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When people say their car "died" don't they really mean that it's "sick"? A simple repair (cure) and it's fine again. If it was dead wouldn't it be time to haul it off to the junkyard (graveyard)? I guess I just wonder why we say "died" when the engine stalls, even if it could be restarted right away?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I am used to saying the engine died, for a stall, the car died in the rare event of one being so bad as to be towed to the wrecker as opposed to selling/trading/donating it. I think I have only done that twice in 50 years of owning various cars.
When people say their car "died" don't they really mean that it's "sick"? A simple repair (cure) and it's fine again. If it was dead wouldn't it be time to haul it off to the junkyard (graveyard)?
Actually, I've heard it used both ways many times. Usually it does mean that it stopped running for whatever reason (I went to turn the corner and my car died), but people also often use the term "died" if the car needs repairs that exceed their perceived value of the car (I bought a new car because the old one died). And of course the extent of a repair needed to "kill" a car will vary by owner; I once bought a pretty nice car for $50 because the battery was dead.
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I guess I just wonder why we say "died" when the engine stalls, even if it could be restarted right away?
I think it's an accurate metaphor. I tend to think of my car as "alive" when it's running. When it stops running - whether because of some mechanical hiccup or because I've shut off the key - it's like the "heart" (engine) stops "beating" (running). When you "defibrillate" (re-start) it, it comes back to life.
The weirder one I once heard is saying "my car blew up". I don't know if this is a regional turn of phrase or what. I just remember when I was a kid, my mother talked about some co-worker or whatever who had called in saying her car blew up. It didn't seem to faze my mother, but in my kid mind all I could think of is the literal sense. Funny I can't recall hearing that again, but to know that two people used and understood that phrase to mean some kind of breakdown, it must be in use somewhere....
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,553 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57728
I once had a 1996 Explorer and said the "engine blew up" when it sucked a valve into the cylinder. Luckily it was a defective new head from Ford that had only been on it one day so they had to buy me a new engine.
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Funny I can't recall hearing that again, but to know that two people used and understood that phrase to mean some kind of breakdown, it must be in use somewhere....
