"ok, imagine a gun."
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I am curious if there is a language that calls a nail gun not a gun
Cloueuse pneumatique
Or pneumatic nailer
I don't think any of those things are referred to as a gun in French. Just essentially "stapler", "nailer", "gluer", ect
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Amazon and their copycats seem to be calling them 'nailers', probably because it's easier to filter out the constructive guns from destructive, prohibited ones. But Amazon is evil so it's probably unrelated
To be fair on this one, based on actual functionality 'air nailer' or 'power hammer' is more accurate than 'nail gun'' anyway. Outside of movies, you can't use it as a gun without enough modification that it's no longer the same tool.
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I'd been told it was a gangster thing: passenger seat shoots out the window for a drive-by.
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I'll try and explain, but let me know if you don't follow. In the US it's common to claim the front passenger seat by saying "I call shotgun!" or simply "Shotgun!" The commenter is playing on a now common refrain where Americans use firearms and terminology to describe basic things. As far as I can tell, it's true. For example: caulk gun, staple gun, nail gun, glue gun, tattoo gun, finger guns, ot phrases like "I'll think about it before I pull the trigger on it." Or "Shoot me your email and I'll get you those photos."
I don't know how prolific this type of thing is in other countries though, so I can only assume we Americans arr outliers due to how deeply ingrained guns are in our culture. Hope this clarifies things a bit, let me know if not.
TLDR: Americans describing so many things: "So imagine a gun, but..."
First bit is true enough, but we call "shotgun" because that was the guy holding the coach gun for bandit defense. Wish I had a pic of mine, but they're basically a short double-barreled shotgun for warding off robbers and Indians. Coach guns are quickly and easily aimed, powerful at short range, "get the fuck off of me" guns.
The Wild West wasn't as wild as movies make it out, but you were on your fucking own. LOL, no 911. While you're driving the coach, best have a man whose job is looking around and blasting raiders.
tl;dr: Calling shotgun means you're taking the front passenger side in a (historically) defensive role.
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Well, for my world it's interesting because the passenger seat is just that. But before the evolution of tech and everything else heavily affected travel, the front passenger seat held importance in that the one who sits there can assist in reading a map, adjusting the passenger wing mirror, monitoring the side directly while parking or other tight manoeuvres, emotional support for police stops, handling a drink so the driver can hydrate without endangering anyone, an extra pair of eyes on the less vital areas etc.. Now these benefits of a primary passenger are almost nonexistent, as better driver-side controls, digital maps, GPS and TTS, and stricter road safety laws (banning consumption while driving) reduce the need for an assistant driver.
wait, it's illegal to drink anything while driving in places? when did that happen?
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Not many countries had to arm the person next to the coach driver to fight off natives defending their country against foreign invaders.
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The amount of naval terminology that has stuck around in English is mind boggling.
Ahoj! I'm Czech. We don't even have any access to sea...
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It's used in the UK too
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It's used in the UK too
Yes, because we invariably import whatever bollocks the US says or does.
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Not many countries had to arm the person next to the coach driver to fight off natives defending their country against foreign invaders.
I'm the times coaches like that became common it wasn't really safe to travel in most parts of the world.
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wait, it's illegal to drink anything while driving in places? when did that happen?
In some place that counts as distracted driving and you can get fined for it.
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I'd been told it was a gangster thing: passenger seat shoots out the window for a drive-by.
I thought it was a US police thing, because the passenger seat is where the shotgun is commonly holstered.
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I thought it was a US police thing, because the passenger seat is where the shotgun is commonly holstered.
wrote last edited by [email protected]That makes a bit more sense if true.
I don't easily picture 1920s gangsters wielding shotguns for a drive-by. -
Not many countries had to arm the person next to the coach driver to fight off natives defending their country against foreign invaders.
There was once a theory that the reason for the difference in which side a vehicle is driving on the road today, stems from whether a country had many stretches of untamed wilderness with lots of bandits. So if there was a high likelihood that whoever you met on the road was a danger, the horsecart driver preferred passing them on the side of their sword arm (right hand as default), while if you did not have to take that into account, you would pass them on the left hand side.
The theory has now largely been abandonded as spurious, but it does remain a fact that there were dangerous stretches of roads in older times in Europe as well.
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Yeah it was bench seating so one guy had the reins and the other had a shotgun. Hence the name.
In the time of horse drawn carriages, wouldn't the rifle be a more common weapon?
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My kids say "Chewbacca!"
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I'm the times coaches like that became common it wasn't really safe to travel in most parts of the world.
Weren't these coaches a thing in the 19th century US, from which time the term comes? From what i could find quickly, Highway robbery became less of a thing in the UK and mainland Europe by the end of the 18th century.
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All the things you listed either shoot projectiles and/or have triggers. What else do you call trigger operated projectile launchers? Also Caulk guns legitimately look like old timey machine guns.
Kartuschenpresse aka cartridge press
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Ahoj! I'm Czech. We don't even have any access to sea...
No direct access, but “jump into the Elbe and wait” is still a valid strategy…
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All the things you listed either shoot projectiles and/or have triggers. What else do you call trigger operated projectile launchers? Also Caulk guns legitimately look like old timey machine guns.
Replacing "gun" with "press" for example.
Alternatively, caulker, stapler, nailer, gluer, tattooer, and finger pointers. Fingers also usually don't launch projectiles I think. It's just that gun culture is so embedded in your brain you couldn't think of an alternative.
Note how these are all construction tools, and construction is also usually worked by men there. Yet more traditionally feminine tools don't get the "gun" additive; most will say spray bottle for example rather than spray gun, even though it also has a trigger (a literal gun-like one in some cases) and shoots out a projectile.
