RE: [CR]Mudguards to us .Fenders to you!

(Example: Framebuilding)

In-Reply-To: <p06230902bfb14e61c61d@[10.0.1.31]>
From: "neil foddering" <neilfoddering@hotmail.com>
To: CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com, kohl57@starpower.net, doug@kingsweir.plus.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: RE: [CR]Mudguards to us .Fenders to you!
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:13:39 +0000


Forgive me if I smile when I read discussions of the termninology used by us Brits, but the usual terms are "seat pin", "seat pillar" or "seat post" - I've never heard of "seat mast", and I've also never heard anyone use "inflator" - always "pump". The term "derailleur" is used over here, as is "mech", but I've never heard "mechanism".

Having said that, someone will no doubt challenge me - who was it who said, "Better to say nothing, and be thought a fool, than to speak up, and remove all doubt"?

I attended an American school for the 8th and 9th Grades, and after 40 years, I can still clearly remember my classmates in fits of laughter when I first used the British term "lay the table" instead of "set the table" and "rubber" instead of "eraser"...

Neil Foddering Weymouth, England


>From: Sheldon Brown <CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com>
>To: kohl57@starpower.net,
>doug@kingsweir.plus.com,classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: RE: [CR]Mudguards to us .Fenders to you!
>Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 19:25:39 -0500
>
>I observed:
>>"Most automobile parts as well as many bicycle parts have different
>>names in U.S. vs British usage, since these devices were introduced
>>
>>after the Revolutionary War.
>>
>>It doesn't mean that one is wrong and the other is right, might as
>>well complain that the French have different names too!"
>
>Peter Kohler wrote:
>
>>Well now, Sheldon.. we don't call a derailleur that "widget that changes
>>gears" do we? Or say that "bunch 'o bike guys" instead of a peloton?
>
>[additional straw man arguments snipped]
>
>Actually, the term "derailleur" (or my preferred spelling "derailer") is
>hardly ever used in British English...they tend to prefer the term
>"changer."
>
>http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer
>
>In U.S. usage, the term "pack" is a common and totally acceptable synonym
>for "peloton."
>
>Brits also use such terms as "seat mast" "sprint" "fixed wheel" "PCD" and
>"inflator" where a Yank would say "seat post" "tubular rim" "fixed gear"
>"BCD" and "pump" just to pull a few items out of the top of my head...
>
>Sheldon "Sometimes Prescriptivist, Sometimes Descriptivist" Brown
>+---------------------------------------------------+
>| If you oppose making marriage legally available |
>| to all adults, you are promoting promiscuity. |
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