bulldozer = 'bucket loader'

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Nov 20 01:18:28 UTC 2012


Don't feel too bad. I have heard them so called by cable-news journalists.

Certain military armored cars too, come to think of it.

JL

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 8:10 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET>
> Subject:      Re: bulldozer = 'bucket loader'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I wish it had occurred to me to save the Army Times photo caption of an
> armored personnel carrier as a "tank."
> Dave Hause, dwhause at cablemo.net
> Waynesville, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>
> Today a completely different CNN reporter, in a totally different part of
> the world, referred to a front-end loader as a "bulldozer," as though this
> were _le mot juste_.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 11:20 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> >
> > I remember the machines from the later 1950s.  My speech community called
> > them simply "loaders."
> >
> > --Charlie
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> > Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> > Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 10:00 PM
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > BTW, "bucket loader" was originally applied (some will say "correctly")
> to
> > a rather different kind of loading machine - which isn't in OED either!
> >
> > Does anybody know when "front-end loaders" were introduced? I seem to
> > recall seeing one in action in NYC in 1953, though I was too young to
> have
> > had any word for it at the time. But I don't fully trust my memory in
> this
> > case: it could have been a backhoe or even a real bulldozer (though I
> > think
> > I'd have recognized the latter).
> >
> > But I'm pretty sure it was that yellowish color.
> >
> > JL
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list