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Backpacker

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Dave Clarke - 10 Aug 2004 23:46 GMT
I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker' which I
assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet we don't generally
use 'backpack'. 'Rucksack' seems the most commonly used UK English
equivalent.

Anyone care to suggest a reason for the inconsistency. Or just disagree.
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Dave Clarke

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David - 10 Aug 2004 23:53 GMT
> I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker' which
> I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet we don't
> generally use 'backpack'. 'Rucksack' seems the most commonly used UK
> English equivalent.

> Anyone care to suggest a reason for the inconsistency. Or just
> disagree.

I think you've already given the reason.

Whatever happened to the haversack?

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Dave Clarke - 10 Aug 2004 23:57 GMT
>> I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker' which
>> I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet we don't
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> I think you've already given the reason.

Did I?

> Whatever happened to the haversack?

It's now only used by people who wear moleskin trousers. :}

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Dave Clarke

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David - 11 Aug 2004 00:38 GMT
> >> I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker'
> >> which I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> >
> > I think you've already given the reason.

> Did I?

The assumption (not virginal, one hopes).

> > Whatever happened to the haversack?

> It's now only used by people who wear moleskin trousers. :}

Nowt wrang wi' moleskin britches.

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Dave Swindell - 11 Aug 2004 01:16 GMT
>> >> I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker'
>> >> which I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
>Nowt wrang wi' moleskin britches.

Feel loverly but don't last as long as lined tweed.

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David - 11 Aug 2004 08:49 GMT
> >Nowt wrang wi' moleskin britches.
> >
> Feel loverly but don't last as long as lined tweed.

Nothing lasts as long as lined tweed.

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Dave Clarke - 11 Aug 2004 23:40 GMT
>> >> I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker'
>> >> which I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> The assumption (not virginal, one hopes).

That was a side comment, rather than the question. As I have obviously badly
phrased the question, I'll try again: Why have we imported the term
'backpacker', but not the word 'backpack'.

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Dave Clarke

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Molly Mockford - 12 Aug 2004 08:12 GMT
At 23:40:27 on Wed, 11 Aug 2004, Dave Clarke
<pinggetridofthisbituino@operamail.com> wrote in
<1092264029.8036.0@eunomia.uk.clara.net>:

>That was a side comment, rather than the question. As I have obviously badly
>phrased the question, I'll try again: Why have we imported the term
>'backpacker', but not the word 'backpack'.

Perhaps because we already have several words available to us for
"backpack", whereas the concept of a "backpacker" is a new one and
needed its own word?  Up until around 10 years ago, anybody wearing a
rucksack tended to be referred to as a "hiker".  Backpackers don't, as
far as I can see, do much hiking, which is probably why they travel a
lot farther.
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Dave Clarke - 12 Aug 2004 20:44 GMT
> At 23:40:27 on Wed, 11 Aug 2004, Dave Clarke
> <pinggetridofthisbituino@operamail.com> wrote in
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> "backpack", whereas the concept of a "backpacker" is a new one and
> needed its own word?

Seems reasonable. Thanks.

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Dave Clarke

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David - 12 Aug 2004 23:47 GMT
> > At 23:40:27 on Wed, 11 Aug 2004, Dave Clarke
> > <pinggetridofthisbituino@operamail.com> wrote in
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> > "backpack", whereas the concept of a "backpacker" is a new one and
> > needed its own word?

> Seems reasonable. Thanks.

Of the words we have (or, at least, the three so far mentioned), two
specify food (breakbag and oatsbag) and one of these (the one that
isn't Dutch but Norse-English) really should be a shoulder bag. The
other (backbag) is a German word.

And, somehow, "rucksacker" doesn't sound quite right.

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John Hall - 11 Aug 2004 09:49 GMT
>Whatever happened to the haversack?

Bearing in mind another current thread, perhaps it's been renamed the
gottersack.
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Phil C. - 11 Aug 2004 12:28 GMT
>> I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker' which
>> I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet we don't
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
>Whatever happened to the haversack?

Or the knapsack.

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go I love to sing
My knapsack on my back.
Val-de-ri, Val-de-ra,
Val-de-ra, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

And what does Val-de-ri mean? It's on the Costa del Sol isn't it?
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Phil C.

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Laura F Spira - 11 Aug 2004 13:45 GMT
>>>I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker' which
>>>I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet we don't
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Val-de-ri, Val-de-ra,
> Val-de-ra, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Nasty bout of Stuck Tune Syndrome induced here - especially bothersome
as I'm just off to attend a funeral..

> And what does Val-de-ri mean? It's on the Costa del Sol isn't it?

I always thought it was actually "Fol" (as in many English folk songs)
but pronounced in a German (Austrian?) accent.

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Laura
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Phil C. - 12 Aug 2004 11:53 GMT
>>>>I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker' which
>>>>I assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet we don't
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
>I always thought it was actually "Fol" (as in many English folk songs)
>but pronounced in a German (Austrian?) accent.

Dunno. The tune always struck me as a bit creepy - the sort of thing
you'd expect to get on grainy black-and white 1930s propaganda films
of smiling clean-limbed blond youths marching purposefully to sunlit
uplands (probably somebody else's sunlit uplands). However -

http://raja-melewar.tripod.com/

- suggests that I've been unfair. "Clean limbed" is a strange, quaint
term, BTW. What's it supposed to be contrasted with - limbs oozing
with syphilitic sores or something?
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Phil C.

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Mark Chandler - 24 Aug 2004 09:42 GMT
The term wasn't used much when I was a student here about 20 years ago, but
it has become widespread recently. The main reason, I believe, is that there
has been an increase in the number of people coming from Australia (and New
Zealand) as "working holidaymakers". These people spend a lot of their time
here travelling in a cheap way, carrying a rucksack, creating a demand for
more private hostels for adults and tours for people with quite a lot of
time on their hands (often with "jump on, jump off" features) - a way of
travelling that is common in Australia, but has been less common here until
recently. The Australian term "backpackers" has therefore been adopted, and
as well as referring to the people who travel this way it is also adopted by
the new independent hostels (partly to differentiate themselves from YHA
youth hostels). I guess that we adopted the German term "rucksack" a long
time ago (maybe some connection with equipment used by people climbing the
German-speaking area of the Alps?), so there has been no need for a new word
for that.

That's my theory, anyway ...

Mark
UK Student Life: http://www.ukstudentlife.com

> I've noticed in UK English we seem to use the word 'backpacker' which I
> assume is imported from North America, or Australia, yet we don't generally
> use 'backpack'. 'Rucksack' seems the most commonly used UK English
> equivalent.
>
> Anyone care to suggest a reason for the inconsistency. Or just disagree.
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