UK vs. US terminology question

[aquarius]

Okay, through my teen and adult life I've watched more UK TV than your average American, I think, so I've managed to pick up on a lot of the expressions, phrases, and slang on my own or by asking someone else. Every so often I still run into something that I'm not sure what it means or I only have a rough idea and need clarification, so I'll ask the experts (today that's you guys).

Yesterday I was watching part of BBC America's "How Clean is Your House?" mini-marathon (largely to feel better about the condition of my own house, but also because it motivates me to clean during the commercials, ha ha), and I wanted to try some of the cleaning tips they offered but I'm having trouble figuring out what the US equivalents of a couple of the materials are. Over the years I've been able to reason that "washing-up liquid" is what we call "dish soap" here--you wash your dishes in the sink with it, right? Well on the show yesterday, they were using "biological washing-up powder," and I cant' figure out what exactly that is. I wasn't sure if it was for dishes or laundry, because they were actually using it on things like rugs. The only powder for dishes we have here is for automatic dishwashers, so I wasn't sure if it was the same thing. Also, the "biological" reference threw me a little, but I'm wondering if that's what we call "anti-bacterial" or "anti-microbial" here, and maybe the "biological" just means the same thing, that it kills germs. Any way, Kim used this to clean up a cat accident on the rug, and with three cats of my own, I thought it would be a handy thing to be able to try the next time I'm in that situation.

Thanks.

[Beattie~Babe]

OK, Ill try & explain this as best I can ......

The easiest way to describe 'biological' is the following ;

Rates of Reaction

Catalysts - Enzymes - Biological Detergents.

Biological detergents and washing powders
use lipases and proteases to break down fat and protein molecules
from food stains which have remained on clothing.
The fatty acids, glycerol and amino acids which are produced
are removed in the water during the washing process.

The use of enzymes in detergents has the advantage
that effective washing can be carried out in warm water.
Warm water is preferable to hot water because
1) it is more energy efficient
(you don't have to heat the water so much).
2) the dye in coloured clothing is less likely to wash out of the fabric.
3) clothes are more likely to stay the same shape
(hot water causes some fabric to shrink).

This site will explain a little more about the differences between the detergents & liquids ...... Washer Help .

[orokiah]

Just be careful of it on your skin if you do use it, some people are quite sensitive to the enzymes in biological washing powder.

I've never heard of dish soap.

[aquarius]

Wow, thanks! I'm not sure if we have anything like that here. If we do I haven't paid attention to the advertisments but honestly, as I've shopped the laundry needs aisle, I don't remember ever seeing anything like that. It may be something that's only used for heavy commercial applications like hotels and laundry services, or it may not have been approved by our Food and Drug Administration for use here. Either way, it sounds pretty efficient.

Just to clarify, though, "washing powder" always refers to laundry, then, right?

"Dish soap" just refers to any liquid dish detergent used for washing dishes by hand. They call it "dishwashing liquid" in the advertisements but I don't know of anyone here who actually says that. They may even call it different things in different regions of the US, but I think anywhere you say "dish soap" here they know what you're talking about. Automatic dishwasher detergents come both in powder and liquid here, but we just call it "dishwasher soap/detergent" to differentiate it from the dish soap. Same with laundry, we just say "laundry soap" or "laundry detergent." I think we tend to say "soap" more in rural areas and "detergent" in cities and suburbs. *shrugs*

[orokiah]

aquarius said:

Just to clarify, though, "washing powder" always refers to laundry, then, right?

Yep, it's for laundry, more often for a hand wash than a washing machine though. The only powder I know of that's used for washing dishes is the kind you'd put in a dishwasher.

'Dish soap' is a really interesting expression, thanks for the info. The UK should adopt it, it's a lot more fun to say than plain old 'washing up liquid'.

[aquarius]

orokiah said:

Yep, it's for laundry, more often for a hand wash than a washing machine though. The only powder I know of that's used for washing dishes is the kind you'd put in a dishwasher.

Really? All of our stuff for washing clothes by hand is liquid. That's interesting.

'Dish soap' is a really interesting expression, thanks for the info. The UK should adopt it, it's a lot more fun to say than plain old 'washing up liquid'.

You never know, you could start a trend! ;D

Somewhat related but useless factoid: for a while in the inner city areas street slang for "to wash dishes" was "bust up some suds."