Does "yacht" sound pretentious?

[Davegriff]

I'm very grateful that America came to our aid in the most desperate of our times.

If I remember correctly, we had to pay them to help though! And then only after Pearl Harbour! (German may even have been preferable on reflection)

 

[Lakesailor]

As for sailboat, I'm astonished that anyone could be so pretentious as to avoid using the word because it originated in America.

There are some funny people on here....
They are, in the main, quite content to use American operating systems on their computers to complain about America.
They are also pleased to use the GPS for nothing.

 

[Robert Wilson]

There are indeed some funny people on here!
Some are funny "ha ha" and some are funny "peculiar" !!

 

[Hydrozoan]

Gotten is the past participle of the verb "to get," as used by Shakespeare and other distinguished British writers. It wasn't invented by Americans. It was just remembered by them, long after we'd forgotten it and ceased to use it, except, perhaps in such phrases as "ill-gotten gains."...

Not to mention the use in the CofE - until at least the 1960's - of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, with its rubrick for Holy Communion referring to "... the best and purest Wheat Bread that conveniently may be gotten." Congratulating myself on remembering that, I was pleased to see it as one of the examples in the link you gave. I, too, think 'sailboat' is fine and dandy - even if I might wish that 'yacht' had not acquired pejorative associations.

 

[skodster]

When does a boat become a yacht; be it sail or power? Anyone else feel a tad uncomfortable when referring to their craft as a yacht?

I think it depends where you sail. To me, the word 'Yacht' conjours up images of grandeur and wealth and I know some folks feel uncomfortable with telling someone that they have a 'yacht'. In my circles, it's the word 'boat' that predominates but when asked what sort of a 'boat' you have, it's normally a 'sailing boat'.

Isn't English just the best language in the world?