Why do we call it an elevator or lift?

Page 1 of 1 [ 11 posts ] 

NewTime
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Apr 2015
Posts: 1,939

24 Feb 2018, 12:04 pm

Doesn't it also go down?



lostonearth35
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Jan 2010
Age: 50
Gender: Female
Posts: 11,790
Location: Lost on Earth, waddya think?

24 Feb 2018, 12:47 pm

And we also call moving stairs an escalator, even though they are built to take you down as well as up.

Well, they had to call them something. :P



Esmerelda Weatherwax
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Sep 2017
Age: 69
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,749

24 Feb 2018, 1:13 pm

In German, it's a Personenaufzug - a People-Up-Train. I used to laugh and ask where the Personenzuzug was (People-Down-Train).

German has a lot of this. My vacuum cleaner was a Staubsauger - a dustsucker :-) . Yep, that's about right.

I've been told that Dutch is even more direct but never had the chance to live where I could learn the language.


_________________
"I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people," said the man. "You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides."
-- Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!


kraftiekortie
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 87,510
Location: Queens, NYC

24 Feb 2018, 4:51 pm

it sounds much better than "Conveyer machine" or whatever.......



SaveFerris
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Sep 2016
Gender: Male
Posts: 14,762
Location: UK

24 Feb 2018, 5:03 pm

My first time in an elevator was an uplifting experience but the second time let me down.

Farting in an elevator is wrong on so many levels


_________________
R Tape loading error, 0:1

Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury. Raise the double standard


kraftiekortie
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 87,510
Location: Queens, NYC

24 Feb 2018, 5:06 pm

Calling the "conveyer thing" an elevator was a marketing ploy. Better than calling it a "decelerator".....

How many "decelerators" would have been sold?



nick007
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 May 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 27,059
Location: was Louisiana but now Vermont in the police state called USA

24 Feb 2018, 5:51 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
it sounds much better than "Conveyer machine" or whatever.......
That term sounds like something people would of called it in the old days like how they referred to airplanes as flying machines.


_________________
"I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem!"
~King Of The Hill


"Hear all, trust nothing"
~Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #190
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ru ... cquisition


kraftiekortie
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 87,510
Location: Queens, NYC

24 Feb 2018, 6:37 pm

Or cars as "horseless carriages" LOL



Skilpadde
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Dec 2008
Age: 46
Gender: Female
Posts: 27,019

26 Feb 2018, 2:41 pm

Esmerelda Weatherwax wrote:
German has a lot of this. My vacuum cleaner was a Staubsauger - a dustsucker :-) . Yep, that's about right.

Dustsucker is what it's called in Norwegian too; støvsuger.

We say heis for elevator/lift (hoist), and rulletrapp (roll stairs) for escalators.

I've never thought of the literal names of these things, other than simply something to call it.


_________________
BOLTZ 17/3 2012 - 12/11 2020
Beautiful, sweet, gentle, playful, loyal
simply the best and one of a kind
love you and miss you, dear boy

Stop the wolf kills! https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeact ... 3091429765


apus apus
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 25 Feb 2018
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 81
Location: Warsaw, Poland

26 Feb 2018, 2:47 pm

In Polish vacuum cleaner is "odkurzacz", in English it would be "deduster"!



Esmerelda Weatherwax
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Sep 2017
Age: 69
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,749

26 Feb 2018, 2:50 pm

nick007 wrote:
kraftiekortie wrote:
it sounds much better than "Conveyer machine" or whatever.......
That term sounds like something people would of called it in the old days like how they referred to airplanes as flying machines.


From my childhood... enjoy!


_________________
"I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people," said the man. "You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides."
-- Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!