I mean fair enough, but it made me laugh.

  • Admiral Patrick
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    2824 hours ago

    Several years back, I set my phone’s language to UK English so the voice assistant would be British, and my flashlight button changed to “Torch”.

    • @[email protected]
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      1024 hours ago

      Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn’t even flash!

      Reminiscent of “elevator”, except that has four times the syllables! “Transportation” (transport), “burglarize” (burgle), “garbage collector” (dustman), “apartment” (flat)… I’m detecting a pattern.

      • @[email protected]
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        215 hours ago

        Which is objectively a better word. Ah Americans - twice the syllables, twice the letters, and it doesn’t even flash!

        Except torch is a fancy stick with one end on fire. Flashlight is a light giving an intense flash, used for photographing at night or indoors.

        • @[email protected]
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          115 hours ago

          You seem to be German. I just looked up “flash” and it means Blitzlicht in German. Hope that helps.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 hours ago

        It’s nice that in Star Trek they went with British English for their turbolifts.

        Can you imagine having to say turboelevator in a hurry? shudders

      • hallettj
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        320 hours ago

        They can flash by pressing the button. On some flashlights partially pressing and releasing the button flashes the light off and on. That’s a notable difference from, say, lanterns where you need a cover or shield for signalling.

        The problem with “torch” is that there’s already a thing called “torch”, and now I don’t know which thing you mean. The word “flashlight” has avoided critical ambiguity in many of our Indiana Jones movies.

        • @[email protected]
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          319 hours ago

          They can flash by pressing the button

          Oh come on, this is obvious post-hoc justification!

          The problem with “torch” is that there’s already a thing called “torch”,

          Indeed, it’s a thing that you hold in your hand to provide light, as it has been for thousands of years.