You Favorite Mis-Used Naultical Jargon

LittleSister said:
Below is a table showing the Beaufort Scale with speeds in knots, miles per hour and kilometers per hour. Please note that these are these are mean speeds, usually averaged over 10 minutes by convention, and do not capture the speed of wind gusts.'
Royal Meteorological Society
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Which is why you describe gusts separately, using the Beaufort scale.
 
thinwater said:
... Which begs the question...


In other words, one day's misuse becomes another day's standard English, a never ending challenge bedeviling those who would try to nail down modern language and usage.

(Actually, I just like the cartoon.)
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Although the misuse has become common to universal, its use as a journalistic cliche is tiresome beyond endurance. There is nothing wrong with such as "This raises the question" instead.
 
thinwater said:
... Which begs the question...
View attachment 82691

In other words, one day's misuse becomes another day's standard English, a never ending challenge bedeviling those who would try to nail down modern language and usage.

(Actually, I just like the cartoon.)
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I despair at the way singular nouns describing corporate bodies such as government, council, company, army etc are now routinely treated i the media as plurals, and the fact that the younger generation cannot construct a coherent sentence, frequently using the plural form of the verb for the predicate in a main clause where that clause has a singular subject and object, but where the subordinate clause contains plurals.
I am also irritated by younger newsreaders and broadcast journalists use of the word "incident" as a substitute for "accident", resulting in howlers involving the use of "instance" and "incidence", as the plural of "incident".
 
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I have never known how to pronounce "wind ship" as in turn 180 degrees at the dockside. Does the "win" bit rhyme with "wine" or "win"?
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
I despair at the way singular nouns describing corporate bodies such as government, council, company, army etc are now routinely treated i the media as plurals, and the fact that the younger generation cannot construct a coherent sentence, frequently using the plural form of the verb for the predicate in a main clause where that clause has a singular subject and object, but where the subordinate clause contains plurals.
I am also irritated by younger newsreaders and broadcast journalists use of the word "incident" as a substitute for "accident", resulting in howlers involving the use of "instance" and "incidence", as the plural of "incident".
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In the case of collective nouns, there is an inherent ambiguity which is recognised by differing American and British usage. Personally, I prefer the common British "the committee have decided" to the more correct "the committee has decided", but I probably use both forms indiscriminately. This probably makes me a bad person, but I can live with that.
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
I despair at the way singular nouns describing corporate bodies such as government, council, company, army etc are now routinely treated i the media as plurals, and the fact that the younger generation cannot construct a coherent sentence, frequently using the plural form of the verb for the predicate in a main clause where that clause has a singular subject and object, but where the subordinate clause contains plurals.
I am also irritated by younger newsreaders and broadcast journalists use of the word "incident" as a substitute for "accident", resulting in howlers involving the use of "instance" and "incidence", as the plural of "incident".
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I think the different words “accident” and “incident” are sometimes used to distinguish between e.g. vehicle collisions and police operations which may have closed the road.
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
"Pushpit" - evidently conceived as the corollary of 'pulpit'.
" Taffrail" is the correct term, according to the instructions for my trailing log.
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Agreed.

But like "texted," I think we're stuck with that one. Push pit is becoming more common, used by magazines and people who do know better. Stern rail, at least, would be better for those that like more modern sounding language.
 
thinwater said:
Agreed.

But like "texted," I think we're stuck with that one. Push pit is becoming more common, used by magazines and people who do know better. Stern rail, at least, would be better for those that like more modern sounding language.
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I must be unique in actually liking 'pushpit'. My split s/s stern rail doesn't begin to resemble my image of a taffrail, and pushpit is short and descriptive, the relationship to pulpit being fairly obvious. I see no reason not to use new terms for items on modern boats that don't relate directly to similar items on older craft.
 
Ohlin Karcher said:
Wined and dined. On the narrow English canals we have wide spots to turn the 70' boats, called 'winding holes'.
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Interesting. US canals have such holes, but they are know as turning basins, and the boat is "turned with warps."

I snicker when folks complain about pronunciation. I once worked for a Spanish/US oil company, and spent considerable time on conference calls translating English variants:
  • England
  • Scottland
  • Canadian
  • Spanish English
  • Boston, US
  • Texas, US
  • North Carolina, US
  • Standard US
It is surprising how many industry terms vary regionally, such as "bobtail."
 
johnalison said:
I must be unique in actually liking 'pushpit'. My split s/s stern rail doesn't begin to resemble my image of a taffrail, and pushpit is short and descriptive, the relationship to pulpit being fairly obvious. I see no reason not to use new terms for items on modern boats that don't relate directly to similar items on older craft.
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A pulpit is really a raised platform from which a speaker talks from.

In a boat is the raised platform at the bow of a boat, not the rail around the bow of a boat.
 
johnalison said:
I must be unique in actually liking 'pushpit'. My split s/s stern rail doesn't begin to resemble my image of a taffrail, and pushpit is short and descriptive, the relationship to pulpit being fairly obvious. I see no reason not to use new terms for items on modern boats that don't relate directly to similar items on older craft.
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Or make it a bow rail, instead of pulpit. Simpler and more descriptive, though bowrail is also used to describe forward side rails, particularly on powerboats. Additionally, the stern rail is not like the pulpit, sticking out like, well, a pulpit.

Webster's
pulpit. n.
1.3A guard rail enclosing a small area at the bow of a yacht.

Nope, I can't use pushpit.
 
My understanding was that in British English, the plural should strictly be used when the group is not acting as a cohesive whole - thus 'The fleet was sailing down the Channel ...’ but ‘The fleet were unable to maintain formation in the gale ...’.

However, that often produces (it seems to me) rather strained constructions, so that it may often be better to avoid the issue and refer to the members of the group if they are not acting together, as in ‘The ships of the fleet were unable ...’.
 
I like nice distinctions when they are useful, but perhaps with age I have become too tolerant, and in this context and I find it hard to be offended by "the committee have decided ...". My BP usually stays constant until I hear someone making ''dissect' rhyme with 'bisect'.

My pulpit may not resemble that on a Tudor ship but I can't be b...'d to work on using another term.
 
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