dammit, just about the time i think that i'm current on the british vernacular you dudes - err... "chaps" (or is it "mates") toss another new one out on me.
i'm trying to help myself...i regularly watch episodes of "keeping up appearances", "are you being served" "waiting for god" and the more recent "doc martin" tv shows (we get them our "public access" channels here in the states) for my training - but seems i just can't keep up.
skyetoyman wrote:boot sale ; yard sale ; garage sale ?????? You could get them under the trade descriptions act.
i go to a yard sale when people are selling stuff in their yard. likewise for a garage sale...but i go to a boot sale when i need cheap shoes!
on another note; i wish tv here was as entertaining as brit programming is - at least what little of it i get to see. our programs are pure unrefined crap, most of the time not in any way clever and very predictable delivered courtesy of lousy actors.
Isn't a boot of a car called a trunk? = trunk sale. In oz we have a mixture of both languages and yep we have boot sales though we also call a wing a fender, a bonnet a hood....
Our boot sales must have derived from England.
My old mum mentioned a "shooting brake" which threw me the other day which I translated to mean Station Wagon..... What are they called in the US of A?
What is the history of a shooting brake?? Sounds as though one is going on safari to Botswana to bag a wildebeest or two....
Looks like I wasn't far off the marque:
Shooting-brake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shooting-brake, shooting brake or shooting break is a term for a car body style that has evolved through several distinct meanings over its history.
Shooting-brake originated as an early 19th century British term[1] for a vehicle used to carry shooting parties[2] with their equipment and game. The term brake[3] was initially a chassis used to break-in horses—and was subsequently used to describe a motorized vehicle.
The term was later applied to custom-built wagons by high-end coachbuilders and subsequently became synonymous with station wagon or estate.[4][5][6][7][8]
In contemporary usage, the term shooting-brake has broadened to include a range of vehicles from five-door station wagons—to three-door models combining features of a wagon and a coupé.
In 2006, The New York Times said the shooting-brake was conceived "to take gentlemen on the hunt with their firearms and dogs."[9] and "although [its] glory days came before World War II, and it has faded from the scene in recent decades, the body style is showing signs of a renaissance as automakers seek to invent (or reinvent) new kinds of vehicles for consumers constantly on the hunt for the next new thing."[9]
I guess my hippie transit van is a shooting brake...
the "station wagon" body style was popular here back in the day. big as ships, often had fake wood grain on the sides and a new shiny one indicated that the owner was a reasonably succesful suburbanite with multiple kids and at least one dog. now replaced by the "mini-van" and/or S.U.V.
my wife has a little subaru s.u.v, i got a Jeep that pulls the boat to the lake - but on nice weekends i ride a big, fat harley davidson motorcycle . it weighs 825 pounds full of fuel, over a thousand plus with my fat arse sitting on it so it's sort of like a two-wheeled station wagon!
never heard the term "shooting brake". i got an education on that one
That's the thing, you say S.U.V. Sport utility vehicle, I suppose we call them a four by fours.
Typically used to carry one small child to and from school and the only off road it will ever see is the gravel drive it sits on.
Keith.P wrote:That's the thing, you say S.U.V. Sport utility vehicle, I suppose we call them a four by fours.
Typically used to carry one small child to and from school and the only off road it will ever see is the gravel drive it sits on.
not all 4 x 4 are SUVs, a pickup truck for example can have 4WD w/o being a SUV.
I think the SUV term usually means 2 row seating with a smallish cargo area behind. Often the back seats fold down to increase cargo space during which time children and pets (if any of either) are strapped loosely to the roof.
you need a 4WD here in winter. when its slick from ice/snow you can barely make it up my rural road and you won't make it up the hill i live on w/o sliding back if you don't have all four wheels pulling - good because it helps keep the riff-raff away.
My wife's AWD is very surefooted on ice. Not good for me because she has the confidence to still go shopping even when it's nasty out. Her old 2 wheel drive used to keep her (and my money) home during those times.