Tales from the Huffmans

      In some cases I have very much enjoyed the activity of tailgating¹, but in many other cases I find it very irritating².  It depends on how the word is being defined.  The verb, describing two very different activities, comes from a noun which was first used in 1868, at which time it was defined as a board or gate at the rear of a vehicle³ that could be removed or let down, as for loading.  In 1868, the tailgate was found at the back of a horse-drawn wagon⁴.  Now it most often refers to the back of a car or truck.

 

      Before I retired from teaching, I often taught a class in The History of the English Language.  I would tell my students about how flexible⁵⁴ the English language is, how one part of speech⁶ often switches its function (usage) to another part.  It is referred to as functional shift^7. The linguistic history of the word “tailgate” is a good example of this.  People found how convenient it was to pull down the tailgate of a wagon, truck or car, and put out food for a picnic.  This was found to be especially convenient when people were parked in a parking lot while attending a football game at a university, a special kind of picnic. 

 

      Many Saturday afternoons Don and I have seen groups of students with their friends and families tailgating out in the college parking lot behind our house.  Some of the groups even set up portable charcoal grills⁸ in order that they can cook hamburgers etc.  The odors coming from there are enticing⁹ indeed.  Some parents of football players have festive¹⁰ tailgating parties that go on all day.  One family I recall would fix¹¹ pancakes¹² in the morning, hamburgers and hot dogs at lunch, and even more hamburgers and hot dogs in the evening.  They would invite anyone they knew to join them.  They always parked at the same spot, erected¹³ a tent, and put out chairs so that people would know where to find them. 

 

      Tailgating can also be defined as driving dangerously close to another automobile.  That is the kind of tailgating that I find both irritating and dangerous.  The word implies that when a car is tailgating another, it is driving dangerously close, so close that if the tailgate were to open, it could touch that car.  Also, if the car in front were to suddenly stop, the second car probably would be unable to stop and would hit the first car. 

 

      Tomorrow is Saturday and there will be much tailgating going on, both the fun type and the unsafe type.  Central College has a football game about 125 miles from here.  I’ll be thinking of all of the tailgating activities and wishing good luck to all of the students driving and picnicking¹⁴ there.

 

Notes:

1. tailgating: driving dangerously close behind another car, or holding a picnic on the tailgate of a car, the tailgate being the gate at the rear of the car which can be let down (很危险地紧随着一辆车开或在汽车尾部野餐，该车后门可以放下来).

2. irritating: causing annoyance (令人烦躁的).

3. a board or gate at the rear of a vehicle: 车辆尾部的后挡板或后车门

4. wagon: a four-wheel vehicle for transporting bulky items and originally drawn by animals (四轮运货车，四轮马车). 

5. flexible: being able to change or be changed easily to suit any new situation (灵活的). 

6. part of speech: one of the types into which words are divided in grammar according to their use, such as noun, verb, or adjective (词类，词性).

7. functional shift: The linguistic term applied to the situation occurring when one part of speech starts functioning as another (词性转换).  One of the primary characteristics of the English language is how readily functional shifting occurs.

8. portable charcoal grills: 便携式（置于）炭（火上的）烤架

9. enticing: tempting or attractive (诱人的，吸引人的).  In this case the delicious food odors attract people to the area or tempt them to want to eat the food. 

10. festive: joyful or gay (节日般的，喜庆的).

11. fix: prepare a meal or drinks (准备食物/饮料).

12. pancake: 薄烤饼，烘饼

13. erected: built or put up (支起，搭建).   

14. picnicking: going on an excursion or outing with food usually provided by the members of the group and eaten in the open air (进行野餐).      

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Sports and Recreation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.