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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear TEd: the specialty of making trusses must at best be obsolescent. Most hernias get surgically
repaired.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Faldage: I was sure the word "chauffeur" had something to do with making something hot.
So your steam car could have two chauffeurs, one to steer, and one to keep boiler going.
chauffeur
SYLLABICATION:
chauf·feur
PRONUNCIATION:
shfr, sh-fûr
NOUN:
One employed to drive a private automobile.
VERB:
Inflected forms: chauf·feured, chauf·feur·ing, chauf·feurs
TRANSITIVE
VERB:
1. To serve as a driver for (another). 2. To transport in (a motor vehicle); drive:
chauffeured the guests around town.
INTRANSITIVE
VERB:
To serve as a driver for another.
ETYMOLOGY:
French, stoker, from chauffer, to heat, stoke, from Old French chaufer. See
chafe.
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addict
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addict
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So your steam car could have two chauffeursThat it could, but the word he's thinking of is "fireman." Edit: uh, no it's not.  I just read the whole sentence, rather than just part of it, and he was thinking of chauffeur, which has allowed him and Dr. Bill to have a nice lil' ol' fight agin' - jist like old times.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
your steam car could have two chauffeurs
Nope. It just had the one, the one in back that stoked the firebox. The guy up front was called the driver or something like that.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I just thought of a dandy. When street lighting lamps burned oil, the lamps on the poles
had to have a guy come with a ladder climb up,put in the oil, and light it. The old lamplighter.
Hey Faldage: you're being more unobliging than usual.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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more unobliging than usual
What? The guy in back stoked the fire. You supplied the etymology your own se'f. The guy in front had nothing to do with the heat so no reason to call him a chauffeur. The job title got transferred when the original job disappeared.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There was a popular song about "The Old Lamplighter" (but I like Tom Lehrer's parody better.
Alfonso was the towns' LampLighter. Every evening, just before it
got dark, he had to take his ladder, and his matches, and his lamp
oil, and light every street lamp in Villa Macaroni. It was a very
important job, because if he didn't get the lamps lit, then all the
people would not know which way to walk, and the horses would
pull their buggys down the wrong streets. It would be very dark!
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Faldage: your glasses need cleaning. The etymology of "chauffeur" says it was early
applied to stokers. So your steam powered vehicle, for instance one of the early fire engines,
could have two chauffeurs, one to drive, and one to stoke. Stoke that up your back door.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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When I was a small, every spring a horse drawn haywagon stacked high with wooden chairs and ladders would come into our driveway. The driver had spent all winter up in New Hampshire making them, and kept going south through MA until he had sold them all. I still remember seeing a child's rocking chair way up top, and teasing my father until he bought it for me. I'd still have it, except that my wife gave it away. One of the few times I really resented her being generous. That old guy worked hard for a living. Damned few craftsmen
willing to work that hard for so little money. I marvel that his horses were equal to it.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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In our neighborhood, up through the World War II era, electric refrigerators were few and far between. Most families had an icebox in the kitchen. Twice a week the iceman cometh. Each house would place a card in the front window to signal the ice truck crew to deliver a block of ice. Ice from the river was cut into blocks during the winter and taken to the icehouse, where it was insulated with sawdust, thereby lasting all summer.
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