Slang in English and in Factories

When someone is a native speaker of any language they do not usually worry about having perfect grammar and vocabulary.   When it comes to everyday speech people will sometimes make up words just because they want to.  If you watch English police shows they have their own slang or jargon (these two are not exactly the same but are close) and so will the gang members they are going after.   Police will often call people who commit crimes “perps” and the general public often call police “cops” or “coppers”.

Factories have slang words or jargon as well.  Today I will focus on one word.  Forklift.

Forklift.   Definition:  A gas or electric powered device for lifting heavy loads, usually on a pallet.  

Now where does slang come into this?  Well there are other proper ways of referring to a forklift such as fork truck, and counter balance.   But the slang you might hear for “forklift” could be “lift”, “truck” or “forks”.  When people are in a hurry they like to save time by shortening words, even by one syllable!  I had a supervisor who liked to refer to forklift as a “pony”.  “Go jump on your pony and unload that truck”, he would say.  In this sentence the truck that was being unloaded was what we would call a tractor trailer or a transport truck.  

If you have any questions about this feel free to send me an email at doug@english-with-doug.com.