute” is a distinctly American word. But it’s the only word that seems appropriate for the random act of adding an “i-e” to words – not in the presence of babies or small children but in everyday life amongst grown-ups. Americans don’t do this. If we’re talking about a present, we call it a present. We don’t call it a “pressie.”

Here are some other examples:

Cardigan = Cardi
Lipstick = Lippie
Chocolate = Choccie (pronounced chock-ie)
Biscuit = Biccie (pronounced bick-ie)
Sweets = Sweetie
Postman = Postie
Swimming costume = Cozzie (I just learned this one, thanks to Tori and Marti – hey, even you both cute-ified your names …)

And there are dozens more like this. Can you think of any others?