us in UK call it petrol. do you have different word for diesel and parafin too?
Well, gasoline is actually a chemical compound, is it not? But petrol is just a shortened form of petroleum, so I guess we’re both right. Assuming my knowledge is correct.
Diesel should be referring to the same thing–fuel for a Diesel engine.
While I’ve never seen it mentioned in an English-American dictionary, the context in which I’ve seen the word used suggests that parafin=kerosene (in the US, “paraffin” is a heavy wax used for sealing).
gasoline is not a chemical compound. how can you be so wrong like that?
petrol/gasoline is a mixture of compounds like octane, heptane, hexene, benzene sorta molecules
i think the word gasoline comes from it being like gas (methane) but a liquid. petrol’s a nicer word, that’s why i started this thread. i think all you americans should start calling it petrol from now on.
Petrol? Gasoline (or just ‘gas’ for short) sounds OK to me. You can live in your ‘flats’ and push around your ‘prams’ or drive in your ‘lorries’, but I think I’ll talk like I was taught to talk, guv’nah! 
I won’t ask you to adopt my words, but at least spell some of our common words correctly like ‘maneuver’ and ‘center’ and ‘color’. It just makes more sense.
I’m off to check out the meteor shower…not the meteour showre, as we both know
Niobium, are you purposefully trying to make Brits look bad?
“I won’t ask you to adopt my words, but at least spell some of our common words correctly like ‘maneuver’ and ‘center’ and ‘color’. It just makes more sense.”
ooh yuck those words look horrible. color espesially.
nope i’m just having fun. btw Lennox won heheh!
OK, I’ll get right on it. I’ll email everyone on my address book, have them email everyone in their address book. In a few months we should have this sorted out.
Seriously, since our grandfathers saved your grandparents in WWII, shouldn’t that allow us to take some liberties with the language?
how do you know my grandparents were saved in WW2?
In an attempt to save the GQ status of this, I have located the following. By the OED, it does appear that the word ‘petrol’ derives from petroleum, as has been previously stated and is blindingly obvious. Gasoline is a bit more complicated, but I found this much, again from the OED. One definition of gas is basically something you burn to produce heat or light, 3a under ‘gas’ in the copy I’m referencing. ‘Gasolene’ (The ‘e’ not ‘i’ is purposeful) was originally just a name for the lightest fraction of crude petroleum in refining (which, incidentally, would be the quickest to evaporate into the gaseous state).
However, the use of ‘gasoline’ as a name for light petroleum distillates goes back to 1865. The word petrol dates to 1596, but not nearly in the use it now serves. It also was/is a name for octane starting in 1866. It only came into use as a name for something resembling the modern product in 1895. I think, from this, that gasoline can claim to be the older term in the modern definition.
Looking at the whole thing, it’s a bit of a mess. Neither word really refers to the chemical composition or nature of the fuel in question, and both can claim derivation from petroleum (gasoline through its definition as a fraction of petroleum, which is indeed what the fuel we use today is), and petrol more directly. I vote, then, that we start calling a spade a spade and henceforth fill our cars with ‘liquid short-chain hydrocarbons.’ If that’s too much for you, just call them ‘LSCH.’ 
Personally I prefer “petrol” to “gasoline”, but then I use “colour” and “centre.” On the English language:
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
- James D. Nicoll
Because you are not talking in German :eek:
[list][list][list][list][list]Gas
.;)[sup]is more common[/sup]
The reason is probably something marketing related. My guess is that the European oil barons wanted to distinguish themselves from Standard Oil products.
Maybe also that long ago, petrol and gasoline were significantly different formulations of petroleum, and grew into the same product later as the industry grew.
Aside: what the hell’s with bonnets on cars? Can we and the Brits do a deal? We’ll take the metric system and you either adapt our lingo, or drive on the right side of the road.
Only if you guys quit calling sidewalks “pavements”, and elevators “lifts”. The former is on the road surface, and the latter is in your shoes.
Oh, and we’ll quit using the potentially embarassing “fanny pack” if you quit sticking “rubbers” on the ends of your pencils.
Yes, British “paraffin” = American “kerosene”, which I believe was originally a trade name. Over here, paraffin is the waxy stuff candles are made out of, or which used to be used to seal home-canned foods.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Palve *
**
Who the hell says meteour??? I use colour, neighbour, manoever and centre, but never never ever meteour!
I had the hardest time explaining to an Aussie why our gas pumps had twin hoses.
I said the second one was for the escaping gas to be collected.
He was shocked. He thought by gas I meant “petrol”, while I meant “fumes”. He thought they were letting me overfill my tank and sucking the liquid back into the ground.
yes that is why “gas” is an ambiguous term. gas could mean gas (ie not a liquid) or petrol. petrol is clear, it means petrol.
This thread reminds me of that British show TLC plays about bad drivers-
“Oh dear, the lorry’s al-u-mi-ni-um caravan has a puncture on the dual-carriage motorway just past the sliproad towards the roundabout after the zebra-crossing. Oh look, the Queen!”