[Ads-l] Attention Garson: new postdating of (metaphorical) "prime the pump"
Dave Hause
dwhause at CABLEMO.NET
Sat May 13 04:02:53 UTC 2017
>From my (non-scholar's) viewpoint, "fuel pump" is internal to the
engine-bearing device. The thing with a nozzle to fill a car is usually a
"gas pump."
Dave Hause, dwhause at cablemo.net
retired pathologist
Waynesville, MO
-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Hamilton
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2017 2:58 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Attention Garson: new postdating of (metaphorical) "prime the
pump"
"not everyone would have been familiar with fuel pumps (which is what I
assume a
“petrol pump” is ..."
The default UK understanding of the term "petrol pump" would be a thing
found in
(American) a gas station, with a nozzle to stick into the car to fill the
tank
with petrol. Thus, yes, equivalent to US "fuel pump" (I presume).
Except both "fuel pump" and "petrol pump" could (am I right?) *also* be used
to
refer to the mechanism inside a car which delivers fuel ("petrol" or "gas")
from
the petrol/gas tank to the actual engine of the car.
[UK "gas" is, by default, a vapour rather than a liquid.]
Which was what I had (as is now obvious, anachronistically) in mind as lying
behind the term, "prime the pump".
Robin
>
> On 12 May 2017 at 20:42 "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
>
>
> In the period that these cartoons were drawn (1920s and 1930s), which
> was
> fairly early in the history of the phrase as a metaphor (the OED takes it
> back
> to 1916), all Americans would have been familiar with water pumps, while
> not
> everyone would have been familiar with fuel pumps (which is what I assume
> a
> "petrol pump" is - I've never actually heard the term before).
>
> Note that the metaphor also works better for a water pump. Once water
> is
> used to prime a water pump, the pump can be used to produce a much larger
> amount of water, typically limited only by the pumper's energy. A primed
> fuel
> pump makes it possible to operate the engine, but it does not produce any
> more
> fuel.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf
> Of Ben Zimmer
> Sent: Friday, May 12, 2017 3:29 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Attention Garson: new postdating of (metaphorical) "prime
> the
> pump"
>
> In the editorial cartoons from the '20s and '30s that I surveyed, it's
> always water getting pumped (or money in the place of water).
>
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=32649
>
>
> On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 3:09 PM, Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > I always assumed it was a water pump that needs (literal or
> > metaphorical)
> > priming. The ones I’ve encountered are in state parks, and you do
> need
> > to
> > prime them a couple of times the way John describes before the water
> > comes
> > out.
> >
> > > On May 12, 2017, at 3:06 PM, Robin Hamilton <
> > robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM> wrote:
> > >
> > > Thanks, John. I stand duly corrected.
> > >
> > > Would it be fair then to say that the term, "prime the pump", is
> > > *more*
> > related
> > > to water pumps than to petrol pumps? As you describe it below, the
> > dynamics of
> > > priming a water pump would differ from those of priming a petrol
> pump.
> > Turning
> > > on a continuous feed in both cases, but not necessarily gravity
> when
> > > it
> > comes to
> > > petrol.
> > >
> > > Or similar fluids -- somewhere in my head, I have memories of an
> old
> > Massie
> > > Fergusson tractor having to have its pump primed, and an even
> older
> > tractor that
> > > ran on paraffin.
> > >
> > > But that was long ago, and in another country, and besides the
> machine
> > has long
> > > gone to the Great Junkyard in the Sky.
> > >
> > > Robin
> > >
> > >>
> > >> On 12 May 2017 at 19:50 "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> One does prime water pumps. The hand pump, which was once
> familiar
> > to all
> > >> Americans, operates by suction: The rod, which is operated by
> hand,
> > lifts a
> > >> piston that is at the top of a column of water, and each time the
> rod
> > >> is
> > >> pumped more water is brought to the outlet. If there is air below
> the
> > piston,
> > >> it will not lift the column of water and the pump will not work.
> When
> > the pump
> > >> is first used, and thereafter whenever there for any reason is
> not a
> > >> continuous column of water below the piston, the user must put
> enough
> > water in
> > >> the pump for that water column to be created, a process referred
> to
> > >> as
> > >> "priming."
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> John Baker
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf
> > >> Of Robin Hamilton
> > >> Sent: Friday, May 12, 2017 1:42 PM
> > >> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >> Subject: Re: Attention Garson: new postdating of (metaphorical)
> > "prime the
> > >> pump"
> > >>
> > >> Does one actually prime water [sic] pumps? I'd always assumed
> this
> > >> referred to
> > >> priming the pump in a petrol engine, or summat.
> > >>
> > >> Mind you, I may be wrong, as when I was a youngun, pumps of any
> kind
> > were
> > >> still
> > >> a twinkle in the eye of the future, and we drew water from the
> well
> > in a
> > >> bucket.
> > >>
> > >> R.
> > >>
> > >>>
> > >>> On 12 May 2017 at 15:58 George Thompson
> <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> You have to keep in mind that back on the old Trump homestead in
> > >>> Brooklyn,
> > >>> his family had a pump -- that was how Brooklyn people got their
> > >>> water,
> > >>> in
> > >>> olden times, the 1940s & 50s. So he's very familiar with having
> to
> > prime
> > >>> a
> > >>> water pump, and naturally the metaphor would come to his mind.
> > >>>
> > >>> GAT
> > >>>
> > >>> On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 10:39 AM, Laurence Horn <
> > laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > >>> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> From an interview with President Trump (as in Pump) in The
> > >>>> Economist [
> > >>>> http://www.economist.com/Trumptranscript]:
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Reporter: But beyond that it’s OK if the tax plan increases the
> > >>>> deficit?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Trump: It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long. You may
> > >>>> have
> > >>>> two
> > >>>> years where you’ll…you understand the expression “prime the
> pump”?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Reporter: Yes.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Trump: We have to prime the pump.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Reporter:It’s very Keynesian.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Trump: We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you
> heard
> > >>>> that
> > >>>> expression before, for this particular type of an event?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Reporter: Priming the pump?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Trump: Yeah, have you heard it?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Reporter: Yes.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Trump: Have you heard that expression used before? Because I
> > >>>> haven’t
> > >>>> heard
> > >>>> it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I
> > >>>> thought
> > >>>> it
> > >>>> was good. It’s what you have to do.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Reporter: It’s...
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Trump: Yeah, what you have to do is you have to put something
> in
> > >>>> before
> > >>>> you can get something out.
> >
>
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>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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