wot? no upper case... and other annoyances

[RJD]

How about "impacted by" for "affected by?"  e.g.   "I was impacted adversely by the change in starting time."   "How has the price of gas impacted your driving habits?" 

 

Born in Birmingham, I always think of  "impact hammer" as a descriptive use of the word.  I now live in the United States now and hear people talk about "an impacted wisdom tooth" - a painful use of the word.   

 

You just have to listen to an American police spokesperson to see  how the language is mangled.   "We have a situation here.  The alleged shooter shot multiple times and impacted multiple vehicles in the vicinity of the apparent incident."   

[Pacific231G]

Ozexpatriate, on 13 Jun 2017 - 16:55, said:

"Left full rudder"
"Aye aye sir, left full rudder"

You mean "Hard to Port"
"Aye aye sir, hard to port"
Two nations separated by a common language☺

 

Although US ships do use port and starboard for most things, in 1913 the USN standardised on orders being given in terms of the movement of the rudder (and so the ship's head) rather than the movement of the helm or tiller which had been given as port and starboard .

 

NAVY DEPARTMENT Washington, D. C., May 5, 1913
ORDERS GOVERNING THE MOVEMENTS OF THE RUDDER.
1. On and after July 1, 1913, the present designations “starboard” and “port” governing movements of a ship’s helm are hereby ordered discontinued in orders or directions to the steersman, and the terms “right” and “left,” referring to movement of the ship’s head, shall thereafter be used instead.
2. The orders as to rudder angle shall be given in such terms as “Ten degrees rudder; half-rudder; standard rudder; full rudder;” etc., so that a complete order would be “Right–Half-rudder,” etc.
3. Commanders-in-chief and commanding officers acting independently may, in their discretion, institute the above changes at an earlier date.
F. D. ROOSEVELT
Acting Secretary of the Navy.

 

 If you're building a large navy with sailors most of whom had probably never even seen the sea before,  having one less thing to remember in a crisis could well have saved precious seconds

 

In line with changes in international shipping conventions the Royal Navy made a similar change in 1931 from movement of the helm to movement of the rudder but had a transtional period of twlve months when steering orders  were given as "starboard right" and "port left"after which they apparently reverted to simply port and starboard but now referrng to the wheel, rudder and ship's head not the probably imaginary "helm". I think the Merchant Navy simply used "wheel port" and wheel starboard" to make the transition.

 

The US practice of giving wheel orders in left and right is out of line with International practice which does use port and starboard (As with aviation, a specialist form of English is the international standard for shipping but there too the Americans tend to be out of line with us and the rest of the world) 

 

It all remnds me of Michael Green's definition of  A  Coarse Sailor.... one who in  a crisis forgets nautical language and shouts, "For God's sake turn left".

Edited June 14, 2017 by Pacific231G

[BG John]

You just have to listen to an American police spokesperson to see  how the language is mangled.   "We have a situation here.  The alleged shooter shot multiple times and impacted multiple vehicles in the vicinity of the apparent incident."   

Surely "The alleged shooter is alleged to have shot.....", otherwise it's stating that the person actually did the shooting, even though it's only alleged that they did! Someone obviously did it, but it has yet to be proved that the alleged shooter was that person. Or something like that

Edited June 14, 2017 by BG John

[Pacific231G]

How about "impacted by" for "affected by?"  e.g.   "I was impacted adversely by the change in starting time."   "How has the price of gas impacted your driving habits?" 

 

Born in Birmingham, I always think of  "impact hammer" as a descriptive use of the word.  I now live in the United States now and hear people talk about "an impacted wisdom tooth" - a painful use of the word.   

 

You just have to listen to an American police spokesperson to see  how the language is mangled.   "We have a situation here.  The alleged shooter shot multiple times and impacted multiple vehicles in the vicinity of the apparent incident."   

Impacted as in teeth does have a specific meaning in dentistry. This is from the NHS website "An impacted tooth is simply a tooth that is blocked or ‘stuck’ under the gum and cannot erupt or grow into the correct position. Any tooth can become impacted but the most frequent tooth to be impacted is a wisdom tooth"

 

We don't speak to one another from prepared scripts so spoken language, is often mangled. That's likely to be particularly true if what someone says, particularly a police officer, has potential legal implications.  Situation is a neutral word so avoids a prejudicial statement such as "We have a crime here" - it's unlikely but not inconceivable that an automatic weapon could have been discharged accidentally A prepared statement from the police on the situation described would certainly be more carefully worded but probably just as tortuous. "The suspect is alleged to have fired multiple shots some of which hit a number of vehicles in the vicinity of the apparent incident."  

 

 

 

 

.

Edited June 14, 2017 by Pacific231G

[LNER4479]

...reminds me of a story from WW11.

 

Cripes - when did World War Eleven happen? I thought we'd only had two so far...

 

Eats, shoots and leaves

[Bernard Lamb]

Cripes - when did World War Eleven happen? I thought we'd only had two so far...

 

Eats, shoots and leaves

I get that every time I type certain things.

11 or ll  and HO or H0

I am afraid my poor  eyes and brain can detect  no difference, yet still some people have to make sarky comments.

Bernard

[LNER4479]

Apologies - post intended in the spirit of the thread. I couldn't make my mind up whether to type 'World War Eleven' or 'World War eleven'. No doubt someone will be along to pronounce which is correct.

[njee20]

I'd have said "world war eleven", it's not a proper noun, although that in itself is debateable!

[Guest]

I get that every time I type certain things.

11 or ll  and HO or H0

I am afraid my poor  eyes and brain can detect  no difference, yet still some people have to make sarky comments.

Bernard

 

As the blighter who started the thread somewhat sarchastically, sarchastic comments are to be expected and, dare I say it, even encouraged!

There are plenty of folk with nothing better to do on RMWeb than critique absolutely everything, so I wouldn't get too worked up about II/11...

I don't think anyone's mentioned Haverfordwest or sausages yet, so be grateful for small mercies.

[Pacific231G]

I get that every time I type certain things.

11 or ll  and HO or H0

I am afraid my poor  eyes and brain can detect  no difference, yet still some people have to make sarky comments.

Bernard

Don't worry Bernard.  Model Railway News and other publications couldn't tell the difference between 00 and OO and H0 and HO either; both appeared fairly indifferently and were I suspect down to the choice of the the typesetter rather than any editorial decisions. It's only because we read things on computer screens that we can even tell that there is a difference. .

 

In H0/HO the difference of course is that HO is the American 1:87.1 scale and H0 is Europe's 1:87 scale (as defined by the NMRA and MOROP respectively)

In Britain there was some considerable confusion about whether 0 gauge should be a number (as it came in the gauge series 3,2,1,0,later followed by 00 and 000) or a letter but in Europe it seems to always have been considered a number. Iin France 0 gauge modellers call themselves Zéroistes and their equivalent of the Gauge O Guild is the Cercle du Zéro (a neat play on words) They do though pronounce H0 as "ahsh ohh" 

The Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Modellbahnbau Spur 0 definitely uses a zero not a letter O. 

 

[Guest]

 

someone wrong on the internet.jpg

 

Priceless. Just replace "internet" with "RMWeb" and everything becomes crystal clear... I shall now go and find something truly important to worry about!

[Pacific231G]

Priceless. Just replace "internet" with "RMWeb" and everything becomes crystal clear... I shall now go and find something truly important to worry about!

If you liked that you'll love this.

http://geekologie.com/image.php?path=/2011/08/08/mad-on-the-internet-full.jpg

[chris p bacon]

As the blighter who started the thread somewhat sarchastically, sarchastic comments are to be expected and, dare I say it, even encouraged!

 

There are plenty of folk with nothing better to do on RMWeb than critique absolutely everything, 

 

It's 'Sarcastic'

 

 

Oh the irony.......

[Guest]

It's 'Sarcastic'

 

Having just read the link in Post #188 above, it's anything I want it to be and everyone else is wrong! I blame Brexit. Yours, tsarcaustically, 75C.

[chris p bacon]

Having just read the link in Post #188 above, it's anything I want it to be and everyone else is wrong! I blame Brexit. Yours, tsarcaustically, 75C.

 

You've gone P4 haven't you.........I can tell.....

[Horsetan]

You've gone P4 haven't you.....

 

Wait until he discovers S4....

[njee20]

That sketch is from XKCD, who do some excellent stuff: