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The following comment was received from Luis, a learner of English in the USA:

Funny how the site says that in 1782 "Britain abandons its American colonies." Should read, Brits were sent a packin' with fannies to match their coats.

http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

Albeit, the term "abandon" has an honourable history as synonym for Rome's 5th-century retreat from Britain

Josef wrote:The following comment was received from Luis, a learner of English in the USA:

Funny how the site says that in 1782 "Britain abandons its American colonies." Should read, Brits were sent a packin' with fannies to match their coats.

http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

Albeit, the term "abandon" has an honourable history as synonym for Rome's 5th-century retreat from Britain

That's true the Brits were sent a packin! Happy 4th of July. Happy learning to everyone.

Nice! Yes, I would say letting the British off the hook by using the term 'abandons' definitely does not accurately reflect what took place. I believe a bit of a struggle took place before the Red Coats just volutarily packed up their stuff and "abandoned" the colonies...I could be wrong ;)

It's really all down to the age-old inability of Americans to understand (British) understatement. There's an important language point in there somewhere.