Why do we say 'on a bus' but 'in a car'?

holy ****....

http://signaturecowboy.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product_full/dsc01364%5B1%5D_0.jpg

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@chai2,

If you ever go to Denmark don´t ask for a coomode when you need to "wash your hands"
Here is a Danish kummode

http://www.massivmoebel24.com/images/produkte/i67/67730-Kommode-Julia-600px.jpg

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

kharzi?

I thought it was usually spelled khazi; when Mrs Contrex, who comes from Wigan, wants to sarcastically imitate both the fake Cockney accents used by EastEnders actors, and real ones, she says "I'm on the bleedin' khazi!".

Samuel Pepys used to talk about the "house of ease". I have it on good authority (Barry Humphries) that many of the rougher types of Australians call taking a dump "choking a darky". My father, when I was little, always called it "relieving yourself".

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

I would say "They stepped out for a moment, they'll be right back"

We don't normally specify to colleagues the reason for short absences from our desks if we are doing minor things such visiting the lavatory, making a hot drink, leaving the building for a cigarette, checking the stationery store, etc. We just get up and go, so if I said to a caller that a person was in the lav it would be a guess anyhow. Not to mention unprofessional.

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@contrex,

So you'd say the same thing? They stepped out and they'll be right back?

In my experience here, if someone is going to the restroom, they'll just go. If they are going out for a cigarette, they'll tell the receptionist they're going for a smoke break. If they are doing any more than that, actually leaving the premises to as you say "checking the stationary store" (I thinking that's the equiv of us running out to get a soda/coffee, cigaraettes, medicine....like running out to the drug store or a starbucks?) They would let the receptionist, and depending on the work situation, tell their supervisor they were leaving the building on an errand. I personally would give an approximation of how long like "I should be back in 15-20 minutes" No need to be specific, just an errand.

In that case, I'd tell a caller they left the building on an errand and will be back soon. "stepped out for a moment" to me specifies they are very close by i.e. rest room, maybe a cigarette, and will be right back.

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@saab,

saab wrote:

If you ever go to Denmark don´t ask for a coomode when you need to "wash your hands"
Here is a Danish kummode

HA!
You just brought back a childhood memory saab.

My mothers first language was Polish, and there were random objects around the house for which we used the polish, rather than english word.

We always called our dressers, which you may know as a chest of drawers, a komoda (just looked it up on a polish dictionary), we pronounced it more like kumuda.
I never made the connection until just now.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

actually leaving the premises to as you say "checking the stationary store" (I thinking that's the equiv of us running out to get a soda/coffee, cigaraettes, medicine....like running out to the drug store or a starbucks?)

I work in an open-plan office; along the corridor is a room we call the "stationery store" which is full of stuff like paper and toner for the printers and copiers, pens, pencils, erasers, paper clips, date stamps, staplers, staples, adhesive tape, elastic bands, file jackets, punched transparent pockets, packs of index cards, bottles of correction fluid, and so on.

I just remembered that in theory we should tell someone where we are going to be, in case the building catches on fire and there is an evacuation followed by a roll call, but I don't think people comply with this very much. This is now worrying me a bit.

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@contrex,

You might enjoy this link - I did and please note the very last sentence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commode

In Swedish we call a chest of drawers a byrå , but also an office or a department.

In French it is bureau and with the same meaning as in Swedish. Often words for furniture were taken over from French.
Guess but have no idea that the first offices had a stand up desk/coffer and a chest and later a chest of drawers for the papers.
A trunk in Swedish is a koffert. Again a word from French

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

I work in an open-plan office; along the corridor is a room we call the "stationery store" which is full of stuff like paper and toner for the printers and copiers, pens, pencils, erasers, paper clips, date stamps, staplers, staples, adhesive tape, elastic bands, file jackets, punched transparent pockets, packs of index cards, bottles of correction fluid, and so on.

Ah....we call this the supply room. No, we don't tell anyone when we're going in there.

Well, we may combine the supply room with the copy room. So the copiers faxes, office supplies, forms, toners are all in one place. Probably then we'd just refer to it as the copy room.

elastic bands.....what we call rubber bands.

adhesive tape.....we'd just call that tape, except that regardless of brand, everyone knows what you mean when you say "scotch tape", like if you say "kleenex" everyone knows you mean facial tissue (for blowing your nose)

Bringing up tissue.....do you call it toilet paper or toilet tissue? The toilet paper brands all say toilet tissue on the packaging, but I think most people say toilet paper.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

Ah....we call this the supply room. No, we don't tell anyone when we're going in there.

We share the building with other companies, (at least they used to get the blame!) and we have found the stock lasts a lot longer if we keep the stationery store locked; I have the key.

Quote:

elastic bands.....what we call rubber bands.

We use both terms 50-50 I would say.

Quote:

adhesive tape.....we'd just call that tape, except that regardless of brand, everyone knows what you mean when you say "scotch tape",

We generally say "Sellotape" for this; Often it is called "sticky tape" informally. Although Scotch brand tape is available widely; I love their Magic Tape!

Quote:

like if you say "kleenex" everyone knows you mean facial tissue (for blowing your nose)

We generally say "paper handkerchiefs" or "paper hankies" or "tissues"; of course we have the Kleenex brand as well as others.

Quote:

Bringing up tissue.....do you call it toilet paper or toilet tissue? The toilet paper brands all say toilet tissue on the packaging, but I think most people say toilet paper.

Just the same here, and a roll is often called a "toilet roll", or casually a "bog roll"

Unlike North Americans, we don't call all photocopiers "Xerox machines" and we don't call the operation of copying "Xeroxing", and we don't call the copies "Xeroxes" - even if the machine was made by that company (ours are made by Gestetner which is just a brand owned by Ricoh these days)

We call all yellow sticky notes "Post-Its" though, regardless of brand.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Unlike North Americans, we don't call all photocopiers "Xerox machines" and we don't call the operation of copying "Xeroxing", and we don't call the copies "Xeroxes" - even if the machine was made by that company (ours are made by Gestetner which is just a brand owned by Ricoh these days)

We call all yellow sticky notes "Post-Its" though, regardless of brand.

As far as I've seen over the years, we've stopped calling them xerox machines a long long time ago. Now we just call them copiers. Can't even remember the last time I heard some say the word xerox. Ricoh is a really familiar brand now, along with Canon.

Yeah....everyone knows what post-its are if you say that. I think we mostly say "stickies" as in "I left you a stickie on your desk" or "I need some stickie notes from the supply room.

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People still call ball point pens "Biros".

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@contrex,

Ball points are sooooo last Thursday.

Now it's all about gel pens Cool

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

Ball points are sooooo last Thursday.

Now it's all about gel pens

I don't like them; the ink seems to smudge and smear.

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@contrex,

Are you left handed by any chance?

I am, and I have to be careful about the pens I used, or they'll smear.
Some gel writers are great though, dry fast, and I like the look.

When I left my job a couple of weeks ago, I swiped the one I was using, saying "HA HA Company that I will no longer work for! I have taken a good gel pen from you! HA HA!"

1 Reply

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

Are you left handed by any chance?

I am, and I have to be careful about the pens I used, or they'll smear.
Some gel writers are great though, dry fast, and I like the look.

When I left my job a couple of weeks ago, I swiped the one I was using, saying "HA HA Company that I will no longer work for! I have taken a good gel pen from you! HA HA!"

I'm not left-handed, just clumsy. I love Rotring pens... I have to lock my desk drawer because others do as well.

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I'm left-handed, and I LOVE gel pens (and I;m one of those lefties that curls my hand around and writes top-down, versus most righties who write bottom-up). I like the extra fine gel pens, the 0.5 mm ones. they do a very fine line, which dries quickly. The 0.7 ones usually dry, but not always, and the 0.9s and higher are hopeless. Pentel Energels and Zebras work we.. for me. Use a gel pen for awhile and a ball point line starts looking really pallid and weak. Much blacker lines (assuming you're using one with black ink, of course).

It's "sticky notes" most of the time, and I still hear xerox occasionally. Since I work with Boston people, I hear "elastic" (not "elastic band"), and you get water out of a "bubbler").

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@MontereyJack,

Yes, I think that's the trick to a good gel pen....the extra fine point. Very much smoother to write with, and less effort. When I've grabbed a ball point to jot something down, it feels like you're shaving with an old rusty blade.

The one I took has the important feature of having the, don't know the official term, click top, where you put the top button to retract and extend the nub. Much better than pens where you have to take a cap on and off.

the 0.5mm are where it's at, in black gel of course.

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Why do we say 'on a bus' but 'in a car'?

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