Hi everybody.
I got a new puppy about four weeks ago - a sweet Basset hound called Hercule Poirot.
Well, it seems we actually got a cow, who likes to eat grass and shrubs and anything leafy, instead of a dog.
So, I went into the pet shop to get some dog repellent to spray onto what is left of my house plants. In French, I asked the girl in the shop if she had some "push-push" repellent for dogs.
The term "push-push" is often used to describe anything that is in aerosol form. I remember my Mom used to say before leaving the house, "Wait I have to comb my hair and put a little push-push."
So, we seem to have adopted the sound the aerosol makes when it comes out of the can, to describe the the product.
Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of anything similar in English. Does anything come to your mind?
Do you say "pouche-pouche" or "pous-pous" or "press-press" or what?
We sometimes refer to a spray (hairspray, water misting for plants, whatever) as a spritz. I don't know the etymology, beyond that it's Yiddish or German, but I've always thought it was onomatopoetic.
Spritz might be from the German or it might be from the Yiddish or it might be from both ... which is not uncommon.
The verb spritzen means something like to spray or to squirt. A "spritzer" is a drink made of wine with soda water perhaps spritzed into it.
Those of us who know how to unpack Indo-European roots will shortly do the rest of the work on this.
So, we seem to have adopted the sound the aerosol makes when it comes out of the can, to describe the the product. Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of anything similar in English. Does anything come to your mind?
When someone wants to increase the power output of an internal combustion engine, one may install different high-performance parts of that engine (e.g. a different camshaft). In the parlance of people who do such things, this may be referred to as "adding vroom" to the engine. "Vroom" seems to me to be a word like push-push in that it imitates the sound of an automobile exhaust which is connected to a muscle engine.
And there is the term "to give it some oomph", meaning to give it more force or noticeability.
Does anyone else remember "Psssssst"? This was a dry shampoo in an aerosol can. Wretched stuff, really, but in my teenage years I thought it took less time to spray and brush out than it would to wash my hair.
>>Do you say
Good question, Faldage. We talking onomoto or something else, Bel?
Do you say "pouche-pouche" or "pous-pous" or "press-press" or what?
We say "push-push" Push is pronounced exactly how you'd pronounce it when you mean "to shove something," or " to move something by applying pressure to it."
I think the vroom example is a good one but the oomph doesn't quite fit since it isn't the sound that anything makes.
High German spritzen 'to spray, squirt, spritz' from Middle High German sprützen is mainly a Germanic word. Appears in English sprit. For other related words from different forms of the root *sper- 'to strew' see:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE491.html
See!? I TOLJA somebody who knew more about this stuff than I do would come along and fill in the blanks. Thanks.
Does anyone else remember "Psssssst"?Oh my, Elizabeth! Talk about a blast from the past - I do remember it, or at least I did when you mentioned it. It's ordinarily not a top-of-mind memory.
Yeah, but can you sing the commercial?
ewwwww, seems a little icky.
ewwwww, seems a little icky.
It was, really. But it was the new thing, right? And parents also thought it was icky, so we hadta do it...
The reason Pssssst is still around is that health-care givers, especially of the amateur variety, find it easier to "wash" granpa's or grandma's hair with the dry spray than with shampoo and water, at least on a regular basis.