[vnabhi]

Talking of cold drinks, I am surprised to see a number of people referring to those as cool drinks. I don't know if this has been posted on this thread before.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Talking of cold drinks, I am surprised to see a number of people referring to those as cool drinks. I don't know if this has been posted on this thread before.

Is that really wrong? Both cool & cold are adjectives & cold/cool drink is a colloquial term for soft drinks in India. Different parts of the world use different expressions for this.
In some parts of US, all fizzy soft drinks are called "pop". Other parts of the US, use "soda" as a generic term for all fizzy soft drinks including coke/mirinda/whatever. We in India call it cold drink or cool drink.

[benbsb29]

Just like Xerox, another example of a brand name which had taken on widespread usage is Walkman, which was actually a Sony portable music player. The term then went to be used by one and all, to refer to a portable music player, even if it wasnt a Sony.

Sony's Discman also had popular usage.

[Gansan]

I have heard all personal MP3 players being called "i pod" by the sales fellows in some shops. They simply say Sony ipod, Philips ipod etc!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Talking of cold drinks, I am surprised to see a number of people referring to those as cool drinks. I don't know if this has been posted on this thread before.

Yella OK, cool drinks Yaake?

[Gansan]

If you observe the board in the roadside shops selling the cold drinks in south India, it will be written in the vernacular first and then in English, which will simply be a transliteration of the vernacular. For instance in Tamil a single word (kulir) stands for both cool as well as cold. After all, a drink can be merely cool or very cold depending on the temperature! And I am not talking of the American usage of cool here!

@Samurai
I think I have seen it under the pictures of Upendra at Bangalore, am I right?

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yella OK, cool drinks Yaake?

That's a good one again!

Originally Posted by carboy

Is that really wrong? Both cool & cold are adjectives & cold/cool drink is a colloquial term for soft drinks in India. Different parts of the world use different expressions for this.
In some parts of US, all fizzy soft drinks are called "pop". Other parts of the US, use "soda" as a generic term for all fizzy soft drinks including coke/mirinda/whatever. We in India call it cold drink or cool drink.

You are right regarding usage patterns varying in different parts of the world.

AFAIK, cool is used to denote abstract things like weather, temparament (eg cool-minded), etc, whereas cold is used for concrete stuff like drinks, etc.

However, there are expresssions like 'cold-blooded murder' that seem to be an exception to the rule. Similarly, cool weather can also be referred to as 'the weather is cold today'.

Now have I confused you enough?

[vivekiny2k]

I think cool just sounds cool.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Gansan

During my school days, I have heard the term "Pleasure" being used for car in rural TN, usually by uneducated, weaker sections of the society. It seems during colonial times they were known as "Pleasure cars" and over the years the car was dropped, but pleasure remained. "They are very well off, they will come by pleasure from Chennai" was what I used to hear!

I've heard that too as 'plus-er'. Was wondering what that it is?

BTW, thats how its was said by everyone in rural areas during the Britishers days. Nothing to do with education or weakness man.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Mpower

BTW, thats how its was said by everyone in rural areas during the Britishers days. Nothing to do with education or weakness man.

Sure it must have been so, during British times. But during my school/college days (mid 60's to late 70's), I heard it only from servants/jutka drivers/workers in paddy fields and the like. AFAIK no body uses the term now.

And yes, it was pronounced variously as pluser, plus-ser, pleser etc, and never exactly as pleasure! It took me a long time to find out the root!

[RajaTaurus]

"Pleasure car" is a proper term used back in 1930's in the USA. Evidence? Read this article.

Are you Driving a Pleasure Car or Death Trap?

And back in 40's 50'sand 60's all those huge big Impalas and Plymouths came from America and used by the Brits and the term came from them. It was just the equivalent of luxury car of these days. And everybody was using the term not only 'weaker sections' or 'uneducated'.

[mallumowgli]

I've seen the usage of pleasure/plesur, by the so called weaker section of the population even during the late eighties in the town i grew up - Nagarcoil. It was like "how are you going? bus-a plesur-a?"

But then Nagarcoil had their own usage of English words. Gold means only rold Gold and not gold. when you say you have bought gold ornaments, people go 'duh!'. The actual gold is 'thangam' (gold in tamil)

Also trousers were called 'bells' after the bell-bottoms popular during the 60s and 70s

And in kerala, in govt offices, superior officers are called sir or rather saar, wether male or female. (commonly used by the peons/clerks level staff)

[vnabhi]

I've found many persons from A.P. referring to a blouse as a jacket, eg. that lady is wearing a matching jacket for her saree (cheera jackettu matching raa). I wonder where it originated from.

Another wrong usage in A.P. is the word 'sight', meaning eyesight. For someone having poor eyesight, they are referred to as persons having 'sight', which is exactly the opposite of what they intend to say.

[Thad E Ginathom]

... like "under repair", which really means "is being repaired" is used to mean "broken", "needing repair".

Pleasure vehicle. is, I think, an archaic equivalent of "private vehicles". Makes me imagine the era that my parents first drove in --- empty country lanes; park anywhere in any city because the roads were empty... Ahhh...

[straightdrive]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

...........Another wrong usage in A.P. is the word 'sight', meaning eyesight. For someone having poor eyesight, they are referred to as persons having 'sight', which is exactly the opposite of what they intend to say.

A similar one is "He has pressure" or "He has blood pressure". It means a high blood pressure problem but taken literally it would cover every living person.