Boltcutting quiz

[undyingking]

What would you call this?


[Poll #1247845]

Comments

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

We'd call them "boltcutters" - not "a boltcutters" or "some boltcutters", just "boltcutters" (like trousers (although I am led to believe (by the Guardian's fashion chappies, who may well be winding me up) that in certain very on-trend circles, it is correct to refer to "a trouser", as in "he cuts a very fine trouser")).

If you were asking where they were, you'd say "Where are the boltcutters?"

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

What brixtonbrood said.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

What I asked brixtonbrood.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

What brixtonbrood replied.

Though my "our cumulative years" is higher than brixtonbrood's "our cumulative years".

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Though my "our cumulative years" is higher than [info]brixtonbrood's "our cumulative years"

No idea why - other than Arithmetic Fail - but this is a lie.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

There are twice as many of them as there are of you, so they have a bit of an advantage.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

My evil triplet is laughing at you.

[hatmandu.livejournal.com]

ditto

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I will ask you what I didn't ask brixtonbrood though, which is re the analogy with trousers: although you may talk about "trousers" in the abstract, if you're pointing at an example you would surely say "that is a pair of trousers" rather than "that is trousers"?

[hatmandu.livejournal.com]

"Those are trousers, my dear Winthrop, and those, Fotheringay, are boltcutters. Surely you recall their use in the Cumberland Escapade?"

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

What would you say if you wanted to ask someone if they had any? -- "Do you have boltcutters?"

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Probably "Do you have any boltcutters?" However, given that we've managed a cumulative 86 years without ever needing to cut a bolt, it's not a question that we've ever had to consider before. (Still, it's a useful thing to have prepared, just in case we come across Paul Dacre tied to a chair with his fingers left free.)

And I should have mentioned earlier, Henry is either a steam engine or a vacuum cleaner, but not boltcutters.

[stegzy.livejournal.com]

Much in the same way as I might refer to a pair of scissors or a pair of compasses.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

That seems reasonable enough, and would also cover things like shears and secateurs which similarly consist of two alike pivoted parts. But are there any exceptions?

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

I;d call it a bolt-cutter if I couldn't see one and didn't have a mental image of one - 'cos that's what it is. It's a thing wot cuts bolts.

If I was looking at it, or had a mental image for some reason, then I'd think it was like a pair of scissors, and thus call it a pair of boltcutters.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Are there other domestic objects that fall into this category of different names depending on whether you're looking at / visualizing them or not?

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

By way of additional detail to my answer: although I'd use "boltcutter" myself (by analogy to can opener), I wouldn't think it weird if someone said either "boltcutters" or "pair of boltcutters" (by analogy to scissors).

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Like trousers or scissors. In fact your fine example would look rather good in trousers...

[ibarhis.livejournal.com]

"Would you pass me the boltcutters" as in "would you pass me the scissors"

'the' if there is only one set/pair in view, my/yours if there is a choice.

I would use 'some' interchangeably with 'a pair of' if I was asking for them in a hardware shop rather than looking for them in a diy warehouse.

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

The workshop downstairs call these shears (a pair of shears as they are like grown up scissors). They are sometimes referred to as boltcutters (as people above have commented) but this is frowned on as if you use them to cut high tensile steel bolts it deforms the blade and you have to throw them away. I

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

I'd usually refer to them in the plural, and usually as a pair or a set. I can imagine situations where I might say that I need "a bolt-cutter", in the sense that I need a device that will cut a bolt, irrespective of whether it looks like your picture.

I might also refer to them as bolt-croppers, should the fit take me.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Bolt-croppers, now that has a definitely Northern feel to me. I think 'crop' for 'cut' in a general sense died out down here some time ago.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

I hadn't actually thought of it as a northern term, but you identifying it as such gives me a warm fuzzy glow in the Yorkshiremost recesses of my heart!

[a-llusive.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd probably use some instead of pair if I was lazy. And there's plenty of evidence to show I am.
Henry, if I was told they had been named.