Push bike

the Omrud wrote:

wrote:
John Kane wrote:

A push bike typically refers to bicycle (human powered). I was
talking to a sport shop owner the other day and said that I was in
the shop to look at the push bikes not the motorbikes.

It's not an expression that I see or hear used frequently and I
was wondering if anyone has an idea of the origins of the phrase?

Push bike is a terribly British affectation.

"terribly"? "affectation"? Are the English not permitted a dialect
of, er, English?

In the USA, "bicycle"
has always meant a pedal driven two wheeled vehicle

As it has in BrE. We can just about manage when an object has two
slightly different names.

, just as in
German, it has always been a "Fahrrad", whereas in Italy it is a
"bicicletta" unambiguously. In Switzerland the term "Velo" is
widely used although, depending on which of their four languages is
local, it could be German, Italian, French, or Romansch usage.

Let's hear for The Mixtures. Oh, no, they were Australian, not
terrible British. Shome mishtake, Shirley?

Argh! STS!

--

wrote:

Push bike is a terribly British affectation.

Nothing affected about it, it is just what it is called (or named).

In that case, what does the Englisman visualize when the term
"bicycle" is used?



Hang about, I'll ask him when he sobers up.

[Long pause.]

He says he doesn't know, and could you ask the Englishwoman.


DC
--

wrote in message



I was recently in a situation where I found myself referred to as a
"pedal cyclist," and my bike as a "pedal cycle."
I can understand how some people might be confused by the word
"bike," since motorcyclists have stolen it from us. But to me
"bicycle" is a plain, unambiguous term.

Who's "us"?

wrote in message

On May 9, 1:37 pm, John Kane wrote:
A push bike typically refers to bicyle (human powered). I was talking
to a sport shop owner the other day and said that I was in the shop
to look at the push bikes not the motorbikes.

It's not an expression that I see or hear used frequently and I was
wondering if anyone has an idea of the origins of the phrase?

John Kane Kingson ON Canada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CJa6cPYOrw
1970 Australian hit, The Pushbike Song by The Mixtures

I know I have heard that song. But I don't know where or when. I never
understood or listened to the lyrics, I think. And even then I wouldn't
have thought first of a regular bicycle.
This thread has been most educational.
When I have heard "pushbikes", I have always thought of those wheeled,
pedaled replacements for the ricksha.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickshaw
These are images from "pedicabs"
http://tinyurl.com/pe9ysj

Of course those are mainly tricycles, and pulled, rather than pushed.
And the images of pulled cargo/passenger sections outnumbers the pushed
ones by a great margin. Still, I see frequent examples of vendors
"pushing" their wares in boxes loaded on the fronts of their tricycles,
especially in films of NYC.
Now, shall I have to go back and reread all those stories in which I
heard "pushbikes" and assumed "wheeled rickshas"?

On Sun, 10 May 2009 10:11:55 -0500, "Pat Durkin"
wrote:

wrote in message



I was recently in a situation where I found myself referred to as a
"pedal cyclist," and my bike as a "pedal cycle."
I can understand how some people might be confused by the word
"bike," since motorcyclists have stolen it from us. But to me
"bicycle" is a plain, unambiguous term.

Who's "us"?

This thread is crossposted to rec.bicycles.misc so I guess "us" means
"us bicyclists".

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

On May 9, 12:37*pm, John Kane wrote:
A push bike typically refers to bicyle (human powered). *I was talking
to a sport shop owner the other day and said that I was in the shop to
look at the push bikes not the motorbikes.

It's not an expression that I see or hear used frequently and I was
wondering if anyone has an idea of the origins of the phrase?

I've assumed since I learned it, probably in a Dorothy Sayers novel,
that it means a bike that you make go by pushing (the pedals with your
feet).

My mother refers to girls' knee-length, fairly close-fitting shorts as
"pedal pushers". (Once while teaching I used that term about a young
woman's shorts, and a young man who liked to tease her said, "She's a
peddler! And a pusher!" Never again.)

Here in northern New Mexico I've heard "pedal bike". I don't know why
people don't say "bicycle". Maybe it sounds affected and pretentious
to them.

Where did the "k" in "bike" come from? That is, why isn't it "bice"?
The NSOED says only "Abbrev. of BICYCLE", but it seems like an odd
abbreviation. Baby talk? Classicist pedantry, since the Greek word
that "cycle" comes from was and is pronounced with an initial "k"
sound?

Obaue: There's a Scottish and northern English word "bike" meaning a
wasp's nest, hence "A well-provisioned storehouse or dwelling" and "A
swarm of people, a crowd". New to me.

The next word in the NSOED is "bikini". "Bikini briefs" are defined
as "women's briefs resembling those of a bikini". Has "women's" been
removed, or should we call Jesse S.'s attention to it?

Here's an ad with a drawing of a man wearing "bikini briefs and torso
T shirt" in /Popular Science/ from June, 1960:

http://books.google.com/books?id=1CoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA29

There's a snippet of what looks like the same ad in /Railroad
Magazine/ in 1959.

http://books.google.com/books?ei=iAE...#search_anchor

--
Jerry Friedman likes "Abbrev." (speaking of briefs).

"R H Draney" wrote in message
...

Push bike is a terribly British affectation. . . .

One of those penny-farthing jobs, innit?...r

Believe it or not, the penny-farthing was called in its day
the Ordinary Bicycle. The design with two wheels of the
same size (and chain drive, which the Ordinary did not
need) was first marketed as the Safety Bicycle.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Don Phillipson wrote, in
on Sun, 10 May 2009 13:32:51 -0400:

"R H Draney" wrote in message
...

Push bike is a terribly British affectation. . . .

One of those penny-farthing jobs, innit?...r

Believe it or not, the penny-farthing was called in its day
the Ordinary Bicycle. The design with two wheels of the
same size (and chain drive, which the Ordinary did not
need) was first marketed as the Safety Bicycle.

What was the Ordinary being distinguished from before the Safety came
along.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

On Sun, 10 May 2009 07:34:23 GMT, "Django Cat"
wrote:

wrote:

Push bike is a terribly British affectation.

Nothing affected about it, it is just what it is called (or named).

In that case, what does the Englisman visualize when the term
"bicycle" is used?



Hang about, I'll ask him when he sobers up.

[Long pause.]

He says he doesn't know, and could you ask the Englishwoman.

The Englishwoman over here visualises a bicycle.
--
Linz
Wet Yorks via Cambridge, York, London and Watford
My accent may vary

Amethyst Deceiver wrote
On Sun, 10 May 2009 07:34:23 GMT, "Django Cat"
wrote:

In that case, what does the Englisman visualize when the term
"bicycle" is used?

Hang about, I'll ask him when he sobers up.

[Long pause.]

He says he doesn't know, and could you ask the Englishwoman.

The Englishwoman over here visualises a bicycle.

Which, being interpreted, is English as she is spoke.
--
Paul