Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday


Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading and is hosted by Bermuda Onion.
I worked in the data processing business and recently worked on a project with a US banking client of ours.
It was interesting the different terminology that we used in our data centres (Canadian) centers (American). When they have to correct a cheque (Canadian) or check (American) that was keyed incorrectly by an operator they call it scrubbing, hence the operator is called a scrubber.

This made us Canadians of British/Irish background (or who are drawn to British/Irish books/movies/TV) laugh to ourselves.






scrubber 
In Britain, a promiscuous woman; in Ireland, a common or working class woman.














I have been in IT a long time and started out in a data centre as a summer job, and in the last 10 years worked for a company that provides outsourcing for data processing. As seen from the photos above the process has not really changed over the years.
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8 comments:

  1. Vodka LogicMarch 24, 2010 at 12:41 PM

    I will have to remember that to use on my friends. Scrubber.. lol.

    PS I'm American

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  2. Jackie McGuinnessMarch 24, 2010 at 2:08 PM

    And on a conference call today with some Canadian co-workers I noticed that we have adopted the word now for when we make corrections!

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  3. Katy ~March 25, 2010 at 3:43 AM

    Well, now. "Scrubber" just brings a whole lot to mind as to the derogatory meaning and it makes me laugh. I think I'll adopt YOUR meaning. I'm just going to smile knowingly and use that word. I like it as much as asshat.

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  4. AnonymousMay 30, 2012 at 11:03 AM

    Never heard of this word before, interesting.

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  5. LibbyMay 30, 2012 at 11:39 AM

    Oh! I am going to have FUN with this one! LOL!

    Thanks!

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  6. bermudaonionMay 30, 2012 at 3:49 PM

    I can see why that made you laugh!! Thanks for sharing!

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  7. Bev HankinsMay 30, 2012 at 8:24 PM

    That made me giggle. I read a lot British lit and mysteries, so I well aware of the derogatory meaning.

    Here are my Words.

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  8. LouiseJune 3, 2012 at 4:49 PM

    Australians are well aware of the British meaning for scrubber too. You did very well to just laugh to yourself! Interesting post this week.

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