Linguistic conundrum #2

[Rolf N]

Today: "teeter-totter" versus "see-saw". My sources of information suck when it comes to such nuances. i assume that teeter-totter is the more British term, but there's some other theory I'd like some comments on.

Hypothesis: a "teeter-totter" is something you put on a kids' playground. If you use something that behaves like a teeter-totter, but it's not for kids to play with but rather, say, part of a physics experiment in a class, or to launch a beloved politician into a low orbit, calling it "see-saw" is preferable.

Anyone? Native speakers?

 

[Mize]

same thing. see-saw common in the us for the playground thingy

 

[Arwin]

I thought the teeter-totter is one of those things on a spring, you know, like a large horse on a spring that can rock forward and backward similar to a rocking horse. But I'm not from ol' Blighty either, so ...

 

[Neeyik]

Heh - well, I've always assumed the term "teeter totter" to be more of an American phrase than a British one; I've only ever called them "see saws".

 

[Mize]

http://www.answers.com/topic/seesaw-1

it's all there

 

[digitalwanderer]

From a kid's perspective, it's see-saw here. All the kids at my children's school call it a see-saw.

 

[Rolf N]

Those are all the toy uses though
What about physics class?

Okay, this:

It's not a toy, not part of a playground, and not for kids. It's a physics puzzle contraption where when you jump down on one end, the other end rises (and throws up the box).

See-saw?

 

[Neeyik]

From a physics point of view, it's a lever - but I (as a teacher) would call a see saw in my classes.

 

[digitalwanderer]

A lever. :|

 

[vazel]

In Britannia they call candies 'sweets'.

 

[Simon F]

Today: "teeter-totter" versus "see-saw". My sources of information suck when it comes to such nuances. i assume

I've only ever heard the term "teeter-totter" come from US sources. Everywhere in the English-speaking world razz: ) I'm sure it's see-saw.

 

[Rolf N]

Alrighty then, a see-saw it shall be. Thanks a million

 

[Crisidelm]

Etymology is your friend:
seesaw
1640, in see-saw-sacke a downe, words in a rhythmic jingle used by children and repetitive motion workers, probably imitative of the rhythmic back-and-forth motion of sawyers working a two-man saw over wood or stone (see saw). Ref. to a game of going up and down on a balanced plank is recorded from 1704; fig. sense is from 1714. Applied from 1824 to the plank arranged for the game. The verb is from 1712.
teeter
1843, "to seesaw," alteration of M.E. titter "move unsteadily," probably from O.N. titra "to shake, shiver, totter," related to Ger. zittern "to tremble." Noun teeter-totter "see-saw" is attested from 1905.

 

[mito]

this topic reminds me of:

I'll buy me a foldy-roldy, tildy-toldy
Seek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find me
Roll, Jenny Jenkins, roll