Heather Kay Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 I’ve noticed some small - and probably innocuous - things about this universe I don’t understand. It’s just small changes from the universe I grew up in, but I’m wondering when I slipped into this subtly alternate one. Instance the First: helo First, that’s not how you spell helicopter. Second, the nickname was always chopper. When did that change? Instance the Second: Wellie The Vickers Wellington already has a nickname, and it's Wimpy. Stop making up new names! I’ll be seeing my therapist later. I’ll be fine. 13 1 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 I'd like to add the in vogue use of congrats instead of saying congratulations. Is it really that hard to say the full word. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckw Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 45 minutes ago, Heather Kay said: Instance the First: helo Interesting one that - apparently according to Websters, first recorded use is around 1968 - something at the back of my head tells me this was in widespread use in Vietnam, so it is probably American in origin. 16 minutes ago, tank152 said: I'd like to add the in vogue use of congrats instead of saying congratulations. Is it really that hard to say the full word. I suspect this may be a result of social media - much easier to type, and of course the language of social media is rapidly becoming part of the language in general ... e.g. people actual say 'LOL' quite often. This has always been a feature of the English language - it is constantly changing. And complaints about the use of words and grammar has been a recurring theme throughout history. Shakespeare invented in the order of 2000 words - some became commonplace, others disappeared. Cheers Colin 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3DStewart Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 I suppose it's because people get bored with old slang and want something that makes them feel modern. There is a precedent for it. Archie has become flak; ASDIC has become sonar; runner has become sprue (but only for plastic modellers), and so on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tank152 Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 12 minutes ago, ckw said: so it is probably American in origin. Cheers Colin Why doesn't that surprise me! 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kay Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 I’m happy that language changes and evolves. It is what a vibrant language will do. But, here’s some more that are beginning to bother me. If I say to you "Have you got the <insert thing> with you?" The correct response is "I have". I am beginning to hear, much more often, "Yes, I do." I suspect it’s an inevitable import from across the Atlantic. Another is the verb "to fit". The past tense, "fitted", seems be dead or dying. "It was a bit tight, but after a bit of fettling it fit". I have to remember I’m getting old, and perhaps a bit stuck in my ways. 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stever219 Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 @Heather Kay I'm with you here. Another screaming irritant is customers asking "Can I get a........?" NO, the person serving "gets" the item for them. The correct form is "Please could I have.....?" or "Please could you get me a ....?" As a former coffee-shop employee I ws tempted so many times to respond to "Can I get....?" with "I don't know, can you?" 9 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dromia Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 Gay to me means happy, carefree and cheery. 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Ian- Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 40 minutes ago, 3DStewart said: I suppose it's because people get bored with old slang and want something that makes them feel modern. There is a precedent for it. Archie has become flak; ASDIC has become sonar; runner has become sprue (but only for plastic modellers), and so on. I've genuinely never heard the word Archie used to mean Flak. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil.C Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 1 hour ago, 3DStewart said: I suppose it's because people get bored with old slang and want something that makes them feel modern. There is a precedent for it. Archie has become flak; ASDIC has become sonar; runner has become sprue (but only for plastic modellers), and so on. Archie from WWI went on to be Flak (German abbreviation) in WWII and currently the US military use, "Triple A" (anti aircraft artillery). Probably being superseded as I speak. 😂 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 It's annoying how language changed. I long for the days when we could just sit on a rock and have conversations like this one: 1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kay Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 12 minutes ago, Neil.C said: Archie from WWI went on to be Flak (German abbreviation) in WWII and currently the US military use, "Triple A" (anti aircraft artillery). Probably being superseded as I speak. 😂 Ack-ack in WW2, from the British phonetic alphabet of the time - Ack (sometimes Ac), Beer, Charlie, Don, Edward, etc. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ade H Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 1 hour ago, 3DStewart said: runner has become sprue I searched for an injection molding glossary one time and found out that sprue nippers should really be called gate nippers. The order was sprue; runner; gate; and cavity, so we've all been getting it a bit backwards. 🤔 Small talk at the Injection Molding Association's Annual Awards dinner must be scintillating. 😁 2 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LorenSharp Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 1 hour ago, stever219 said: @Heather Kay I'm with you here. Another screaming irritant is customers asking "Can I get a........?" NO, the person serving "gets" the item for them. The correct form is "Please could I have.....?" or "Please could you get me a ....?" As a former coffee-shop employee I ws tempted so many times to respond to "Can I get....?" with "I don't know, can you?" My Mom used the same tact when I would ask "Can I have....",.Her response, "I don't know, can you?" Then would tell me, "Try saying May I. You might be surprised at the response." 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 WW2 - Ack-ack comes from the sound of the shells exploding. RAF alphabet was A for Able, B-Baker, C-Charlie . . . Archie - WW1, came from a phrase in a play which was popular at the time, viz 'Not Now Archie!' Helo was used by US forces & police for helicopters from about 1948. Its often pronounced 'heelo'. One can hear it used in old films and tv dramas from about 1948 through the 1950s right to the present time My peeves; US term 'gotten' for past tense of 'got' which is the past tense 'Fire' for Spitfire 'Tang' for Mustang, P-51 I was once told, and needed telling once only, by a certain famous RAF pilot, ' Remember, boy, its an aeroplane, not a 'plane' and its the Royal Air Force, not the raff' 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kay Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 7 minutes ago, Black Knight said: RAF alphabet was A for Able, B-Baker, C-Charlie . . . There you are, you see? My universe is different - and currently Wikipedia agrees with me. The 1904 British Army Signalling Regs. Able and Baker and co are the US version. In fact, it’s a whole rabbit hole worth tumbling down. Incidentally, I got my phonetic alphabet from a wartime publication about the RAF, which I borrowed from a history teacher at my secondary school. As for "gotten", well, I think it’s done the round trip from Elizabethan English to the colonies and back. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 5 minutes ago, Heather Kay said: There you are, you see? My universe is different - and currently Wikipedia agrees with me. The 1904 British Army Signalling Regs. Able and Baker and co are the US version. A. do not trust Wiki for everything. I trust my RAF R/T instructors 6 minutes ago, Heather Kay said: As for "gotten", well, I think it’s done the round trip from Elizabethan English to the colonies and back. b. 'Gotten' was never in Elizabethan English. It first appears in US dime novels about the mid-1880s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kay Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 Ooh! Here’s one that just popped into my email in-box. We used to give gifts, the act of giving being better than receiving and all that. Now it’s become "gifting". 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kay Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 4 minutes ago, Black Knight said: do not trust Wiki for everything. As I said, I got it from an Air Ministry publication dated 1941. I don’t want to argue about it. I accept what were apparently parallel universes have bumped into each other somehow, and we both started from a slightly different place. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpion Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 2 hours ago, Heather Kay said: Another is the verb "to fit". The past tense, "fitted", seems be dead or dying. I thought the past tense of "fit" was "needed some filler". 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 Could be worse. We could all be speaking the language of Beowulf. What is the correct word in the West Saxon dialect of Old English for flak? I'm sure there is one but it's slipped my mind at the moment. Cheers, Bill 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 Oh, I almost forgot - a word used all the time in FineScale Modeler magazine. Accurizing. It's bad enough that they don't know how to spell modeller, but accurizing? Cheers, Bill 6 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratch Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 3 hours ago, 3DStewart said: runner has become sprue That one bugs me 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnT Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 1 hour ago, Navy Bird said: Could be worse. We could all be speaking the language of Beowulf. What is the correct word in the West Saxon dialect of Old English for flak? I'm sure there is one but it's slipped my mind at the moment. Cheers, Bill Arrows Does this gets us back to “when did transfers become decals?” Personally it all gone downhill for me since I last heard Octavius Augustus last say Civis Romanus sum but then what did the Romans do for us? 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 52 minutes ago, Heather Kay said: Ooh! Here’s one that just popped into my email in-box. We used to give gifts, the act of giving being better than receiving and all that. Now it’s become "gifting". Apparently any noun can be converted into a verb these days. I once saw the sentence “I can’t believe you verbed weekend!” to which I added “I can’t believe you verbed verb!” My bugbear is the use of alternate where the word required is alternative. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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