Semantics and Technicalities

[Nickrosis]

This will be a thread I'll add to a lot for a long time...perhaps forever, but this is something that I believe is important.

I try to use accurate words and will go to great lengths to correct misuse, if I catch it. For anyone else with this same idiosyncracy, pitch in. For the rest of you, put up with me!

Questionable Word or Phrase
Bleeding
Suggested Replacement
Sap Flow
Reasoning
Trees don't have blood so how can they bleed? Dr. Alex Shigo brought this up over Spring Break, and I agree with him. We love personification as a society, but we need to be careful with trees.

Questionable Word or Phrase
Root Flair
Suggested Replacement
Trunk Flare
Reasoning
1. Flare means to spread. Flair means to have a special interest.
2. The roots don't flare - you're still looking at the trunk.

This is my personal claim to fame. If I'm not known for any of the piddly things I do the rest of my life, I want to be known for the fact that I pointed this out to the world. Wait a minute....this is the most piddly thing I've done in my life....

Anyways, I made the effort to stop the printing of our newsletter over this because I believe change will only start if you change yourself and your own sphere of influence. Therefore, I corrected all references to "root flair" because it's misleading and wrong.

Questionable Word or Phrase
Healing
Suggested Replacement
Sealing
Reasoning
This is not my idea, but I subscribe to it whole-heartedly. I've spent the last 5 months of my life working this out of my vocabulary, and I still struggle with it. Trees don't heal; they seal because that's their very nature as compartmentalizing organisms. Their tissue is not made whole again after injury - it decays and is walled off from the rest of the tree because that's all a tree can do - and it is very effective at it.

Nickrosis

 

[DDM]

Ummmmmm okay

 

[Stumper]

Okay Nick. I agree with choosing proper terminology. Incidentally, Are you suffering from tissue necrosis, or have you sealed off the spider bite?

 

[Nickrosis]

I suffer from necrosis of the cranium - very serious. Imagine telling your children that a Band-Aid will seal not heal!

Nickrosis

 

[Stumper]

Just remember to 'compartmentalize' the children when they become teenagers and let them out at adulthood.LOL
I'm sure that you(like myself) were an exceptional teen causing only emotions of joy and pride for your parents.

 

[geofore]

Gee, and I thought it was a crainial rectal inversion. For us it maybe sap flow but to most others it is bleeding ( I still say bleeding ). You need to run this through the universial translator and see how it translates into other languages. I know they are changing the terminology in the mountian climbing and rescue industry to translate better in launguages other than English. Visit a mountian climbing web site and you'll see what I mean, look for assenders and decenders.
Some of this stuff is hilarious in the traslation.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Nick, you want to add "sucker" to your list?

 

[Stumper]

Nick does not appear to be a sucker. However, considering his youth and background, he might qualify as a watersprout. TFIC

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Good thread Nick!

Two summers ago the bursa on my left knee inflamed and I had to have surgery to remove it. While the incision was mending I had to wear a walking splint to keep me from bending the knee too much. My clients would ask me about the setup and I found myself stumbling over my words when I would tell them that I had to wear the brace until the wound seal...er... healed. I got a chuckle out of it every time. When I would tell my arbo buddies and still stumble over the words, they would always laugh

Here's a couple more for you to research: hitch and knot, bend and bight, line and rope, cable and brace.

Tom

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Trim/prune

Vigor/vitality I think the white coats should reverse that one since we green shirts use vigor all the time. I find it clumsy to say "reduce the vitality, or increase the vitality, the branch has a lot of vitality.

I sorta agree with the flair part, but it is a transitional zone, I want people to think about roots when I'm talking, and after. But then we dont want it covered up do we.

 

[Nickrosis]

Thanks for the suggestions - they're all worth looking into, but I'm a little short for e-mail time. They (the school) have me tucked away in central Wisconsin for summer camp, and I'm only writing this because I ran out for a short time.

Tom, it's interesting in languages and in arboriculture how multiple words mean the same thing, sometimes with only a subtle twist in meaning, sometimes exactly the same meaning. I would be interested in getting into the words that you mentioned. Do you have any thoughts on them already?

As geofore mentioned, translations could get interesting - your examples didn't seem too strange - what website were you referring to?

Ascender:
Chinese - rise
French - ascending

Descender:
German - short length
French - downward

If I don't reply soon, it's because there is still no Internet in central Wisconsin.

Nickrosis

 

[Nickrosis]

Questionable Word or Phrase
Feeder roots
Suggested Replacement
Fine roots
Reasoning
Pithy Points: #583. You can feed the tree system, but not trees.
In 100 Tree Myths, Dr. Shigo gets into more detail, but I'll try to summarize.

"Food" in trees refers to sugars which are not gathered by roots. Sugars are manufactured by leaves. Water and minerals are absorbed by the roots (fine roots, root hairs). I am ignoring hormones, acids, etc. for the sake of simplification.

Nickrosis

 

[FBerkel]

Block and pulley; estimate and proposal; fertilize and feed.

Idea for an alternate thread: euphemisms. E.G., "remove tree" means "kill" it. (customers don't tend to appreciate that one).

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

<B>Questionable Word or Phrase</B>
Remove tree
<B>Suggested Replacement</B>
Trim the tree with extreme prejudice.

 

[Stumper]

M&M=Hard shelled, chocolate covered nut.

 

[Stumper]

A300 uses a term that I think we all understand but which I dislike because it is inaccurate: 'Raise'. I say/write 'prune for vertical clearance'. I am NOT committing myself to picking up the whole tree!
I don't much care for the proposed "drop crotch pruning" either. "Reduce/cut to laterals" doesn't sound as crude and either choice of terminology has to be explained/defined for the client anyway.

 

[treeclimber165]

I prefer 'root flare' over 'trunk flare' because it requires less explanation to the customer. I don't believe that calling it a 'root flare' is misleading, it is understood that we are referring to the lower trunk. It is simply the flare in the trunk to accommodate the transition to the root system.

When you talk about a 'car wash', no one thinks you are talking about a car that comes and does your wash for you. With your reasoning, branch collars should also be called trunk collars.

 

[TREETX]

You have some great point here. One that is missed is that the terminology will differ when talking to an arbo as opposed to a customer. Then we will be lifting, healing, looking at vigor, and root flare. I agree about drop crotching trees with "flair".

Ever notice that in America, people don't die, they pass away? In other english speaking countries, you die and when you go to a bathroom, it is a room with a tub in it. Lets fix the whole language.

If your arm gets cut off, the tissue is not going to be replaced, so it seals right?? I think sealing refers to containing some void.

Keep them coming, I had a good laugh.

When I remove all hackberries or Az ash, am I merely taking them away for "political re-education"?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I think sealing refers to containing some void.

Well, the defect is always present, and may become a void in the future. If we trim a limb properly, it is not coming back either.

so healing is the mending of a wound where new tissue is introduced into the deffect.

sealing is where new material is introduced around the wound regain optimal suport, or reestablish uniform stress and Mattheck puts it.

The big deal here is to educate the client that trees do not heal. those little nicks they make with the lawnmower and weedwhacker are a real problem. Large wounds can become future deffect that can cause increased risk of failure.....

 

[Nickrosis]

Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn
little nicks

Do you care to define that?

Nickrosis