I Get Teased About Nautical Terms

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by StuM

Ask non computer technies the difference between HDMI and DisplayPort and they won't know either.

In both cases, the non-boatie or non-technie don't need to know, the actual boatie/technie should know.

In the anchor case, one is an adjective (a state of being) and one is a verb (an instruction to perform an action).

But they are descriptive terms, if your setting up a TV most people would have a fair idea where to find and an approximation of what it does. Ask a layman to haul in the main sheet on a boat and they are looking for a cloths line.

My point though was if a fair percentage of the boaties don't know what the difference between anchors aweigh and weigh anchor is there's a problem with the term.

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by Rucksta

When I taught SCUBA the German manual had more pages than the same manual in any other language.

maybe more pages in the german version, but i'll bet there were fewer words !

cheers,

[Cadence]

[QUOTE=StuM;3464864]There are two major catergories of running rigging:

One's that make make sails go up and down.
Ones that make sails go side to side (or in and out)

It is extremely useful to have two distinct terms for them to avoid confusion.

You can call them upandowners and sidetosiders if you want, but they've been called halyards and sheets for centuries and any experienced sailor will immediately know what you mean when you say the "main sheet" or the "main halyard" and there is no confusion. Would you prefer us to all start using the term "in and out rope for the biggest sail" instead of "mainsheet"?

Every technical area of expertise has it's set of commonly understood terms to differentiate similar objects in common use There are sound reasons for this. Just because non-practitioners are not au fait with these terms is no reason to discard them.

Well Stated.