| Author |
Message |
raymond o'hara
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 10:10 am
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
"Bob Cunningham" <exw6sxq@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:pmoue0pmbgtdnivfoc7814a2kqk8oksiqp@4ax.com...
| Quote: | On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 18:20:58 +0100, John Hall
nospam_nov03@jhall.co.uk> said:
In article <2ad9e934.0407090112.36402974@posting.google.com>,
David Picton <djpicton@bigmailbox.net> writes:
Thought I'd start a new thread on Briticisms which have been (mostly)
displaced by Americanisms. Can you think of any more?
snip
Lorry: truck
In England they have articulated lorries. I've tried to
think of a single formal term for them in the US, but I can
come up with only the slangish words: "semi", "18-wheeler",
or "big rig". "Semi-trailer" isn't the term, because that's
just the trailer that the tractor tows, but still the
combination of the tractor and the semi-trailer is commonly
called a "semi", pronounced ['sEmaI]. (Yes, the vehicle
that tows a semi-trailer, which many people would call a
truck, is a tractor.)
If I were forced to refer formally to our equivalent of the
articulated lorry, all I could think of is
"tractor-trailer". What term am I overlooking?
Do the British lately ever call their articulated lorries
big rigs, 18-wheelers, or semis? Do they call them
something else? Do they call the tow vehicle a tractor?
|
Many U.S.states register tractor trailers under the term apportioned.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Richard Sabey
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 12:53 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
"raymond o'hara" <reoh@comcast.net> wrote in message news:<yIFHc.42163$JR4.39643@attbi_s54>...
| Quote: | "meirman" <meirman@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:kd9ue01ea9hh8rjm88rim8v87ruct95rl8@4ax.com...
Interestingly, in the US, C cells and D cells, AA and AAA are called
batteries
|
As they are in the UK.
| Quote: | even though they only have one cell in each.
|
Unfortunately, it seems to me to be a lost cause, trying to establish
"cell" for AA and AAA batteries. Outside electronics contexts, the
term is always "battery".
| Quote: | Only car batteries and 9 volt batteries are actually batteries.
Two or more artillery pieces are a battery. A baseball pitcher and catcher
are a battery.
|
As are a chess piece that gives discovered check and the man that
moves out of the "firing line" to discover the check.
--
Richard Sabey Visit the r.p.crosswords competition website
cryptic_fan at hotmail.com http://www.rsabey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rpc/
Someone is sending German-language spam with a forged From: line,
purporting to be from me. Please be informed: I spam nobody. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mike Stevens
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 1:58 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
"David Picton" <djpicton@bigmailbox.net> wrote in message
news:2ad9e934.0407090815.7ffe2069@posting.google.com...
| Quote: | Accumulator: I think this was common in the 1940s but had gone out of
use by the 1960s. (My father worked for a company which manufactured
car batteries and they were never referred to as accumulators.)
|
I don't recall car batteries *ever* being called accumulators. I *do*
remember learning aboiut the science of batteries at school (probably in the
late '50s), when accumulators and car batteries were used as *different*
examples. An accumulatgor was a glass structure that sat on a table next to
the wireless and provided a risk if spilling acid when you took it down the
shop to be recharged.
| Quote: | I think that 'Fount' went out with the introduction of modern
computer-based printing technology (mainly in the 1980s).
|
It was certainly a word associated with movable-type printing, but that' s
still around (if only in the hands of a few enthusiasts). As I said in my
earlier post, it's not synonym,ous with "font", although clearly related.
| Quote: | 'Wireless' was common in the 1960s but went into rapid decline
afterwards. The term 'radio' isn't really an Americanism,
|
It was, IIRC, invented by Marconi, an Italian working mainly in the UK. I
think the early pioneers (probably on both sides of the pond) would have
said that they were using radio signals to achieve wireless communication
(later wireless broadcasting). Hence the two words existed side-by-side
from the beginning.
--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus II
web site www.mike-stevens.co.uk
Old mathematicians never die - they simply lose their class.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mike Stevens
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 1:59 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
"Don A. Gilmore" <eromlignodNOSPM@kc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:2l7vrqF9750mU1@uni-berlin.de...
| Quote: | "David Picton" <djpicton@bigmailbox.net> wrote in message
news:2ad9e934.0407090815.7ffe2069@posting.google.com...
'Gangway' is still in use in the stated sense, having been only partly
displaced by 'aisle'.
Interestingly, "gangway!" is often used as an interjection in AmE. It's
meaning is equivalent to "Get out of the way!"
|
In UK English as well.
--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus II
web site www.mike-stevens.co.uk
Me cogitare credo ergo me esse credo.
(Rany Day-Carts) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mike Stevens
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 2:04 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
"John Dean" <john-dean@frag.lineone.net> wrote in message
news:ccmhfk$6jf$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
| Quote: | Don A. Gilmore wrote:
"John Dean" <john-dean@frag.lineone.net> wrote in message
news:ccltmc$3jj$1@news7.svr.pol.co.uk...
I think you're making assertions unsupported by research.
'accumulator', for instance, wasn't used exclusively (or, IIRC,
generally) for a car battery. OED points to various uses of the term:
[snip dictionary entry with sundry meanings of "accumulator"]
And 'battery' for an electrical component was in use here before the
USA existed.
The battery was invented in 1800.
You don't accept the 'Baghdad battery'? It could generate up to 2 volts
and is dated to 250 BC. It was used for electroplating and batteries
were used for electroplating by early civilisations such as the
Babylonian and Egyptian.
|
But I suspect the Babylonians didn't use the word "battery"!
What would interest me is any evidence as to when it became true that the
word "battery" on its own without "electrical" or "storage" appended would
be assumed to mean an electrical battery rather than any of the other
meanings of the word.
--
Mike Stevens
narowboat Felis Catus II
web site www.mike-stevens.co.uk
Million-to-one chances turn up nine times out of ten.
(Terry Pratchett) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mike Stevens
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 2:05 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
"John Hall" <nospam_nov03@jhall.co.uk> wrote in message
news:qG2rTWE6Pt7AFwWJ@jhall.demon.co.uk...
| Quote: | In article <2ad9e934.0407090112.36402974@posting.google.com>,
David Picton <djpicton@bigmailbox.net> writes:
Thought I'd start a new thread on Briticisms which have been (mostly)
displaced by Americanisms. Can you think of any more?
snip
Lorry: truck
|
While both words are used in the UK, I'd have thought that "lorry" was still
sugnificantly more common.
--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus II
web site www.mike-stevens.co.uk
Old grammarians never die - they simple parse away |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
M. J. Powell
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 4:05 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
In message <kd9ue01ea9hh8rjm88rim8v87ruct95rl8@4ax.com>, meirman
<meirman@invalid.com> writes
| Quote: | In alt.english.usage on 9 Jul 2004 09:15:49 -0700
djpicton@bigmailbox.net (David Picton) posted:
Accumulator: I think this was common in the 1940s but had gone out of
use by the 1960s. (My father worked for a company which manufactured
car batteries and they were never referred to as accumulators.)
Interestingly, in the US, C cells and D cells, AA and AAA are called
batteries even though they only have one cell in each.
Only car batteries and 9 volt batteries are actually batteries.
|
The only cells that I have heard referred to as 'accumulators' were the
2 volt cells used to heat the filaments in old valve wireless sets. I
used to take ours to the shop to be recharged about every fortnight.
Mike
-
M.J.Powell |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Steve Hayes
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 4:25 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 19:09:47 -0400, meirman <meirman@invalid.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Interestingly, in the US, C cells and D cells, AA and AAA are called
batteries even though they only have one cell in each.
Only car batteries and 9 volt batteries are actually batteries.
|
Not really, there are plenty of other examples.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Steve Hayes
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 4:25 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 03:09:04 GMT, Odysseus <odysseus1479-at@yahoo-dot.ca>
wrote:
| Quote: | Steve Hayes wrote:
An accumulator is a rechargeable battery, whether in a car a wireless set, a
laptop computer or anywhere else.
In a context concerning computers I'd think of the register in a CPU,
rather than the battery.
|
Perhaps that's why they don't call it an accumulator.
Reminds me of the Peugeot advertising slogan of the 1970s, "More than a sugar
coated pill".
English-speaking people were bemused by seeing this sign in the back windows
of lots of cars until a newspaper columnist investigated it, and found that it
was a mistranslation of a French advertising slogan which meant "Not only the
battery is sweet".
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Steve Hayes
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 4:25 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 00:04:08 +0100 (BST), bhk@dsl.co.uk (Brian {Hamilton
Kelly}) wrote:
| Quote: | On Friday, in article
Xns9521BB9E84459whhvans@62.253.162.203
harvey.news@ntlworld.com "Harvey Van Sickle" wrote:
On 09 Jul 2004, John Hall wrote
In article <2ad9e934.0407090112.36402974@posting.google.com>,
David Picton <djpicton@bigmailbox.net> writes:
Thought I'd start a new thread on Briticisms which have been
(mostly) displaced by Americanisms. Can you think of any more?
snip
Lorry: truck
I've not noticed any major switch to "truck"; I'll have to listen out
for that one.
|
To me it is a question os size.
bakkie, lorry, truck
A bakkie is a light vehicle for carrying goods in an open tray (as opposed to
a van). See AusE = ute
A lorry is bigger, with two axles and 6 wheels.
A truck is articulated, usually with 26 wheels or more (fewer than 26 might be
an articulated lorry). I thought the BrE term for those was "juggernaut", at
leaat I remember Brit newspapers warning of a looming invasion of juggernauts
from the continent as a result of the common market, channel tunnel or
whatever (do things ever loom other than in newspaper headlines?)
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Steve Hayes
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 4:25 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 03:44:13 GMT, Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net>
wrote:
| Quote: | On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 18:20:58 +0100, John Hall
nospam_nov03@jhall.co.uk> said:
In article <2ad9e934.0407090112.36402974@posting.google.com>,
David Picton <djpicton@bigmailbox.net> writes:
Thought I'd start a new thread on Briticisms which have been (mostly)
displaced by Americanisms. Can you think of any more?
snip
Lorry: truck
In England they have articulated lorries. I've tried to
think of a single formal term for them in the US, but I can
come up with only the slangish words: "semi", "18-wheeler",
or "big rig". "Semi-trailer" isn't the term, because that's
just the trailer that the tractor tows, but still the
combination of the tractor and the semi-trailer is commonly
called a "semi", pronounced ['sEmaI]. (Yes, the vehicle
that tows a semi-trailer, which many people would call a
truck, is a tractor.)
|
Here it's called a "mechanical hore", or "horse for short.
| Quote: | If I were forced to refer formally to our equivalent of the
articulated lorry, all I could think of is
"tractor-trailer". What term am I overlooking?
Do the British lately ever call their articulated lorries
big rigs, 18-wheelers, or semis? Do they call them
something else? Do they call the tow vehicle a tractor?
|
What do you call the really big ones - 26-wheeelers, 32 wheelers, etc?
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bob Cunningham
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 4:53 pm
Post subject: Re: Pronouncing "semi" (was Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms) |
|
|
On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 04:26:45 +0000 (UTC), "Aaron J. Dinkin"
<dinkin@babel.ling.upenn.edu> said:
| Quote: | On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 03:44:13 GMT, Bob Cunningham
exw6sxq@earthlink.net> wrote:
"Semi-trailer" isn't the term, because that's just the
trailer that the tractor tows, but still the combination
of the tractor and the semi-trailer is commonly called a
"semi", pronounced ['sEmaI].
Izzat so? ['sEmi] sounds no less correct to me than ['sEmaI]
for that sense.
|
There's no such thing in English usage as correct or
incorrect. All I know is what I've heard and what I've
said. The only pronunciation I've heard and used over the
years is ['sEmaI].
Actually, I shouldn't have used the phrase "commonly
called". I used to hear ['sEmaI] a lot, but I think it may
have fallen out of use. I wouldn't expect to hear anyone
say it these days. All I ever hear anymore is "big rig" or
just "truck".
If someone says "There were really a lot of trucks on the
freeway this afternoon," few people will fail to understand
that, without qualification, "trucks" means eighteen-wheeled
tractor-trailer rigs. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bob Cunningham
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 5:22 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 10:25:43 GMT, hayesmstw@hotmail.com
(Steve Hayes) said:
| Quote: | On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 03:44:13 GMT, Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net
wrote:
|
[...]
| Quote: | Do the British lately ever call their articulated lorries
big rigs, 18-wheelers, or semis? Do they call them
something else? Do they call the tow vehicle a tractor?
What do you call the really big ones - 26-wheeelers,
32 wheelers, etc?
|
I guess I haven't paid enough attention. I don't remember
noticing any really big ones that I would expect to have
more than eighteen wheels. Since you say there are such
things, I'll take your word for it.
Actually, about the only time the subject comes up is when
we're on the highway. I think we nearly always just say
"trucks".
("Notice how the trucks seem to come in bunches? I think
they call that convoying, and they do it to help foil
highjackers.")
If we want to refer clearly to a vehicle that's a truck but
not a big rig, we need to find a way to qualify it somehow. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Molly Mockford
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 6:19 pm
Post subject: Re: Pronouncing "semi" (was Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms) |
|
|
At 10:53:05 on Sat, 10 Jul 2004, Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net>
wrote in <clhve0p0ki9afenl06l0lga1v53ba9fm6k@4ax.com>:
| Quote: | If someone says "There were really a lot of trucks on the
freeway this afternoon," few people will fail to understand
that, without qualification, "trucks" means eighteen-wheeled
tractor-trailer rigs.
|
I'm just back home from three weeks in New Mexico, where the word
"truck" was used for both a pick-up truck and an 18-wheeler. Since
there seemed to be little else than these on the roads (the white
pick-up truck seems to be the personal transport vehicle of choice in
the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area), this usage did not promote
clarification. ("Turn right where that truck is.") Once, but only once,
I heard a reference to a "pick-up", and a couple of times to a "rig" -
but mostly it was "truck".
Local resident to me: "Don't get into arguments with anyone driving a
truck around here - they're likely to have a shotgun in the back."
Me: "Wouldn't they lose their jobs with the haulage companies if they
took to shooting people?"
Local resident: "No, not _that_ kind of truck, the other kind."
--
Molly Mockford
I think I've been too long on my own, but the little green goblin that
lives under the sink says I'm OK - and he's never wrong, so I must be!
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Alan OBrien
Guest
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 6:49 pm
Post subject: Re: Lost/displaced Briticisms |
|
|
I heard two in the last few days:
"A code based on a tic-tac-toe board," instead of a noughts-and-crosses
board. This was on a Channel 4 documentary about Diana Dors and may have
been for sale later in the USA.
"Let's play tag." This was on The Shiny Show on CBeebies (BBC1). What do we
call it in the UK? Is it He or Had, or what?
Alan
--
I know this is asking a lot but would everyone who reads this please reply,
so that Jodie can get her bike? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| |
FAQ
Memberlist
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in