On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 04:18:54 GMT, Dan
<DELETEMEdan_slaughter@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> "Chris Croughton" <chris@keristor.net> wrote in message
> news:slrneds3hv.3jv.chris@ccserver.keris.net...
>> On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:12:20 GMT, Dan
>> <DELETEMEdan_slaughter@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>
>>> You write very well for a non-native writer. Yes, "dead battery" is
>>> perfectly acceptable, and, in the United States, would be the term most
>>> widely accepted. One would find the term "flat battery" foreign. We
>>> would
>>> understand, but we would know that it was written by a person whose
>>> native
>>> tongue isn't English. Other more technical (but boring and unnatural)
>>> terms
>>> include "(fully) discharged battery" or "unserviceable battery."
>>
>> To me an "unserviceable" battery would be one which is useless, not
>> capable of being recharged. I still often write the UK forces
>> abbreviation "U/S" (for "unserviceable") on equipment which is not only
>> 'dead' but which cannot be revived (although sometimes it can be
>> rebuilt, more often it is destined for the scrap pile).
>
> unserviceable
>
> adj 1: not ready for service; "unserviceable equipment may be replaced"
> [ant: serviceable] 2: impossible to use [syn: unusable, unuseable]
>
> from www.dictionary.com for unservicable
Concise OED, 9th ed., 1995 (my earlier statement of 1999 was incorrect):
unserviceable: adj. not serviceable; unfit for use.
serviceable: adj. 1 useful or usable. 2 able to render service.
3 durable, capable of withstanding difficult conditions. 4 suited
for ordinary use rather than ornament.
There seems to be a slight variation in meaning between US and UK usage
according to the dictionaries (dictionary.com generally (always?) uses
the American ones).
>> As a sound engineer I frequently refer to signals as 'dead' meaning no
>> signal or the channel is switched off, this is a common usage in the
>> sound/radio/TV/electrical engineering environment (signalling that a
>> circuit is 'dead' often being accompanied by a throat-cutting gesture).
>
> and, lol.
The throat-cutting seems to be international, I remember using it at a
German event and the other engineers understood it with no trouble (I
actually wanted to say "kill the channel" but didn't know the German,
holding up the offending lead and drawing my hand across my throuat
worked just as well). Oh yes, using 'kill' to mean "cut the
power/signal" is common as well (and I've noticed on some UK roads the
sign "kill your speed", it has evidently entered the general language).
> I am former military, too (also, former signal corps). That is, in fact,
> where I got the term. You had me second guessing myself though.
I'm not actually military (short sighted, under-tall and have never been
fit (for use?); if they'd still had National Service they might have
been forced to take me but they don't want me otherwise), although I
grew up around several people who were ex-military engineering and
signals (all of my early learning in electronics was with people with
military background, some of them having served during the War and some
later) and picked up the slang particularly where electronics and
audio/radio are concerned. (I still often use Able Baker Charlie Dog
instead of the modern alphabet when spelling on the phone.)
> Other technical suggestions include ---> the battery is toast, an electrical
> quandary, hunk of junk, pooped out powersource, circuit hole, A?C/s, etc.
Heh. Don't forget SNAFU and FUBAR (I have heard SNAFUed and FUBARed,
which make no sense if the acronyms are expanded). One engineer, on
being told that a cable was non-functional, told me to write F***ed on
it. I did, he's a lot bigger than me...
Chris C
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