US vs British Diving Vocabulary

[Lost down under]

They seem to refer to "bollocks" in regard to everything we Yanks just write off as "embrace the suck".

Down under I've been asked to limit my use of bollocks to a frequency of 2 situations per day!

 

[dbulmer]

I try to refer to those things as such at every possible opportunity.

My regulator is also my 'sucky-blowy thing' and everything else is the 'thingy' as in "pass me my thingy"

You forgot to mention that the term fish is not used by wreck divers - they prefer the term wrasse.

So with obvious dialectal variations, a cod could be called a "cod wrasse" or big wrasse or even just wrasse.

A shark could be a "wrasse with teeth" -

a conger eel could be a "long wrasse with teeth"



A wrasse could be called a wrasse.

 

[shoredivr]

Demand valve = regulator.

Bimble = shallow or easy dive

 

[TheWartHog]

Americans seem to use the word 'pissed' meaning, I think, upset or annoyed – I've seen it used here on Scubaboard.
To Brits 'pissed' means drunk and is a word that, IMO shouldn't really be used in everyday conversation – if ever I hear it, it really 'pisses' me off.

 

[Divescape]

Here are three from South Africa

We use booties for boots and hoodies for hoods. I caught some flak on the board befre for these South African endearments of diving terms. Also we dive from ducks or rubber ducks, not Zodiacs or ribs.

 

[Doc]

Demand valve = regulator.

Ahh, you mean the "deeeeeevee".

First time I heard that, I dint know wtf.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Which is why I prefer to use Dove instead of Dived.

Dove is bath soap ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added July 21st, 2014 at 07:15 AM ----------

When a British operator tells you fags aren't allowed on the boat they're telling you they have a no-smoking policy ... when an American operator says that they're telling you they are a member of a certain church in Kansas ... :shocked2:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[boulderjohn]

Was that "HAIR-is-ment," or "ha-RASS-ment"?

My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that Americans mispronouncing it as "HAIR -is-ment" began with television news. Reporters were ordered to pronounce it that way to avoid the crudely sexual sound of the correct pronunciation. We had a similar issue related to speaking of the planet Uranus.

Something that I've come across from time to time (fortunately very rarely) is people - instructors even - referring to the regulator set as an octopus. Took me a while to figure out what they wanted the first time.

My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that hoses got added one at a time. When the spg was added to the regulator, it added a hose. When a low pressure inflator was added to the regulator, it added a hose. When the alternate air source was added to the regulator, it added a hose. At that point, people noted that the once simple system now looked like an octopus. That term was originally intended to refer to the entire setup, but it became mistakenly associated with the last one added--the alternate air source.

 

[FinnMom]

Another pronuciation I like is how Brits make a full sentence of out of the word "aluminium" by saying "ah-loo-MIN-ium". The first time I heard it I was so bewildered it look quite a bit of rewinding the sound to make any sense of the word.

But nothing I've heard so far would have given me anywhere near as much pause as Akimobo's "electric rubber".

 

[shoredivr]

Blob = DSMB

here's Yorkshire Divers for a bit of lingo: YD Scuba Diving Forums