New names

[cooper_coleraine]

I notice that the tool I call a box spanner is now often referred to as a dog bone spanner or a barbel spanner. are there other new names for other tools around ?

[Morzedec]

The alternative name for any useless tool is a 'Starmer'.

[Paulatic]

The dog shaped piece of soft alloy in my saddlebag as a child in the 60s was, in our family a bicycle spanner. Never confused with a useful box spanner.

[Nearholmer]

You could discuss G-cramps for hours.

[fatmac]

I used to know them as a Dumbell Spanner, back in the 1960s.

[Cugel]

You could discuss G-cramps for hours.

Wot's in a name? Less to nothing unless the name has a commonly-accepted and understood meaning or referent that's clear, precise and unambiguous.

English is a rascal of a language (or the cultures that generates it are, perhaps). Meanings slide about or go into a cultural sausage machine that chops & stirs up the argot to generate alternative meanings or neologisms, emitted into the webbery or other meejah as a constant stream of the latest babbledigook.

Some nice technical words are rather more stable, those referring to toolery being a good example. But even with these, some adopt a mistaken term then stick to it tenaciously because they prefer it to the proper descriptive word. "It's what I call a ****** and I know what I mean." Humpty-dumpties all over the place!

Then there are personal names, some of which are pseudonyms. What do the inventors (at cultural or personal level) mean by these names? They're often an attempt to include attributes that the namer hopes the name will indicate about the named. What meanings are hidden in "Morzedec" for example? I envisage a personage draped in a Z-Tommaso jersey but with extra Zs embroidered on it, cycling about a chicane of variegated road signs, for obscure reasons.

Decal this with more Zs

My own pseudonym refers to a character from obscure fantasy lit who has over-inflated opinions about his own abilities, which mental state is often illustrated by his many faux-pas, face-plants and encystment in this or that sticky mind-nonsense.

[Cugel]

You could discuss G-cramps for hours.

Does a G-cramp clamp? Of course it does, if used aright! Therefore it may be a clamp, although the tightening of the the thing can give one a cramp (in the thumb regions, especially, as one ages).

I prefer an F-clamp myself, mind .... mostly. On the other hand, a Very Large cast iron sash cramp of the T-section is a fine thing to apply.

[al_yrpal]

Folk sometimes get things wrong - ie calling duct tape duck tape when duct tape is correct because it refers to the tapes original purpose to join and seal air ducts.

But, I think calling box spanners dogbone spanners is appropriate. Perhaps thats what they are called in other countrys?

Al

[Jdsk]

Why the tape has two names, and which came first:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape

Jonathan

[Galactic]

Never heard dogbone before but been calling those things bone spanners since the 90s and nobody has looked askance.

As Cugel may or may not have implied (difficult to keep up, much as I enjoy his missives), as long as it's clear wot we mean then no foul.

[Nearholmer]

How about a tool which used to be indispensable to cyclists, the screwhammer?

[Jdsk]

I notice that the tool I call a box spanner is now often referred to as a dog bone spanner or a barbel spanner. are there other new names for other tools around ?

It's often the case that the other name has been around for some time, and what's new is us noticing it.

Jonathan

[rjb]

When did "Peanut Butter" spanners get their title. I've only ever known them as wheel spanners from the late 60's. Fixed wheel riders carried one with a toestrap threw the bolt hole securing their spare tub wrapped up by their cape and secured around the saddle rail.
9

[Jdsk]

Never heard dogbone before but been calling those things bone spanners since the 90s and nobody has looked askance.
...

That could be a good example of what's new being our awareness rather than others' usage.

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

When did "Peanut Butter" spanners get their title. I've only ever known them as wheel spanners from the late 60's. Fixed wheel riders carried one with a toestrap threw the bolt hole securing their spare tub wrapped up by their cape and secured around the saddle rail.
9

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/peanu ... ey.227403/

Jonathan