Folks Of Interest Verbicide: Automotive Terms

Words mean what people mean by them, and language grows by people using words in new ways. What starts as a joke or a clever metaphor becomes a trope or cliché and then an accepted figure of speech, and finally just another sense of the word. Sometimes, however, that process goes as far as to have a word mean almost the opposite of what it did before; and that leaves us at best a bit confused, and at worst desperately in need of a new word.

"I shall not accept charity from you!" is a far cry from St. Paul's "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." Most people today think sympathy and empathy are radically different or even opposite things, not realising that the word used to describe what we today call empathy had for hundreds of years been sympathy, until the beginning of the 20th century, by which time it had become too common for people to use sympathy for "fake sympathy". And today entitled is going the same way, shifting from "having a valid claim to something" to exactly "not having a valid claim to something." But be that as it may.

There is often a different dynamic behind loss of meaning, or verbicide, in automotive terms. Drift used to mean what is happening when there is a small angle — a slip angle — between the direction a car's wheels are pointed and that of the tyres' contact patches, sometimes resulting in the car as a whole pointing in a direction different to the direction the contact patches are pointed. This was enabled by the tyre carcases twisting. One of the best things about watching '50s circuit racing is seeing a driver maintaining a drift without breaking traction. The car has a slight tail-out attitude, say, but there is no skid going on. Today, drift means a skid, albeit a controlled one; a burnout around corners.

That makes it almost impossible to describe what skilled drivers were doing in the '50s. Once it only took a single word.

One I keep seeing, which is beginning to irritate the living shit out of me, is fully forged. Presumably it once meant "having the necessary complement of forged parts" e.g. forged crank, forged pistons, etc. But from context it's looking like it's beginning to mean little more than "modified for performance". And I wouldn't be surprised if it's already got people talking past one another:

Snot-nose: "It's got a forged crank!"
Old fart: "That looks like a cast crank?"
Snot-nose: "Yeah, but it's fully forged!"​

There is probably a lot more. What have you met in the wild?

 

Add to that the fact that where you are determines what you're trying to say , it gets even more confusing / unintelligible ...

 

Not quite the same, but the most common is engine won't turn over. Engine won't crank, etc. Motor won't fire. Have to ask them just wtf they mean.

 

Add to that the old British term tickover for idle. But that's been around for as long as I can remember.

 

This car is literally a piece of sh*t.

 

words have meaning. If you call it a table but I call it a chair, there will problems

 

I was 15 in 1964 and one of the guys in my crowd had an older brother that bought a ‘64 Galaxy 500. I remember my friend telling us his brother had a Vertex without the mag. Oh really???

 

People who describe a particular car or part as "Junk!" without any explanation why they think so.

 

I am less concerned with the automotive vernacular lexicon as I am with entire parts-of-speech being implied.

A classic example is the verb-less sentence.

 

Not the same, but my latest pisser is "rehome" or "regift". Gimme a minute, I'll think of 1,000 more.

 

Yes, apparently, you're not cool if you still communicate in complete sentences.

 

I am literally annoyed by the rampant, incorrect use of the word "literally".

 

I hate it when you have to axe someone what they mean.

 

I can't wait instead of "I can hardly wait." If you can't wait, what you going to do?

 

Must be a East Coast thing!

 

I’m going to pee right here right now! If I could wait I would use the can.
3/4 cam - I guess it only works on 6 of the 8 cylinders or 3 of 4 cylinders not sure how it works on a six banger. Lol
Dan

 

Been guilty of that.
OOPS

I have been guilty of that. Trying to not use too many words and go the other way.

Ben

 

I see that you have incorporated Automotive in the title of this thread. However, this could apply to any skilled profession or hobby. Plumbing, electrical, model trains to stamp collecting, the descriptive term and the common phrase will evolve over time and usage like most things in language/communication.This can include most interactions.

Every one of you bemoaning a new meaning for an old phrase probably used a new term for a thing or person that was to be admired in your own youth. Such are the difficulties of being an immortal.

 

As English is my taught language and not my native one ( Bavarian is almost as far from German as English, so my first aquired language was German, hahaha) I´ve always tried to speak and write as well as I could, because if I´m going to a foreign country or communicate with someone whose native language is English I´d rather not offend the person by messing up their language too much. I guess that´s a thing of respect for each other. But it´s the same here, the less respect people have for each other , the less they care if anyone understands what they are trying to say. What I´m noticing over here with the young crowd is, since we had lots of people come in from Syria , Afghanistan and such who can´t speak German nor English, some of the younger German folks try to imitate the slang of the immigrants. I´m 48 but sometimes I have no clue what teenagers are talking about. Maybe I´m just getting old and grumpy, which is totally possible. I was listening to NWA when I was 16. I guess the reason no one was offended by my music was that nobody understood the texts

 

Smart phones are the cause of many of the changes we see.
It all comes down to providing as much information as we can with the least amount of letters but still conveying our thoughts.
We see it on the hamb as well.

 

My grandmother & mother were teachers , it was not acceptable to use incorrect language , sentence construction , Grammer , spelling , etc for many years. The example they set was ingrained in me . Using less was considered lazy .New language is expedient but certainly not as pleasing to use . Meanings are distorted , writing is becoming a lost art .

 

Go shoot yourself….what else “you can’t wait” so there’s no use to you being here.

 

“Like” has been replaced with “but ah” .. there is one top fuel driver that can’t start a sentence without it….

 

Is this a test....???

 

If you wish . Life is a test .

 

32coopsbc350T35012voltdifgoodboarsnewbreaks34Knolowballers
This is how you advertise on Fakebook or anywhere on the internet.
Please do not use correct spelling or punctuation, otherwise you will not be able to communicate with the "hip" kids.

 

You are right about one thing. The correct use of language, both spoken and written, is becoming a thing of the past.

 

My old boss's son had one of those in his car.
I won't do the math but some fraction of the lobes were gone because of lube issues. It seems a perfect circle won't open a valve.

 

Keeping in mind that English is your third language, I have to give you credit for the way you use it.