To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms)

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Sun 6 Sep 2009 09:05
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - mfarrow
I've never pulled up on the reigns of my car. In fact I can't imagine anyone ever doing this in motoring history, so why is it that we still use the term, and it was never replaced with something a little more 'motoring'? Likewise pull over.

Are there any other motoring terms like this, which bear absolutely no resemblance to modern motoring but have a historical context somewhere? The only other thing I can think of is dashboard - mine isn't there to stop muck and dust being kicked up by the wheels and the horses hooves, I have a bulkhead for that!
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 09:18
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - LikedDrivingOnce
Motoring Terms with a historic context....saloon, cabriolet, offside, nearside, horsepower.

I think "boot" and "bonnet" may have a colourful explanation, but I don't know.
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 10:27
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Armstrong Sid
I think "boot" and "bonnet" may have a colourful explanation but I don't know.


The alternative to "boot" is "trunk" ( still used by the Americans) and I can see the coach and horse origins of that
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 10:55
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - CGNorwich
boot is from the french - boite, a box.
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 11:14
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Manatee
Horsepowers have not been completely supplanted by kW.

Mitsubushi Colt, and "Starion"?

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Sun 6 Sep 2009 18:44
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Pugugly
Dashboard comes from horse and trap/carriage days as well.
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 20:29
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - piggy
Coupe is another term from the horse and cart era. IIRC it used to mean a small covered trap. Again derived from French.
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 21:21
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - mike hannon
> boot is from the french - boite, a box. <

Just to prove, as usual, that nothing is straightforward, they call it a 'coffre', which - of course - also has its equivalent in English as 'coffer', a big box. Usually stuffed with money and hidden in the corner of a church, if I remember rightly...

Edited by mike hannon on 06/09/2009 at 21:22

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Sun 6 Sep 2009 21:36
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - CGNorwich
Chassis is also from the French - frame. To this was attached the coachwork
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 21:44
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Pugugly
Cabriolet is German (joke)
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 21:48
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Avant
An even better French word is the one Citroen used for the DS convertible - 'decapotable'.

'Bumper' on the other hand, is a fine old Anglo-Saxon expression, as is 'running-board'.
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Sun 6 Sep 2009 22:09
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - schneip
Cabriolet is German (joke)


A neighbour to my father on his brand new purchase (a Clio) in 2007:

"I like Renaults, they're French, aren't they?"

Oh dear. His part ex for it was a Megane Scenic, also bought new!

Edited by schneip on 06/09/2009 at 22:10

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Sun 6 Sep 2009 22:06
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Lud
I've never pulled up on the reigns of my car.


But you have pulled up on many a handbrake lever mf... I like the term 'pull up'. It suggests a process more seemly and respectable than 'stop'. Gliding to a halt in a sleeve-valve Daimler straight eight under a substantial Georgian porte-cochere, as it were, rather than stopping with an unseemly bounce of the front end at the end of two black lines on the road.

Dumb-irons is a term seldom seen these days, perhaps because cars no longer have them in this country.
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 08:50
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - L'escargot
dashboard ............


It's called a fascia panel by car manufacturers.
I have a bulkhead for that!


I think car manufacturers call it a firewall. tinyurl.com/l4jtff

Edited by L'escargot on 07/09/2009 at 08:52

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Mon 7 Sep 2009 09:25
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Cliff Pope
I have previously commented on the use in a 50s motoring book of "on" a particular gear, rather then being "in" a gear. I think it might derive from early belt/chain drive machinery where ratios were changed by lifting the belt.chain onto a different sprocket. (cf deraileur gears)

People commonly still turn their lights "out" rather than "off", suggesting closing the gas tap.

"Car" itself is presumably short for carriage, and is an interesting example of an English expression that crossed the Atlantic in the reverse direction. In the 50s Americans hardly recognised the word car. Automobiles were universal, cars were quaint horse-drawn jalopies used by backwoods farmers or tourists in old cities.

Lay-bies (never quite sure how to spell it) were I have read originally passing or stopping places for canal barges.

Tyres were originally usually spelt tires in England, when they were made of iron. The "y" was a much criticised deliberate affectation when pneumatic rubber came in.

PS the things for controlling horses are reins, not reigns.
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 18:32
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - ForumNeedsModerating
>>PS the things for controlling horses are reins, not reigns.

Precisely, reigns are for controlling countries, not horses.
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 10:05
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - L'escargot
The general public incorrectly names lots of car parts. The correct name for the things referred to as hub caps is nave plates. (Hub caps are the parts which retain the grease in the bearings and keep out the dirt.) The correct name for "sills" is rocker panels.
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 11:01
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - mike hannon
If you watch old motor racing films you notice that drivers were almost always described as 'on' a car rather than in it, even into the era when the driver became almost invisible inside the bodywork.

Edited by mike hannon on 07/09/2009 at 11:02

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Mon 7 Sep 2009 12:49
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Cliff Pope
Where does "slam on the anchors" come from? It can't be nautical - even if you seriously did try to stop by using the anchors, you'd drop them, not "slam".

Or the instruction to "throw a sharp left" ?
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 13:12
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Andrew-T
I've never pulled up on the reigns of my car


Please don't make more people imagine horses had 'reigns'. Only monarchs and other rulers had those - although horses were GGs they only had Reins, as did many toddlers in my younger days.

And what about Sedans - any relation to sedan chairs?
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 13:26
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Armstrong Sid
And what about Sedans - any relation to sedan chairs?


I'd think so, on the grounds that both of them are ultimately a box in which you sit whilst being transported from A to B

...and reference to Sedan Chairs has, for some reason, made me think of that very quaint old-fashioned term Shooting Brake

Presumably something which the gentry used to transport the belongings on their shooting parties
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 13:54
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - old crocks
Presumably something which the gentry used to transport the belongings on their shooting parties


......on their large "estates".
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 14:06
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Cliff Pope
>>
......on their large "estates".


Or "stations" as the colonials call them, driving their station wagons.
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 14:15
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - LikedDrivingOnce
According to wikipedia:
In the early 19th century, a brake was a large carriage-frame with no body, used for breaking in young horses. By the late 19th century the meaning had been extended to a large waggonette designed for country use. A "shooting brake" carried a driver and gamekeeper facing forward and up to six sportsmen on longitudinal benches with their dogs, guns and game carried alongside in slat-sided racks.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting-brake
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 16:24
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - L'escargot
www.antiquecar.com/terms.php
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 16:32
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - CGNorwich
www.antiquecar.com/terms.php


I like the idea of a convertible roaster although sadly I suspect a mistype
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 21:07
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Harleyman
L'escargot; as the proud owner of a 60's American pick-up I tend to be fairly well versed in the different terms used on each side of the Atlantic for vehicle parts.

The two examples which you quote, "firewall" and "rocker panel", are most commonly used in the USA; whilst they may well appear in dealer's workshop literature over here, most garage mechanics in this country refer to them as "bulkhead" and "sill" respectively. I trained as a mechanic in the REME many years ago, and given that most of our stock-in trade was Land-Rovers I can assure you that they have a bulkhead and not a firewall.

The one item which I do think the Americans label more correctly is "parking lamps" as opposed to "sidelights"; you may recall this from some of my earlier rants on the subject of driving on same.

But I digress; does "buggy" count, as used in the "beach" variety of same but also pertaining to a horse-drawn carriage?

Lud; "dumb-irons" are still found in cars, but all too often driving them!

Edited by Harleyman on 07/09/2009 at 21:10

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Mon 7 Sep 2009 21:37
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Lud
all too often driving them!


Indeed Harley, although dumb-putties would suit many better...

I said 'in this country' because I believe there may be cars still made elsewhere with cart front suspension, a Mahindra jeep thing perhaps..
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 23:22
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - MagDrop
I?ve often wondered where ?Jump In? comes from. I?ve jumped out of one or two vehicles but always thought jumping in might have inherent risks.
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 23:26
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Armstrong Sid
I?ve often wondered where ?Jump In? comes from. I?ve jumped out of one or two
vehicles but always thought jumping in might have inherent risks.


Another phrase which could have potentially painful consequences is ""I'll drop you off at xxxxx"
Being suspended from a height and then released?
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Mon 7 Sep 2009 23:34
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - Martin Devon
other ancient terms!!

Please and Thank you!
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Tue 8 Sep 2009 07:51
To 'pull up' (and other ancient terms) - L'escargot
The two examples which you quote "firewall" and "rocker panel" ................. garage
mechanics in this country refer to them as "bulkhead" and "sill" respectively.


I was saying what car manufacturers call them (and have done since the early 1960s to my certain knowledge) and what is shown on their drawings, so they must be the correct words. Garage mechanics in this country can't necessarily be relied on to use the correct words.

Edited by L'escargot on 08/09/2009 at 07:55

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