Engineering Origin of a Common Phrase?

[RobboParticipant @robbo]

""Not just the US. On the news on telly over here it's almost always Nucular

Rod"

This only started at the time of the Minnellium !

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

.

'Off the rails' ……… As in e.g. "He's gone off the rails"

What is the origins of that.???

Nick

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 02/06/2016 17:59:13:

Posted by John McNamara on 02/06/2016 14:32:02:

Different pronunciations isn't uniquely a transatlantic problem , for instance there doesn't seem to be a standard UK way of saying scone. On a bad day I want to vapourize people who pronounce it Skon.

I my part of Yorkshire a skon (I've no idea how you spell it!) is is a slice of potato on top of a slice of fish deep fried in batter. That definitely is a skon! Fishcake is completely different.

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

I used to work with two Cornishmen, who came from the same village but on opposite sides of a river, literally within a (long) stones throw. They used to say that they both had different accents/dialects!!

What I would hate to see is English becoming so precious that it becomes stultified, and immobile, like some European languages.

Having lived in 'Straya for the last 36 of my 68 years I find that I now need subtitles to understand some English TV programs.

I've just realised that this is about dialects rather than the thread title…..sorry!

cheers

Bill

p.s. When I was doing my apprenticeship on the Isle of Wight, a chamfer at some angle other than 45 degrees was called a "snape". When I put snape on a drawing over here ('Straya) the whole workshop came to a halt laughing.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 02/06/2016 17:59:13:

Posted by John McNamara on 02/06/2016 14:32:02:

It has always been confusing to me when watching a US engineering video and the person states they are sodering. Strangely the Websters US dictionary site spells it soldering. I wonder what happened to the L?

Oh I Know….. Who was it that said No L

Regards
John

Edited By John McNamara on 02/06/2016 14:32:23

I often notice US sources saying sol-dering when everyone I know in the UK does soul-dering.

Different pronunciations isn't uniquely a transatlantic problem , for instance there doesn't seem to be a standard UK way of saying scone. On a bad day I want to vapourize people who pronounce it Skon.

Yes, mostly in the US west it is "sah-dering" with no sign of an L. Yet they pronounce salmon as "sall-mon".

Go figure, as they would say.

One word they can never pronounce properly? That would be "ar*e". They either try to put the full American rolled R in there, which ain't right, or just dump the R altogether and go with the American "ass".

They just don't get the way "furrners" mess up the English language.

Edited By Hopper on 03/06/2016 06:19:50

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Bill Pudney: even British-born residents requite sub-titles these days, the diction of many so-called actors is so poor. Don't misunderstand me, it's good to hear regional accents on TV, but that's no excuse for mumbling. Perhaps I shouldn't complain because, having lived in Scotland for the last 20 years, I tend to use Scots phraseology spoken with a Lincolnshire accent. Or is my complaint brought about because, at 75, I'm a deaf old git?

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Once upon a time past I submitted the first chapter of a novel to an American literary web site and was roundly criticized for my quite normal English spelling and grammar. I derive satisfaction however in imagining the confusion of our transatlantic cousins if they ever read about several places hereabouts:

Flitwick – pronounced – flitik

Cogenhoe – pronounced – kookner

My favourite though is the surname Featheringstonehaugh – pronounced – fanshor. Guaranteed to make johny foreigner go cross eyed.

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Nick_G on 02/06/2016 21:45:58:

.

'Off the rails' ……… As in e.g. "He's gone off the rails"

What is the origins of that.???

Nick

Off the rails, as in crazy, unsound or madness?

Well if you think about it the most common thing people know of on rails is a train. A lot of trains in the victorian times often crashed because the train would de-rail, "come off the rails" as it were, leading to the moment of crashing. People of unsound mind could have no fear of death so would be described as crazy, so the association is clear.

You could extrapolate that further to describe how rails are commonly thought of as been laid ideally in straight lines(they obviously are not always but there is a limit to the curvature in real life), so someone could be described as receiving a form of "guidance" as it were, from these rails, when someone is off rails they have no guidance, no further path on which to go and are about to crash, alot of people would've been hurt or even fatally wounded from these accidents until the rules and practices of rail construction have all but regulated their unfortunate regularity away.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Michael Walters on 03/06/2016 10:13:43:

Posted by Nick_G on 02/06/2016 21:45:58:

.

'Off the rails' ……… As in e.g. "He's gone off the rails"

What is the origins of that.???

 

Nick

Off the rails, as in crazy, unsound or madness?

Well if you think about it the most common thing people know of on rails is a train.

…

Possibly the phrase pre-dates trains. Tramways powered by gravity, men, horses and/or steam winches were very common in the UK before the steam locomotive enabled the railways.

Today's suggestions for an Engineering origin: blueprint and typecast.

Also, if we allow science fiction: I heard the groom say "Beam me up Scotty". after emitting a resounding bottom burp during his wedding. Of course being English no-one mentioned his indelicacy at the reception later.

Cheers,

Dave

Edit – can't spell for toffee!

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 03/06/2016 10:51:43

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Posted by Rik Shaw on 03/06/2016 10:08:27:

Flitwick – pronounced – flitik

Cogenhoe – pronounced – kookner

My favourite though is the surname Featheringstonehaugh – pronounced – fanshor. Guaranteed to make johny foreigner go cross eyed.

Surprising how many people can't spell their own names. I used to live in Hackney, pronounced Ackney by the locals. Dave

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

We've got some good ones around here: spelled Findochty, pronounced Finechty, and one of the Spey tributaries, the Avon, pronounced Aarn, for instance. I've heard that a lot of these places that are spelled one way and pronounced another, nation wide, are the fault of the original Ordnance Survey cartographers, who were good at mapping but poor on other research and probably didn't lower themselves to speaking to the locals.

[EugeneParticipant @eugene]

Just to go back a step to W. Shakespeare of that ilk, and "fast and loose".

We all associate the phrase with the systems of large (and early) industrial factories, but no doubt in Will's time milling machinery both water and wind powered would have needed secondary power take-offs for lifting heavy sacks and sundry other gubbins.

So his use of the phrase might still be reflecting the same basic arrangement.

Eug

[Gordon Brown 1Participant @gordonbrown1]

I wonder if the expression "fast and loose" has its origins in archery, the two words referring to opposite actions. If anyone on the archery line notices something potentailly dangerous, such as a member of the public straying onto the field they will yell "Fast!" and no-one will loose. Both words have been used in this context, I am assured, for centuries.

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