sixpacks

[ostap77]

Can "six-packs" refer to the abdominal muscles as in "half-dressed male models with sixpacks"?

 

[BobK]

Yes. A 'sixpack' is - in actuality - a pack of six cans (usually of something to drink, connected at the top by a flexible piece of plastic). But it is used as a metaphor to refer to a well-defined set of rectus abdominis muscles (not everyone has a sixpack). I imagine a female figure could have a sixpack, but in the culture I'm used to it's quite rare (at least it's quite rare for a very fit woman to make a lot of this part of her anatomy).

Etymological tangent: modern English is far from being the first to use a real-world image as the basis for a word that refers to a muscle. The word 'muscle' itself started life as a metaphor: musculus is, in Latin, a little mouse (which you can imagine crawling under a rug and giving the appearance of something moving under the surface.)

b

 

[ostap77]

Yes. A 'sixpack' is - in actuality - a pack of six cans (usually of something to drink, connected at the top by a flexible piece of plastic). But it is used as a metaphor to refer to a well-defined set of rectus abdominis muscles (not everyone has a sixpack). I imagine a female figure could have a sixpack, but in the culture I'm used to it's quite rare (at least it's quite rare for a very fit woman to make a lot of this part of her anatomy).

Etymological tangent: modern English is far from being the first to use a real-world image as the basis for a word that refers to a muscle. The word 'muscle' itself started life as a metaphor: musculus is, in Latin, a little mouse (which you can imagine crawling under a rug and giving the appearance of something moving under the surface.)

b

Can I say "sixpack shaped abdominal muscles"?

 

[Coolfootluke]

Can I say "sixpack shaped abdominal muscles"?

I am not a teacher.

No. It's slang (and not very good slang because it is seldom immediately clear that you don't mean a literal pack of six beverage cans). You don't explain slang.
Lighten up on the sit-ups, Betsy---you're starting to get a six-pack.
His six-pack was his pride and joy, him being the musclehead he was.

 

[ostap77]

I am not a teacher.

No. It's slang (and not very good slang because it is seldom immediately clear that you don't mean a literal pack of six beverage cans). You don't explain slang.
Lighten up on the sit-ups, Betsy---you're starting to get a six-pack.
His six-pack was his pride and joy, him being the musclehead he was.

How about six-pack abs?

 

[BobK]

No. Read the last post. You don't explain slang. A teacher might want you to do this, to be sure that you know what it means; but it makes you sound like a foreign student. (Of course, I have nothing against foreign students; they keep me in business ;-), but it's presumably not an effect you're aiming for.)

b

 

[Coolfootluke]

How about six-pack abs?

You do hear that, but it sounds like a television commercial to me. I would call the whole thing either commercialese or bodybuilder's jargon. I would not say that this "six-pack" is in general use. There is a lot of slang surrounding muscle definition. You can be "ripped" or "shredded", too.

 

[ostap77]

You do hear that, but it sounds like a television commercial to me. I would call the whole thing either commercialese or bodybuilder's jargon. I would not say that this "six-pack" is in general use. There is a lot of slang surrounding muscle definition. You can be "ripped" or "shredded", too.

Thanks. I was going to write that I saw it in a commercial, when your post popped up on the monitor. By the way, is it on a commercial or in a commercial?

 

[Barb_D]

I saw it ON television IN a commercial.

 

[ostap77]

I saw it ON television IN a commercial.

Why is "on" used when we talk about a series. "If you missed the last episode, here is what was happening on "The Shameless"?

 

[Coolfootluke]

Why is "on" used when we talk about a series. "If you missed the last episode, here is what was happening on "The Shameless"?

I am not a teacher.

God only knows. Why do the Brits say "different to" where we say "different than"? It's called "idiom" my friend, and it's a harsh master.

 

[ostap77]

I am not a teacher.

God only knows. Why do the Brits say "different to" where we say "different than"? It's called "idiom" my friend, and it's a harsh master.

Basically we say "on......." when we talk about a series or a song and "in " when it's a comercial?

 

[Coolfootluke]

Basically we say "on......." when we talk about a series or a song and "in " when it's a comercial?

I am not a teacher.

Nope. There is no rhyme or reason to it. You'll pick all this up as you read and listen more and more, the same way we native speakers did. It's in a song in a commercial shown during a TV show.

 

[BobK]

I am not a teacher.

God only knows. Why do the Brits say "different to" where we say "different than"? It's called "idiom" my friend, and it's a harsh master.

Many speakers of Br English do indeed say 'different to', much to the regret of the many prescriptivist teachers who insist that it should be 'different from'! ;-)

b