bollards, bolsters, who cares?

[Benjamin Barrett]

Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> On May 8, 2007, at 8:54 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>
>> FWIW, "traffic bollards" sounds all right to me.
>>
> i guess i wasn't direct enough.  what i meant to say was:
>
> |as far as i know, "traffic bollards" is an entirely standard and
> ordinary way to refer to these objects.  (no doubt many people have
> no name at all for them, and there might be alternatives i don't know
> about, but there's nothing notable about "traffic bollards".)|
>
> so, yes, i'd expect the expression to sound fine to wilson (so long
> as he's familiar with the word "bollard"), and to any other english
> speaker (so long as they're familiar with the word "bollard")
>
Although I now know this word, I learned it only a few years ago at the
age of 37 or so when I rented a small commercial property with bollards
in the parking lot (this seems to be slightly divergent from the main
meaning of bollard, but that was how I learned the word). Even now,
though, I can't imagine calling these anything but posts unless doing a
technical paper for engineers. I guess count me in the mainly who cares
category.

HTH BB

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