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Recently I had a conversation with a native speaker. During it he has mentioned some movie reference. I guess he was not sure whether I have got it so he has also sent me a link to that movie supplying it with a phrase:

in case the reference does not cross the pond

Is this phrase something that really exists?

Untapped Soul
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4 Answers4

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The idiom here is "the pond."

This phrase means the Atlantic Ocean. It is sometimes jocularly used to refer to differences between usages in Great Britain vs the United States, including allusions to pop culture that are not common.

Edit: this is both an American and British usage, and despite referring to a definite body of water, I have never seen it capitalized.

Mary
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    The whole phrase, talking about whether some reference "crosses the pond" is idiomatic. "cross" is part of the idiom, in my experience. You don't talk about the Atlantic ocean as "the pond" in other phrasing than "crossing" or "across". – Peter Cordes Aug 15 '20 at 17:33
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    @PeterCordes You can also say this/that side of the pond, Right-/Leftpondia, etc., so it’s more general than just “crossing the pond”. – StephenS Aug 15 '20 at 17:47
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    @gidds The lack of capitalization, as if the Atlantic were just another nameless pond, is a big part of the idiom. – StephenS Aug 15 '20 at 17:48
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    @StephenS: Oh yes, you're right, I was forgetting about sides of the pond. I wanted to point out that it doesn't work in general, when you're not talking about sides or crossing. e.g. "that beach is on the pond side of Nova Scotia". (not idiomatic) "I went for a swim in the pond" (nope). "I was sailing on the pond last week" (nope). People would assume you meant an actual small lake aka pond, except in the first case "pond side of NS" which is comprehensible as a distortion / mis-use of part of the idiom. – Peter Cordes Aug 15 '20 at 17:50
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    @PeterCordes I assume the full thought is that the physical ocean between the US/UK (Canada?) is culturally a mere "pond". Pond is for contrasting the nations. That seems to solve those "nopes". – Owen Reynolds Aug 15 '20 at 20:06
  • @OwenReynolds: Indeed, that's a good way to look at it. The idiom is most commonly used to talk about the cultural gap, not just physical. (And never to talk about the body of water itself.) You can get close to talking about physical distance or at least travel time, though, like "I took a quick hop across the pond last week to visit a friend in London" – Peter Cordes Aug 15 '20 at 20:15
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    Also worth mentioning, it also implies UK specifically, not other countries that are across the Atlantic from North America, like Spain or west African nations. I assume in the UK, usage implies English-speaking North America (US / Canada). I wonder if it gets used by English ex-pats in Spain or similar places? Or even to talk about different oceans, e.g. by people that often travel across the Pacific between San Francisco and Japan for example? Without context, the default implication is always across the Atlantic. – Peter Cordes Aug 15 '20 at 20:18
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    @PeterCordes I think even for "hop across the pond" the emphasis is on the cultural. It's hardly like going to a real foreign country -- you don't even need to learn a new language. – Owen Reynolds Aug 15 '20 at 21:03
  • @OwenReynolds I think there are ways to use it that emphasize how close (in travel time) it is, like "we'll only be across the pond from each other". IDK if that's just my clumsy construction that's making it sound less natural, or if it's true that the idiom is mostly about cultural distance. The "quick hop across the pond last week" phrasing was trying to emphasize that it was a short trip, in the same sense as a "quick trip south of the border" (to Mexico) might be for someone in the southern US. (That does also imply hitting touristy stuff, not learning the language if not known already) – Peter Cordes Aug 15 '20 at 21:19
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    @OwenReynolds - "It's hardly like going to a real foreign country" - going from the UK to the USA, believe me, it's more like going to a real foreign country than going to France, Spain, or Italy. – Michael Harvey Aug 15 '20 at 23:37
  • @PeterCordes, we mainly mean the Yanks. – Michael Harvey Aug 15 '20 at 23:39
  • When Brits say "pond", they really mean "gigantic gulf". – Michael Harvey Aug 15 '20 at 23:40
  • One piece of information that has had a lot of difficulty crossing the pond is that there hasn't been a country called "Great Britain" since 1801. – Steve Melnikoff Aug 16 '20 at 12:58
  • A variation on the idiom is "herring pond" in place of "pond". This is rare nowadays, but seems to have been more popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. – John Dallman Aug 16 '20 at 14:42
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    @SteveMelnikoff your link says the name was changed to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, which suggests there is both an Ireland and a Great Britain for them to be united. I don't see a problem with the usage of Great Britain in the answer. – Kat Aug 16 '20 at 16:42
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    @Kat: Great Britain is the name of the island which contains most of England, Scotland and Wales. Referring to the UK as Great Britain leaves out part of the country (i.e. Northern Ireland). – Steve Melnikoff Aug 16 '20 at 16:55
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    If anyone's wondering, between Australia and New Zealand is a ditch, not a pond. – user253751 Aug 17 '20 at 14:30
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    @SteveMelnikoff: Considering the influx of Irish immigrants in the US during the time this idiom and their generally level of sentiment towards any kind of "UK", that may have been intentional. – sharur Aug 17 '20 at 14:57
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A similar idiom exist in Australasia viz "across the ditch" referring to the Tasman Sea.

The Pacific Ocean is sometimes referred to as the "big pond" presumably by analogy with the North Atlantic.

Interesting that to emphasize a small linguistic or cultural difference the large physical separation viz an ocean is referred to by a small analogue viz a pond or ditch.

The opposite would also appear true eg the physical separation of the UK from continental Europe is very small but most references seem to magnify that distance.

Pel Lucida
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Here, "the pond" means the North Atlantic Ocean.

For a reference to "cross the pond", it means that it will be understood by both North Americans and British and Irish people. That is, it's something of North American origin that will be understood by the British and Irish, or something of British or Irish origin that will be understood by North Americans.

Very likely, either you are in North America and your friend is British; or you are in Europe and your friend is American; and they said something that they are worried may only be understood on their own side of the North Atlantic Ocean. There are enough differences between American English and Commonwealth English that it's fairly frequent for an idiom to exist in just one variant, but not the other.

Dawood ibn Kareem
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I suspect some version of the "across the pond" meaning Americas or the US exist in many european languages. In Czech, "za velkou louží" (Across the big puddle) is used to poetically refer to either of them.

Edheldil
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