when is a lamppost not a lamppost.......

[tishtash]

when its street furniture!! who on earth came up with the idea of calling lights telegraph posts etc furniture...... i always thought of furniture as the stuff in your house like sofas and chairs etc!!

[woofgang]

that standee, attendee thing is grammatic bodkins. The "ee" ending is passive so a standee is one who is stood on and an attendee is one who is attended to. Correctly it should be an attender and a stander

[emmie]

just what i thought. What was it all called before someone came up with
SF.

[emmie]

that standee was a poster on a bus, referring to passengers as standees, another load of rollocks.

[boxtops]

You don't say Standee though - attendees are what we get on training courses, people who attend..

Street furniture has been called this for years. I don't know why you're taking exception to it.

[jomifl]

I am guessing that the word furniture is derived from the verb 'furnish' which means 'to supply, equip or fit up'. In which case it is a perfectly reasonable use of the word as it refers to stuff 'supplied' to 'fit up' or 'equip' the street. In the same way it also means stuff for stuffing houses.

[whiskeryron]

Like the collective word for Men's tranqlements is trouser furniture.

Ron.

[jomifl]

A chair is still a chair even though it is furniture(for houses or offices etc.,)

[boxtops]

You think wrong then tishtash - furniture is anything which is furnished to a place, i.e. provided.

[emmie]

i wouldn't say standees, it's nonsense. as to the street furniture, much has been binned by our council deemed unnecessary. Not street lights, that would be foolish, wouldn't want someone to break a leg and sue the council.

[woofgang]

"You don't say Standee though - attendees are what we get on training courses, people who attend.."

Attendee is wrong though...it should be attender, the active voice not the passive voice.

[woofgang]

hmm have I broken the quotes? test

[boxtops]

OK, we'll say delegates instead.

[woofgang]

:-) boxy

[Mick-Talbot]

I.m with, tishtash .....it.s street bling ...innit!

[Mosaic]

I was was in an auditorium when the person presenting referred to their powerpoint as 'slideware'....
Street furniture.....door furniture......words come and go don't they? Brides no longer buy a 'trousseau', baby's don't get given 'layettes'. We used to have a hearth set - a miniature brush and shovel in brass, hanging from an ornamental thingy, for sweeping the hearth.
Door furniture. It will be the doilies of the future.

[emmie]

slideware, heaven almighty.

[Mosaic]

Wasn't quite what i said Em, but the second word was 'me'.

[emmie]

me too...