"electric" = electric power

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's often used in conjunction with "gas" :

" What about gas and electric ? "

Nor, tsk tsk, do I find "air," air conditioning.

" How can you drive in the summer without air ? "

I heard this for the first time about fifteen years ago, maybe less.  It's common in classified automobile ads.

JL

"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "James A. Landau"
Subject: Re: "electric" = electric power
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In a message dated Thu, 15 Sep 2005 05:26:09 -0700, Jonathan Lighter
_wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM_ (mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM) complains:



OED somehow misses this, though it's extremely common in the N. Y. metro
area. My grandfather (b. 1884) used it all the time.

2005 Brian Kilmeade (from L.I.) on _Fox & Friends_ (Fox News Channel) (Sept.
15) : " A hundred thousand people without electric."


That's nothing. In stage usage, "electric" is not only a noun, it is a
count noun.

A well-equipped stage has a number of horizontal beams over the stage that
can be raised or lowered. If such a beam has electical power outlets for
lights, it is "an electric". (If it does not have electrical outlets, it is a
"pipe", although I think an "electric" is sometimes included under "pipes".
The collection of pipes and electrics constitutes the "flies", which are
controlled by a stagehand known as the "flyman" (I'm sure there are flywomen, but
not too many, since it can be a very physical job.) The flyman's station is
the "flyrail" or "pinrail" (the latter term refers to the belaying pins
sometimes used in the rail.))

- Jim Landau

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