Something that GUEST,Bunnahabhain, via back door wrote earlier in this thread ...



Embarque, and Disenbarque, surely?


Now, I'd always spelled it, "embark" and disembark. That got me thinking, is there, "embrig", "emyacht", "emketch", and so on for all varieties of tall ship rig and construction ?

Apparently, "embark" (correct spelling, I hope) comes from the french embarquer, make a voyage aboard a sailing vessel, which in turn comes from the latin barca a sailing ship.

(Somebody with more nautical knowledge will probably be able to enlighten me as to how "barque" came to refer specifically to square-rigged sailing vessels with fore-and-aft rig on the mizzen mast.)

Im military usage only, I have met "embus" and "debus" (referring to lorries or armoured personnel carriers), and "emplane" and "deplane" referring to aircraft. I note that the latter usage is never met in the airline industry; they always use "board" and "leave the aircraft".

I don't know why the military make such jargon standard speech (to the extent that Senior NCO's pretended to look baffled when told, "Get on the 4-tonners", and then made a great show of enlightenment when told to "embus"). I recall an exercise where someone had used much initiative and was using a van with sliding side doors to demonstrate the drills for getting on and off a Lynx helicopter. One annoying character kept refusing to emplane, "Er, it's a Honda Acti, sir", or embus. "F***ing get on!" plus a well-applied boot, did the trick.


****

When the "stinger", an extendable spiked strip which punctured the tyres of cars driven by people fleeing the Law, was first used in the UK, the instruction manual said, "Deploy across pavement ..." After a few unsuccessful attempts to apprehend criminals this way, it was realised that this meant, "Deploy across road ,,,"


In the aftermath of a coup in Africa, a journalist noticed that scowling troops stopped all the cars on a main road, ordered the passengers to get out and then told them to remove their hats and shoes. They inspected these, and then handed them back. The hack asked why they were doing this. The Corporal in charge said, "We got orders to stop all cars, and inspect all bonnets and boots". The hack explained that this was officer-speak for "trunks and hoods".


Some other vehicle parts which differ over the Atlantic:

      UK               US
  
    bumper           fender
   [panel beaters]  [body and fender shop]
    windshield       windscreen
    silencer         muffler