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Aotearoa Daily Kōrero 19/2/2024
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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Phew, busy weekend! Lawn mowing, weedwacking, and general maintenance. I spent a big chunk of the weekend hanging out with my 3yo, going to playgrounds, library, the zoo, eating pancakes.
Drove past a big green petrol station, "Can we go to the supermarket?". I explained that's not a supermarket, it's a petrol station. Eyes lit up, "Can we go to the petrol station and wash the windows?".
Interesting word choices: "weedwacking" is American, but "petrol" is British. Is Kiwi speak a mix of the two plus the indigenous language?
Love to Jacinda!
Definitely a lot of cultural influence historically from the British (as a colony), and more recently from the US (through TV/movies), as well as influence from the indigenous Māori language (especially in the last 30 years or so, where there's been a big push to revive the language and get words into use in NZ English).
But as for "weedwacker" specifically, I'm not sure whether this is normal terminology or not. I think the average person would know what I'm talking about, and if I was looking in an NZ shop I'd expect to see them called a "line trimmer", but I've never known anyone to actually say "line trimmer". But on the other hand, I don't remember ever having a conversation about them so I can't remember anyone saying "weedwacker" either 😆.
Weedeater is the one I usually hear.
What's the verb? "I'm going to do some weedeating today"?
Usually, yes.
On reading it back to myself just now, it did seem like a perfectly normal phrase.
I sell them for a living, and there's almost no consensus on what they're called. There are a few terms that are popular overseas that we seem to avoid for some reason (I don't think I've heard whipper snipper or string trimmer for example), but everything else is fair game.
I believe "whipper snipper" is a West Island term.