Mystery of Carol's stuffed lamb

My US friend Carol revealed the identity of her “baby”: Baby B is my stuffed animal…, she wrote in her last entry. To be more exact – her baby is a stuffed lamb (or a sheep).If she said something like that in the UK she would probably be considered kind of weird or barbaric. Because in the UK, the first thing that occurs when hearing words “stuffed animal” is a dead animal that was filled with some stuff in order to look alive. Once I said to a British friend of mine that I still have a small stuffed monkey from my chilldhood that used to be with me in my bed every night. The friend looked confused. Stuffed monkey in your bed? It took a while to make this misunderstanding clear.

Oxford Dixtionary says that one of the meanings of the verb “to stuff” is to fill the dead body of an animal with material and preserve it, so that it keeps its original shape and appearance. Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary says the same: to fill the body of a dead animal with special material so that it looks as if it is still alive.

But this is not a case of Carol's baby or my small monkey. These toys only look like animals and are cute, cuddly, fluffy, soft… Oh yes, SOFT, “soft toy” – that's the British equivalent for American "stuffed animal".

Oxford Dixtionary: soft toy = a toy in the shape of an animal, made of fabric and filled with a soft substance. Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary = a toy animal made from cloth and filled with a soft material so that it is pleasant to hold.

That's just one of many differences between British and US English (apart from Australian or South African English). Carol didn't know (she did now) a British word “a fortnight”. And my British friend never heard idiom “be a Monday morning quarterback”. He uses “be wise after the event” instead (obé znamná totéž - být generál po bitvě).

Btw. the term “stuffed animal” can also have completaly different meaning. Just try and google Carol's “stuffed lamb”.

You'll get something like that


Or something like that


"to stuff" also means to fill a vegetable, chicken, etc. with another type of food, prostě "nadívat". Takže "stuffed" = "nadívaný".
Carol mentioned the other day, that her stuffed beef rolls fell apart. What fell appart? Nadívané hovězí rolky? No jistě - prostě se jí rozpadly španělské ptáčky.