Correct Language: "Run" or "Draw" a bath

[Welshbird]

I'd appreciate some help to settle a discussion in my office.

I was always taught that one 'drew' a bath, but I'm in a minority here. Everyone else thinks that one 'runs' a bath.

Apparently my version just implies that I'm posh! (surely not)

What do you think guys?

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[Lunatic]

Hmmm... From childhood I would say these were the ones that were used:

Go make a bath
Go fill the tub
Take a bath

'Take a bath' was the most common. I guess that for the most part we removed the reference to actually creating the bath. It was just assumed to be part of taking a bath.

If someone got a bath tub ready for someone else it was something along the lines of:

I've made your bath for you.

No reference to how, just that you should do it or that you have done it for someone else.

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[SantaMufasa]

Correct Language: "Run" or "Draw" a bath?

Fee, the Correct Language is "Take a Shower"...due, for the most part, to the reasons that John lists, below:
".

In the interest of full disclosure, let me just say that I don't take baths. The concept has always disgusted me. Basically you are just soaking in your own filth. Kind of like dirt soup, and you're the meat.

Is this just a British English question?

Yes, Lunatic, since, as a nation, the British (versus Americans) are the "bath takers".

During the years that I lived in Britain, the only places that I was able to take a satisfying shower were at Birmingham University's Athletic Department (Locker Rooms) and at an American-built home where the owner/builder understood the importance of washing the muck off of your body.

The rest of my time in Britain, I carried around my own "shower"...a rubber hose with a faucet connection at one end and a shower head at the other end. I would have to connect the hose to either the tub faucet or the sink faucet (if the tub faucet was too broad to fit the input end of the hose), then usually kneel in the tub to shower (since there was never a shower curtain in such bath rooms, and I didn't want to douse the rest of the bath room) to complete the process.

Nowadays, showers are becoming more prevalent in the U.K., but, unfortunately, still not a "universal" ammenity.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[Lunatic]

Funny, at all the places I stayed in Eastern Europe there were only showers ;p

The Japanese have the best of both worlds. First you take a quick shower, then you soak in a hot bath... Oh talk about heaven on earth!

Santa, my British English question was centered more around the use of the phrase 'draw/run a bath' which struck me as archaic phrases that made me think of the 1800's.



***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[ascotta]

If I take a bath there will be a flood !!

Interestingly on the draw fron, people in Australia do say its in the draw, not its in the drawer.

I draw curtains and run baths and take showers. Which means I am clean and don't frighten the neighbours.

[blue] A perspective from the other side!![/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[SF0751]

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[Welshbird]

Davey Santa! I can't remember anywhere I have been in the UK wich doesn't offer the option of a shower any more. Admittedly its often a shower over the bath with a curtain rather than a separate walk-in shower unit, but its rare not to find one.

(I still prefer a bath though, and drawn at that, so either I'm old fashioned, 'posh' or both.... who can tell. I fort I was welsh!)

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[sha76]

Surely "drawing a bath" would mean you're less posh? Would have thought indoor plumbing was posher than a well!

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert

 

[columb]

I went looing on Dictionary.com and found:-

16. to drain: to draw a pond.

So it's one of those words like 'fast' where it has two, completely opposite, meanings

Ceci n'est pas une signature
Columb Healy

 

[MallardVHS]

I went looing on Dictionary.com and found:-

...yellow droplets on my computer? Streaming video? A hole nether world?


[gray]*****************[/gray]

Artists draw a bath; thieves take a bath; joggers run a bath; Gangsters just say, "Water you lookin' at??"

The rest of us moistly shower...

"Don's Ponderings"

[gray]* ripple effects extra...[/gray]



[green]Tis far easier to keep your duck in a row if you just have the one.[/green]

 

[johnherman]

For you 'mercans out there, try this one:

http://www.sonicpling.net/misc/yankee-dixie-quiz.html

Other English speaking folks might be a bit amused to find out what regional dialect their American English teacher(s) had.



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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright

 

[SF0751]

I'm 62% Dixie - grew up in Oklahoma, spend 10 years in New England, and now live in Texas!

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[AnotherHiggins]

FYI: A whole thread devoted to the Yankee-Dixie quiz:
thread1256-1262888

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.

 

[GwydionM]

You draw a bath from your hot-water supply. With older systems it might take some time to replace.

As someone said earlier, it is valid but becoming archaic.

------------------------------
An old man who lives in the UK

 

[dgillz]

I cannot remember the last time I took a bath -- I take showers. I am 45 years old and I am sure I have not taken a bath since I was 9 or 10.

Do any real men take baths? I thought that was a female thing?

At any rate I have never used nor heard anyone use the term "draw" in regards to a bath, until this thread.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
" - unknown

 

[Lunatic]

dgillz

Question: What is a real man? Because professional athletes take baths all the time to help recover from injuries. Are they effeminate because of that? What about fathers that raise their children? Isn't that a mother's thing? What about women who climb mountains, isn't that a male thing?

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[flapeyre]

Lunatic - Real man, here. I've never eaten quiche in my life. I take showers and have not taken a bath in maybe 20 years. On the rare occasions that I refer to the act of preparing a bath, I would say "fill the tub".

I've heard of drawing a bath, but never heard of running a bath.

68% Dixie. Born and raised in New Orleans, now living 35 miles north of there.



Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 

[KornGeek]

Do any real men take baths? I thought that was a female thing?

It is quite common for professional athletes to soak their sore muscles in a hot tub or whirlpool. That is essentially a hi-tech bath. Now, they may not be using soap, but they are still taking a bath. (As far as if it is "run", "drawn", or otherwise filled, I'm not sure. ;-) )

<too much info>
A good bath can be very relaxing, but I have trouble taking them anymore. About 6 years ago, I was feeling a little off, so I decided I'd soak in a hot bath for a while. I wasn't using it to get clean, just to relax. That's when I discovered that the ill feeling was due to food poisoning as I began to violently vomit into the bath water in which I was soaking. It was emotionally scarring.
</too much info>

 

[SF0751]

<sarcasm> Gosh, thanks so much for that (very disturbing) visual image.

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[Lunatic]

KornGeek

I couldn't eat spagetti (one of my 2 favorite foods growing up) from the time I was 10 to 15 or 16 or so due to a very similar experience. I'm not sure there is anything more terrifing than looking down at your dinner of spagetti, meatballs, and red sauce...

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[ascotta]

real man" hmmmmmmm.

I usually take a bath to soothe away aches I know are coming after over exertion. I put loads of salt in it too. Works a treat usually.

A "real man" would obviously suck in the pain. So in the conclusion "real" = stupid. In my book anyway.

Thank you for the technicolour'd yawn picture KornGeek just so wrong in so many ways.

[blue] A perspective from the other side!![/blue]

Cheers
Scott