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Is 'chassied' a real word?


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#1 Allen Brown

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 10:21

We have inherited the word chassis from the French but its use predates the arrival of the automobile so I guess it's a proper English word now.  Like, for example, automobile, a word that arrived 12 years later.  

 

I know that the plural of "chassis" is "chassis", not "chassies", no matter how many times "chassies" is used in adverts.

 

But has "chassied" become an accepted word?  It clearly means 'to have a chassis' but shouldn't it be "chassised"?

 

Same question applies to "re-chassied"/"rechassied".

 

The reason I ask is I just saw "Gerhardt-chassied Ford" in Competition Press in 1965 and their spell-checker was generally pretty competent.



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#2 Michael Ferner

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 10:30

If you are prepared to accept advice by a mere student of the English language, I myself have used "rechassied" quite a few times although I never really felt "comfortable" with the term. But "rechassised" or "chassised" simply feels wrong, because you're tempted to pronounce a silent consonant there!

#3 Ray Bell

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 10:38

I would be comfortable with 'chassised'...

But how can you tell if any of the words are 'right'?

#4 Collombin

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 10:50

Susie Dent wouldn't allow it.

#5 ensign14

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:01

If you are prepared to accept advice by a mere student of the English language, I myself have used "rechassied" quite a few times although I never really felt "comfortable" with the term. But "rechassised" or "chassised" simply feels wrong, because you're tempted to pronounce a silent consonant there!

 

If you have your car cleaned inside and out by professionals, it has been valeted.  No choice, really, valed would fail on all levels.  I'd say "chassised", despite the temptation to pronounce the s, is a perfectly cromulent word.



#6 275 GTB-4

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:30

I wouldn't chastise anyone who  sashayed up to me and said their automobile had been re-chassied, that would be the height of rudeness.



#7 Allen Brown

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:33

Susie Dent wouldn't allow it.

 

The ultimate test.  Thanks E.B.



#8 Patrick Fletcher

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:35

In good faith we took our car to the dealer in Victoria, Australia and asked for it to be cleaned both inside and out.

They did a very good job.

The invoice said that our car had been detailed.

Why would they want to interfere with the plumage of our Falcon?



#9 Charlieman

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:38

A quick search of the MS magazine archive throws up "chassised" 27 times. The oldest reference was from December 1944:

 

"Sir,
Harold Biggs, in his article on my "1,500" Fiat, refers rather mysteriously to my "stable of 'vermicular' chassised cars—the Tatra and the Hansa."
I do not know what dictionary friend Biggs uses, but my Concise Oxford defines "Vermicular " as "like a worm in form or movements," which I feel is rather libellous to the rigidity of the backbone chassis construction common to both cars."

 

http://archive.motor...letters-readers

 

The search function found lots of examples of "chassied" but these, thankfully, were false results in the articles I checked.



#10 Doug Nye

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:42

We who work within this world every day should take precedence when it comes to what is correct useage and what is not.  'Chassised' looks right and reads right unless one reads it aloud... Anyone who tells us this is incorrect can go and ........  The same applies to the style books slavishly espoused by numerous publishers which apparently persuade sub editors to strike out the capital initials in 'Grand Prix racing' and thus render the phrase 'grand prix racing'.  This is always guaranteed to make the back of my neck flare hot (always a bad sign, though a rare occurrence) since from long experience I am persuaded that 'Grand Prix' is every bit as much a properly descriptive title as 'South African racing' or 'North Yorkshire moors' or 'Aston Martin servicing'.  

 

DCN


Edited by Doug Nye, 30 August 2014 - 11:43.


#11 Vitesse2

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:52

If you have your car cleaned inside and out by professionals, it has been valeted.  No choice, really, valed would fail on all levels.  I'd say "chassised", despite the temptation to pronounce the s, is a perfectly cromulent word.

Cromulent of course being a word which has yet to find its way into any Oxford dictionary. :lol:

 

'Chassised' is essentially a modifier. I would certainly use it as shorthand for 'constructed on a chassis built by ...': 'Gerhardt-chassised' as above or maybe even 'Ford-chassised special' but I can't conceive of any situation where I'd use it on its own. 'Chassised by Gerhardt' just looks silly.

 

As for 'chassied'. No. Just no!

 

Susie Dent wouldn't allow it.

 

Oxford only have 'chassis' as a noun. It is of course possible to submit any word for consideration by the editors and it may even be that '-chassised' is part of the enormous 'awaiting research' backlog they have. Although, frankly, I'd doubt it as - although with a moment's thought even a neophyte could deduce the meaning, given that it would be used in a specialist context - it would probably be viewed as jargon which was only used within a specialist circle. OTOH, as 'gricer' has made it in ...

 

But then, as Joxer is fond of saying in Juno and the Paycock, "The whole world is in a terrible state of chassis."



#12 Roy C

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:56

I suppose this is what happens when we try to anglicize French words. I blame the Normans.  ;)

 

However, I miss Raymond Baxter's very correct pronunciation of Chicane. :cool:



#13 Patrick Fletcher

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 11:57

Often I have heard the term frame # used for racecars built post 1960 or so.

Not sure why the change from chassis # but there must be an explanation.



#14 Vitesse2

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 12:07

We who work within this world every day should take precedence when it comes to what is correct useage and what is not.  'Chassised' looks right and reads right unless one reads it aloud... Anyone who tells us this is incorrect can go and ........  The same applies to the style books slavishly espoused by numerous publishers which apparently persuade sub editors to strike out the capital initials in 'Grand Prix racing' and thus render the phrase 'grand prix racing'.  This is always guaranteed to make the back of my neck flare hot (always a bad sign, though a rare occurrence) since from long experience I am persuaded that 'Grand Prix' is every bit as much a properly descriptive title as 'South African racing' or 'North Yorkshire moors' or 'Aston Martin servicing'.  

 

DCN

Interesting point there, Doug. I've just had a look through my New Hart's Rules and can't see anything which would suggest that 'Grand Prix racing' - a style with which I certainly agree - is incorrect. Equally, there's nothing which specifies it as correct either, although section 5.7 would tend to suggest that it is - see for example 'the Peninsular campaign' and 'the Korean conflict'. So perhaps they work on the principle of 'if in doubt, leave it out'?



#15 Allan Lupton

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 12:09

 

Oxford only have 'chassis' as a noun.

Our USofA friends claim that "any noun can be verbed"

I agree that "chassised" has to be acceptable and am firmly against "chassied" for the simple reason that we like the spelling to retain some trace of the word's origin. 

Do I detect a subtle re-emergence of the style of the much-missed blood-pressure thread :p



#16 Vitesse2

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 12:15

verbing_weirds_language.gif



#17 Collombin

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 12:47

Our USofA friends claim that "any noun can be verbed"


To pericombobulate? Absurd.

#18 Bloggsworth

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 14:39

Susie Dent wouldn't allow it.

Have you asked her. The English language is defined by usage, this is the way neologisms find their way into the OED - Use it often enough it becomes correct innit...



#19 Collombin

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 14:43

Have you asked her. The English language is defined by usage, this is the way neologisms find their way into the OED - Use it often enough it becomes correct innit...


No, and it's never been offered by a contestant on the show, but since they switched to using the online version of the dictionary her rulings seem more consistent, and it's very easy to check - basically if the word appears as a drop down when you type it in to the ODO then it's valid, otherwise not.

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#20 RA Historian

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 15:50

The word chassis leads me to the word frame. Which leads me to the commonly seen term, "frame off restoration". That always makes my blood boil. In my mind, take the frame off, (if one could), and the rest of the car falls onto the floor.



#21 Allen Brown

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 17:24

We who work within this world every day should take precedence when it comes to what is correct useage and what is not.  'Chassised' looks right and reads right unless one reads it aloud... Anyone who tells us this is incorrect can go and ........  The same applies to the style books slavishly espoused by numerous publishers which apparently persuade sub editors to strike out the capital initials in 'Grand Prix racing' and thus render the phrase 'grand prix racing'.  This is always guaranteed to make the back of my neck flare hot (always a bad sign, though a rare occurrence) since from long experience I am persuaded that 'Grand Prix' is every bit as much a properly descriptive title as 'South African racing' or 'North Yorkshire moors' or 'Aston Martin servicing'.  

 

DCN

 

As Doug's brought it up, is it worth remembering that the plural of Grand Prix was originally Grands Prix and was pronounced "gran pree", not as I heard from the TV GP paddock roaming interviewer recently, "gran prees".  It used to be one "gran pree", two "gran pree".  When did it become one "gran pree", two "gran prees"?

 

But let's not mention "useage" versus "usage" as Doug's been quite clear on that.  Nor on starting a sentence with a conjunction.



#22 BRG

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 18:33

Do I detect a subtle re-emergence of the style of the much-missed blood-pressure thread :p

It seems to be a "Back of the neck flaring hot" thread.

 

I see no problem with 'chassised' - as suggested, it is just language developing to meet the needs of the user.  But not 'chassied' which is simply incorrect grammatically.

 

As for Grand Prix, since when has it been a geographical term like United Kingdom or a proper name like Douglas Nye?  One wouldn't call it Large Prize racing if one used the proper English translation - it would look silly.  So it's grand prix racing.  But it is the British Grand Prix when it is a proper name.

 

And I am sure that Susie Dent would agree with me..... :love:



#23 h4887

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 19:48

If you have your car cleaned inside and out by professionals, it has been valeted.  No choice, really, valed would fail on all levels.  I'd say "chassised", despite the temptation to pronounce the s, is a perfectly cromulent word.

And it seems that the person who valeted your car is called a valeter...



#24 LotusElise

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 20:42

And it seems that the person who valeted your car is called a valeter...

 

"Valet", as a noun, has a different meaning in English.

The lads who did the cleaning at the car hire place I used to work at, were referred to as "moppers" and another word I don't recall, depending on whether they were just cleaners, or did minor bodywork repairs as well.

 

In dance, we use the word "chassied" to mean "performed a chassee", a little galloping step. It has the same etymology as "chase" and therefore "chasse" in French. Does "chassis" somehow fit into this?

 

I think I might be guilty of capitalising "grand prix" unnecessarily.



#25 Tom Glowacki

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 21:21

While we're at it, what do you call it when a new body is put on the old chassis?


Edited by Tom Glowacki, 30 August 2014 - 21:22.


#26 GMACKIE

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 21:34

While we're at it, what do you call it when a new body is put on the old chassis?

Very expensive plastic surgery.  ;)



#27 Gerald Swan

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 21:44

Cromulent of course being a word which has yet to find its way into any Oxford dictionary. :lol:

But we will all be embiggened when it is.



#28 LotusElise

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:21

While we're at it, what do you call it when a new body is put on the old chassis?

 

Rebodying. I've never tried to write that word down before.



#29 elansprint72

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:26

While we're at it, what do you call it when a new body is put on the old chassis?

Normal life in Wilmslow/Bramhall/Bowden.



#30 kayemod

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:27

Rebodying. I've never tried to write that word down before.

 

Both that and chassised are words that just don't look right to me on paper or on a computer screen. I'd usually take the coward's way out and try to re-phrase in a way that avoids them altogether.



#31 kayemod

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:29

While we're at it, what do you call it when a new body is put on the old chassis?

 

In Wilmslow/Bramhall/Bowden, I think it's usually referred to as "getting a toyboy", that's what they call it in my neck of the woods anyway.


Edited by kayemod, 30 August 2014 - 22:46.


#32 elansprint72

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:32

Both that and chassised are words that just don't look right to me on paper or on a computer screen. I'd usually take the coward's way out and try to re-phrase in a way that avoids them altogether.

Coward's or cowards'? If the former, name the blackguard; if the latter, I'm with you.   ;)



#33 kayemod

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:36

Coward's or cowards'? If the former, name the blackguard; if the latter, I'm with you.   ;)

 

Are you questioning my grammar? I take singular exception to that!



#34 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:44

The English language is such a bastard of a language it can be what you want!  

Look at English English, Irish English, Scottish English Aussie English and ofcourse American English. 

And that is the written word yet alone the spoken.

Spell check? Generally American and more than occasionally wrong anyway. It does not agree with my dictionary anyway.

And yes,, I am getting old and senile and my spelling has gone to crap anyway!



#35 elansprint72

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Posted 30 August 2014 - 22:55

The English language is such a bastard of a language it can be what you want! 

Not exactly what they advised me at Cambridge; however, I only went there on a whim.



#36 john aston

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 07:01

We who work within this world every day should take precedence when it comes to what is correct useage and what is not.  'Chassised' looks right and reads right unless one reads it aloud... Anyone who tells us this is incorrect can go and ........  The same applies to the style books slavishly espoused by numerous publishers which apparently persuade sub editors to strike out the capital initials in 'Grand Prix racing' and thus render the phrase 'grand prix racing'.  This is always guaranteed to make the back of my neck flare hot (always a bad sign, though a rare occurrence) since from long experience I am persuaded that 'Grand Prix' is every bit as much a properly descriptive title as 'South African racing' or 'North Yorkshire moors' or 'Aston Martin servicing'.  

 

DCN

 Doug- sorry no such thing as North Yorkshire Moors(except in the case of the eponymous and mis-titled railway ) -it is North York Moors , where I write from this morning. And chassis is a noun not a verb ...... :yawnface:  


Edited by john aston, 31 August 2014 - 07:01.


#37 2F-001

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 07:52

Well, many areas of technology create their own words over time (they have to be 'coined' at some point…), so why not here, with regard to chassis (albeit based on a pre-existing word)?
Hence:
s. chassey
pl. chassies
and if 'verbing' is deemed necessary… chassey and pt. chassied.
QED

Chassised may look a little odd to some, but if we're to amend all spellings in accordance with euphony why not 'shassy'?

(Tongue removed from cheek)

Otherwise, I'm with kayemod - find another way!

#38 Vitesse2

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 08:18

... chassis is a noun not a verb ...... :yawnface:  

True. But 'chassised' would be an adjective. Or, as the OED would put it, 'the second element in parasynthetic compounds.' The 2010 edition of the OED included 'engined' for the first time, giving two definitions:

 

1. Now chiefly of an aeroplane: having the specified number of engines.

 

2. Having engines of the specified kind.

 

The latter is obviously of more interest in this case, since we would think nothing of writing 'Ford-engined', 'Chevrolet-engined' etc etc. Yet as far as the sainted Susie and her fellow lexicographers and grammarians were concerned, until 2010 that was (technically) beyond the pale. It wasn't even in the 1972 supplement. The first citation for this sense is from 1853 (small-engined), with the first one that includes a brand name (Corliss-engined) being from 1894. The latest - from Evo - is from 2005.

 

As I pointed out above, they have an enormous backlog of words to research, so 'chassised' (adj) may be in there somewhere! Several years ago I submitted some 1939 citations for the use of 'blitz' in English (the OED dates it to April 1940). As yet, they have not appeared in the online OED.



#39 Bloggsworth

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 08:54

Are you questioning my grammar? I take singular exception to that!

 

To that I take singular exception...



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#40 Bloggsworth

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 09:02

No, and it's never been offered by a contestant on the show, but since they switched to using the online version of the dictionary her rulings seem more consistent, and it's very easy to check - basically if the word appears as a drop down when you type it in to the ODO then it's valid, otherwise not.

 

The compilers of the OED probably make little contact with our world, so chassied has probably not passed their desk, keep sending Susie letters using the word and eventually, in about 2073, it will appear. 15 years ago innit wouldn't have been in the OED, but usage has put it there.

 

English is, of all languages, the most flexible; veranda, pergola, mezzanine all words adopted by English, as the English, when coming across a word which is unique, doesn't seek to adapt it, but uses that word to describe that thing, it is one of the reason why French is no longer the lingua franca of international conversation...



#41 Collombin

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 09:25

I know the online Oxford dictionary gets quarterly updates, but have no idea of the size of the backlog.

#42 Vitesse2

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 09:57

I know the online Oxford dictionary gets quarterly updates, but have no idea of the size of the backlog.

The target date for the completion of the current OED3 is 2037. Or at least that's what they said in 2007 ... I've no doubt that's slipped a bit!

 

They also receive 200000 submissions from the public every year!



#43 Slurp1955

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 10:28

I'm surprised we haven't had a flosculation from Will Self posted on this thread yet.

#44 RogerFrench

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 11:34

The gerunds are attaking. Back to skule!

#45 Sharman

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 13:06

If post 24 and post 29 are read in conjunction we arrive at scrubbers



#46 RStock

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 14:40

The instrument has yet to be invented that can measure my indifference to this subject.



#47 john aston

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Posted 31 August 2014 - 16:22

True. But 'chassised' would be an adjective. Or, as the OED would put it, 'the second element in parasynthetic compounds.' The 2010 edition of the OED included 'engined' for the first time, giving two definitions:

 

 It's a passive verb in my book.



#48 tsrwright

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Posted 01 September 2014 - 17:23

If you google (no capital)

books_logo.gif

Ngram Viewer

 

and key in both words, the plot of useage in books from 1800 shows similar occurence with 'chassied' going back to 1840 and 'chassised' to 1920.

 

So by useage, both are correct, the longer word apparently being more common now that most cars don't have chassis. Maybe chassising is more common these days?

 

Regarding 'grand prix', as with the (FA) Cup Final', I would imagine the 'British Grand Prix' could be shortened to the 'Grand Prix' where there would be 'grand prix racing cars', or even 'grand prix race cars'.


Edited by tsrwright, 01 September 2014 - 17:37.


#49 arttidesco

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Posted 01 September 2014 - 17:45

Okay so I live in cave, embiggen my knowledge base who is Susie Dent ?

 

Any relation to Formula Talbot ace Stuart ?



#50 kayemod

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Posted 01 September 2014 - 17:54

Okay so I live in cave, embiggen my knowledge base who is Susie Dent ?

 

 

 

Arthur's daughter, she's 42.