Hot Rods Automotive terms that don’t make sense....

You Aussies also use the word Carby for Carburetor don’t ya?

 

So, your V8 only has 6 cylinders working?

 

Maybe in Sweden, but in the U.S. of A., Slim Jims are a basic food group you buy at the gas station.

 

That could end badly for you......

 

me too

 

No, we use carby for carburettor. Not sure what a carburetor is

Carburettor is a French word. It means "don't !@#$ with it".

Cheers,
Harv

 

A tool and die maker I knew usta always called 'em "hard outs".

 

That was the way it were taught to me to, give it more gas when I killed it or not so much throttle when I was burning the tires and goin side ways (is that one word or 2)

 

Well, this went sideways in a hurry.
It was entertaining though. I haven’t had this many laughs since I read through a suggestion box at a senior center on bingo night.
Relax, language has been changing regularly since it’s inception. Otherwise we would all be grunting and pointing.

 

Frame off, as in frame off restoration gets me
What did you flip the car over and take the frame off?
I much prefer body off.

 

Some expressions of some words are regional or cultural. I grew up in L.A. and the word was tuna. In high school, my friend David from New York called it tunafish. Same bad sandwich that couldn’t survive four hours in a locker.
My Hispanic GF used to say “get off the car” referring to opening the door and climbing out. She also said “close the light” meaning turn off the light. I found it very charming.
I was taught that it was impolite to correct people so I have always tried to respect colloquialisms. A lot of today’s trendy “autospeak” just grates on me though.
Slammed, bagged, ride, sweet ride, blowing it apart, terms most likely popularized by the TV shows, all make me cringe.

 

At my house growing up, tuna was the animal, but tuna fish was tuna salad basically. No idea why.

 

Don't fear, I hear a lot of people say body off, at least in these parts.

My wife and her Italian family also say "close the light."

 

^^^^^^all words in common usage here for more than 40 years…….well before the internet……
tyre is the correct English for what some spell as tire…….

we can spell okay, - just trying to save time……..

It appears that we were dumb long before the internet ……..

 

Everything is shortened in Australia. Including MacDonalds. Macca's. They even use it themselves on signage, menus and website apparently.

 

But the middle finger is understood around the world!

 

Sign language has pretty much been universal since its beginning...

Even Webster's Dictionary redefines the meanings of words and how they are spelled pretty often. Their word meanings and spellings are based on how the public uses the words at a given time. The language I hear these kids getting out of high school use these days will probably mean we will have an entirely different language soon, and then maybe even my spelling will be correct...

 

There is not now, nor has there ever been a "freeze plug".

Those plugs are called core plugs, and nothing else.

They have no purpose, intentional or inadvertent, and no function, intentional or inadvertent, other than cleaning out casting sand at the foundry.

Repeating nonsense is not a healthy adult habit.

 

ASL maybe, but that's not the only one.

 

Contact breaker.

 

When I was in high school “tuna” had a whole different meaning other than fish or food. But you still ate it!

 

I have known them to be called contacts, contact points and breaker points.

Except Welch plugs.

 

Exactly.

 

"You can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish"

 

The British started it.
History of the Middle Finger:

Well, now...here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified.

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers.

Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as 'plucking the yew' (or 'pluck yew').

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and they began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew! Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to the phonetic

'F'..Y.', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute! It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as 'giving the bird.' And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing. Didn't yew!

 

Get back out to the shed, shop, man cave.

 

maybe where you live, yet we can buy frost plugs (and now I hear them being called freeze plugs).



I had never heard of ‘core plugs’ until recently - here on the HAMB.
Never heard of Welsh plugs until today.
Different country, - different terminology.

 

Hands up, who doesn’t know what people are referring to when they say freeze plugs? Same goes for dizzy, carb, trans, rim, motor etc. I understand that this being a traditional site, change is not welcome. Correct terminology, spelling and grammar are not in the rules. At least I hope not or I’m in trouble. We run the gamut of less educated shade tree mechanics all the way to Mensa member restorers and they all make outstanding contributions.
Healthy? I’m sure being overly nit-picky, hypercritical, anal or persnickety (bunch of different words for this too) can be perceived as a bad habit.
Just having fun, got up too damn early this morning.

 

All very good, except that theory might be the US version. Here in Englandshire we have the same tale except that it was the two fingers that would be chopped off, hence the two fingered salute known as the 'fluke', a possible reference to the feathers on an arrow. Used here in the same way as the single US style finger.

A fluke with the back of the hand facing the flukee is an insult, but the reverse fluke, which means victory, was famously employed many times by Sir Winston Churchill when addressing his countrymen.

These days it has sadly mostly been superseded by the US single finger.

 

Wait a minute, if everything is shortened in Australia, how do you account for McCafe'? Wouldn't Michelin be either Mick or the feminine version, Michel? And on another note, why do you guys keep spelling center wrong? I'm not trying to start an argument here, it's all right there in the picture .