zompist bboard

Salmoneus wrote:LB: hadn't heard that expression, but wiktionary offers "a fabric made of silk or wool, or silk and wool, and having a tranversely corded or ribbed surface".

Growing up, our "rep ties" were usually pure cotton, if memory serves. I take it the context you're seeing this word is mediaeval/early modern textile trade in Britain?

ETA: Okay, apparently a "rep tie" is also called a "repp tie" and it has stripes rather than little duckies or tiny logos or whatever? Where the hell is my goddamn Preppy Handbook?

I've just found out what a Mason jar is after seeing that word on the internet occasionally for years and just thinking "must be some American thing" ... I've always just called them jars and I'm not sure I know of any non-Mason jars.

Imralu wrote:I've just found out what a Mason jar is after seeing that word on the internet occasionally for years and just thinking "must be some American thing" ... I've always just called them jars and I'm not sure I know of any non-Mason jars.

Maybe you call them "pots" or something?

In my country, peanut butter is sold in "jars":



as is baby food:



and even moisturising cream:

Salmoneus wrote:

Imralu wrote:

Jonlang wrote:

Salmoneus wrote:

linguoboy wrote:anticlockwise

y u brits gotta have ur wn word 4 evrything u not so specil

woah! What do Americans call it, then? Presumably not still widdershins?

Counterclockwise. Which I find to be anti-intuitive.

I would find unclockwise less disintuitive. Personally, I'd like clocky and unclocky.

Turnwise and widdershins.

Righthandwise and lefthandwise?

Besides, clockiness is confusing, because as the famous observation (Turing? Or one of his colleagues? can't remember) goes, clocks actually run anticlockwise.

Could you elaborate?

Salmoneus wrote:Besides, clockiness is confusing, because as the famous observation (Turing? Or one of his colleagues? can't remember) goes, clocks actually run anticlockwise.

Wait, what? Can you elucidate?

hwhatting wrote:

Salmoneus wrote:Besides, clockiness is confusing, because as the famous observation (Turing? Or one of his colleagues? can't remember) goes, clocks actually run anticlockwise.

Wait, what? Can you elucidate?

They run anticlockwise if you're the clock. The hands appear to turn clockwise when you look at the clock from the front. But if you were the clock, you would feel your hands turning anticlockwise. [Or, if you prefer, the hands turn anticlockwise from the perspective of somebody inside (imagine you're looking through the face of Big Ben, for instance), or behind, the clock]

The context was cryptography, and it's a general "think outside the box" reminder, but more specifically it was about getting into the mindset of things like cryptographic processes, where the same thing is seen from two different directions (the sender and the receiver), for whom many things are opposite. Or not. For instance, it's sort of counterintuitive that if someone inside (or behind) a clock moves the hands forward ten minutes, somebody looking at the clock wanting to reverse the effect has to repeat the motion. [from behind the clock, I turn the hands 10 minutes anticlockwise. To reverse this, you, in front of the clock, also turn the hands another 10 minutes anticlockwise (from your perspective)].

Anyway, it's not a blinding insight, but it's an interesting thought. And in this case, points out that the term "clockwise" requires not only knowledge of a convention about how clocks work, but also additional knowledge about assumed viewing points - it's easy to imagine a culture that judges motion relative to the thing moving, and hence sees clocks as moving anticlockwise. Indeed, in English, we typically say that someone has turned "left" or "right" relative the person themselves, even though this actually means they've turned right or left from out perspective (if I turn left, the visible parts of my body move to the right from the point of view of an observer), which, again, we don't have to do.



linguoboy: actually the original context was about ties, in the late 19th century. I ran into several remarks about "poplin ties", and finding out what poplin was linked me to rep, which is like poplin. Leading me to have no bloody clue what the difference is between a poplin tie and a rep tie.

Thanks for the explanation!

linguoboy wrote:[pictures of jars]

Hmm, no, those are all jars for me. So, now I guess I'm back to not knowing what a mason jar is.

Imralu wrote:

linguoboy wrote:[pictures of jars]

Hmm, no, those are all jars for me. So, now I guess I'm back to not knowing what a mason jar is.

Wikipedia tells me it's basically the American word for a Kilner jar. Although now it turns out I didn't know what kilner jars were after all.

They're both jars with multi-part lids of many materials, designed for "home canning", which is apparently a hobby Americans have.

What the right word is for the things I always thought of as kilner jars, however, I do not know...

EDIT: ahh! I was thinking of what's apparently called a lever-arm or clip-top jar (you know, the ones restaurants are obsessed with nowadays). Confusingly, these are also made by Kilner, and can be called "clip-top Kilner jars" or "kilner-style jars", even though they're not actually "Kilner jars" in the traditional sense. However, since "kilner-style" jars are extremely common, whereas I have never in my life encountered even a single "Kilner jar" strictu sensu, it's probably fair to say that this is what "kilner jar" now means for most people.

Salmoneus wrote: They're both jars with multi-part lids of many materials, designed for "home canning", which is apparently a hobby Americans have.

Yeah, I read that too ... but peanut butter jars often have two parts in the lid - one the actual lid and one like a slightly softer plastic sheet in the roof of the lid that makes the seal. Doesn't that count? Not all have it, but, for example, I think Nutella jars do.

Salmoneus wrote:What the right word is for the things I always thought of as kilner jars, however, I do not know...

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm quite happy using only the word "jar" and will continue to feel like people are being needlessly specific in referring to their jars whenever it's not actually necessary to specify further. I'll get back to my life full of thingies, that-ones and thing-that-you-put-stuff-ins.

Isn't this Chinese pickling jar a jar, too, but not a Kilner or Mason jar?

A Mason jar is a glass jar with a metal seal and a ring-shaped screw-on metal lid. Sometimes used for drinking without the lid.

Vijay wrote:Isn't this Chinese pickling jar a jar, too, but not a Kilner or Mason jar?

Does that lid screw on and off? I feel weird about calling that a jar. It looks like a pot to me.

Imralu wrote:Does that lid screw on and off?

I don't think so, but I'm pretty sure it's used for pickling vegetables (or maybe eggs), not for cooking.

Vijay wrote:

Imralu wrote:Does that lid screw on and off?

I don't think so, but I'm pretty sure it's used for pickling vegetables (or maybe eggs), not for cooking.

I agree with Imralu that I'd be inclined to call it a "pot"; IMD a pot doesn't have to be for cooking. For example, a pot is also what you put a plant in.

Zaarin wrote:

Vijay wrote:

Imralu wrote:Does that lid screw on and off?

I don't think so, but I'm pretty sure it's used for pickling vegetables (or maybe eggs), not for cooking.

I agree with Imralu that I'd be inclined to call it a "pot"; IMD a pot doesn't have to be for cooking. For example, a pot is also what you put a plant in.

That's also true IMD. It's a bit like a crock pot, I think.

Zaarin wrote:A Mason jar is a glass jar with a metal seal and a ring-shaped screw-on metal lid. Sometimes used for drinking without the lid.

That is to say, this is the latest odious hipster affectation in this country. It's so common in restaurants now that they've begun making them with handles.

I hate drinking out of jars. I thought people only did it if they were too poor to have glasses. Like, it's got a fucking threaded neck ... and with some jars that breaks the seal with your lips and makes you dribble your drink *big sarcastic thumbs up*

Salmoneus wrote:They're both jars with multi-part lids of many materials, designed for "home canning", which is apparently a hobby Americans have.

It used to be prettey wide-spread in Germany as well. In my grandparents' and parents' generation, basically everyone with access to a garden did it. People who still grow fruits or vegetables in their gardens (as opposed to having purely decorative plants) still do it. The process is called einmachen or einwecken (regional variants) and that kind of jar is called Einmachglas or Einweckglas. They are also used for jam.

Vijay wrote:

Zaarin wrote:

Vijay wrote:

Imralu wrote:Does that lid screw on and off?

I don't think so, but I'm pretty sure it's used for pickling vegetables (or maybe eggs), not for cooking.

I agree with Imralu that I'd be inclined to call it a "pot"; IMD a pot doesn't have to be for cooking. For example, a pot is also what you put a plant in.

That's also true IMD. It's a bit like a crock pot, I think.

I've only ever heard "crockpot" used to refer to a slowcooker. I would expect to hear the plain word "crock" for the picture posted.

alynnidalar wrote:I've only ever heard "crockpot" used to refer to a slowcooker. I would expect to hear the plain word "crock" for the picture posted.

Same.

On topic:

einwecken can [i.e. put up for the winter]
bécane machine, esp. a moped or bicycle
toile a type of canvas

linguoboy wrote:

alynnidalar wrote:I've only ever heard "crockpot" used to refer to a slowcooker. I would expect to hear the plain word "crock" for the picture posted.

Same.

I saw a recipe for making pickles in one here.

Vijay wrote:I saw a recipe for making pickles in one here.

I guess because more people have crockpots than straight up pickling crocks these days?

I have neither, just a Rumtopf. I'd be worried what making pickles in that might do for the next batch.

linguoboy wrote:

Zaarin wrote:A Mason jar is a glass jar with a metal seal and a ring-shaped screw-on metal lid. Sometimes used for drinking without the lid.

That is to say, this is the latest odious hipster affectation in this country. It's so common in restaurants now that they've begun making them with handles.

I can't be too hard on hipsters: they make great coffee and music. *brews some Stumptown and turns up the indie folk*