why “drive” instead of “forward” in a car with auto transmission?
Back in the '60s, Jack Paar made a joke about his band leader, Jose Melis. He said that Jose got a new Chrysler, and the first time that he wanted very strong acceleration, Jose pressed the “R” button because he thought that it meant “rapido”.
Because cars are not used in cavalry charges: Foward, Ho
In a Roman Galley R was for ramming speed.
I recall seeing my first Mercedes, sometime back in the late '50s. It must have been brought back from Europe by a returning GI, rather than being officially imported, because the controls were labeled in German.
The dashboard button to activate the starter was marked “Fahrt”. When I got home, I consulted my mother’s German-English dictionary, and discovered that this translated to “drive”.
Possibly for the same reason they use reverse instead of backwards… lol
Found this and it sounds about right…
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The selector position is called Drive (D) because it puts the transmission into its normal operating mode. In Drive, the transmission automatically selects the appropriate gear ratio—1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on—as you accelerate and decelerate. The transmission is “driving” the vehicle.
If it were labeled Forward, it would only describe the direction of travel. But several other selector positions also move the car forward:
- L (Low) – Forward, but locked in a low gear.
- 2 – Forward, but limited to first and second gear.
- 3 or D3 – Forward, but won’t shift into the highest gear(s).
- S (Sport) – Forward with a different shift strategy.
- M (Manual) – Forward with the driver selecting the gears.
Remember the transmissions of the 50s? Drive 1 and Drive 2, as I recall that’s how my Pontiac hydro attic had the indicator, City mode/Highway Mode (something of that nature on a Mercury push button transmission), Fordomatic that started in second unless you manually selected low. Then the awful idea at Ford of putting the push bottoms on the steering wheel in some Edsel models.
Ah ha. You can imagine the giggles from our 9th grade German class for the poor sucker that had to conjugate Fahren. I, you, he she it . . .
Just imagine what I had to deal with when I got to the Non-I n t er c o u r s e Acts, when I was teaching my US History course. But, on a positive note, I was impressed that some of the students knew that word.
They all knew the work, the question is whether they knew the correct context.
I am still confused by Middles*x Township.
There is also a Middles*x County in NJ.
In my township, one of the villages is named Middlebush. Yes, there are a lot of jokes…
You need to understand that terminology of our eastern brothers derived from old England is somewhat foreign in other parts of the country. When we went to the FDR museum, we stayed at the hotel in fishkill, ny. I thought what is all this kill about. Turns out it just refers to water or something and not actually dead fish. Who knew?
to bring it back to cars, I remember the place because some substance had been sprayed over my new car while we slept. It was like stucco or dried clay but not water soluable. Took a lot of work scraping it off and polishing when I got home. Clay bar wouldn’t touch it so it was mainly a razor blade and lube. Looked like clay from an off road vehicle tire or something blew over the back of the car, but held on like paint overspray.
In the Dutch language, a “kill” is a narrow body of water, like a strait. NJ and Staten Island, NY are separated by both the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull.
In Delaware we have the M#rder kill river and Slaughter beach. Murd#r =mud, Kill=water in dutch. Slaughter is a family name
Had to add the # as the word was edited out
In NJ, most towns and cities are named for towns/counties in England, or they may have Dutch-derived names, or–especially in the northern part of the state–they bear names from the indigenous Lenape tribes.
Those Lenape-derived names include towns/cities/rivers/creeks/lakes, such as Manunka Chunk, Acquakanonk, Hackensack, Ho-Ho-Kus, Manahawkin, Piscataway, Squankum, Succasunna, Hopatcong, Lopatcong, Assunpink, Weehawken, Hoboken, Rahway, and Paramus.
My gm has D, I, and L. I is for intermediate.
Our 61 merc had D1 and D2. Never could figure out the difference bu5 I was just a kid. They tried to explain it but right over my head.
IIRC, D1 began with 1st gear, and D2 began with 2nd gear. D2 was very helpful on slippery winter surfaces with those old RWD cars.
Same in the New England states. And they weren’t very imaginative. A vast number of town/city names are used over and over again in all the New England states. I was walking in the Lowes Parking lot in Salem NH when a car stopped me and asked me how to get to the Witch Trial exhibits. To which I responded - "They’re in Salem MA - about an hour south and east.
I didn’t think that was much to see but I believe the house of seven gables was in the same area and the wife was interested in that.