“Across the pond” is a British idiom referring to the distance between the UK and US, also used for Canada and occasionally Europe. The phrase is an understatement and ironic due to the size of the Atlantic Ocean.
“Across the pond” is an idiom that typically refers to the United Kingdom and the United States which are on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This expression is a euphemism, often used as a humorous reference to the approximately 3,500 miles (5,600 km) between each country’s coastline.
The United Kingdom is made up of several islands off the northwest coast of Europe. Four separate countries, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales belong to the United Kingdom. London is the capital as well as the largest city and a hub for transatlantic air travel.
On the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean is the United States. Both the United States and the United Kingdom speak English as an official language. The United States has two major transatlantic hubs, one in New York City, New York, and the other in Detroit, Michigan, as well as several smaller hubs in the eastern half of the country.
While “across the pond” is primarily a British idiom used in reference to the United Kingdom and the United States, the phrase can also refer to Canada. Canada has transatlantic hubs in both Montreal and Toronto. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, the idiom occasionally refers to Europe in general. This usage is much less common.
The Atlantic Ocean is the only ocean ever referred to in the saying “across the pond.” South America and Africa are never referred to in this idiom, even though they lie across the Atlantic from each other. This is due to the fact that the saying is an English idiom, widely spoken in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, but rarely in the countries of South America and only in some areas of Africa.
As a literary device, “across the pond” is an understatement. Unlike hyperbole, understatements treat something as less than it is. A common euphemism is to call a bad injury “just a scratch.” To speak of the Atlantic Ocean, a 41,100,000 square mile (106,400,000 square km) body of water, as a pond is a humorous understatement.
Not only is the idiom a euphemism, it can also be seen as irony. An ironic statement is one that means the opposite of what it literally says. When someone says they are traveling “across the pond,” they state it as if they are crossing a small body of water, when in fact they are crossing the second largest body of water in the world.
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