4 ms·
Ugh, "coalface admins". If I can hope to influence anyone's usage, I'll advise against using "coalface" as an adjective for people. I realize that a coalface is
by minopret 13y ago
Ugh, "coalface admins". If I can hope to influence anyone's usage, I'll advise against using "coalface" as an adjective for people. I realize that a coalface is a place where a worker turns a resource into a commodity. But the word "coalface" is too much like "blackface". In fact it is used that way in regard to birds and cats. It risks distracting people with disturbing connotations, particularly here in the United States.
- hga 13y agoRather than complain about a U.K. publication's possible refusal to play the PC game, or ignorance of how coalface might be stretched to connote blackface (a word that is certainly less freighted over there), why not learn the term as the British use it, e.g.: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=coal%20face http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=coal%20face "Originally used with reference to miners i.e those who remove coal from the 'face' of the mine, its now more commonly used to mean any work closest to the frontline "Managers have no idea how hard it is for a sparky these days because they never have to work at the coal face. "I love pulling apart engines. Its great to get my hands dirty at the coal face." It's actually complementary to most of us....
- minopret 13y agoYet I wouldn't write "(I) have dirty hands" where I mean "(I) get (my) hands dirty". We'll all choose our own words. Good luck to us all, and may the best of us succeed.