Over in the Donut thread, Bean, attempting to clarify, asks if it by the word "cruller", i mean the pastries shaped like "tractor tires"
that threw me for a minute--for me,
a tractor is part of tractor-trailer.-- a semi -- the thing shown here in this commercial web page..
http://www.hvtechnology.com/tractortrailer.htmlbut what Bean meant, clearly, was
what i would call a "BobCat"-- brand name i tend to use genericaly.
here is an item from BobCat home page -- the best i could find with the tire treds showing clearly,
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H57B12C51but the John Deere site had something pretty similar, with the same kind of tires, on
what they call a tractorhttp://makeashorterlink.com/?A56B25C51the Goodyear tire site also has some pictures
http://www.goodyearag.com/So
the Point is, what do you call the first vehicle pictured in the first URL? and what kind of vehicle do you think of when you hear
tractor?
we covered some of this ground with
a Woody-- (a large-ish jeep type wagon, with decorative wooden side panels.. ) but i think --given my thoughts on tractors..
What do think of when you hear
a wagon
a van
a truck
a lorry
a car
a minivan
a pick up
a panal truck
a coupe
a sedan
i think SUV is new enough, that we would agree--
but how about a RV?
and i am sure the are vehicles that i have missed.. (all those mini exurban stuff.. mini tractors (bobcat style))
Oh man! I didn't realize that tractor wasn't universally understood to mean "vehicle for farming which pulls different attachments depending on what work is to be done". To me, it's one of those really basic words in the language, that you might find on an alphabet chart (along with an illustration of a fellow on a John Deere tractor!), so it didn't occur to me that it might mean something else. My meaning for "tractor" corresponds to the John Deere tractors in the link (agricultural in application - a BobCat couldn't be properly called a tractor in the west).
Regarding the links:
#1: I call this a semi-trailer, the front part is just "the rig" (something I learned recently is that Canadians tend to pronounce semi- or anti- like semee or antee rather than the USn form sem-eye or ant-eye, though this seems to be changing due to all the imported TV)
#2: That multi-purpose BobCat thing has no name in my vocabulary.
#3: Those are definitely tractors, as a side word-related note, they can pull sprayers, seeders, or cultivators, the other main farm equipment would be a combine and an auger.
#4: Those are also what I would call tractors.
Hey, Helen, I couldn't get your link to work; then I took out a slash after the http. You may want to edit it out, but I'll put the link anyway.
http://www.hvtechnology.com/tractortrailer.htmlThose are called semis, around here. I've had two British friends comment on how very large they are, compared to what they have in England.
This link shows what I think of when I think wagon--it's the one labeled Texas buckboard, and the one just below it.
http://www.firstshotphoto.com/carriage.htmHere's a link showing vans and a mini-van.
http://www.sherrodvans.com/dodge_vans.htmlHere's one for panel trucks, thought I'd thought panel meant without windows on the rearward side panels.
http://www.paneltruck.com/Oh yes--a Bobcat is one brand of front-end loader.
tractor: What's them that's gots two little wheels on the front and two big uns on the back
tractor trailer: an 18-wheeler
I don't know no bobcats other than them's whats run around in the country all scraggly and starved-lookin' mos' times.
There's:
go-carts
sports cars
jeeps
station wagons
riding mowers
big wheels
dumptrucks
caterpillars
pickup trucks
batmobiles
bugs
double trailers
derby cars
ice cream trucks
buses
double deckers
earth movers
steam shovels (any still around?)
...and that's all I want to think about for now. But I never saw one of those bobcats, of troy, till you posted it jes' now.
Me, I like my Blazer and especially 4-wheel drive.
Brake regards,
WordWagon
Helen, just for Wow and me (I think she's the only other one the really wide screens bother) can you shorten up your longer links?
muchos grapenuts.
http://makeashorterlink.com/
well, NY has great parks, and wonderful natural places, like Little Neck bay, and the whole ocean front and atlantic beaches, and it has botanical gardens with a few acres of virgin forest, but Farms? the only farms i know are exhibits in museums! (there is one working farm left in all of NYC, and it is in Queens, but its only a few acres, the family also owns a farm out on the Island, and uses the NY one mostly to sell "farm fresh produce" that is actually produced on their Long Island farm.)
The only earth moving equipment i see, is as i zoom past road construction sites.. but bob cat like thing are used to excavate foundation for houses.. often bigger equipment can't manuover on small NYC lots.. (i have a huge peice of land (well for the moment, i have agreed to sell it!) a whole 80 X 100 feet! ) many houses in my neighborhood are on lots sized 20 X 100!
of troy:
You come on down South and visit me on the farm. I'll show you lots of tractors! We've got all sizes and shapes around here in Dinwiddie--some are even air-conditioned! Ha! Wimpy farmers!
Another good catchall term for a "personal tractor" is Skidster. Most people with a lot larger than an acre or two seem to need one for some purpose or another.
Here's a picture of one
http://www.opico.co.uk/skidster/
Hello and welcome, Eyes I Knew! Well, except for a typo, you seem to have learned the conventions here pretty fast. Good on ya.
What does your intriguing handle mean?
Helen - I couldn't tell from your post - what do you call the John Deere thing that a farmer drives around on?
I'm amazed that the John Deere sense wouldn't be the first one that comes to mind on hearing the word tractor (at least for a US'n - I never know which way the rest of y'all's gonna jump), and I'm a city boy, born and raised. I call the thing that pulls the trailer on an 18-wheeler a semi, like Signorina Bean.
And I'm with Jackie - your Bobcat™ is just a brand name for an itty-bitty front-end loader.
I'm amazed that the John Deere sense wouldn't be the first one that comes to mind on hearing the word tractor (at least for a US'n - I never know which way the rest of y'all's gonna jump), and I'm a city boy, born and raised.
I concur with the above, except I would not have used the word amazed. Flabbergasted, dumbfounded or stupefied would come closer to describing my reaction to learning that anyone thinks of anything other than a "John Deere" type of vehicle when they hear the word tractor. That which you call a semi is also so-caled here, but I would tend to think of it simply as a truck, part of a truck-and-trailer unit.
yep. tractor. farmers use 'em. John Deere. Massey-Ferguson. International Harvester. Ford. lots of Kubota around these parts.
semi. short for semi-articulated, I believe. 18 wheelers. 10-4 good buddy.
Bobcat. sort of a catch-all name, now. little loader, dozer, sweeper. back-hoe. etc. they make all sorts of attachments for them now.
that little Skidster is cute. never seen anything like that over here in the US. I could use one of those. most people would use a Kubota tractor for the same jobs.
I dunno... I think of Caterpillar first (possibly because they have such a huge presence in Brazil, where I used to live) and John Deere second.
Caterpillar has a huge presence everywhere - I have yet to see a small one. <g>
Here, though, that sort of machinery would tend to be called an earthmover, bulldozer, or something similar. Tractors are for farmers, here. Bobcats, on the other hand, are universally used, in the same generified way mentioned above.
right, sjm. a Caterpillar would be a bulldozer, and would have tracks, as opposed to tires.
i would call the farm thing a tractor, its just not my first frame of reference when i hear tractor.. (in a word association game, if you said tractor, i would say trailer.) i rarely call them semi's, or 18 wheels-- though i know both terms..
likewise, i call my car a wagon (not a station wagon) and that is my first association for that word. a wooden wagon or a conastoga wagon, or a buck board would be 2nd and 3rd meanings for the word.
i drove to Michigan this summer, i noticed even the road side mowers are bigger in Upstate NY, Pennslyvania and Ohio and Michigan than they are in the down state area. there are fewer and fewer farm left on Long Island and in lower NE. I remember seeing many as child, now there are almost none left.. Miles of the Connecticut river valley, once tobacco farms are now strip malls.. Long Island potatoes, like Long Island ducks are rare. there are still some dairy farms, and some new vineyards, and some places that grow corn, but most of LI is suburban, and i can't remember when i last saw a tractor- farm style!
and Yes, catapillars are big earth moving equipment.. i still see that.. but bob cats are much more common in may area.
when I hear wagon, I think of my little red wagon that I had as a kid, and have passed on to my own kids... a Radio Flyer, I believe...
ah, those were the days... perpetual blue skies and summer... trees to climb and dirt to dig. still have my tonka's, too...
I have yet to see a small one.
Ha! Good one, sjm.
Eyes, if you wouldn't mind saying, do you have a British connection? I've never seen anything like that Skidster. Where is the operator positioned?
The various images of "wagon" made me realize how important context is. If the reference is about cars, then people would know that wagon meant station wagon. My image came from my uncle's farm in Tennessee, when he would haul all kinds of things on the old wooden wagon, which I can barely remember being pulled by his mules, George and Henry. For most of my times there, though, he hitched it up to the tractor--a faded red Massey-Ferguson--and I'd catch a ride on it unless it was loaded with tobacco stalks, for which he would put the sides on it. But in my childhood, if I said I was going to ride my wagon down the hill, it was understood that I meant my Radio Flyer (hi, eta!)
RE: The various images of "wagon" made me realize how important context is--yes, we were discussing donuts, and crullers when Bean threw in "tractor tires"
"tractor tires" to me, are the failed re-treads of tractor-trailers that litter highways! its was the juxtoposition of the words that brought up the first image, as much as the word tractor.
Never having had much contact with tractors, i didn't think about their tires as being special, (i did make the connection in 30 seconds or so.)
Dear of troy: to quibble a bit, the tires on tractors of tractor-trailers are watched
very closely for wear and safety. You don't see many of those on the shoulder of
the main highways. But the trailers have so many tires that are pushed to the
limit, that they are the ones you see.
ah now, tractor tires! those are the big ones, for the rear of the John Deere, with the V-shaped tread, that we used, as did nearly every backyard, for the sandbox...
An old tractor tire, agricultural vehicle type when no longer serviceable could
be used as small sandbox. One caveat, old tires of any sort are capable of
breeding mosquitoes, including some vicious disease carriers.
http://www.vdh.state.va.us/epi/wnv042902.htm Scroll down to 4th paragraph.
A book that I read when I was a child was called "Are you my Mother?" A little bird had lost its mother, so it went searching around for her, asking various things if they were its mother.
One of the things it asked was a steam shovel, which replied in the only way it could... "SNORT!" (The snort being a blast of steam out of its pipes). My sister and I thought that that was actually what it was called, a Snort. One day at Primary School the teacher asked the class what this thing in the picture was, and my sister said "A Snort". Everyone laughed at her, and she came home, furious with my mother, that it had never been pointed out to her that it really wasn't called that.
I still think it's a great name for it, though.
/silen
I can remember seventy years ago when "steam shovels" were powered by
steam, and made a loud noise whenpower was applied. But that was long
ago. They are all diesel powered now, or maybe
diesel-electric, and they don't "snort" any more, just growl a little louder.
Terrific children's story "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" or mebbe it's called "Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel" by Virginia Lee Burton or Virginia Burton Lee. I'm having problems this morning with big chunks of words in my brain unsure which direction they should lie.
Anyway, that story is a classic, and there's also a cartoon based on the book that's done very well. Highly recommend it for kids in elementary school, all ages. Gives you a good sense of the steam shovel and its demise. I cried at the end of the cartoon because I am the world's biggest sap and can cry even at steam shovels who come to their ending.
Hey! Guess what! We have four of those Bobcat kind of tractors on the farm across the road. I just noticed 'em yesterday--brand new ones. I have no idea what the farmer is going to use them for, but they look pretty cool and modern sitting in a yellow row by the woods.
Dear WW: One of the nasty things about big tractors is their compaction of soil.
The red clay I have seen in Virginia might well be susceptible to this. The bobcats
being so much lighter might avoid this. But I'm surprised the guy would need four.
Dear wwh: I suspect there's some kind of land clearance going on or road work. This guy's farm is very, very small and I don't think he's gonna use the bobcats on his farm. However, some very small subdevelopments are popping up out here, and he may have been subcontracted to do some work. That's my theory. If I see him out front sometime, I'll ask him about those Bobcats.
Damn book-larnin'. Nobody who's ever used one would call it a Caterpillar. It's called a cat.
Cats are yellow. John Deere products are green.
I used a Bobcat some 16 years ago on the Duke Farms Estate in Somerfield, NJ. They are less general-purpose than a tractor, being primarily loading shovels (we used it to skip around the animal quarters clearing manure, since it turns on a sixpence). A more generic name for this kind of vehicle is
skid-steer loader, so called to underline their key feature: their hydrostatic transmission allows you to spin the wheels either side in different directions (like a tracked vehicle can do) so it literally spins on a slick floor within its own length.
On wet brick flooring outside the dairy, we used to turn fancy donuts...!
Here's the real thing ;)
http://telepresence.dmem.strath.ac.uk/jen/lego/skidsteer.htm
wow! that is some serious Lego® building! actually, I would guess those are Technics®, the next step up from the basic Legos... cool...
On wet brick flooring outside the dairy, we used to turn fancy donuts...!Ah, yes--circle work!
(Hi, stales!)
Hi Wordwind: I agree, Mike Mulligan (by Virginia Lee Burton) is a fascinating book and was also one of the first films produced by Weston Woods Studios (in 1957) who specialised in transferring children's picture books into short films.
I have a copy of the film in my collection and it's still popular with young children who come to visit.
Incidentally, I was also taken by the word 'selectmen' (used in the book); we use the term 'councillors' for elected local government officers. Is 'selectmen' still in common use?
In reply to:
Is 'selectmen' still in common use?
it is in Vermont.
Mike Mulligan was one of my favorite stories as a child(still is! and my boys' too), and I remember the film being shown on Captain Kangaroo on a regular basis. What I got from it was the idea that you can improvise a solution and adapt to any situation. and that has served me well!
Is 'selectmen' still in common use?
Not here, lovely paulb. [blowing kiss e] We have aldermen now, but our city and county governments are in the process of merging. Next year we'll have what are now being called councilmen. I hope they change it to councilors.
For me, a tractor is the type of thing a farmer or someone would use. My dad has a fifteen year old tractor he uses to pull trees to a place where we can cut them, and to plough our driveway in the winter. The snow gets pushed into piles next to the driveway, and when I was little, my brothers and I would dig little caves in them.
What most people call a tractor trailer, I call a big truck, (emphasis on big) because everyone at Southern Tier Express, where my uncle works, calls them that, and that's what they work with all the time.
I notice that no-one's given a Britlish perspective, so here you have one -
I'd probably call a "tractor-trailer" an articulated lorry or "artic". The front bit would certainly
never be called a "tractor". more likely a "cab", I think.
BobCats I'm unsure about - but the tendency is for brand names to be adopted for (to us ignorami
) novel hardware. As an example, a local farm kindly lets us use a "grabber" to build our November bonfires - we all call this grabber a Matro (brand name).
The John Deere picture is definitely near as dammit what I'd call a tractor, but it's a bit swish for my liking! Tractors are chunky, clunky, basic but fantastically efficient and well-suited to their work. They're like the farm equivalent of Land Rovers.
a wagon is always pulled by a horse or a team of horses.
a van is almost definitely white, and a Ford Transit
a truck is a small lorry, usually functional rather than goods-carrying (e.g. a tow-truck).
a lorry I think I've defined already - but always bigger than a van, and usually geared up for carrying goods .
a car is that 4 wheeled thingy that blights our lives and destroys the planet
- very very occasionally it'll be a train carriage.
a minivan is ...errr.. a small van.
a pick up is a a van that's open at the back rather than contained - a van with a built-in open trailer, fixed position.
Brits wouldn't have a clue what a
panel truck was.
coupes are sporty little cars, 2-seaters, usually open or soft-topped.
sedans are a type of furniture, a bit like settees.
What's an SUV??
RVs I identified fairly recently, but we'd possibly call them 4-wheel drives or off-roaders here.
Hmmm
Nice one Helen. A rich area indeed!
In reply to:
What's an SUV??
http://www.ford.com/en/ourVehicles/allVehicles/fordExplorer.htm
just got an older one of these; good for the hilly dirt roads where we live, and the copious snow in the winter-time...
I'd probably call a "tractor-trailer" an articulated lorry or "artic". The front bit would certainly never be called a "tractor". more likely a "cab", I think.Not
quite true, shona - among professional truckers (a USn name which has become common over here in the last 20 years) the term "tractor-unit" is fairly common, and this is sometimes abbrev'ed to "tractor." It's also called the "prime mover." But "artic" is the usual - indeed, almost the only - term for the whole contraption.
a wagon is always pulled by a horse or a team of horses. or a railway locomotive. (But increasingly the term is being used, in the USn sense, for a lorry
)
a minivan is ...errr.. a small van. the name originally springing from the commercial version of the Morris Mini-Minor, that wondeful invention of Alec Issigonis. But now, as shona rightly says, applied to almost anything with a capacity of ½ ton or less.
Brits wouldn't have a clue what a panel truck was. now, I have to disagree with that one, except that we say panel van, rather than truck (a truck is more likely to mean a hand cart with four wheels over here, BTW) Again, the term has only come into vogue in the last ten - fifteen years, but they are advertised as such in the press. I suppose that, like the use of "tractor" for the front bit of an artic, "panel van" is better known among commercial drivers and operators than the gen.pub., but the term is definitely in general use here.
SUV - doesn't that stand for "Sports Utility Vehicle"? (to me, a contradiction in terms, but I travelled for many comfortable miles with
Jackie in one this summer, so what's in a name?.)
I travelled for many comfortable miles with Jackie in one this summer, so what's in a name?.) And a funtastic trip it was, too!
Since it is this particular thread, I'll mention that we stopped at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenburg museum in Indiana. Holy cow--some of those old beauties had hoods/bonnets as long as my entire vehicle, I think! And oh my gosh, the workmanship! The detail! Amazing.
-- and boots/trunks as big as the whole interior of your SUV
among professional truckers.. the term "tractor-unit" is fairly common, and this is sometimes abbrev'ed to "tractor." Professionals, shmofessionals, mate. I'm taking a common or garden as-much-of-an-ignoramus-as-me perspective here.
I'm sure I've heard the front bit of an artic called something else. "Rig" is it?
>a wagon is always pulled by a horse or a team of horses..
or a railway locomotiveOh yes, as in a "goods wagon". I suppose not so much rail transportation of goods happens these days in the UK.
>>Brits wouldn't have a clue what a panel truck was.
now, I have to disagree with that one, except that we say panel van..better known among commercial drivers and operators than the gen.pubAs I said above regarding professionals...
Actually I can see there is a distinction between an old-fashioned standard (car-sized) van and, say, a Ford Transit van. The latter is more likely to have a door in the side as well as back doors, for one thing.
a truck is more likely to mean a hand cart with four wheels over here Hmmm, I would tend to think working lorry, as in tow truck, having said which I can't think of any other examples..
Rarely hand cart, but I wonder if this is a North-South thing?
It's a rich area, this, sure enough!
just got an older one of these; good for the hilly dirt roads where we live, and the copious snow in the winter-time...Ah, now I see, eta. Thanks.
Very much the same area as the Land Rover Freelander, I think:
http://www.landrover.com/gb/en/Products/Vehicle_Range/FreelanderSo an SUV is like a mini RV, a sorty of semi-off-roader?
Your case excepted, I reckon this is often in the same territory as people buying mountain bikes and never taking them off-road, and mothers dropping their kids at school with a gleaming 2/4-wheel drive that's never been in 4-wheel drive mode.
I suppose we have a river nearby that occasionally floods, so a high wheel-base is useful. But!
well, I wouldn't say an SUV is a mini-RV; RV's are for camping-SUV's ostensibly capable of off-roading, though most of them wouldn't stand up to it. all the major car-makers build them, but definitely the Land Rover paved the way.(bass-ackwards pun, there...) the idea, I think, was to appeal to the macho American driver while making sure there was somethin' there for the missus': a Jeep with all the comforts of home.
up here in Vermont, 4X4's get used, a fairly essential vehicle. the silliest SUV's I've ever seen are the stretch limo SUV's you see in NYC. laughable...
the Land Rover's are very cool, I think I'd want a Defender though, seems more like the real thing!
the Land Rover's are very cool, I think I'd want a Defender though, seems more like the real thing!Agreement and Respect!
There was a really good Simpsons where Marge gets a Canyonero [sp?], or rather Homer gets one, only to be told that it's meant for lady drivers.
Marge gets a Canyonero
The song (edit: about the Canyonero)has become a catch-phrase in our house, every time we see someone driving a giant, monstrous SUV, who clearly has no chance of ever taking it off-road but is merely driving it to look cool.
Along the same lines...I always say "Malibu Stacy, with NEW HAT!!!*" whenever we run across some product which is just a clever re-packaging of an older product, with no improvement in performance.
* Referring to the Simpsons episode where Lisa helps design a non-sexist Barbie-type doll, and when it first goes on sale, it is promptly upstaged by a stack of "new" Malibu Stacy dolls (the "mainstream" Barbie-type doll in the Simpsons Universe) which are identical to the "old" Malibu Stacy dolls but have a new hat. And so the little girls rush to buy the Malibu Stacy doll, sexist comments and everything, just because she has a new hat, and better marketers. It is one of my all-time favourite Simpsons episodes.
I love the Simpsons. Here are the lyrics to the song from that episode.
Canyonero
22nd February 1998
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
Smells like a steak, and seats thirty five?
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down
It's the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Hey, hey!
Twelve yards long, two lanes wide,
Sixty five tons of American pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
She blinds everybody with her super high beams
She's a squirrel-squashin', deer-smackin' drivin' machine
Canyonero! Canyonero! Canyonero!
Whoa, Canyonero! Whoa!
I'm not sure how legal this is, but someone else obviously shared my enjoyment of Dave Barry's take on SUVs
http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~mims/suv.html