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o.k. so everyone's familiar with a good old bulldozer, but what if it's not a massive machine but nevertheless has a hydraulic blade at the front. Maybe a dredger (on water?) or an excavator?
Where does the front-end loader come into this? Or a (mechanical) digger?
What about those ones with the scoop at the back?
In Australia I've heard those really little ones dubbed Cats or Bob-Cats too.
What would each of you say? Though more importantly, which terms are understood by English speakers world-wide?
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Pooh-Bah
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In UK, the generic term "JCB" is understood very widely as a catch-all for the sort of machines you've described. Incidently, John C Bamford, the man after whom they are named, died this week-end, aged 80.
Excavation tools attached to tractors are called "back-hoes" among the farming fraternity over here, and I have heard the term used by civil engineering workers, occasionally.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Unless you have a big bank balance, you have to be satisfied with a big shovel and a strong back.
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Front end loaders are the big ones with bucket type attachments in front ... used a lot in Sierra Nevada mountains for snow removal as the "plows" used elsewhere can't do the job ... a snow depth of 10 to 15 feet not unusual in Sierra or Rocky Mountain places at/above 10,000 feet altitude. Around New Hampshire Seacoast plows are used... big one from Department of Public Works and some local guys who plow driveways just put a blade on the pickup truck. Boy-O-Boy are we glad to see 'em when it snows!
Right now we are expecting Three Feet of snow with driving winds and full moon high tides. Market shelves stripped of bread, milk, peanut butter-and-jam, bread, batteries and candles. Hatches being battened down and shovels at the ready.
Hold good thoughts
wow
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Pooh-Bah
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and a strong back.
Preferably someone else's! You could really confuse things by providing two shovels and then asking them to take their pick!
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Pooh-Bah
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>So I want to dig a big hole .. what do I need? Nothing. I can dig a big hole for myself without any help at all! 
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Pooh-Bah
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Around here, a bulldozer is a large piece of equipment with a front blade used for moving earth. A smaller blade on a truck or tractor is a plow. A front loader has a large bin on the front which can lift materials, including earth, and dump them higher up, such as in a dump truck or snow truck. An earthmover with a digging device on it, which scoops earth by motion toward the base of the equipment, is a backhoe.
In addition to plows and front loaders, in Michigan we also use giant blowers to remove snow from streets. Up north, the blowers are essential, since the piles of snow alongside the roads become too high for the other equipment to reach.
Good luck, all New Englanders, with the oncoming blizzard. I think it will pass us by here.
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I have wondered why the equipment used to remove snow from roads are called plows, they are so different from agricultural plows. I was surprised when unable to use Blue Ridge highway because it had not been "scraped" of glare ice. But on reflection, had to admit it was more accurately descriptive than the term I was used to.
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snow "plows"
If you can find any old pictures, you will find that the first snow plows had large V-shaped blades, like an agricultural plow [plough]. I suppose that on the narrower roads before WWII, they could run the plow down the middle and it would throw up the snow to both sides, clearing the whole road. With the wider roads now common, you need at least 2, sometimes 4 trucks with the rectangular flat blades running side by side to clear the whole width of a road at one go.
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I can remember when the roads were not ploughed at all, just packed down by flat bottomed sledges, or by wagons with something like over sized skis,in the early 20's. What I meant is that agricultural plows dig deep into soil, and just turn if over. The snow plows must move the snow several feet away from its original position, instead of just turning it upside down.
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They still have the ones with V-shaped blades here in St. John's. I seriously doubt if they are WWII vintage, but the blade is most definitely V-shaped. But the residential streets are extremely narrow here - a large source of frustration during this 450+ cm snow winter - but we won't go into that here, because I've ranted myself out on that one to anyone who will listen! Now why do I have this desire to use "plow" for snowplow but "plough" for the thing used on a farm? Maybe something to do with "ploughshares" not "plowshares" in some Bible verse...and I like the coherent look of snowplow (although it's pretty sick that the two halves of the word don't rhyme - they look like they should!). 
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in Michigan we also use giant blowers to remove snow from streets.
They have the blowers in some towns in New Hampshire. The DPW announcement warn people to keep cats and small dogs in the house!
wow
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I also remember back in the 20's when to dig a really big hole, you had to get a steam shovel. Even after excavating equipment became diesel powered, some oldtimers would stlll call them steamshovels.
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In reply to:
Right now we are expecting Three Feet of snow with driving winds and full moon high tides. Market shelves stripped of bread, milk, peanut butter-and-jam, bread, batteries and candles. Hatches being battened down and shovels at the ready. Hold good thoughts.
Just a short while ago, I spoke with my sister who lives in Barre, Vermont - they already had almost a foot of snow, and it was still coming down quite hard. She & husband were trying to get the two children into bed - but my darling five year old niece was sucking her thumb, so we talked for a moment, discussing what flavour our respective thumbs had when they went into our respective mouths - we settled on chocolate for both -hers and mine! Then, the three year old boy had to get on the phone to tell me about the white stuff falling from the sky and that he loved me  - they are so precious!
Trust you are okay - warm and dry with plenty of food and other needed supplies - if you read this, then at least the electricity is working. Stay safe!
Shoshannah
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In reply to:
So I want to dig a BIG hole .. what do I need?
Well, with a name like belligerentyouth, over here, you'd probably want to get your hands on a couple of mortar shells... they would certainly do the job, but I wouldn't recommend it!
Shoshannah
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Yes well, fortunately shells are not readily available here. Come to think of it though, digging round here often leads to discoveries of WWII bombs which didn't detonate some 50 years back. Every once in a while they find a really large one and have to clear out large areas; this mainly occurs in the Ruhrgebiet though.
I'd never heard of the name 'back-hoe' that RCommando + Sparteye mentioned. It seems terms are used quite loosely for all these machines.
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In reply to:
I'd never heard of the name 'back-hoe'
My youngest brother used to have his own little landscaping business in central NC, and I saw him once on his 'back-hoe' - it worked exactly like a regular hoe, except that instead of digging in FRONT of him, he sat on this gigantic thing with a hoe-like contraption on the BACK and it dug BEHIND him... it was sorta  actually! And it made hoeing those longish rows a bit easier and quicker!
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>Now why do I have this desire to use "plow" for snowplow but "plough" for the thing used on a farm? Maybe something to do with "ploughshares" not "plowshares" in some Bible verse...and I like the coherent look of snowplow (although it's pretty sick that the two halves of the word don't rhyme - they look like they should!).
Funny, I read snow-plow to rhyme with sno'-go. Not surprisingly, I'd go for snow plough y'all know that I love those extra letters!
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plow/plough
If any of you are Sherlockian fans, you will recall that in the adventure of the three Garridebs, the Master began to see what was going on in that case from an advertisement in an English newspaper supposedly placed by an Englishman but using the words plow [sic] and buckboard.
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Well, i don't know about the rest of you, but one of my claims to fame is the I can dig a hole and make hill at the same time!
all the tool mentions are Power tools-- no pick axes, and no discussion of spades vs. shovels. in NY before you dig a hole you need to use a "jack hammer" the NY name for a pnuematic drill, used to break up the "black top" and concrete.
and anthropologist use a whole different set of digging tools...
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Helen> and anthropologist use a whole different set of digging tools...And archaeologists use small spades and little brushes... and carry the dirt away in buckets (all by hand) - can take what seems like forever! But the result is FANTASTIC! Shoshannah
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Having just put a foundation under a jacked up house, I'm very familiar with all those initial oversized/heavy duty equipment terms. Back-Hoe and Bob Cat (a brand name) were the two we used most! Although the common term is jack-hammer, I've heard a few city workers refer to them as "jewel-busters" .
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Jack hammers may jiggle the jewels, but they can really wreck elbow joints if the users try to add their weight to make the tool work faster.
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You wanna dig a hole? Ask ex-PFC Wintergreen.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Dear CK: Please enlighten me. Who is PFC Wintergreen? The only Wintergreen vaguely familiar is the musical comedy candidate for President la,di da,di da.
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enthusiast
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Who is PFC Wintergreen?Dear Uncle Bill: For an answer, I direct you to that illustrious source of our infamous "callipygian" discussion--Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Have fun. Love, Rapunzel
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Dear Rapunzel: I remember Milo, who introduced a logical way to cut military expenditures., but Pfc. Wintergreen got lost somehow.
And, showing my sportsmanship about not piling the posts on too fast now that I am close to 400, I want to express my surprise that nobody beat me to the very first thing anybody who wants to dig a bid hole must do:
GET A WHOLE BIG BUNCH OF P;ERMITS, OR YOU WILL BE IN BIG TROUBLE!!!!!!!!
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Geez, there's an American out there who doesn't know who ex-PFC Wintergreen is!
[Skipping merrily off into the sunset with copy of Catch-22 under his arm emoticon]
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Re: ex-PFC WintergreenOkay, confession time: I couldn't quite remember, which is why I directed you to the book.  What I do recall is that ex-PFC Wintergreen was continually getting himself into trouble of some sort, and was punished by being made to dig holes endlessly and uselessly. What I don't recall is exactly why he was always in trouble or why he was always ex-PFC Wintergreen. Unfortunately, I do not own a copy of Catch-22, so I can't LIU. Care to bail me out, CK? By the way wwh, I hope you don't mind if I call you Uncle Bill.
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Dear Rapunzel: Alas,I must be resigned graciously to the fact that pretty girls will allow me avuncular privileges, but nothing more. But since I have been long incapable of more, I must be content. I love you, Uncle Bill
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> I love you, Uncle Bill.You took the words right out of my mouth! I love you, Uncle Bill. [slightly belated Valentine emoticon] And who ever said I was pretty?
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Age stepping in here-- (and i am guess here-- i did go to college as an adult-- but i still suspect i am older than you!)-- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder-- So we all-- get to deside if you are beautiful!
As you get older or if lucky, wiser when still young-- you'll learn, never disagree when a gentleman calls you beautiful!
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PFC is the designation for Private First Class . One stripe with pointy part up (chevron for the Brits) as designator on sleeves.
Those entering the service as enlisted men/women are all Privates. No insignia of rank.
Therefore, it may be deduced that Wintegreen was once a PFC and had his rank reduced as a disiplinary measure. Private is low man on the totem pole!
Reduction in rank for infractions of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) is "to encourage the others."
although it sounds much classier in French. "Pour encorage les autres" if spelling wrong, please correct.
wow
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One stripe with pointy part up (chevron for the Brits) as designator on sleeves.
So that's where the gas company got its logo.
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No corrections on my French?
Mon goodness! How did that happen?
wow
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Okay, Rapunzel, I'll let my hair down.
Ex-PFC Wintergreen was the most cynical of enlisted men, who saw the futility of the war but was caught up in it all anyway. So he alternately was the local savant - he knew what General Dreedle was going to do before General Dreedle did - and the bad soldier, getting made up to PFC, then going over the hill for a while, getting busted back to private and being sentenced to dig and fill in holes. When he was asked by Captain Yossarian why he did it, he replied "Somebody's got to."
It was never clear, quite deliberately, I'm sure, whether he was referring to the implied one-man protest movement (going over the hill) or digging and filling in the holes.
I didn't LIU so the detail may be slightly out, but that's the gist.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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As soon as the roads are passable (we had *another eight inches of snow overnight) I'm going to the Library and borrow Joe Heller's "Catch 22" and re-read it.
"Save the Bombardier!"
wow
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For a look at the early war in Vietnam, and some dark humor close to the Heller mold ... "Air America" ... the book and the movie.
Anybody see/read it?
From my brother, who was there in 1957/58 and 64/65, I heard some even stranger stories than those in the book.
wow
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"I didn't LIU so the detail may be slightly out, but that's the gist."
"gist" That's a very handy word. I have seen many wordy sentences that should have been vigorously pruned so that the "gist" could be discerned more easily.
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I've read Air America and some of the things related in it were pretty odd. It was purportedly "non-fiction", but I think that its author (who from memory was a British journalist) was told some fairly resounding tarradiddles. The movie of the same name was utter rubbish IMHO.
One bit rang true, however. Shortly after the end of the war when the North Vietnamese Army had invaded Cambodia, the author was in a taxi travelling from Bangkok airport into the city. He asked the taxi driver if he was worried that the NVA might not stop at the Cambodian border, to which the taxi driver replied that he wasn't worried by that possiblity at all, since the NVA couldn't possibly cope with Bangkok rush-hour traffic.
For a Catch-22-like book on Vietnam, I suggest you read Brandywine's War (again, forget the author's name), although it isn't a patch on Catch-22 itself.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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I think that its author (who from memory was a British journalist) was told some fairly resounding tarradiddles
Dunno about that Cap! Considering Air American was widely known to be a CIA operation, start to finish.
I have heard some amazing stories and corroberation from Those Who Were There about stuff in the book and other things. If you ever pass through NH we can have quite a talk!
wow
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One stripe with pointy part up (chevron for the Brits) as designator on sleeves.
I have never been in the military proper (or improper) but I for one Brit would refer to them as stripes, and have never heard them referred to as "chevrons". Possibly in a formal reference work on military insignia perhaps.
Rod Ward
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never heard them referred to as "chevrons". Possibly in a formal reference Chevron : bent bar of an inverted V shape (Shorter OED-CD) I used chevron in case the word stripe was unfamiliar ...and I did not want them confused with a straight line "hash mark." And, yes, the word chevron is used in some military publications, usually (at least ones I have access to) that are from earlier times. OK? wow
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As one who served in the U.S. Army back in the days of compulsory service and finished as a Sergeant, I can tell you that we call them stripes also, although they are technically chevrons. A PFC (Private 1st Class) has one stripe, a corporal 2, sergeant 3, then with various classes of sergeants "rockers" are added on the bottom of the stripes up to Sergeant Major which has 3 stripes and 6 rockers. These are on the upper part of the sleeves. One speaks, in the military, of "losing one's stripes" i.e., being "busted down" to "buck private" (the lowest grade), or of losing a stripe (demoted a grade) or of getting an additional stripe (being promoted). The "hash marks" alluded to by WOW, are short diagonal stripes on the lower part of the sleeve near the cuffs, and indicate length of service.
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Ever so slightly off-topic, but I've always loved the Royal Navy's badge for good conduct. It was technically awarded for " x years with no detected crime." Not ambiguous at all, is it? 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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<I wonder what would happened if lieutenant Clark left his post as a naval clerk to go to the Derby in Darby? "lieutenant" of course being an automatic giveaway for one's English of origin, as it were.>
Max posted this back in September in another thread, but no-one responded to it as far as I can see. So, why do the Brits and their dependants pronounce this word as "leftenant"?
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Bobyoungbalt >as one who served in the U.S. Army back in the days of compulsory service and finished as a Sergeant. Boby, would you remind me of the colors of the US Army Good Conduct ribbon? Was it -- as I recall -- red with white stripe? I'm sure you earned one! My uncle John enlisted in Army after WW One and ended a Lt. General when he retired after WWII. When he wore Class A uniform, he proudly wore his good conduct medal earned as an enlisted man, along with his other decorations. wow
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I got the Good Conduct Medal, red with vertical narrow white stripes for not having gotten caught robbing any banks.
I traded it to an Aussie on a ship tied up next to us in Hollandia, now Port Moresby I think, for his campaign hat. I wonder what his reaction was when he found out about the medal. Perhaps it was just as well that we were many miles away before he did.
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Thank you for serving, Bill, Darling, from the bottom of my heart. To all of our servicepeople, for that matter.
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GCM
Bill got in an answer before I saw the question, since I'm not in my office (where my computer lives) on Sat. I got one, as he did, for getting though an enlistment without being court-martialled. Never wore it and don't know where it is. When I came back to the U.S. on a troopship from Germany, my duffelbag got lost in the confusion and my dress uniform (with the GCM in the pocket) was in it.
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