dwest wrote:In NA a water tap is typically called a faucet.
Yeah, "faucet" is by far the most common usage (certainly where I live, anyway). Yet when specifying water types or sources, we typically call the stuff that comes out of faucets "tap water".
I suppose we could make life a lot simpler for ourselves, but so far it hasn't occurred to anyone to bother.
I used taps when I was younger, for old style and clogging, used to fall on my butt hard, so I stopped using taps.
Nanohedron wrote:
I suppose we could make life a lot simpler for ourselves, but so far it hasn't occurred to anyone to bother.
Exactly. I mean, it isn't a big issue, so why faucet?
"Last night, among his fellow roughs,
He jested, quaff'd and swore."
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that'll never, never die.
I'll live in you if you'll live in me -
I am the lord of the dance, said he!
You know they're both euphemisms for 'cock', anyway.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
Both the literal and notional forefather of that particular item of plumbing was the cock/stopcock/spigot/tap in a barrel of beer, which we had long before we had piped-in water. Because of their shape, size and function, these became such a common metaphor for another item of plumbing that we forgot it was a metaphor. 'Cock' turned into (yet) another in a very long line of names for said item. During the prude age this became a naughty word, so new names had to be created for all the non-naughty things the old word used to name. Thus we got faucet & tap, and (in another context) 'rooster'.
Cock.
A very similar process gave us rabbit, btw, although then it was the middle english name 'coney' (rhymes with 'honey') that had to be circumlocuted.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
Incidentally, 'tap' came from transference. The real tap was the reamer that made the tapered hole a cock sits in, a term still in use in the context of a tap and die set. When cock got laid off, tap had to move over and cover it.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
In the north of England, where I come from, "cock" has long been a term of endearment. My brother and I have referred to each other as "cock" for nearly half a century. Also, the expression "it's a cock-up" has no vulgar undertones.
"Last night, among his fellow roughs,
He jested, quaff'd and swore."
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that'll never, never die.
I'll live in you if you'll live in me -
I am the lord of the dance, said he!
to get back to the thing with water coming out of it.....
Many buildings in our company have gone to "sensor" faucets and toilets. Besides the obvious "no need to touch" feature, they are water savers. The have specific "on" times programmed in, so they shut off after a certain number of seconds. We set the timer on the faucets to the "ABC" song, which is recommended as the time it takes to properly clean hands.
We have joke public toilets in the UK which have taps so fierce that water sprays all down the front of your trousers when you're washing your hands. That's my excuse anyway.
"Last night, among his fellow roughs,
He jested, quaff'd and swore."
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that'll never, never die.
I'll live in you if you'll live in me -
I am the lord of the dance, said he!
There's a brand of no-touch hand dryer, Xlerator®, in the toidies at a bar I sometimes go to. I call it "Ecks-luh-Raytor" for yucks and everyone earnestly corrects me. Sheesh. I get it. I already KNOW it's supposed to be pronounced "accelerator". Sigh.
Anyway, it's a really good, effective, and fast-acting powerful blower, and it operates only so long as you're using it. Did I say powerful? As in it'll-move-your-skin-around-like-there's-something-really-angry-and-desperate-living-underneath powerful? When they were first installed, one poor unsuspecting fellow still had his mug in one hand as he was using it, and it blasted the beer up out of the mug and all over him. It had been nearly full, and he was drenched. After we were done laughing and commisserating with him we spent the better part of an hour trying to clear his confusion and explain to him how air actually has mass.
I wanted to revisit the whole scene by staging and recording it and putting it on YouTube. He wasn't interested.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
Jim Troy wrote:Simon , Steve , thanks for that , ( Taps) haven't had a good one for some time , that did it :lol:
Looks like you and me are the only ones who did.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
