What are your pet peeves re English usage?

JTT wrote:

McTag wrote:
JTT wrote:
McTag wrote:
Kindly don't point that thing at me.

It would make more sense (and it doesn't make any sense) if "pry" was not already taken up with another meaning altogether.

Whereas "prise" isn't.

Just thought I would apprise you of these facts.

:wink:

Is 'prise' really the BrE use, McTag? If Charlton had been shipped over to England for burial, would the gun have been "prised" from his hands?

Isn't 'get' taken up with considerably more meanings that 'pry'. What's the other meaning for 'pry'?

What mad fanciful nonsense is this?

I assume you are "'aving a laugh", as is sometimes said over here.

Can ye buy "prise bars" over there?

Crowbars you mean? What do you have, a pry bar to help you pry?

Smile

A good dictionary (by which I mean, not an American one) would help you a lot here.

Smile

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McTag wrote:

Crowbars you mean? What do you have, a pry bar to help you pry?

A good dictionary (by which I mean, not an American one) would help you a lot here.

We have pry bars to help us pry things and crow bars to help us crow. Smile

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JTT wrote:

McTag wrote:

Crowbars you mean? What do you have, a pry bar to help you pry?

A good dictionary (by which I mean, not an American one) would help you a lot here.

We have pry bars to help us pry things and crow bars to help us crow.

I think we have even nowadays gone a bit American on this as most people call (what I would think of its traditional name here), a crowbar, a "wrecking bar".

Joe Nation has a good line on different names for tools. I'll invite him on.

As far as the jokes on "prise" and "prize" are concerned, I wouldn't be surprised if they have the same origin, being so analagous.

"I will prise that prized object from your fist, because that would be a good prize for me to take home."

God alone knows why you folks have decided to assign a completely new and unneccessary meaning to the verb "pry".

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I find it interesting
(maybe not everybody does Smile

)

the term crowbar traces to at least 1400; and is not in any sense racist. As they resembled the feet or beaks of a crow, they were first called crow bars; later the two joined into one word.[1] They also were called crows; William Shakespeare used the term crow in many places[2], including his written-in-the-1590s play Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, scene ii:
Get me an iron crow and bring it straight ....Unto my cell....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowbar_%28tool%29

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Quote:

We have pry bars to help us pry things and crow bars to help us crow.

...and our prised bars keep us appraised of new developments in language.

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I used to be a heavy drinker, but gave that up more than 15 years ago. I no longer prize bars.

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Quote:

I used to be a heavy drinker, but gave that up more than 15 years ago. I no longer prize bars.

Nor does he bar prizes.

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I have a small pry bar called a "cat's paw", it's mainly used for removing nails, then of course there is the standard "heel bar"....roughly shaped like the heel and foot...I have several different sizes of those. I reserve the term wrecking bar, for my really huge crowbars.

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McTag, what's the form for 'prise' for the third person singular present tense?

He _____ them off using this bar.

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Prised, of course.

Why do you have to take a simple thing and make it complicated?

:wink:

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McTag wrote:

Prised, of course.

Why do you have to take a simple thing and make it complicated?

:wink:

I want to know about the form for 'prise' for the third person singular present tense, Sire, for the routine/habitual sense.

He _____ them off using this bar.

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prises.

Not that I know anything about it.

I like this one:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/713ZZBQNQDL.gif

Stanley (that's a Brit company although they make a lot of stuff in New Britain, Connecticut) calls it a Wonder Bar. (Insert Wonder Bra joke here) (Insert Wunderbar joke Here). It's lightweight. Thinner edged than a crowbar at the top and bottom and the 90 degree curve at top lets you get closer to the piece you are trying to remove. (Carpet edging)(Crate top)(2X4)
And.....the nail remover keyhole actually works.
The springy end gets under all kinds of objects and the thing is tough enough to stand on.

When they dig us up in 20,000 years they will understand that this tool was important.

Okay: ten thousand A2k points for a correct answer:

http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/images/838-4000-sm.jpg

What's this called?

[\[Joe(Right. Your dad had one. What's it called?)Nation

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A brace, Joe?

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I've got one, made by the Stanley company, a "brace and bit" without the bit.
JTT is right. In this case.

Coincidentally enough I was in Homebase this very week and saw a version of Joe Nation's small nail-removing tool, but it was not made from pressed steel, it appeared to be cast. It was not a "bar", more of a lump. Think of an elongated half-avocado shape cast in steel with the appropriate slots in. I'd never seen one before.

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JTT wrote:

McTag wrote:
Prised, of course.

Why do you have to take a simple thing and make it complicated?

:wink:

I want to know about the form for 'prise' for the third person singular present tense, Sire, for the routine/habitual sense.

He _____ them off using this bar.

Yeah, prises.

"He prys (pries?) them off.." is just so.....so.....weird-sounding to the attuned and delicate ear.

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McTag wrote:

I've got one, made by the Stanley company, a "brace and bit" without the bit.
JTT is right. In this case.

Coincidentally enough I was in Homebase this very week and saw a version of Joe Nation's small nail-removing tool, but it was not made from pressed steel, it appeared to be cast. It was not a "bar", more of a lump. Think of an elongated half-avocado shape cast in steel with the appropriate slots in. I'd never seen one before.

(reading back) Maybe that's the "cat's paw" which 2packs mentioned. I bet it is.

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http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p173/2PacksAday/CatsPaw.jpg

Mine is different than this one, this one has two paws....most have at least one end in the paw form, then the other end is either a wide prying flat bar, a spud, or just has a rubber handle.

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Quote:

(reading back) Maybe that's the "cat's paw" which 2packs mentioned. I bet it is.

'tis. Cast. The same as crowbars are.

"He prises off the hinges." sounds seventeenth century to my ear.

A 'brace' was what was pictured above, but I've had people ask for a "Whirligig", a "Corer", a "Woodborer" (sounds more like an insect than a tool)and a "Drill Turn" and a "Turn Drill" (might have been one word).

And there was the woman who, good naturally asked for a "Holer" when she was looking for one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VGMC1WKJL._SL160_AA160_.jpg

"Why call something a Hand drill when you don't use it to drill hands?" she joked. By the way, it's officially a "double pinion hand drill". La dee dah.

"Ed, hand me the double pinion hand drill." Right.

I think I already mentioned the fellow who insisted the word was "Whammer" not "hammer". I think his dad played a joke on him and he never caught on to it.

Joe(kind of like when the Irish gave the Scots the bagpipes. Razz

)Nation

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The perfect handyman's corner around here? Twisted Evil

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Irish schmirish. I think the bagpipe came from Greece.

Or maybe when the Scots came over from Ireland displacing the Picts and Celts.
It was all a very long time ago.

This catspaw gizmo I saw is very different from that picture. I must get a photo of one. Morning, Francis.

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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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