I think America has a lot of odd uses of English but I actually think that one isn’t too bad and they can get a pass on this one.
Given that it is the fumes that are burned for combustion even I end up saying ‘gas’ under certain circumstances as an engineer. ‘Give it some gas’, etc.
Then again, the matter of if most Americans know the actual name of ‘gas’ and can/will refer to it more specifically when needed is another matter.
ShroomsHealYourSoul on
“Gasoline” originated around 1863–1864 in Britain as a variant of “gasolene,” a term initially used for volatile petroleum distillates, according to Etymonline. It is formed from “gas” (referring to illuminating gas), plus the chemical suffixes -ol(e) (Latin oleum, “oil”) and -ine (denoting a derivative).
Madeitup75 on
Petroleum has literally thousands of potential products contained within it or derived from it. Gasoline is just one of them, and involves the REMOVAL of many, many components of petroleum oil.
Insisting that ONE fraction of petroleum MUST be called “petrol” for short is like demanding that bread should be called “whe” because it’s a natural shortening of “wheat.”
Your meme is dumb.
HopeSubstantial on
Atleast you have multiple words for that stuff.
Where I’m from you call literally everything as “Benzine”, no matter what kind of gasoline it is.
You just seperate the types by adding (where the fuel is used) + Benzine.
Kerosine = airplane benzine
petrol = motor benzine
heavy oil = cargo ship Benzine.
randypeaches on
This is like calling bread a wheaty. Because its made from a wheat product. The oil in your car is also a petroleum derived product, as is the brake fluid. Do we need to call these things petroleum as well?
0zZioz on
Hate to tell you this isn’t just an American thing. While American call it gas, other parts of the world call it benzine for example.
“Flies away”
Odd-Dirt-9701 on
in the philippines, petrol is a gas station company
Accomplished_Pen980 on
I always preferred the term “Motor Spirits”
randypeaches on
Petroleum products in a car: gasoline, engine oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, differential fluid, tires, hoses, plastic. So the bits call all these petrol?
Few-Research5802 on
Every time this debate starts I lose a little bit of brain cells
davidmcdavidsonson on
You sit around in your cottage in Worcestershireshire eating your pudding and saying words like rubbish, jumper, aluminium, headmaster, gammon, and colour with a u, and have the nerve to judge the little changes we made to this silly language?
WolvReigns222016 on
I mean petrol refers to petroleum which is a base product which many other products are made from such as petrol/gasoline that cars run on. But gasoline is the literal name of that product. Shortening it to gas does seem silly but calling it petrol is a lot more stupid.
I also call it petrol because of where I live. But doesn’t mean it is correct.
Eastern_Draft6338 on
It’s short for gasoline!! The oil in your car is also a petroleum product but that’s not call petrol? Why are you Brit’s so annoying
Big__Country__40 on
Stupid lobsterbacks
SomeDude416 on
Calling it Petrol sounds pretentious and gay.
HyperXanadu on
Why are europeans so fucking obsessed with how we speak and write dates. like we don’t even think about you
8sck on
some people make not being American their whole personality. you’ll never see an American complaining about someone else using “Petrol”. same with DD/MM/YY and the Metric system
NeoHolyRomanEmpire on
How else would you sing, “GAS, GAS, GAS!!!!!?”
ncopp on
Lol bruv thinks we mean the state of matter when we say gas powered cars.
butareyouthough on
It’s short for gasoline it’s not that complicated
romero3500 on
That’s like calling flour wheat though. Petroleum is refined into gasoline.
ultrainstict on
You dont put petroleum in your car, it has to be converted into a usable form, which YOU named gasoline, which we shortened to gas. Calling it petrol, is oversimplifying it to the point of just being wrong. By the same logic, countless other petroleum based products that are constantly used today, often in tandem with each other would be shortened to petrol and becomes nonsense.
Ah, looks like im running low on petrol(gas), and my petrol(oil) is low too, on no my petrols(tires) have worn down a lot, i need some new ones otherwise it will be dangerous to drive down the petrol(asphalt).
And i could easily add like 6 more of these. Petroleum is an incredibly versatile substance, literally why we have to make so many extra names for the specific products that use it as a base.
Yeomanroach on
Let’s make a list of English/American differences.
Diaper – Nappy
Sidewalk – Pavement
Gasoline – Petrol
Garbage – Rubbish
Soda – Fizzy Pop
Commercials – Adverts
Pacifier – Dummy
Pants – Trousers
Projects – Council Estate
Faucet – Tap
Popsicle – Ice Lolly
ominousTrip on
Its short for gasoline…
ScarletNinja66 on
GAS – GASOLINE
upvote-button on
Petrol is short for petroleum oil. The stuff you have to change every 6000 miles. If you put that in your tank you will destroy your car. After petroleum oil is processed and oxygenated its a new chemical called gasoline
The English are the stupid ones on this topic
Lionheart1224 on
It’s not just the US that calls it gasoline, too. Many countries in Latin America call it that as well. Unsure about the rest of the world, it might just be an Americas thing.
Natural-Excuse-4634 on
I feel like most people dont know how engine’s use fuel and it fucking shows
Nilk-Noff on
We don’t use the actual liquid to power our vehicles, we use the fumes from it.
BlueGlace_ on
Gas is just shortened Gasoline, no?
SnooEagles6930 on
Technically isn’t it the fumes that run the engine? So it would be gas.
zebrasmack on
Lost the plot a bit there in the bottom left.
RandoCAS on
Petrol = 2 syllables, therefore more to say. Also the front of the tongue hits the roof of the mouth. Just not good.
Gas = 1 syllable, easy to say fast. No frontal tongue touches the roof of the mouth so not possible to accidentally gleek. Just lifting the back of your tongue for the hard g sound.
ElPadero on
In the UK every vacuum cleaner is a hoover.
In actuality, not all vacuum cleaners are hoovers.
Little peculiarities make life interesting.
Midnight28Rider on
I’m preferable to the term “fuel”.
Bitvar on
We only do it to upset Europeans. In private we call it petrol. Same for the metric system vs imperial.
-GLaDOS on
“I don’t understand why people shorten gasoline to gas”
you might just be stupid?
Zephyr-Fox-188 on
pal you guys melt some cheese on a piece of toast and call it “rabbit”, you have no grounds to question our stupid words
No_Name_Canadian on
Gasoline is what we put in our vehicles, we shorten it to gas. Petroleum is what gasoline is distilled from, calling it petrol is as silly as calling a trunk a boot or a truck a lorry
Jacket_Jacket_fruit on
It’s not a liquid when you burn it, my friend. It is stored in the fuel tank as a liquid, but when it is actually used in the engine, it’s a gas.
Also, yes it’s a petroleum product, but so is motor oil and about 50 other things in a car. Do you shorten motor oil to “petrol?” No? Then why would you do it in this case?
suckitphil on
You could do this the same way against brits.
“This is a liquid, correct?”
“Correct”
“But it doesn’t burn as a liquid, it burns as a gas”
“Correct”
“And gas is relatively short so it’ll be cheaper on signage”
“That makes sense”
“So calling it gas will be cheaper and safer because it reminds people that the gas is explosive and not the liquid”
“It’s petrol”
DGlen on
It’s not the liquid that burns. It’s the fumes. Can’t burn it without turning it into gas.
DistinctiveFox on
So much division in the comments! Technically though I side with Americans that petrol is worse than gasoline for the name of the specific fuel used in combustion engines.
That being said, the history is that originally the fuel invented for combustion engines was called Cazeline. It was trademarked by John Cassel. Due to this, companies change it to Gazoline to avoid copyright and being sued. Eventually it switched to Gasoline as it was easier to spell/say. Now it’s just referred to as Gas which confuses people as it’s not a referring to the state of the matter (solid, liquid, gas).
Overall the US term gasoline refere to the specific combination of petroleum distillate product used to run combustion engines and the European term Petrol (shortened from Petroleum Distillate) is also correct but easily confused as there are lots of products derived from Petroleum Distillate, not just the fuel for combustion engines.
elephant_cobbler on
Daddy Yankee calls it Gasolina, so gas it is.
djc6535 on
Your “this is a petroleum product” line is idiotic.
Paper is a wood product. Should we be calling it “woo”?
You don’t name an item after the root product from which it is derived.
45 Comments
I think America has a lot of odd uses of English but I actually think that one isn’t too bad and they can get a pass on this one.
Given that it is the fumes that are burned for combustion even I end up saying ‘gas’ under certain circumstances as an engineer. ‘Give it some gas’, etc.
Then again, the matter of if most Americans know the actual name of ‘gas’ and can/will refer to it more specifically when needed is another matter.
“Gasoline” originated around 1863–1864 in Britain as a variant of “gasolene,” a term initially used for volatile petroleum distillates, according to Etymonline. It is formed from “gas” (referring to illuminating gas), plus the chemical suffixes -ol(e) (Latin oleum, “oil”) and -ine (denoting a derivative).
Petroleum has literally thousands of potential products contained within it or derived from it. Gasoline is just one of them, and involves the REMOVAL of many, many components of petroleum oil.
Insisting that ONE fraction of petroleum MUST be called “petrol” for short is like demanding that bread should be called “whe” because it’s a natural shortening of “wheat.”
Your meme is dumb.
Atleast you have multiple words for that stuff.
Where I’m from you call literally everything as “Benzine”, no matter what kind of gasoline it is.
You just seperate the types by adding (where the fuel is used) + Benzine.
Kerosine = airplane benzine
petrol = motor benzine
heavy oil = cargo ship Benzine.
This is like calling bread a wheaty. Because its made from a wheat product. The oil in your car is also a petroleum derived product, as is the brake fluid. Do we need to call these things petroleum as well?
Hate to tell you this isn’t just an American thing. While American call it gas, other parts of the world call it benzine for example.
“Flies away”
in the philippines, petrol is a gas station company
I always preferred the term “Motor Spirits”
Petroleum products in a car: gasoline, engine oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, differential fluid, tires, hoses, plastic. So the bits call all these petrol?
Every time this debate starts I lose a little bit of brain cells
You sit around in your cottage in Worcestershireshire eating your pudding and saying words like rubbish, jumper, aluminium, headmaster, gammon, and colour with a u, and have the nerve to judge the little changes we made to this silly language?
I mean petrol refers to petroleum which is a base product which many other products are made from such as petrol/gasoline that cars run on. But gasoline is the literal name of that product. Shortening it to gas does seem silly but calling it petrol is a lot more stupid.
I also call it petrol because of where I live. But doesn’t mean it is correct.
It’s short for gasoline!! The oil in your car is also a petroleum product but that’s not call petrol? Why are you Brit’s so annoying
Stupid lobsterbacks
Calling it Petrol sounds pretentious and gay.
Why are europeans so fucking obsessed with how we speak and write dates. like we don’t even think about you
some people make not being American their whole personality. you’ll never see an American complaining about someone else using “Petrol”. same with DD/MM/YY and the Metric system
How else would you sing, “GAS, GAS, GAS!!!!!?”
Lol bruv thinks we mean the state of matter when we say gas powered cars.
It’s short for gasoline it’s not that complicated
That’s like calling flour wheat though. Petroleum is refined into gasoline.
You dont put petroleum in your car, it has to be converted into a usable form, which YOU named gasoline, which we shortened to gas. Calling it petrol, is oversimplifying it to the point of just being wrong. By the same logic, countless other petroleum based products that are constantly used today, often in tandem with each other would be shortened to petrol and becomes nonsense.
Ah, looks like im running low on petrol(gas), and my petrol(oil) is low too, on no my petrols(tires) have worn down a lot, i need some new ones otherwise it will be dangerous to drive down the petrol(asphalt).
And i could easily add like 6 more of these. Petroleum is an incredibly versatile substance, literally why we have to make so many extra names for the specific products that use it as a base.
Let’s make a list of English/American differences.
Diaper – Nappy
Sidewalk – Pavement
Gasoline – Petrol
Garbage – Rubbish
Soda – Fizzy Pop
Commercials – Adverts
Pacifier – Dummy
Pants – Trousers
Projects – Council Estate
Faucet – Tap
Popsicle – Ice Lolly
Its short for gasoline…
GAS – GASOLINE
Petrol is short for petroleum oil. The stuff you have to change every 6000 miles. If you put that in your tank you will destroy your car. After petroleum oil is processed and oxygenated its a new chemical called gasoline
The English are the stupid ones on this topic
It’s not just the US that calls it gasoline, too. Many countries in Latin America call it that as well. Unsure about the rest of the world, it might just be an Americas thing.
I feel like most people dont know how engine’s use fuel and it fucking shows
We don’t use the actual liquid to power our vehicles, we use the fumes from it.
Gas is just shortened Gasoline, no?
Technically isn’t it the fumes that run the engine? So it would be gas.
Lost the plot a bit there in the bottom left.
Petrol = 2 syllables, therefore more to say. Also the front of the tongue hits the roof of the mouth. Just not good.
Gas = 1 syllable, easy to say fast. No frontal tongue touches the roof of the mouth so not possible to accidentally gleek. Just lifting the back of your tongue for the hard g sound.
In the UK every vacuum cleaner is a hoover.
In actuality, not all vacuum cleaners are hoovers.
Little peculiarities make life interesting.
I’m preferable to the term “fuel”.
We only do it to upset Europeans. In private we call it petrol. Same for the metric system vs imperial.
“I don’t understand why people shorten gasoline to gas”
you might just be stupid?
pal you guys melt some cheese on a piece of toast and call it “rabbit”, you have no grounds to question our stupid words
Gasoline is what we put in our vehicles, we shorten it to gas. Petroleum is what gasoline is distilled from, calling it petrol is as silly as calling a trunk a boot or a truck a lorry
It’s not a liquid when you burn it, my friend. It is stored in the fuel tank as a liquid, but when it is actually used in the engine, it’s a gas.
Also, yes it’s a petroleum product, but so is motor oil and about 50 other things in a car. Do you shorten motor oil to “petrol?” No? Then why would you do it in this case?
You could do this the same way against brits.
“This is a liquid, correct?”
“Correct”
“But it doesn’t burn as a liquid, it burns as a gas”
“Correct”
“And gas is relatively short so it’ll be cheaper on signage”
“That makes sense”
“So calling it gas will be cheaper and safer because it reminds people that the gas is explosive and not the liquid”
“It’s petrol”
It’s not the liquid that burns. It’s the fumes. Can’t burn it without turning it into gas.
So much division in the comments! Technically though I side with Americans that petrol is worse than gasoline for the name of the specific fuel used in combustion engines.
That being said, the history is that originally the fuel invented for combustion engines was called Cazeline. It was trademarked by John Cassel. Due to this, companies change it to Gazoline to avoid copyright and being sued. Eventually it switched to Gasoline as it was easier to spell/say. Now it’s just referred to as Gas which confuses people as it’s not a referring to the state of the matter (solid, liquid, gas).
Overall the US term gasoline refere to the specific combination of petroleum distillate product used to run combustion engines and the European term Petrol (shortened from Petroleum Distillate) is also correct but easily confused as there are lots of products derived from Petroleum Distillate, not just the fuel for combustion engines.
Daddy Yankee calls it Gasolina, so gas it is.
Your “this is a petroleum product” line is idiotic.
Paper is a wood product. Should we be calling it “woo”?
You don’t name an item after the root product from which it is derived.