I really don`t know what you are complaining about penpusher.......the various names make complete sense. If a part is made of bar stock, we call it the `bar`; If it`s flat, we call it the `flats`; If it`s flat like a table we call it the `table`; If it`s flat, facing forward and has two `eyes we call it the `face`............ All perfectly logical. (
)- As if we British would make up silly names just to confuse you former colonials (
)Things could have been much worse you know : An engineering part that is inserted into another is referred to as `male`. The part into which it is inserted is `female`. A projection into which grease or water is inserted ( or extracted ) is referred to as a nipple. If someone came up with those names nowadays the militant feminists would be screaming `sexist`. Perhaps it`s just as well that there aren`t too many feminist mechanical engineers.................................
On the same basis, and considering the prevailing non PC ( ie, intrinsically racist and sexist ) attititudes of the times when these parts were named its lucky that the fences of a double gun weren`t named the `scrotum`; or that a trigger wasn`t called a `clitoris`; or that a firing pin wasn`t called a `willy`........ or that the flat face of the action wasn`t called the `Chinky`...................................
Oh har di har Asif...........You have a damn good memory don`t you ? !
`Doctor Death` (
) is aware that one term that really annoys me is the modern American affectation for referring to the table as the `water table`............ which is just plain stupid. The `water table` is the mean depth at which standing water is found. Dig a hole in your garden and when you reach water, that`s the `water table`. Dig a hole in the action ( `bar`, `table`, `flats` ) ( ) of a gun and you are unlikely to find water..................................
