Proof we are not mainstream

[CatalinaWOW]

This is a personal peeve.  Almost every reader of this blog will understand the following sentence. 

"Don't use dikes to strip wire".

Almost every reader of the blog probably has more than one pair in their toolbox, workshop or wherever the magic happens.  But if you look that word up in almost any dictionary, be it the dead tree type or one of the on line ones you will not find the usage we have.  You will find many words that are not acceptable in polite company.  You will find obscure words like fubsy, or kringle, or pogonophobia, or antidisestablishmentarianism, but you won't find that there is a common word for a pair of diagonal cutters.  I don't have access to an unabridged version of the OED, but I have heard it is there, so at least it is not totally undocumented.

I have added it to Wiktionary and Wikipedia, to find it edited out later.  What is it about the language of our hobby and profession that is so distasteful to the arbiters of our language?

[max666]

Well, at least "my" google understands, I guess.

[IanB]

Well you learn something new every day. This is the first time I have heard of dike as an abbreviation for diagonal cutter.

[CatalinaWOW]

Googles got geeks.  Check the following from Wiktionary

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]
dyke

Pronunciation[edit]
(UK) IPA(key): /da?k/
Rhymes: -a?k

Etymology[edit]

Middle English (Northern) dik, dike, from Old Norse díki 'ditch, dike'. More at and doublet of ditch.

Noun[edit]

dike ?(plural dikes)
1.(Britain) Archaic spelling of all (Britain) meanings of dyke.
2.A barrier of stone or earth used to hold back water and prevent flooding. ?[quotations ?]

 
3.(pejorative) A lesbian, especially a butch lesbian.
4.(geology) A body of once molten igneous rock that was injected into older rocks in a manner that crosses bedding planes.

Synonyms[edit]
(barrier of stone or earth): bank, embankment, dam, levee, breakwater, floodwall, seawall
(long, narrow excavation): ditch

Antonyms[edit]
dune

Related terms[edit]
ditch
dig

[Richard Crowley]

The word "dike" has been used as a nick-name for diagonal cutter for many decades.
Clearly the people who edit online wiki-things are dilletents with limited knowledge of specialized word usage.
Why does that come as any surprise to us?

I learned how to strip wires using dikes from a telephone installer when I was a very young boy, and I have been doing it successfully for at least 5 decades.

My favorite cutters are these....

[rolycat]

I think "dikes" is largely an Americanism.

I have always called them "side cutters", although Wikipedia thinks that being British I should call them "snips".

[krish2487]

I agree with rolycat and Ian.


I grew up calling them "Flush cutters" or "lead cutters".

[dexters_lab]

i have always called them side cutters

[IanB]

As with me. Side cutters or wire cutters.

[PA0PBZ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagonal_pliers

...
Jargon

Diags or Dikes (a portmanteau of "Diagonal CutterS" is pronounced "dikes") – as in the phrase "a pair of dikes" or "hand me those dikes" – is jargon used especially in the electrical industry, to describe diagonal pliers. Dike can also be used as a verb, such as in the idiom "when in doubt, dike it out".

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, diagonal pliers are commonly referred to as snips, and in Australia and Canada they are often referred to as side cutters.

[retrolefty]

Dikes is what I understood sense the 60s at least.

I learned how to strip wires using dikes from a telephone installer when I was a very young boy, and I have been doing it successfully for at least 5 decades.

 Yea, one can get the feel if it's solid insulated wire, it was often quicker then looking for the strippers. However trying dikes on stranded wire is very difficult without nicking/breaking some of the strands. Also never use dykes to try and strip nylon or Teflon insulated wire, the friction between wire and insulation is just too high to get a good clean strip.

[vlad777]

Those elitists at wikipedia will edit out anything, just because you are not part of their group.

[Macbeth]

"Side cutters" here. Never heard of "dikes" as a tool name. But have known a few dykes and they aren't offended by the word as they use it themselves. Lesbian is a bit of a mouthful in common parlance. (Oh, by mouthful I wasn't referring to the carpet munching  ... ooer... I'll get me coat  )

[Macbeth]

I have always called them "side cutters", although Wikipedia thinks that being British I should call them "snips".

Only my old dad calls them snips, but he is a sheet metal worker by trade and going a bit senile.

[Macbeth]

Those elitists at wikipedia will edit out anything, just because you are not part of their group.

Actually I remember some wanker editing out Daves bio claiming he was only a minor internet personality or something ridiculous. Got a bee in his bonnet over climate change and the solar roadways thing I think. Wiki is infiltrated with climate change religious zealots by all accounts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Jones - it's still there, looks like the loon lost 

[retrolefty]

"Side cutters" here. Never heard of "dikes" as a tool name. But have known a few dykes and they aren't offended by the word as they use it themselves. Lesbian is a bit of a mouthful in common parlance. (Oh, by mouthful I wasn't referring to the carpet munching  ... ooer... I'll get me coat  )

 That seems to fly in the face of 'political correctness' at least here in the U.S. where it seems that some groups are allowed to use certain 'words and names' that people outside the group should not. Dike would be a perfect example. Truly they are not offended by the word but rather who and how others use the word.

[Deathwish]

seems it is all in the spelling.

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dyke

dyke. A word used to refer to Lesbians. Originally meant to be a slur, it has been "reclaimed" by many Lesbians who might use it to identify themselves

[EEVblog]

Well you learn something new every day. This is the first time I have heard of dike as an abbreviation for diagonal cutter.

Same here, never heard it before.

[Smokey]

I'll stick with:
4.(geology) A body of once molten igneous rock that was injected into older rocks in a manner that crosses bedding planes.

http://www.supertopo.com/rock-climbing/Yosemite-Valley-Half-Dome-Snake-Dike

[dr.diesel]

I think "dikes" is largely an Americanism.

In my area of the States, that is pretty much the only name for them, especially in the electrical trade.

[hamster_nz]

Almost as interesting a Coon being an Australian cheese brand.

[AF6LJ]

I think "dikes" is largely an Americanism.

In my area of the States, that is pretty much the only name for them, especially in the electrical trade.

I have heard them called "Side Cutters" as often as Dikes.
Even my alternative lifestyle acquaintances don't raise an eyebrow.


The disease of political correctness strikes a harsh toll.

[GreyWoolfe]

I'm with retrolefty on the 60's thing.  My dearly departed father referred to "linesman's pliers" as dikes.  That's what I grew up with.

[CatalinaWOW]

OK, I learned something too.  I thought it was worldwide.  Apparently the Europeans I dealt with had already been contaminated by Americanisms.  Never have had the chance to talk electrical stuff with the folks on the other side of the equator.

[max666]

That seems to fly in the face of 'political correctness' at least here in the U.S. where it seems that some groups are allowed to use certain 'words and names' that people outside the group should not. Dike would be a perfect example. Truly they are not offended by the word but rather who and how others use the word.