Toward a More Mid-Atlantic America

[Nanohedron]

So I'm watching the news when the weatherman says, "Christmas is a fortnight away," and as my eyebrows raise (because Yanks just don't say "fortnight"; it's as abnormal as lipstick on a horse) he adds, "You can probably tell I've been watching Game of Thrones." The other two newscasters laugh at him.

Here in the States we've adopted a few Right Pond terms over time, but somehow I just don't see "fortnight" as having the same kind of traction.

Discuss.

[oleorezinator]

“Roundabout “ for traffic circle.
Pleeeease.........

[Nanohedron]

“Roundabout “ for traffic circle.
Pleeeease.........

I must admit that in my neck of the woods you hear both, and folks don't seem to notice. Some people say there's a difference in application, e.g. a biiiiiig circle where you merge in, vs. a small one at an intersection where you sometimes have to take turns - but nobody's really sure which one's supposed to be called what. On a personal note, what I don't like about the small ones is that people think they don't have to signal when they use them; I think that's a potentially bad idea. And the chorus says, "OK, Boomer."

[Tunborough]

Fortnight, not likely.

Around here, they are always roundabouts. In Nova Scotia, they are rotaries.

[kkrell]

I've never heard the term "traffic circles" before. Roundabouts to this Southern California native. While I know what a fortnight is, it isn't a word that I see used except by my Irish & UK friends on Facebook.

[fatmac]

Traffic circle(?) - that's probably a 'one way system'.

Roundabout - that's just like at a fair ground, small & everything goes around in little circles.

A minute, an hour, a day, a week, a fortnight, a month, a year, a decade, a century...........

[daveboling]

So I'm watching the news when the weatherman says, "Christmas is a fortnight away," and as my eyebrows raise (because Yanks just don't say "fortnight"; it's as abnormal as lipstick on a horse) he adds, "You can probably tell I've been watching Game of Thrones." The other two newscasters laugh at him.

Here in the States we've adopted a few Right Pond terms over time, but somehow I just don't see "fortnight" as having the same kind of traction.

Discuss.

Fortnight has long been used in conversations amongst astronomers (and NASA engineers) in the U.S. (and maybe elsewhere) in the tongue-in-cheek velocity unit of furlongs/fortnight.
I've actually heard the term (fortnight) used for years in the SE U.S., and in the hills of Virginia (way on up there in the mountains). But, we in the South were always closer to those across the Pond than the rabble-rousers in the NE.

dave boling

[Nanohedron]

Fortnight has long been used in conversations amongst astronomers (and NASA engineers) in the U.S. (and maybe elsewhere) in the tongue-in-cheek velocity unit of furlongs/fortnight.

Of course there's always tongue-in-cheek, but that's different.

I've actually heard the term (fortnight) used for years in the SE U.S., and in the hills of Virginia (way on up there in the mountains).

And this is what I've been hoping to find. I figure there are always going to be exceptions to my experience of what constitutes Yanklish, but TBH, I didn't think "fortnight" was going to be one of them.

Speaking of the illusion that there can even be something called "Yanklish", I mentioned to a friend last evening that a couple were having a spat, and he didn't know what a spat was. "What do you mean?", I cried; "That's plain English!" "Not where I grew up," he muttered. And we're from the same town.

So, in case any of us don't know, a spat is a tiff.

In Nova Scotia, they are rotaries.

Here, that usually means a particular business club of that name. "There was a pileup at the rotary!" "The Rotary? Since when were they into contact sports?"

Traffic circle(?) - that's probably a 'one way system'.

Roundabout - that's just like at a fair ground, small & everything goes around in little circles.

A search of "one way system" doesn't turn up anything for what I have in mind. Here you go:



That's one of the big 'uns. They can be quite small, too:



As a Brit, surely you know of them.

[ytliek]

Fortnight I never used and only occasionally (rarely) ran across the word in literature.

Roundabouts and traffic circles were also unfamiliar to this New Englander (CT) until I was stationed in Wash. DC the first time in mid 1980s. Traffic circles term was in everyday use and learning the why and how lead to navigating in the big city. Blame the French if you will.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/washington-dc ... ap-4072004

[Nanohedron]

Roundabouts and traffic circles were also unfamiliar to this New Englander (CT) until I was stationed in Wash. DC the first time in mid 1980s.

They're still very uncommon in MN, and those that do exist are mostly confined, I believe, to the greater Twin Cities Metro Area. The few we have were probably introduced to the general infrastructure in the late 90s, but that would be at the very earliest. Could be we didn't really see them until later than that, which is more likely. The first I ever encountered was a small one at a neighborhood intersection in an older suburb, and I froze, unsure of what to do. It had evidently been around for some decades before the concept caught on more broadly, and at the time it was the only one that I'd ever seen and would ever see again for some years to come (and why there, of all places?), so this unique feature of its neighborhood was quite exotic to behold. I thought I had stumbled into a European enclave.

There are a couple of new small roundabouts/traffic circles/rotaries now, at successive intersections, down the block on a street that runs past my building. Nobody else has 'em. Apparently they were installed by the city to "calm the traffic" (their words), but I've been residing there for quite a while, and I wasn't aware that we were so much more deranged than anyone else that measures were called for. Indeed, our neighborhood has had something of a reputation for being, as Garrison Keillor put it, a "hotbed of rest". Personally, I think it was just an excuse for an experiment, and we got picked. Anyway, I find the little ones to be of dubious benefit in a neighborhood setting. When the roads are icy, making turns around them at more than an agonizingly slow crawl can send you sliding sideways. Someone could get hurt.

[ytliek]

A twenty-five minute drive from home gets me to Monroe, CT. Here is a very recent and very small traffic circle that was new to me as it was so quickly installed on Rt. 111 & Rt. 110 which I travel frequently to go for lunch... Bill's Drive In for a Georgia Redhot! Scroll down to bottom to see the circle.
http://www.monroect.org/filestorage/467 ... art_IV.pdf

http://www.billsdrive-in.com/menusaaa.htm

These types of traffic circles seem to be implemented more frequently hereabouts. Smaller ones which I'd refer to as roundabouts to larger ones called traffic circles, and then there are Beltways around major cities, orbits around Earth and so forth.

[Nanohedron]

So I'm watching the news when the weatherman says, "Christmas is a fortnight away," and ... he adds, "You can probably tell I've been watching Game of Thrones." The other two newscasters laugh at him.

The poor fellow is having more communication issues. Last night he said, "So it's going to snow a b*tch," and quickly corrected it to "bit" in red-faced good humor. I'm pretty sure he was getting ahead of himself and combined "bit" with "inch" (for in winter we are a measuresome folk), but his slip of the tongue certainly brought the prospect of a record snowfall to mind. You could have heard my guffaw a mile away.

Anyway, I find the little [traffic circles] to be of dubious benefit in a neighborhood setting. When the roads are icy, making turns around them at more than an agonizingly slow crawl can send you sliding sideways.

And sure enough, this happened yesterday. No collision, and no one got hurt, fortunately, but I slid sideways toward an oncoming car that was aggressively trying to psych me out into giving way when they should have yielded; I had the right of way, and was already far into my turn. And I was going slowly, but the slide still happened regardless; I couldn't have given way even if I tried. The city's going to have to take a closer look at these things.

So much for "calming the traffic".

[chas]

I grew up just a few towns east of ytliek. There were a few small circles, and we called them rotaries.

Traffic circles/roundabouts are becoming more common in the DC suburbs. My county is boasting of constructing several dozen in the coming decade or two. The (IMO misguided on a number of levels) county brass claim that they move traffic more efficiently. One that I encounter frequently is actually between two four-way stops. So stop, circle, stop, in a few hundred meters. I don't get the point unless the intersection isn't just two roads crossing. Three-, five-, and six-corner intersections definitely call for them. As ytliek said, there are quite a few of them in DC, but those are all (or mostly) at three-road intersections, where you have the letter and number street grid bintersected by an avenue.

[Nanohedron]

Three-, five-, and six-corner intersections definitely call for them.

Makes sense. If they're heavily used, we normally just throw stoplights at 'em, and your patience is recommended. There's a spot near me that at strictest count has a total of seven corners, but somehow they made it work out to three metered intersections. I think. Gives me strabismus. For some reason I can't imagine a traffic circle being able to fit there, partly because there's also a good deal of pedestrian traffic - but I might be pleasantly surprised. That's one place that would definitely benefit if they could work out the logistics of getting it done, because it's on a rush hour artery. Still, the ultimate problem with the circles, as I've already noted, is other drivers and their attitudes; as it is, it's a rare day you don't see cars running red lights.

[Mr.Gumby]

I'll give you a brainmelt and introduce you to The Magic Roundabout.