Train? for Ira and others
 

When did train, which used to mean getting in shape for a sporting event, come to be a verb for taking a train???

Seems to me I've been hearing that for many years (as in "we're training from Rome to Venice). It sounds wrong to my ear, but it's in the dictionary as a verb, so I guess it's ok.

What about "motor" as a verb?. (I just say "drive.")

But then, I was taught to use the simplest and least "affected" word to convey meaning.

I think of motor as a Britishism, but I could be wrong. Don't think I've heard it in the USA.

I remember reading "motor" in the Honey Bunch books of my childhood.

Stephenson probably coined it

Oh my dear, it's just more pretentious crap. Carry on.

flsd - how can you say that?! Pretentious crap my eye. Maybe that's what you think, well bully for you.
Underhill has a very valid point.
I ask: When did personal TRAINER come to fruition? OR - When did one TRAIN a grape vine or even beans to run along a designated route?
I see it clearly - trains run along a designated path, so "train" meaning to get in shape is also a designated/planned path, not so?

Hi U,

If one can fly from airport to airport, sail from seaport to seaport, motor from city to city, taxi from hotel to hotel, bicycle down a road, barge on a canal, or hike on a path, why can't one train between two destinations?

Train still means to prepare for a sporting event.

It also means to prepare by education or apprenticeship and to aim at.

((I))

"If one can fly from airport to airport..."

Yes, but one doesn't aeroplane from airport to airport.

Train apparently comes from French word to pull

a train is also the long part of a dress i believe that a lady pulls along as it drags on the floor

it's like 'gone missing' never heard that in American English until past few years

the cat went missing was always the cat is missing

who knows how it actually starts and i think to train as to ride a train is a fairly new word probably popularized i'm thinking on forums just like this when someone says i want to train to Paris from London

Why would one use "motor" when "drive" conveys the meaning? It sounds pretentious and faintly ridiculous, to me, unless one is trying to evoke Britain in the early 20th century. I cannot imagine using that while speaking! And if it rings false in speech, it rings false in writing!

>..but one doesn't aeroplane from airport to airport.<

Correction noted.

((I))

but they do 'deplane'

and the word fly is used - is there a comparable word for fly when applied to trains?

no i'm taking the train so train is simply an aborted form of that perhaps

if there was not the word fly then we may saw we're planing to europe next week?

Why do we "motor" when gasoline powered cars have engines in them?

Well at some point in US history you must have motored in order to arrive at you Motel - motor hotel.

I catch a train, take a train, travel by train. I only train at the gym.

>Why do we "motor" when gasoline powered cars have engines in them? <

They were once called motorcars.

((I))

OED definition of motor - a thing that imparts motion, a achine that supplies motive power to a vehicle, a Motor car - a carriage driven by a motor, motor cycle - a cycle driven by a motor.
Engine - a mechanical contrivance consisting of several parts working together, esp as a source of power, a railway locomotive.
So a car motor is an engine, but not all engines are motors.

Just now on the tripadvisor site I saw someone saying he was going to rail from one place to another.

Hi H,

>So a car motor is an engine, but not all engines are motors.<

An engine is a device that supplies its own motive force.

A motor gets its motive force from something else.

Thus a car is driven by an internal combustion engine (mostly).

A fan is driven by an electric motor.

A Diesel/electric locomotive operates from an engine (Diesel) that provides power to operate an electric motor.

((I))