Folks Of Interest Verbicide: Automotive Terms

Or is it simply evolving as it always has?

 

Oh and all this but most are fine with “frost plug”

 

You're comparing meanings with usage . You can say " the sky is purple" , there's nothing grammatically wrong with the statement , even though the statement is generally wrong , as the sky normally appears blue .

 

One friend I talk to on the phone uses "ya know" about every other word. Drives me nuts.

 

Ya know he might be jacking with you lol
Dan

 

Hell to the no.

 

If you said "the sky is purple", you would actually be closer to correct. It is predominantly a violet hue.
It is only the limitations of our eyes that make it appear blue to us..........Google is your friend if you want to check.
Reality versus perception.

Apart from not being "automotive", this might be an example of what @Ned Ludd is describing.

 

Its common to add pre- in front of many words which turns the new word into an absurdity.
You can drill a hole. You can not pre-drill a hole. You can plan your funeral. You can not pre-plan a funeral.

 

Since I seldom plan I have no concept of what pre planning entails .

 

I always told my students that language is like a knife, the sharper it is the better it works!
When I go in as a Teacher on Call a lot of the students ask if they might go to the bathroom. I reply that I’ve been teaching for over forty years and been in many a school none of which had a bath tub! They are sinks, toilets, or urinals...not bath tubs. They change their question pretty quickly.

 

Are you gonna take a piss or leave a piss? Or are you simply taking the piss?!

When referring to a cam, 3/4 was simply a milder grind in relation to a "Full-Race" camshaft. It was really an arbitrary reference that simply meant "not as aggressive" to the "Full-Race" spec. Seventy-five percent lift? Sevety-five percent duration? Probably not, but it sounded cool I guess. Or bitchin'. Or hep. Or far-out. Or heavy. Or groovy. Or sick. Or bad. Or rad. Or....aw forget it. What are my pronouns?!

 

My Uncles wife's favorite....." not for nothin " but...

 

The time-honoured preserve of the advertising copywriter. Including sentences comprising no more than a single adjective. Classic. Evocative. Infuriating.

Indeed, language evolves, and most of the time that expands the range of things we are able to express. Sometimes it leads us into a bind in meaning, however, and then it might be justified to try to steer the process a bit.

Agreed!

Bathroom is a euphemism, but so are all the alternative terms for it. Toilet comes from the French word for a dainty little cloth placed on a dressing table: I wonder if it is related to towel. Even so old a term as privy: it's a place out of sight. Any student who asks permission to use the privy is going to flak from someone!

 

Life is just a “game”;some people are better players,others not so well!!!

 

Grammar is important, too.

 

I agree with this. In my opinion the use of social media by young people is causing proper grammatical teaching to be a waste of time. Either that or they no longer teach grammar in school just as they have stopped teaching cursive writing here in my area.
To make this on topic I submit this statement:
I love my 1932 Ford.

 

For future reference:

 

I'm not a smart man, and I don't know any big fancy college words, but I have always put effort into spelling, punctuation, pronunciation, and grammar. I'm sure I get words wrong and use many in the wrong context, but my eyelid and neck twitches when I hear people say "EL-DE-BROCK", or "WEE-AND", or "CHAS-ISS" or if they spell "CAMERO" or "CARBORATER", among other things.

Other automotive related terminology that is used more frequently by the latest generation and those new to the automotive world that drives me crazy is when they use the term "Stocks" as a set of OEM wheels, or "Muffler Delete", or "Noss" for nitrous.

 

Automotive nicknames:
Carby, dizzy, tranny, rearend, motor, etc. are words that upset some people, however most people understand what the words mean.
Dan

 

I know what a 3/4 cam is, some cam grinders advertised 3/4 race cams, but I think 3/4 cam fits in this discussion. Most if not all HAMBers understand the 3/4 cam terminology, however most people wouldn’t understand.

cool picture
Dan

 

Here are some freebies- "to be" "to be" "to be". Please use them next time you write "needs replaced". Just insert one in between the "needs" and "replaced".

 

@Just Gary That's cute, but makes me wonder if you have a 6 inch yardstick next to the bed...

 

I can tolerate a lot of variety in communication... people engage in different ways, and they don't all have to be the way that I like.

What I appreciate though is where people communicate so well that it leaves you thinking about it for days, or more. Some of Ryan's blogs do that - my mental picture is that he is still cruising around a beautiful tropical island looking for the Clif Inman Chrysler. But so too did BanditBilly's comparison of the sound of a blown exhaust gasket to an old lady passing gas on a pier on a foggy night.

Cheers,
Harv

 

Thank you!

 

My mom was a teacher and I still remember her saying "you can but you MAY not"

 

Is there any other word besides "fuck" that can be used as a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective simultaneously in one sentence?

 

In the US regions have to be considered.
I dare say that someone from the UK may can understand a Southerner better than than a Northerner or someone from the West Coast.
Here’s a few off the top of my head.

Nigh....near.
Nary.....not
All the spark plugs were bad. None of them were good, nary a one.
Ain’t......original root phrase.... Tis not
Ain’t no good.
Intermediate root phrase....Tain’t
Tain’t no good.
Original phrase.....Tis not
‘Tis not good.”
Reckon.....suppose
“I reckon it’s broke.” “They may have that at the parts store, reckon?”
Mash for...... press or depress
“ Mash the brakes.” “ I mashed the gas and it really scratched off.
Crank ......”Start and run.”
“My car won’t crank, I guess the battery is dead. Does it turn over? Yes but barely so. It barely turns over but it will not crank.”
Socket.....socket and ratchet
Socket head.....just the socket
“ Hand me a 9/16 socket head.”
A ratchet is a.....”socket handle”.
Sometimes females call them....clicky-things.
A not ratcheting socket handle is a....” pull handle”.
Lug wrench.....Tire Tool.
All adjustable wrenches are “Cresents”.
Gas for accelerator pedal. “Mash the gas.”
Straight Shift for a manual transmission. “ My ‘51 Ford has a Flathead V8 and a straight shift, a three speed on the column.”
Ye....you
“Speak up I can barely hear ye over the engine running.”
Neutral/Park.....out of gear.
The “parking brake” is always the “Emergency Brake”.
Pedals....gas pedal, brake pedal, clutch pedal
Accelerator, brake, clutch
“ Tinker’s Dam” a real thing from a real guy.
A tinker was a tin smith. They made/ repaired pots, kettles and buckets. It’s very tedious work especially the finish work with a small hammer.
So....tedious methodical work.....tinker.
“ I’m going to tinker on the Ford today.”
A tinker’s dam is a small disk of tin or sheet steel used to plug a hole in a pot. The tinkers dam, dammed the molten tin. Tinker’s dams are the size of a coin. Unlike a coin a tinker’s dam is worthless.
“That ain’t worth a tinker’s dam.” Shortened to....
“That ain’t worth a dam.”
^^^ In this context “dam” is correct while “damn” is incorrect.
Damn in the correct context is.....
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
If you are going to cus or sware, you might as well be colorful.
One of my favorites is .....
Shit house mouse....
I break something....” Well shithousemouse!!!”
Shit house mouse is not to be confused with a Shithouse Rat. Shit house rats are crazy!
That lady is crazy as a shithouse rat!
My great Grandmother hardly ever cussed. Instead of cussing she would say....” Well I swanny!” Swanny was for Swain or Sware.

P.S....
Sometimes I wear my “good britches” when I work on cars and stain them.
Sometimes you will hear long britches.
Britches for pants and trousers. You’ll never hear slacks. Slacks are lazy people or something that is loose.
Britches are from knee breeches. Breeches went out of style for men’s wear around the year 1800. Instead of breeches men started to wear pantaloons or trousers “ long britches” or pants.

 

When a kid let it slip in class, I would ask them to tell me what part of speech they were using the multi-purpose word for.

 

Amen! Thanks for bringing this up, Neil