"Air conditioning?" WHAT condition? Is it hotter, drier, denser, cooler, more humid? What's wrong with calling it refrigeration as we do with more confined spaces?

You need to have a lie down Geoff. There are all sorts of words that you could complain about. Why is it called an automobile when it doesn’t go by itself, why do we use battery when there is only one cell, why is television half Latin and half Greek, an umbrella should be to protect us from the sun not the rain, a Jerusalem artichoke isn’t an artichoke and doesn’t come from Jerusalem, a Bombay duck is a fish. I could go on all day. Try not to let this stuff bother you.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale: …an umbrella should be to protect us from the sun not the rain…

But it does. And then we call it a parasol. How many other items can you think of that change their name when you decide what to use them for?

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale: …an umbrella should be to protect us from the sun not the rain…

But it does. And then we call it a parasol. How many other items can you think of that change their name when you decide what to use them for?

I was of course speaking etymologically. umbra = shade
Also while we can use an umbrella as a parasol they are usually physically different with a parasol being a much lighter and flimsier construction.

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:
How many other items can you think of that change their name when you decide what to use them for?

If you've seen the very funny French movie, "Les Visiteurs," "lavatory" is somewhat misunderstood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5LCHLIxghU The French version was funnier, but Google switched my search to the insipid Englih version.. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/...isiteurs_(film,_1993)

BTW it isn't just English. In Berlin there's a famous street called Unter den Linden, although there are no Linden trees in sight...

Maybe some of it is due to real estate (revoltin') developers. Pave paradise, name the pavement for what they tore out.

quote:

You need to have a lie down Geoff.

Now that is not something we in the U.S. would say.

Parasol is an interesting word, deriving from Latin, French and Italian.