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August 19[edit]

Things colloquially called "machine" in English[edit]

From "It works on my machine" I know that "machine" is colloquially used in English for a computer. What other things would be colloquially called "machine"? (In German, the probably most common usages are for motorcycles and aircraft.) --KnightMove (talk) 04:34, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'll run it through my machine and shorten the cuffs. It would be quite clear in ZAEng what I meant. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 05:50, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'll run it through my machine on high to get the grease out. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 05:54, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In the US, an efficient political organization is called a "machine". See Political machine. Here is an academic journal article, Living Machines: Metaphors We Live By that discusses other metaphors. Cullen328 (talk) 06:20, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Just as a side point, I don't think the use of "machine" to refer to a "computer" even counts as colloquial, and this definition in the (relatively conservative) American Heritage Dictionary supports that. --174.95.81.219 (talk) 06:46, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In the early days one could also refer to a computer as an engine, reflecting the name of Babbage's Analytical Engine project, as seen in the title of D. R. Hartree (1946a), "The ENIAC, an Electronic Calculating Engine", Nature 157, p. 527. In his next article, after Hartree had seen the ENIAC, he used machine: D. R. Hartree (1946b), "The ENIAC, an Electronic Calculating Machine", Nature 158, pp. 500–506. --Lambiam 07:48, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

On a computer-related note: in my specialist field (as an amateur!) of transport fare collection systems, anything which issues a ticket is routinely referred to, even in internal documentation, as a "machine", even when it is no more than a tablet computer connected by Bluetooth to a handheld printer. The days of these wonderful things and these wonderful things, which could genuinely be called machines, are long gone. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 22:43, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Someone doing their job on the sporting field in a particularly impressive and reliable way can be described as a machine. See here for an example. HiLo48 (talk) 08:15, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

On a related note, in the movie The Longest Yard (as well as its American remake and British re-take), the moniker "Mean Machine" is used by the convicts' team as a self-reference to the team as a full unit. (I don't think a car is referred to as a machine particularly often, though, even if that's the main word for a car in Italian and Russian.) 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:57, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Some oppressive societal regime. Welcome to the Machine. Rage Against the Machine. Card Zero (talk) 11:20, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In both World Wars, aircraft were known in the RAF as "machines". An example picked at random: "I saw my machine crash into the sea a mile off Deal". [1] Alansplodge (talk) 12:23, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. We have an article on Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, "a 1965 British period comedy film that satirizes the early years of aviation". HiLo48 (talk) 22:33, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And the term "flying machine" does go back to the period depicted. The Wright brothers described their creations with phrases like "the machine". Curiously, the OED Online does not have an entry for "flying machine" in this sense, although it does have examples of the same phrase used in the 18th century to mean a fast stagecoach! --174.95.81.219 (talk) 05:11, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And see also machining. Alansplodge (talk) 12:27, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Lots of automatons, which includes Nikola Tesla referring to his body as a machine. [[2]] Modocc (talk) 14:04, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That's getting obscure, although I'll add The Soft Machine as another instance. Card Zero (talk) 14:13, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps, but referring to the human body is included as an example of the forth sense (of 8) in the dictionary reference cited by the IP above: "4. An intricate natural system or organism, such as the human body." Modocc (talk) 14:43, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

De La Mettrie, 1747, L'homme Machine ("Man a Machine"). --Lambiam 16:08, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Any workshop device for processing materials - drill, lathe, injection moulding machine, sewing machine, machine tool - is a machine; hence Machinist, Machinist's mate, Machinist square, Machinist calculator and the possible meanings of Machinist's handbook -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 15:03, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And when the slot machine has emptied your pocket, you go to the automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) to refill it. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 15:08, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Collins English Dictionary defines party machine as "the internal organization of a political party, which decides its policies and directs its activities". That's actually a redirect, but I'm more familiar with party machine than political machine. HiLo48 (talk) 22:06, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If animals are machines (Descartes), is a party animal a party machine? --Lambiam 16:13, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Most of these examples are actual machines. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:53, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That depends how you look at thing is suggest. Is an entire aeroplane a machine, or is the machine really just the engine(s), with the "machine" perspective, referring to whole device, being the colloquial usage. HiLo48 (talk) 01:13, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Read Machine. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:39, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

When a flying machine has a coffee machine on board, what do we call that? HiLo48 (talk) 07:50, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

According to Simple machine, a bottle opener (lever), door stop (wedge), jam jar lid (screw) and dropped kerb (inclined plane) are all machines. It would seem hard for any physical object more complicated than a tissue handkerchief not to be a machine. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 08:13, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

But the question was about things colloquially called machine. That is, which of these things are routinely referred to, for short, as "a machine". Hassocks5489 gets it. Nobody (approx.) ever asked for a bottle opener by saying "pass me your machine". Card Zero (talk) 11:21, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Adding machine, a mechanical calculator. Andre🚐 05:26, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

OP, a device you know as an Automat would be called a machine in English. Temerarius (talk) 16:58, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all! Very interesting and just as complex as I had expected. --KnightMove (talk) 13:06, 23 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]