Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 May 5

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[edit] May 5

[edit] Wiping floors

What's the usual term for an item used for wiping floors? Is it a

  • floor rag (floor-rag)
  • floor towel (floor-towel)
  • floor wipe (floor-wipe)

or something else? I don't mean a mop, for example, but a towel-like piece of fabric. Thanks. -91.155.58.242 (talk) 15:35, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

As a Brit (origin south-east England), I call it a floor-cloth. SaundersW (talk) 16:20, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Me too, North west UKhotclaws 02:30, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

(USA, Middle Atlantic) I wouldn't say that there is anything like a "term" for that. I'd call it a floor rag, I guess. "Floor cloth" sounds British, believe it or not. If it was for drying the floor, it might be called a floor towel. "Floor wipe" sounds like an advertising term to me, and leaves me wondering what exactly it is—cloth, paper, rubber. --Milkbreath (talk) 16:45, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
Ditto. Just like when you wash the dishes with a dishrag and you dry them with a dishtowel. According to Merriam-Webster, a floorcloth is used as a floor covering [1]--although it's safe to assume this is very rare nowadays. Jack(Lumber) 16:55, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

In Korean you would say 걸레 (geolle) which is also a very derogatory slang term for "slut." In English, I would just say "cloth." --Kjoonlee 18:24, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Heavens, men! floorcloth! It is currently a cloth for cleaning floors, and the floor covering is considered antiquated. The entry has it about right. (And one washes dishes with a dishcloth, and dries them with a tea towel!) SaundersW (talk) 21:27, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
My idiolect doesn't have a term for such a thing. I'd just say "I'm wiping the floor with a rag.", I guess. Corvus cornixtalk 21:56, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
The original - and marginally non-egalitarian / discriminatory / sexist - term was housewife (from OE, "huse wipe"). Pee off, sinebot, this was not me! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk • contribs) 22:11, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
Hush, viper! Horsewhipper, hoseweeper.
–⊥¡ɐɔıʇǝoNoetica!T– 00:27, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
Shame on you chaps! For that you get to swab the decks till teatime!SaundersW (talk) 15:25, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
I use a mop.--ChokinBako (talk) 00:14, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't say "floor rag," "floor wipe," or "floor towel," I'd say either "rag," "wipe," or "towel." Wipe would refer to a disposable item, as long as the item wasn't a paper towel. A towel would be in nicer condition than a rag, I'd think.Tuesday42 (talk) 02:04, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I guess specific compound words aren't used that much in English language. In some languages, it's possible to form any (trivial) specific words for items like this, for example. If you say "telly-rag" in Finnish, people know that it clearly means a wipe for wiping televisions. A "kitchen-rag" would be used in kitchen. A "cotton-rag" would mean a wipe made out of cotton, on the other hand.
Maybe floor-cloth is the best choice in this case. It's funny how this question aroused such a debate :). Thank you all. -91.155.58.242 (talk) 11:07, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
Yes, we all talk funny to each other. I don't know Finnish, but in American you can call a rag "the TV rag" and mean that that rag is for wiping the television set and nothing else. Why you'd want such a rag, I don't know. You can't really have "a TV rag", though, because that would imply that there was some property of rags of that kind that makes them intrinsically suitable for the wiping of televisions. --Milkbreath (talk) 11:39, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
I hate to break this to you, Milkbreath, but TV cleaning cloths exist. Such is the world we live in. [2] SaundersW (talk) 14:16, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
This is getting gnarly. I was trying to say that English doesn't use compound words to make new words in quite the same way and with quite the facility as Finnish seems to by what 91.155 said. Where he says "cotton-rag" and makes a new word meaning "rag made of cotton", we can't and say "cotton rag", leaving the adjective and noun untouched and discrete. --Milkbreath (talk) 14:25, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
This is interesting. I have been googling terms which seem natural compounds to me (milk-jug and bottle-brush) and they throw up uncompounded combinations. On the other hand, teaspoon and flowerpot exist a-plenty. Maybe it's because of my gnarled years, and compounding is a-goin' out of fashion! SaundersW (talk) 15:22, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
Note that milk jug means different things... depending on which side (of the Pond) you are on... Jack(Lumber) 16:44, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
Don't worry what the thing is called, just get the maid to clean the floor.--Artjo (talk) 06:00, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] questionaire for testing the habbit of english reading habits

<removing query already posted above under "May 3"> Deor (talk) 19:04, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Glasgow patter vs 'normal' English

How many Glaswegians speak Glasgow patter and how many speak English that any native speaker can understand? 217.168.1.251 (talk) 23:56, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

In each case, more than half. Many speak both. Xn4 00:19, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
I will second that. I was in a meeting at Clydesdale Bank once, and everyone was easily understandable. Half way through someone came in and said that he had booked the projector. The manager in charges accent changed so that I could only pick out a few words such as "idyut" as he responded to the guy interrupting, but whatever he said worked because the guy left pretty quickly without the projector. -- Q Chris (talk) 14:32, 6 May 2008 (UTC)