3d ago

TIL when you change your region from US to UK in Mint, "Trash" becomes "Rubbish Bin."

I mean fair enough, but it made me laugh.

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Several years back, I set my phone's language to UK English so the voice assistant would be British, and my flashlight button changed to "Torch".
- Unfortunately mine says flashlight which is a mild annoyance since it doesn't flash.
  
  You're not pushing the button fast enough.
  *after seeing some other comments, I want to clarify that I was being sarcastic.
  
  So you're saying it's light on flash
- Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn't even flash!
  Reminiscent of "elevator", except that has four times the syllables! "Transportation" (transport), "burglarize" (burgle), "garbage collector" (dustman), "apartment" (flat)... I'm detecting a pattern.
  
  It's nice that in Star Trek they went with British English for their turbolifts.
  Can you imagine having to say turboelevator in a hurry? shudders
  
  Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn't even flash!
  Except torch is a fancy stick with one end on fire. Flashlight is a light giving an intense flash, used for photographing at night or indoors.
  
  You seem to be German. I just looked up "flash" and it means Blitzlicht in German. Hope that helps.
  
  They can flash by pressing the button. On some flashlights partially pressing and releasing the button flashes the light off and on. That's a notable difference from, say, lanterns where you need a cover or shield for signalling.
  The problem with "torch" is that there's already a thing called "torch", and now I don't know which thing you mean. The word "flashlight" has avoided critical ambiguity in many of our Indiana Jones movies.
  
  They can flash by pressing the button
  Oh come on, this is obvious post-hoc justification!
  The problem with “torch” is that there’s already a thing called “torch”,
  Indeed, it's a thing that you hold in your hand to provide light, as it has been for thousands of years.

54 comments