People using "Americanisms"

[the other bob wilson]

Don't we sometimes use the decorative word 'Well' when starting a sentence when others say 'So'?
By the way, I am not a fan of the "I'm good" retort but it will probably be doing the rounds long after I expire.
The word 'nice' used to mean ignorant so it's a waste of time being too Canute-like regarding language.
Early this week I was reading about metathesis i.e. where consonant change places in a word e.g. bird was formally brid, foliage was previously foilage, wasp was previously wæps etc.
Metathesis exists both across and within languages.

Out of the ones I mentioned, back in the day and get go have been around long enough for children to hear them and think that they have always been around, therefore they're perfectly legitimate for them to use and they'd be right - I daresay, answering questions with so falls into the same category as well.

However, the three at the bottom of my message (north of, speaks to and moving forward) fascinate me because they're almost exclusively used by adults in my experience - if I had to guess where they originated, I think it may well be in a kind of media speak, because I barely hear them in face to face conversation,

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Out of the ones I mentioned, back in the day and get go have been around long enough for children to hear them and think that they have always been around, therefore they're perfectly legitimate for them to use and they'd be right - I daresay, answering questions with so falls into the same category as well.

However, the three at the bottom of my message (north of, speaks to and moving forward) fascinate me because they're almost exclusively used by adults in my experience - if I had to guess where they originated, I think it may well be in a kind of media speak, because I barely hear them in face to face conversation,

'North of' and 'South of' have a certain logic whereby those directions are related to up and down - just as we say 'up in Scotland' or 'down in Cornwall'.
However, wearing my cartographer's hat I would say that we have only considered 'North' as 'up' since maps were presented that way.
Historically, many maps used to have East at the top, hence the terms 'to orient', 'orient(at)ed', 'disorient(at)ed' etc.
In those days we would have perhaps said 'up in Norfolk' and 'down in Wales'.