The language is mutating (and always has done)

[rogxwhit]

Table saw, dado, sled, lumber ...

Gotten ...

We seem to be going transatlantic. Doesn't have to be bad, of course, but at the same time can seem like a form of cultural imperialism. What passes the other way? I'm in favour of dialogue, but resistant to unidirectionalism.

There's a mechanism of cultural transmission at work by which such terms become ever more widely adopted and even the norm. I don't feel the need to jump onboard, but it also seems that it's an unstoppable bandwagon.

It makes my moustache bristle. Yes, I said bristle, not brittle.

And I blame the internet. But I don't suppose that anybody else has noticed, because I've never seen it mentioned ...

 

[deema]

How many know that the old timers UK word for uncut raw timber is ‘stuff’ which is also used in the texts. I use it in my threads and nobody has picked up on it, which is a surprise.

I think table saw is a term in the UK, but is for a saw that is placed on a table……contractors saw type…..where as we used to use cabinet saw for a floor standing saw.

Dado set is I believe the same as the UK, just illegal for professional shops to use I believe.

 

[rogxwhit]

Dado set is I believe the same as the UK, just illegal for professional shops to use I believe.

It wasn't 'dado set' (a form of tooling involving stacked blades on a saw bench or a radial) that I was referring to, it was the usage of the term dado to mean a housing or possibly trench? Which was never the terminology over here.

And generically in the uk, the simplest form of floor-standing circular saw is (or in these days was) a circular sawbench.

I like the word 'stuff'. When might 'stuff' become 'stock'?

 

[thetyreman]

yes the internet has definitely changed language mostly for the worst, many people now use american english and we're loosing some old english words, I hear a lot of people using terms like 'bunch' and 'I guess' at the end of statements, fine in america but it's not a very english way of talking.

 

[thetyreman]

this song sums it up

 

[JimJay]

yes the internet has definitely changed language mostly for the worst, many people now use american english and we're loosing some old english words, I hear a lot of people using terms like 'bunch' and 'I guess' at the end of statements, fine in america but it's not a very english way of talking.

Doesn't the rest of the UK have a say in that - or is linguistic imperialism okay in some circumstances?

 

[JimJay]

Table saw, dado, sled, lumber ...

Gotten ...

We seem to be going transatlantic. Doesn't have to be bad, of course, but at the same time can seem like a form of cultural imperialism. What passes the other way? I'm in favour of dialogue, but resistant to unidirectionalism.

There's a mechanism of cultural transmission at work by which such terms become ever more widely adopted and even the norm. I don't feel the need to jump onboard, but it also seems that it's an unstoppable bandwagon.

It makes my moustache bristle. Yes, I said bristle, not brittle.

And I blame the internet. But I don't suppose that anybody else has noticed, because I've never seen it mentioned ...

Other people most certainly have noticed - the English classes I teach have probably lost count of the number of times the topic has been mentioned....

I prefer to call it linguistic imperialism: the use of "cultural" here includes a presupposition which is rather debatable.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

English is the best/worst language (depending I suppose upon your viewpoint) in the world for mutating and theft of words, and is better for it.

Two things that irritate, though - changing to U.S pronunciations, although that's inevitable (we speak English English, not world (U.S.) English, and change that actually makes things longer like "for free". Why? What was wrong with "I picked it up free".

Bad grammar is a different matter, such as using overly when the word used should have been over. But I'm being overly ..... sorry, over fussy.

 

[Adam W.]

It wasn't 'dado set' (a form of tooling involving stacked blades on a saw bench or a radial) that I was referring to, it was the usage of the term dado to mean a housing or possibly trench? Which was never the terminology over here.

And generically in the uk, the simplest form of floor-standing circular saw is (or in these days was) a circular sawbench.

I like the word 'stuff'. When might 'stuff' become 'stock'?

It took me an age to find out what a dado was, but I still don't know what a dado rail is or if I actually need one.

 

[Ozi]

It took me an age to find out what a dado was, but I still don't know what a dado rail is or if I actually need one.

A dado rail is the thing to hang dados on - as they are quite heavy it's best not to put then higher than waist level.

 

[Adam W.]

A dado rail is the thing to hang dados on - as they are quite heavy it's best not to put then higher than waist level.

Well, if that's the case, I still don't know what a dado is. I always thought it was a plinth under a column or panelling to the lower part of a wall.

 

[Myfordman]

Topical new verbs heard on the BBC

To coronate. In relation to royalty

To exumate. In relation to the mass grave discovered in Ukraine

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Exhumate.

 

[selectortone]

I recently emailed Cinch, the car buying company, about the ad they are running on TV.

I asked them, if it wasn’t too much trouble, to tell that bearded bloke who does their adverts that in America they say ‘Anyways’ while here in the UK we say ‘Anyway’. I got a very nice reply from Alannah from their Customer Service Team saying “Thank you very much for your email and for reaching out to cinch. I will pass on your feedback to the marketing team.”

Well, it gave my daughter a laugh

 

[J-G]

Well, if that's the case, I still don't know what a dado is. I always thought it was a plinth under a column or panelling to the lower part of a wall.

That is very un-like you Adam -- I've always looked upon you as one who does immaculate research

A Dado Rail tops the Wainscot and was originally intended to ward off furniture causing damage to said Wainscot or the wall itself. Laterly of course it has become a decorative feature or demarcation.

When I last decorated my hallway I installed a Dado Rail with a vertical stripe wall-paper below (essentially a false Wainscot) and a small print wall-paper above.

 

[Adam W.]

I think it's confusing because dado and dado rail seem to mean different things to different people.

 

[stuart little]

Brings me back to my pet hate of seeing in print 'co-worker' not hyphenated as 'COWORKER'. James Patterson books especially, but Lee Child books get it right, & those black sticky things that keep wheel rims off the ground he spells with a 'y' not 'i', I expect that's Mr. Child's English roots. I am allowed to say ' rather than ''English'' rather than British aren't I?

 

[Sideways]

We're English. Don't we adopt foreign words that we like or find interesting in the same way that we adopt foods ?

I enjoy the good ones but find it irritating when people concoct new words just because they seem to be uneducated / ignorant about the perfectly good ones that we already have.
Anyone remember newscasters using "deplaning". What's wrong with disembark ? Muppets !
Corporate speak is amusing / annoying too in the way that terms become fashionable, overused and lose any impact they might have had. I don't miss that.

If you think that language is mutating, take a look at instant messaging and emojis

 

[HamsterJam]

Table saw, dado, sled, lumber ...

Gotten ...

We seem to be going transatlantic. Doesn't have to be bad, of course, but at the same time can seem like a form of cultural imperialism. What passes the other way? I'm in favour of dialogue, but resistant to unidirectionalism.

There's a mechanism of cultural transmission at work by which such terms become ever more widely adopted and even the norm. I don't feel the need to jump onboard, but it also seems that it's an unstoppable bandwagon.

It makes my moustache bristle. Yes, I said bristle, not brittle.

And I blame the internet. But I don't suppose that anybody else has noticed, because I've never seen it mentioned ...

#rantmodeon
I have noticed, particularly ”Can I get…” when ordering something and the use of Z instead of S in words ending ‘ise’. I also hear lieutenant being pronounced loo-tenant rather than lef-tenant. And don’t get me started on the modern business trend of verbalising nouns!!
Soon we’ll have ‘aloominum’, sidewalks, hoods, trunks and fenders to go with the ‘dados’ and ‘rabbits’.
Sadly when I point this out to my kids, they tell me I’m old and stuck in medieval olde english
#rantmodeoff

 

[selectortone]

I have noticed, particularly ”Can I get…” when ordering something

That one is annoying. Too much American TV methinks.