Ancestors

Toot

Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 19:12

My wife called a place to sharpen her chainsaw because it has gone "blunt". They didn't understand the word "blunt", but also didn't offer an alternative word that meant "not sharp". Is this a word that is just not used in the US?

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Descendants

Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 19:18

I wonder if it's the accent? She of course says it correctly - "bluhn-t". A US person might say "blarn" with a long a, slight rhotic, and either a dropped t or change it into a soft d.

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Written by Steve Canon on 2025-01-20 at 19:14

@TomF dull

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Written by Steve Canon on 2025-01-20 at 19:14

@TomF (but anyone should understand “blunt”)

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Written by Owen Nelson on 2025-01-20 at 19:18

@steve @TomF especially in the context of calling to ask about sharpening something

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Written by aeva on 2025-01-20 at 19:17

@TomF blunt is a word that is commonly used with that definition here

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Written by aeva on 2025-01-20 at 19:18

@TomF maybe they just couldn't understand what she was saying over the phone

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Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 19:19

@aeva They had quite a conversation about it, and she even spelled it out for them!

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Written by aeva on 2025-01-20 at 19:20

@TomF wow

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Written by aeva on 2025-01-20 at 19:20

@TomF oh shoot I missed the opportunity to troll you and insist that we typically describe blades as being "muted" when they lose their edge

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Written by Steve Canon on 2025-01-20 at 19:20

@aeva @TomF I assume the entire PNW thinks “blunt” only means the thing you smoke now.

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Written by aeva on 2025-01-20 at 19:23

@steve @TomF "hello? my chainsaw is a bit spliff could you sharpen my chainsaw. spliff. s-p-l-i-f-f. oh for fuck's sake"

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Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 19:34

@aeva @steve "Why is it called a Camberwell Carrot?"

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Written by Fabian Giesen on 2025-01-20 at 21:06

@aeva @steve @TomF tfw you call your carpenter to tell them there's a problem with their jointing and they send over a very indignant stoner

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Written by Fabian Giesen on 2025-01-20 at 21:07

@aeva @steve @TomF "are you just gonna leave those weeds in the grass?" "eyebrow waggle"

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Written by What's it to you? on 2025-01-20 at 19:20

@TomF The chainsaw guy might not have been very sharpest tool as well.

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Written by CtrlZvi on 2025-01-20 at 19:22

@TomF I feel like “dull” is more common usage in the US, but I’m well familiar with blunt pronounced with a short “u” and present “t”, so 🤷🏻.

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Written by Njord on 2025-01-20 at 19:45

@TomF Accent might be it. When Emma first came to the USA, some people had trouble understanding her. She's an accent chameleon, so that didn't last very long, but I do remember being baffled by it while it lasted

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Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 19:47

@Njord I love the chasm between the two accents. I have had to considerably soften my perfectly ordinary London Estuary to be understood. The whole "water" thing is not at all a joke.

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Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 19:49

@Njord But in this case she actually spelled it out for him. Still nothing. He had a perfectly standard PNW accent. Seems like just a curious hole in his vocabulary!

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Written by Njord on 2025-01-20 at 19:56

@TomF probably. When we moved a couple months back, a mover asked for tape to tape something closed. I handed him my tape gun and he said he had never used one. I assumed he was joking and said as much, but no, he'd really never used a tape gun before. I shrugged and handed him a roll of tape that wasn't on a the gun. Sometimes people do have really weird knowledge gaps

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Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 19:59

@Njord OK that is very odd. Even I've used a tape gun!

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Written by Eniko Fox on 2025-01-20 at 19:59

@Njord @TomF well yanno it's normal for non-americans to have never handled guns ;D

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Written by Bill Woodcock on 2025-01-21 at 14:16

@TomF @Njord

Also known as "worter," east of the Mississippi.

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Written by Eniko Fox on 2025-01-20 at 19:58

@Njord @TomF it was weird how nobody could understand a pretty stock British accent

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Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 20:03

@eniko @Njord Did they keep randomly accusing you of being Australian too?

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Written by Phil Dennis-Jordan 😷 on 2025-01-20 at 20:07

@TomF @eniko @Njord “Water” is the worst. Loads of people only understood when we pronounced it “wah-drrr”

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Written by Alex Celeste on 2025-01-20 at 20:33

@pmdj @TomF @eniko @Njord

it took me literal years to learn to pronounce "water" in a way that didn't make other british people laugh, genuinely could not make the t-sound

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Written by simonf 🦘 on 2025-01-20 at 20:49

@TomF @eniko @Njord Some years back after SIGGRAPH, when a UK colleague and I did a bit of a tour round California/Nevada/Utah he was usually asked if he was Australian and if I was “English”.

Struth!

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Written by Eniko Fox on 2025-01-20 at 21:19

@TomF @Njord no thankfully that didn't happen

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Written by Farbs on 2025-01-20 at 22:57

@eniko @TomF @Njord That's exactly what an Australian would say!

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Written by Kojack 🦎 on 2025-01-20 at 23:05

@Farbs @eniko @TomF @Njord Growing up, other Australians would ask if I was english.

I wonder if I sound australian to an american?

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Written by 🇺🇦 haxadecimal on 2025-01-20 at 19:28

@TomF

"blunt" seems sensible enough, but maybe "dull" might be more understood here.

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Written by Bill Woodcock on 2025-01-20 at 19:29

@TomF

I am an American, and although I would say "gotten dull" or "become dull" rather than "gone blunt," I would certainly recognize the meaning in the context of a chainsaw.

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Written by Anne of Green Cables on 2025-01-20 at 19:39

@TomF I'm a sample of 1, but I use that word all the time to describe knives that need sharpening, etc., so they're the weird ones IMO. Nearly everyone I know would also understand what that meant.

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Written by Njord on 2025-01-20 at 19:40

@TomF blunt is definitely used in US English, but dull is more common, it isn't really used the way your wife used it. It's mostly used in phrased like blunt instrument or blunt force trauma.

I would think most people would still understand what she meant, especially in thar context, however.

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Written by Michael Vance on 2025-01-20 at 19:56

@TomF FWIW, I use these on my Stihls, sharpen after each significant use, takes a couple of minutes, therapeutic:

https://www.stihlusa.com/products/chain-saws/accessories/2in1file/

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Written by Tom Forsyth on 2025-01-20 at 20:01

@mtothevizzah Neat. This is the first chainsaw we've had that hasn't broken down before it needed sharpening. Because it's our first electric one :-)

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Written by Raptor :gamedev: on 2025-01-21 at 13:49

@TomF blunt is used here a lot, though in the context of a blade dull would be the more common word. Not something that someone should have trouble understanding though, it's close enough in meaning.

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