[Why does anyone bother walking between the stations of the cross, especially when carrying an actual cross? Perhaps there is uncertainty on whether they are bus or train stations, with the cross not fitting on many buses.
You could have a detachable cross-bar perhaps, or even a telescopic stem ...
I think 'bus station' is indeed used mostly on this side of the Pond.
The terms 'bus depot' or 'bus garage' would normally be used anent the place where the vehicles are kept overnight, and our 'station' would often have the facilities of your 'terminal'.
Well, it would have done until about 15 years ago, when the Council sold off the land to a developer and made the buses stand in the street, forcing people to wait under inadequate canopies with no facilities whatsoever.
Over here, we say "bus depot" or "bus terminal" to mean a building featuring ticket windows, vending machines, racks of schedules, perhaps a cafeteria, waiting room with benches, in addition to stalls where multiple buses park; whereas a "bus stop" is simply a convenient spot along the bus route where the bus may stop to receive or discharge passenters.
I don't think I've ever heard "bus station" used. Not saying that it isn't, mind. But outside of church, I'd never think of "station" as meaning anything other than train station.
Well, on the other side of “over here” from you (North Carolina), I’ve never heard anything but “bus station.” “Bus terminal” and “bus depot” are terms I’ve rarely heard used, and they sound odd to my ears. “Train depot,” on the other hand, used to be pretty common here.
I’d hazard a guess that if one said “station” here, without any qualifier, most people would think of a radio station.
Over here, we say "bus depot" or "bus terminal" to mean a building featuring ticket windows, vending machines, racks of schedules, perhaps a cafeteria, waiting room with benches, in addition to stalls where multiple buses park; whereas a "bus stop" is simply a convenient spot along the bus route where the bus may stop to receive or discharge passenters.
I don't think I've ever heard "bus station" used. Not saying that it isn't, mind. But outside of church, I'd never think of "station" as meaning anything other than train station.
I don't think I've ever heard "bus depot" used -- a "bus terminal" is as Miss Amanda describes. If there's just a small facility for one bus line, where one gets on or off a bus but doesn't change buses, that's a "bus station" or perhaps a Greyhound Station, Trailways Station, etc. (Bus terminals might also use the specific names of the bus lines, unless two or more lines use it, e.g., Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York -- one of the inner circles of hell.)
Bus terminal and bus station are probably the most common usages in New Brunswick with former being the first that I consciously registered when I was an undergraduate student.
Our's are bus depots. Train stations are few and far between. Most are just "stops". Historically you showed up at a "platform" and "put the arm out", which meant you were signalling you wanted the train to stop for you (you pulled a sign thing horizontally from a pole.
The train would slow down anyway for the posties (postal workers) to hook mail bags off of other posts with hooks on them. My father-law was one of them. He could recite many of the alphabet stops along the various branch lines. Fond memory of him.
Talking of tautologies, my dad talks about 'wet rain'. I laughed at him when he first said it, as rain is by definition wet, but he insisted that it's a particular kind of rain that feels wetter than other rain, and when I asked people on Facebook if they were familiar with 'wet rain,' as different from regular rain, a few said they use that expression, and it is a certain type of rain.
Yay! Someone else who’s noticed that some types of rain are more wetting than others!
Sometimes you get drenched in light rain, it seems to permeate through your raincoat. That’s wet rain.
Here’s a bus garage, and here’s a bus station. Sometimes they can be adjacent to each other, but the two pictured are five minutes walk from each other. No passengers board or leave buses at the bus garage. No buses are kept at the bus station.
As regards 'station' meaning only 'railway station', would Enoch acknowledge the exitence of Police Stations?
I remember, many years ago, noticing that in Edinburgh a bus stop was indicated by the sign 'Bus Stance'. Is this still the case?
I don't know. But in London (and probably other places) a "bus stand" is a place on the road where an empty bus can wait before returning to service: https://tinyurl.com/yc85nvkt
As an occasional user of 'at the end of the day' I'm sorry to see it gets up some people's noses! I thought it was just one of those old fashioned colloquial mutterings I'd inherited as a kid. Like 'at any rate' or 'when all's said or done', or 'in the final analysis' etc.
Enjoying the bus vs. train station. I thought for both buses and trains, you had stations in the city or towns; but for country bound buses, it was terminuses or turnings, and for trains, stations and halts.
As an occasional user of 'at the end of the day' I'm sorry to see it gets up some people's noses! I thought it was just one of those old fashioned colloquial mutterings I'd inherited as a kid. Like 'at any rate' or 'when all's said or done', or 'in the final analysis' etc.
I hear people say that they get annoyed with 'when all's said and done' too. I wonder whether it's the expression itself that people are annoyed by or its asscoiation with the act of summing things up, when it's overdone by some people in a reductive way, and sometimes with a didactic, simplistic, and very subjective telling people what they need to be focusing on. Not that you'd be using the expresions that way, Anselmina, so maybe people aren't even annoyed when you say it. No one expresses annoyance at the Les Mis song that starts 'At the end of the day,' after all.
It was terminuses or turnings, and for trains, stations and halts.
This is almost the ultimate "turning" for a bus (Bournemouth, 1960s): https://tinyurl.com/yb2hckw2. I say "almost" because there was an even better one in Huddersfield, where the turntable projected out over the side of a steep hill!
I think everybody has some phrase that gets up their nose (and what a great phrase that is!). Mine is "each and every," probably because I know a pastor who uses it in every third sentence.
As an occasional user of 'at the end of the day' I'm sorry to see it gets up some people's noses! I thought it was just one of those old fashioned colloquial mutterings I'd inherited as a kid. Like 'at any rate' or 'when all's said or done', or 'in the final analysis' etc.
I hear people say that they get annoyed with 'when all's said and done' too. I wonder whether it's the expression itself that people are annoyed by or its asscoiation with the act of summing things up, when it's overdone by some people in a reductive way, and sometimes with a didactic, simplistic, and very subjective telling people what they need to be focusing on. Not that you'd be using the expresions that way, Anselmina, so maybe people aren't even annoyed when you say it. No one expresses annoyance at the Les Mis song that starts 'At the end of the day,' after all.
Well (oops!), it is possible I may be guilty of that!
Shakespeare used it ("Will you, nill you, I will marry you.") to mean more "Will you or won't you" or "whether you like it or not." That was apparently the common meaning of it 400 years ago.
Shakespeare used it ("Will you, nill you, I will marry you.") to mean more "Will you or won't you" or "whether you like it or not." That was apparently the common meaning of it 400 years ago.
And still is, so far as I am concerned. Comes from the Latin velle, to be willing, and nolle, to be unwilling.
I think everybody has some phrase that gets up their nose
There are two that drive me bonkers: "willy-nilly" when used to mean "helter-skelter" and "beg the question" when used to mean "prompt the question".
That confused me for a sec, as my first (and main) experience of the term 'helter skelter' was in its fairground meaning of a huge spiral slide around a tower (like this), so I was imagining you hearing kids saying 'Mummy, I want to go on the willy-nilly!'
So going 'helter-skelter' is like 'pell mell' - connection, maybe with Pall Mall?
Precisely, but I'm not sure about the etymology. Webster says its from Middle French. Higglety pigglety appears to be synonymous too. My point, though, is that none of those mean willy-nilly.
I wonder if beg the question is actually changing meaning, as it certainly has two senses right now, and possibly the traditional one, the fallacy, is expiring.
One of my pet annoyances is the confusion between over- and under-estimation. As in "the importance of this discovery cannot be under-estimated". Well, actually, that's quite easy to do: but it's not what you meant!
I have a long list of these begun when I was working back in Scotland a few years ago. May I offer 'dis-benefit'? 'de-risk'? (both from the former British Energy). The current list runs to four pages.
I agree with the former of these, but de-risk is one I use and is really important as a concept. It means - in my context - to reduce the risk of something, but not remove it. So there is still risk associated with this, but it is reduced by certain measures.
The language is important - by de-risking something, we are not solving it, we are handling some of the risk. For software security, we cannot "fix" it, we can only reduce the risk. And we need to communicate this.
When it is used to mean "fixed" it is wrong. But I think it has a place still.
OTOH, Unprecedented can get in the bin. Not because it has no place, but because it is used for "WTF is going on? We have no idea. But we want ot reassure you. And keep your business."
I would also like to lose "de-scope". It has a meaning,but it normally means "This is difficult. How about we don't do it? I know it is important, but I CBA".
Even without that, has anyone else ever noticed that to be a 'loved one' you've either got to be a long way away, preferably in another continent, seriously ill, dead, or all three?
Even without that, has anyone else ever noticed that to be a 'loved one' you've either got to be a long way away, preferably in another continent, seriously ill, dead, or all three?
Even without that, has anyone else ever noticed that to be a 'loved one' you've either got to be a long way away, preferably in another continent, seriously ill, dead, or all three?
I loathe the phrase.
I think it's a great phrase. It means, presumably, what it says without having to categorise, exclude or judge. God bless our loved ones - as opposed to God bless family members we love, or friends we love. Or people we love but don't really like as such, but don't wish harm to. It covers a huge range of people. If people didn't pray for 'loved ones', as a singleton I'd probably never get a mention! And I don't understand KarlLB's definition. My loved ones remain the same loved ones whether in another country or in the same room as me! Isn't that point of their being 'loved' - that it doesn't matter where they are, they're still loved?
Isn't one of the great things about language the fact that we don't HAVE to allow ourselves to be constrained by other people's meanings or usages of perfectly neutral or ambiguous terms?
Even without that, has anyone else ever noticed that to be a 'loved one' you've either got to be a long way away, preferably in another continent, seriously ill, dead, or all three?
I loathe the phrase.
Hear, hear! It is frequently inaccurate and invariably presumptuous in its usual newspaper usage.
My wife's mother did die in my wife's arms. She was helping her mother to get into bed. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, rather the reverse, so she tells me.
Even without that, has anyone else ever noticed that to be a 'loved one' you've either got to be a long way away, preferably in another continent, seriously ill, dead, or all three?
Strangely enough, I noted this in Evangelical-speak back in the 70s and thought it was a religious archaism. But now it seems mainstream. At least it's better than calling pets (especially cats) "fur babies".
My wife's mother did die in my wife's arms. She was helping her mother to get into bed. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, rather the reverse, so she tells me.
Well, of course it will happen thus from time to time. It's the ubiquity of the phrase that jars...
I would also like to lose "de-scope". It has a meaning,but it normally means "This is difficult. How about we don't do it? I know it is important, but I CBA".
IME, it's more often "that's important, but it's expensive and we're not going to pay for it. You need to figure out a way of making it happen for free."
Comments
I’d hazard a guess that if one said “station” here, without any qualifier, most people would think of a radio station.
I don't think I've ever heard "bus depot" used -- a "bus terminal" is as Miss Amanda describes. If there's just a small facility for one bus line, where one gets on or off a bus but doesn't change buses, that's a "bus station" or perhaps a Greyhound Station, Trailways Station, etc. (Bus terminals might also use the specific names of the bus lines, unless two or more lines use it, e.g., Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York -- one of the inner circles of hell.)
The train would slow down anyway for the posties (postal workers) to hook mail bags off of other posts with hooks on them. My father-law was one of them. He could recite many of the alphabet stops along the various branch lines. Fond memory of him.
Yay! Someone else who’s noticed that some types of rain are more wetting than others!
Sometimes you get drenched in light rain, it seems to permeate through your raincoat. That’s wet rain.
Some UK companies/operators use (or used to use) the term 'bus depot', meaning the same as 'bus garage'.
Just to confuse the issue, and to prolong the tangent (!), I can think of one or two places where the 'depot/garage' was also the 'station'...
I remember, many years ago, noticing that in Edinburgh a bus stop was indicated by the sign 'Bus Stance'. Is this still the case?
Enjoying the bus vs. train station. I thought for both buses and trains, you had stations in the city or towns; but for country bound buses, it was terminuses or turnings, and for trains, stations and halts.
I hear people say that they get annoyed with 'when all's said and done' too. I wonder whether it's the expression itself that people are annoyed by or its asscoiation with the act of summing things up, when it's overdone by some people in a reductive way, and sometimes with a didactic, simplistic, and very subjective telling people what they need to be focusing on. Not that you'd be using the expresions that way, Anselmina, so maybe people aren't even annoyed when you say it. No one expresses annoyance at the Les Mis song that starts 'At the end of the day,' after all.
Well (oops!), it is possible I may be guilty of that!
What's your position on when willy-nilly is used to mean harum-scarum?
And still is, so far as I am concerned. Comes from the Latin velle, to be willing, and nolle, to be unwilling.
I never heard it used that way.
That confused me for a sec, as my first (and main) experience of the term 'helter skelter' was in its fairground meaning of a huge spiral slide around a tower (like this), so I was imagining you hearing kids saying 'Mummy, I want to go on the willy-nilly!'
Precisely, but I'm not sure about the etymology. Webster says its from Middle French. Higglety pigglety appears to be synonymous too. My point, though, is that none of those mean willy-nilly.
"Will" may be cognate with velle, but it came into English from Germanic stock, not Latin.
Not really. I think quite educated people use " beg the question" to mean raise the question, or similar.
I agree with the former of these, but de-risk is one I use and is really important as a concept. It means - in my context - to reduce the risk of something, but not remove it. So there is still risk associated with this, but it is reduced by certain measures.
The language is important - by de-risking something, we are not solving it, we are handling some of the risk. For software security, we cannot "fix" it, we can only reduce the risk. And we need to communicate this.
When it is used to mean "fixed" it is wrong. But I think it has a place still.
OTOH, Unprecedented can get in the bin. Not because it has no place, but because it is used for "WTF is going on? We have no idea. But we want ot reassure you. And keep your business."
I would also like to lose "de-scope". It has a meaning,but it normally means "This is difficult. How about we don't do it? I know it is important, but I CBA".
I loathe the phrase.
MMM
I think it's a great phrase. It means, presumably, what it says without having to categorise, exclude or judge. God bless our loved ones - as opposed to God bless family members we love, or friends we love. Or people we love but don't really like as such, but don't wish harm to. It covers a huge range of people. If people didn't pray for 'loved ones', as a singleton I'd probably never get a mention! And I don't understand KarlLB's definition. My loved ones remain the same loved ones whether in another country or in the same room as me! Isn't that point of their being 'loved' - that it doesn't matter where they are, they're still loved?
Isn't one of the great things about language the fact that we don't HAVE to allow ourselves to be constrained by other people's meanings or usages of perfectly neutral or ambiguous terms?
I know what they mean, but it always sounds so uncomfortable...
Hear, hear! It is frequently inaccurate and invariably presumptuous in its usual newspaper usage.
Strangely enough, I noted this in Evangelical-speak back in the 70s and thought it was a religious archaism. But now it seems mainstream. At least it's better than calling pets (especially cats) "fur babies".
Well, of course it will happen thus from time to time. It's the ubiquity of the phrase that jars...
IME, it's more often "that's important, but it's expensive and we're not going to pay for it. You need to figure out a way of making it happen for free."
In Victorian novels heads were always falling on chests at the moment of death. It made me wonder if they were spring loaded.
Which always makes me wonder - do I only pray for people I don’t love?