labor slang

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated >  Mon, 3 Jan 2005 17:29:16 -0600,  "Mullins, Bill" <
> Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>
>
> "Vivid Vernacular Coined by Labor" Dec 1, 1955; Christian Science Monitor
> pg. B16/3
>
> PIE CARD
> "A pie card is a soft job, while therblig relates to time and motion study."

"therblig" was not "coined by labor"   I believe it was the deliberate
coinage by the husband-and-wife team of Frank and LIllian Gilbreth, who were
well-known pioneers in time-and-motion studies and industrial engineering (and
incidentally the inspiration for the recent movie "Cheaper by the Dozen".)

<begin quote>
THERBLIG, a unit of workplace efficiency, is a word created by spelling
approximately backwards the last name of engineer Frank B. Gilbreth and
psychologist Lillian Gilbreth. THERBLIG is not in MWCD10; the three words in MWCD10 that
were created as anagrams are SPANDEX (for "expands"), SIDEBURNS (for
"burnsides"), and ITACONIC ACID (for "aconitic acid," from "aconite.")
<end quote>

from http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words4.html