Quote - > Quote - Now hang on just a minute.

If you call a flashlight a torch, then what do you call those bright thingies the townfolk carry up to the castle when the good Doctor has let his creature out for a stroll in the village?

You know ... they look like rags wrapped around the ends of stout sticks, soaked in some flammable liquid and lit on fire so as to illuminate their immediate surroundings.

By what colloquialism do you refer to such appliances?

a Torch.
same name.

Really?

What linguistic poverty ... to be forced to use the same name for entirely different things, with radically different fuel sources and shapes, not to mention heat and light outputs.  It's just a shame.

Why, that would be like using a verb as a noun to describe something ... when a perfectly good noun exists.  As if one said "lift" to mean elevator.  Imagine that!

I'll tell you what.  Inasmuch as you've quit taxing our tea, we'll henceforth allow you to use both flashlight and elevator.

Magnanimous, ain't we?

Klebnor (Corresponding from the north Atlantic colonies)

Lotus 123 ~ S-Render ~ OS/2 WARP ~ IBM 8088 / 4.77 Mhz ~ Hercules Ultima graphics, Hitachi 10 MB HDD, 64K RAM, 12 in diagonal CRT Monitor (16 colors / 60 Hz refresh rate), 240 Watt PS, Dual 1.44 MB Floppies, 2 button mouse input device.  Beige horizontal case.  I don't display my unit.