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Car Forum / Mercedes-Benz Cars / March 2006Terminology confusion
Until recently, in my understanding, "Merc" stood for "Mercury", an obviously inferior product. But since the term is used frequently on this ng, I wonder if it might have some merit? Will Daimler's next purchase be the Ford Motor Co.? Given how poorly Detroit is doing as a whole, is this really outside of legitimate speculation? Collin (Where's my $140,000?) Brendemuehl KC8TKA '97 E320 "Merc" is British slang for Mercedes and is occasionally so used here. It has nothing to do with the Mercury brand Ford product. So it's a Brit term. Makes sense. In the US I mostly just hear "Benz" spoken. Collin > Until recently, in my understanding, > "Merc" stood for "Mercury", > an obviously inferior product. > But since the term is used frequently on this ng, I wonder if it might > have some merit? "Merc" has traditionally been short for "Mercury" in the U.S. It's short for "Mercedes" in the UK, and probably by extension, in the rest of the Commonwealth. I don't know about the rest of Yurrup. The only people I see use it to mean "Mercedes" in the U.S. are aficionados such as ourselves. It's kind of like how the only people who adhere to (or even know about) the distinction that 4-wheeled BMWs are properly called "Bimmers" and the two-wheeled variety "Beemers" are BMW enthusiasts. (Personally, I've never actually heard anyone so much as utter the word "Bimmer" in any context, but there it is.) Geoff  Signature"I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don't care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is: What are they in a position to do about it?" -- William S. Burroughs William, Don't embarrass the rest of us as Americans. If you want to act like such a jerk, at least claim you are of another nationality. I am neither weak-spirited nor sappy, just tired of listening to idiots like you. Give the rest of the group a break will you. Tom Irwin Sig lines do offend some people. His was definitely, well, different. But let's not make too big a deal over it. Collin > Sig lines do offend some people. > His was definitely, well, different. > But let's not make too big a deal over it. They're occasionally useful for flushing the clueless and pathologically earnest out of the tall grass, where they can be picked off at leisure. Heh... Geoff Signature"It takes a special kind of retard to be offended so easily." -- Adam Thrasher > William, > Don't embarrass the rest of us as Americans. If you want to act > like such a jerk, at least claim you are of another nationality. > I am neither weak-spirited nor sappy, just tired of listening to > idiots like you. Give the rest of the group a break will you. I was confused by your post, Tom. I keep up with this newsgroup for the most part, and I didn't remember seeing anything here during the last few days which seemed likely to have sparked such a response from anyone. So I went to Google to check out the rest of this thread. It turned out that what you were responding to above was something in a post of mine, intertestingly enough. Not anything that I'd written, but my previous .signature quote, of all things. My name is Geoff, not William. The quote in question is from William S. Burroughs, a Beat Generation novelist and essayist[*]. If you'd like to vent your spleen against him, I'm afraid you're out of luck, as he's been dead for some years. Since the passage was enclosed in quotation marks and was properly attributed, and since it isn't exactly customary to quote oneself in one's .sig, I have no idea why you believed it was mine. The bit about Americans wasn't even the salient point of the quote; indifference to what other people think was. Since all of this rather obvious stuff clearly sailed in a graceful arc several miles over your head, I can only conclude that it is you, sir, who are the idiot. [*] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs Geoff Signature"I subscribed to _Archeology_ magazine for one year. I got sucked in by their cover story, 'The Secret World of Lesbos.'" -- Alraune In Germany the word is "Benz" or "Daimler", tho' regarding the latter I am not sure how much this is used since the parent company was renamed DaimlerChrysler, having previously been known as Daimler-Benz. Of course, most people just say Mercedes. On Britain "Merc" fits into the list of affectionate abbreviations we use for many objects: - telly (TV) - brolly (umbrella) - pub (public bar)... DAS For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling --- [...] > "Merc" has traditionally been short for "Mercury" in the U.S. > It's short for "Mercedes" in the UK, and probably by extension, > in the rest of the Commonwealth. I don't know about the rest > of Yurrup. [...] |
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