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From: Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: QUERY: "dead" battery
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 18:22:07 +0100
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On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 04:12:20 GMT, Dan
<DELETEMEdan_slaughter@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> You write very well for a non-native writer. Yes, "dead battery" is
> perfectly acceptable, and, in the United States, would be the term most
> widely accepted. One would find the term "flat battery" foreign. We would
> understand, but we would know that it was written by a person whose native
> tongue isn't English. Other more technical (but boring and unnatural) terms
> include "(fully) discharged battery" or "unserviceable battery."
To me an "unserviceable" battery would be one which is useless, not
capable of being recharged. I still often write the UK forces
abbreviation "U/S" (for "unserviceable") on equipment which is not only
'dead' but which cannot be revived (although sometimes it can be
rebuilt, more often it is destined for the scrap pile).
As a sound engineer I frequently refer to signals as 'dead' meaning no
signal or the channel is switched off, this is a common usage in the
sound/radio/TV/electrical engineering environment (signalling that a
circuit is 'dead' often being accompanied by a throat-cutting gesture).
Chris C
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