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OT- usage of words

C

Coloken

Well-known Member
Back in the 30s when radio came out it pretty much changed the language and lost the local ascents, but usage of some words is still around. Last year I went round and round with the use of "crank" when they meant an engine would not "run". I will still argue with that one. I have been watching crag list for a refrigerator--to simply search for "refrigerator"? No way. Half the ads never use the word refrigerator,,,they have become a "fridge". Any way, if I wanted to sell a refrigerator I darn sure would call it by its name.
 
Where I grew up, everyone called a refrigerator a "frigidaire."
I agree that language is changing, and not always for the good. Many words that were considered profane when I was a kid are now commonly used, and it frustrates me.
Good Luck and God Bless
 
The one that gets to me is when someone says a tractor runs OUT fine. Out to where ? Out of the shed?. That is what I would like to ask them.
 
In recent years the word INCREDIBLE has been misused. I heard one person say that they had an incredible sermon at church. It soulds like it was a sermon without credibility. Another said that his congressman was the best that money could buy.
 
Where I"m from saying your tractor won"t crank means it won"t start, not that it won"t run. Cranking is the way most engines were started in the 30"s.
 
How about the use of the word "perfect" I have always thought of myself as average and more recently falling apart, but now I am told very frequently that I or what ever I am doing is perfect.
 
Ken,

Language is changing rapidly. My wife is a retired English teacher. For years, she has tried to persuade her students not you use euphemisms for foul language. She didn't win the war, but she did win many battles.

The one that really gets me is "frickin'". Unfortunately, some of the young people that I know have stopped using the euphemism and have gone to the actual word in plain old social conversations.

Awesome, isn't it?

Tom in TN
 
INCREDIBLE --That can not be believed. Hard to believe, amazing.

It is proper to use incredible both ways as found in my dictionary.

INCREDIBLE -- Unbelievable, beyond belief, inconceivable, unimaginable, unthinkable, impossible, absurd,
 
To me, if an engine 'won't crank' it either has a dead battery or a bad starter, or it is plain stuck.
I have also heard the term 'won't turn over' used when an engine is cranking like crazy but won't start.
Drives me crazy.....
 
(quoted from post at 07:02:22 06/21/11) To me, if an engine 'won't crank' it either has a dead battery or a bad starter, or it is plain stuck.
I have also heard the term 'won't turn over' used when an engine is cranking like crazy but won't start.
Drives me crazy.....
Click to expand...

I agree. If an engine will not crank, that means it will not turn over.
 
I disagree about the loss of local accents. Go to the Bronx, then to Savannah, then to Austin, then St Cloud, MN, then to Page, AZ. You'll hear a number of distinctive local accents. I'm sure there are many more. What you're referring to are more colloquialisms, and they're also still very much in use. Best example I can think of is the fiberglass enclosure that installs to the top of a pickup truck bed. Depending on where you are, it's a cap, capper, cap cover, canopy, topper, and probably several more names.
 
St Cloud MN, seems like most accents here are becoming Somali, Gangsta wanna be jibberish, and the girls that talk like "not my 3rd baby daddy---but my 4th baby daddy..yeah,,he went on SSI cause we just cant make it on my other 3 baby daddy's child support and my gov't money...TRue Dat!" Good God, and these people are increasing in #'s and will vote. This area is not what it used to be.
 
Yeah Dave I see a lot more of that. The thing is to get on SS and get money for life. That is one of the reasons that Social Security is going broke. Too many people drawing that never paid much into it.
 
Language is all regional.
What do you put groceries into when shopping? Buggy or cart?
Do you drink soda or pop?
Do you turn on the lights or cut on the lights?
Is it a crick or a creek.
 
In NC a crick or creek is a branch.
It also pours the rain. In SC you don't just kid somebody you "shine them on"


I agree that the words dont change much but I find myself using local phraseology after I live there a while.
 
My help on the farm is my wife. You can imagine the communication challenge. Just last week the lawn mower wouldn't start. I asked if it wouldn't crank, or if it cranked but wouldn't fire. I think the answer was yes. It would be better if she just stuck with- "it doesn't work". I am always trying to save steps. Do I head to the scene with jumper cables, fuel, tools, tow chain???
A friends brother moved to KY. He reports back you don't bale hay, and/or it's not a "bale". It's a roll. You "roll" hay.
Haven't we got a KY hayman on here ?! He would have to be the final authority.
 
Where I come from, if an engine won't crank or won't turn over, that means that the crankshaft won't make a revolution in the crankcase. From that, it's easy to go on to "cranks but won't fire," or as I learned it, "cranks but won't hit."

On the "fridge" or "refrigerator" thing, when I go to Craigslist, I just go to the "appliances" category and browse, if I want a refrigerator.
 
Looking over the posts below, I guess "awesome" has come into such common use that nobody even thinks of it as being abused anymore.

I agree on "crank"- won't crank should mean it won't turn over. That's different than won't start or won't run.

Was looking for an older Cadillac on craiglist awhile back. I found that the more mis-spellings of "Biarritz" you searched, the more hits you got! In fact, the best deals were under the mis-spellings, because few people had seen them.

But now, some things are dumbed down so spelling doesn't matter. Fellow was on here awhile back looking for information on his Kabota. I helpfully suggested that a good first step would be to spell it right. Then I Googled "Kabota", Google asked "Did you mean Kubota?", and gave me a zillion Kubota hits.

Lets face it, Ken, if you can't bete 'em, joyn 'em!
 
Thanks for the feedback fellows..to sum it up--
I find it "incredible" that I can't find the "perfect" "ice box" on the "frickin" "puter".
 
Ever notice that manuals refer to so called starters as "cranking motors". Around here the Norwegians (I'm half) put gas on the car. My wife, who can turn most any word upside down will correct them on that one though and it is, would it be better to put the gas in the tank rather than on the car.
 
I was trying to think of a place with a typical "Minnesota" accent, and I didn't think most folks would have any idea where Hawley was...
 
Mike, I once got a great deal on E-bay when I accidentally misspelled the name on search. For months I tried that on other things but never made a hit again,
 
As an engineer and attorney the topic of word use appeals to me.

I think GM made the Frigidaire (Spelling???) and people began calling any brand a FRIDGE

The older generation still call them ICE BOXES

Crank over to me means the starter motor is indeed causing the engine to at least rotate, whether or not she starts is another issue.

I think Kleenex lost any trademark protection years ago when people called any brand of facial tissue KLEENEX

Notice how Band Aid is now called band aid "brand" of bandages, because people call any brands of those items BAND AIDS

How about the word XEROX ?? The company now call them Xerox brand of copiers. How many times you hear a person say I will make a XEROX of this???

How about STYROFOAM

One of the staunchest protectors of names and trademarks is DISNEY....

If a word becomes commonly used and its implied and inferred it to mean something in particular, once its out there in the public domain it gets hard for a company to protect it ya know...

John T
 
I am as southern as a collard green!
A bottle of "Pop" to me is a Coke or a Co-Cola.
" Hey man I'm going to the sto'(store) do you want me to bring you back a cold Co-cola"
'Sure"
"What kind do you want?"
"Oh, Just git me a Sebin Up" (7-Up)
 
Mike, you ain't seen misspelling 'til you've seen what teenage girls put on facebook. I got a granddaughter that I can't figure out what she's trying to say, even if I read it carefully and apply all known decryption methods. Her friends seem to understand it, though. I think we may have the next generation of code talkers here.
 
What about Cat or Bobcat! Just about everyone refers to a crawler tractor of any make as a cat and not a caterpillar. The same thing with a skid steers. They're usually just bobcats. GM didn't invent the refrigerator and fridge is just short term for it, the same as cat.
 
Well you only "roll" hay in Tennessee if you are using a round baler. You still "bale" hay if you are using a square baler. See it lets everyone know whether or not the folks hanging around the store are willing to haul hay for you . If you are rolling hay everyone jumps up to help haul. If you are baling hay you cant find help anywhere. Ha ha
 
Don't go to NJ and ask a hardened New Jerseyite
Where a local Beer Garden is.--- Bet Larry S. would tell you without laughing at you. I believe they also called POP "Tonic"

Either case, I only ordered a Pepsi so mostly no problem seems name brand is acceptable also.

Definitely regional, I live 12 hours directly west of the middle of NJ and while I lived out there (Old Bridge) for 2 years every one wanted to know what part of the south I came from . Because of my accent ????.
 
"Vise Grip" is another brand name that has become generic.

It drives me crazy when people refer to the distributor as the "dizzy", or the generator as the "genny"!

Another one is when you read an ad and it says that the vehicle "needs restored", or the bumper "needs rechromed". NO IT DOESN'T!!! It needs restor-ING or it needs TO BE restored!!
 
Well I'm accustomed to the midwestern accent, so when I go to a drive up window in Oklahoma I have a terrible time understanding the teenage girl's accent coming out of the speaker. In Oklahoma the word 'hey' is 'hi', a hole is a 'howl' there is 'thar'. The Cannucks are saying 'eh', the northerners say 'nort Dahkotah' Then there's the Aussies I used to work with who have all kinds of different names for things, like our combine header is a 'front' and the combine is a 'header'.Come to think of it, the midwestern accent I was raised with is kind of boring. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 10:36:09 06/21/11) Mike, I once got a great deal on E-bay when I accidentally misspelled the name on search. For months I tried that on other things but never made a hit again,
Click to expand...

There is a website devoted to misspelled items on E-Bay it's called ebooboos.com. It will actually search out commonly misspelled items for you. I've never had any luck with it.

Back to the original topic
Crank - to rotate the engine whether using a crank handle or electric starter
Turn over - Same as Crank
Start - when the engine starts to rotate by itself without the use of a crank or starter
Fire - the occasional pop that results from cranking the engine, generally you might hear a few of these before an engine actually starts

That's how I've always though of it and it seems many of you agree. I don't think it's a regional thing in this case as I have heard many people locally say it wrong too. I think it's a lack of knowledge of how an internal combustion engine works rather than a colloquialism (look that one up!).
:D

I'm on the border with Minnesota and they say us Canucks have an accent............Uff Da! lol
 
My Mother died in 99 at the grand old age of 98. She always refered to anyone odd or different as queer. That sure would raise eyebrows today.

Joe
 
A couple I've heard on here.

In Iowa you don't buy a SET of cultivators, you buy a cultivator. Same way with a disc. It's called a disc not a SET of discs.

Gary
 
Never have heard those except on YT; don't think it's 'area' related.........seems to be more lack of experience. The local tellyvision experts are forever talking about combines.....with a picture of a cottonpicker in the field or a bulldozer being used, when it's actually a trackhoe.
 
What about even some of the sports stations or movies referring to it as ice hockey when it's just plain hockey. They are professional hockey players, not professional ice hockey players. It would be like calling professional baseball, hardball baseball or overhand baseball. It really bugs us hosers up here in the north, eh. LoL
 
Yep, ice box is the terminology I use more times than not. Funny thing, we have my grandparents ice box in the dining room. Wife uses it to store stuff in....and on....and around.
When my folks had their estate auction, I asked for the ice box and it was given to me rather than having to bid on it. The auctioneer wasn"t happy, no doubt he could see dollar signs. We have the original drip pan under it which the auctioneer said is extremely rare, claimed the pan is worth as much as the ice box.
a43081.jpg

.
a43082.jpg
 
In London, you put your groceries in a trolly.
Also, when you go to the meat market, your not planning on having a cook out!
 
SIMUILAR TO TRANNY I use transmissions. Years ago fellow called asked if I had a tranny to fit xxx I said no Later he found I had sold a transmission that would fit. Told him I was not sure what he wanted!!
 
I live 15 miles north of Hawley! I live in Ulen. Or, as it's pronounced in the Ole and Lena jokes, "Yoooooolen."
 
How about Houston? Small town in the south east corner of Minnesota.
Living in Texas and being familiar with the big city of Houston "Hugh-stin" I was a bit confused during a trip to Minnesota when they told me what I was looking for was in Houston "Whoo-stun". My Mom was born in Money Creek "Munna-Crik" which is just north of there.
Never did find any money in the creek either, just some chubs.
 
Or a set of harrows. In Iowa if we buy a set of disks we've bought two disks, so then we need a set of tractors to pull the two disks LOL. Jim
 
I went to college in Fargo, have a couple cousins live in Hawley. I really like that area, but my wife freezes to death easily...
 
That is probably because they all had one. You don"t see a refrigerator with "refrigerator" on the door.It"s the company name or logo, but in the case of frigidaire it did appear on the door because it was the name given to the refrigerator made by GM. frigid aire, smart really.
 
Well, actually, there is a sport called field hockey as well, so technically, I suppose, they're making the distinction. But it should be obvious when there's a bunch of guys skating around, hitting each other with sticks. And just what is "icing", anyhow?

My favorite is the commentator on a golf match saying "That was a beautiful golf shot." Well, they are playing golf, after all, so what other kind of shot would it have been?
 
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