Pet Peeve: When people call a DVD player a 'DVD.' (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

Having gone to school with people from all over the USA and the world, I've learned to tolerate other IMHO odd language uses (when spoken in the USA).

You nailed the source right there. There's all sorts of oddities in difference parts of the country.
When I was 10, the company my dad worked for transferred him from New York, NY to Houston, TX. There was one saying there that irritated me to no end. It's also in use here in Memphis, TN, and I cannot ever get over it's use, although I understand it's origins plainly enough!
They don't say they will "put something away".
They say they will "put it up".
Example: "Are you done playing with that toy yet? No? Well, put it up when you're through!"
As a young man, whenever someone told me to "put something up", I was a smartass about it and held it as high above my head as I could, while standing on tiptoes.
Scary thing is that my about-to-be-4-on-Saturday son has started to use the "put it up" phrase. I will SWIFTLY correct this! My wife, a native Memphian, doesn't say that, so he obviously gets it from daycare. :frowning:

 

[Brad_W]

Borrow me a book

That isn't "odd" language, that's just bad grammar.
"Borrow me some money"
"Lend me some money"
I've heard that before from people here in Michigan and I cringe every time I hear it.
I just pisses me off every time I hear someone ask If I have a DVD. I tell them yes, I do... over 300 DVDs.

 

[KDHM]

in Boston all Soda is Tonic, and in New York you stand on line,

kd

 

[SteveK]

I sometimes do this myself, even though I obviously know that it is a DVD player, not a DVD. There's just something awkward about saying "player" after saying DVD.
Despite its many faults, at least with VHS we were able to simply say VCR! Actually, I think even VHS was used as an acronym much less frequently than VCR. You'd hear people mention a "tape" or a "video", but you rarely heard anybody mention a "VHS".
Steve K.

 

[MikeAlletto]

Despite its many faults, at least with VHS we were able to simply say VCR! Actually, I think even VHS was used as an acronym much less frequently than VCR. You'd hear people mention a "tape" or a "video", but you rarely heard anybody mention a "VHS".

Probably because VHS is a type of VCR.

 

[JasenP]

OK, OK...

Watch a motion picture. Is that better? You can't say I am incorrect now.

 

[Anthony S]

It drives me crazy when people call their computer case a hard drive. As if that were the only thing in there. I don't know if it's just the people I work with or if it is also common other places, but I just want to smack 'em when they say it.

Tony

 

[ken thompson]

I hate when people call it a DVD player. It doesn't play with the disc. It reads it. Or it interprets it. But it certainly doesn't "play" with it. Like a Football player "plays" with a football. Or a Hockey player "plays" with a hockey

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

So Ken, should we start calling it a DVD Reader?

 

[ken thompson]

I think so. Unless someone can come up with something more acurate. Maybe we could just call it the spinnie thing.

"I think the laser pick-up and optical output are defective on my new spinnie thing".

 

[nolesrule]

Ken, since I couldn't tell if you were joking or not, maybe you should check out all of the various definitions of the words "player", including "a device that reproduces recorded material (as video images or music) from a usually specified medium" (from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary).

 

[ken thompson]

No thanks. Too time consuming. I appreciate you clearing that up though. However, I believe that that definition of "player" is probably one of those situations where the definition of a word gets expanded due to a frequent and common usage of that word as opposed to the usage of the word being dictated by its definition. Not that any of this matters. And I could be wrong.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

...grandmother calls my DVD player "The DVD."

If you ever want to talk like an old person, just put "the" in front of everything. IE: "I've got the gout"; "I love to eat the Italian food"... you have to put a slight pause before the "the" to get it just right.

My in-laws are notorious for mis-pronouncing everything and not getting-it when you correct them. There's a restaraunt here in town called "the Chancery" they insist on calling it "the Chancelory". Also, "the Ramada" is "the Ramana". I mean, cripes! The sign is in giant red neon in front of your face and you still call it "the Ramana"!

 

[nolesrule]

Ken, it goes back quite a ways: record player, cassette player, 8-track player, video cassette player (VCR /out the "R" capabilities), CD player, LD player, DVD player.

An even older example would be the player piano, a piano with a built-in device that would "read" the holes in a sheet of paper and output the music.

It comes from "to play" like a musical instrument, where there is an input (from a human or mechanical source) and an output that is derived from processing the input...press the key on a piano and a sound is produced.

You are using "to play with", which is acting on a passive object and does not produce a response "play with a football". Playing with a football causes the football to move, but that's about it. The football doesn't score the touchdown.

There are a good dozen definitions of just the verb "play".

 

[John_Bonner]

Brad_W:

On an unrelated peeve:

Dont you hate when people spell DREAM THEATER like this "DREAM THEATRE" ??

 

[Ray R]

Originally from PA Dutch country, I have been exposed to some of the worst grammer around.

"make the light out"

"throw the horse over the fence some hay"

and of course it is always proper to add "once" or even "once now" to the end of a command but it must be pronounced "vunce naw". In fact the accent in Fargo is very similar to PA Dutch.

 

[Michael_UK]

__________________________________________________

I need a flash light.

I need a torch.( in the USA) (British term for a flash light)

__________________________________________________ ________

Flash light to me sounds incorrect..... A flash light would be a light that turns on and off (Flashing) like a strobe disco light or a Lighthouse tower, not a hand held tube emmiting light.

 

[Chuck C]

"close and open the light chuckie" --my mom....grrrr, annoying

Most of my family calls the DVD player the DVD. I've also experienced Jeff Rogers' incident many times...mainly from friends.

 

[Scott Strang]

I always was irritated by people calling a CD player a "laserdisc player".

 

[KDHM]

Ray

thats so cool, I am leaning Geman and that is the exact sort of thing I get when I try to move German word for word into English.

kd