• 9point6@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    A dictionary is descriptive not prescriptive.

    If Aussies wanna say bingle for a prang, they can go right ahead

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        As someone who doesn’t have the luxury of distinction in my dialect of English, when is a bingle a bingle and when is a prang a prang? Is the line between the two or is there a third, yet to come up, term

    • itslola@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Feel like a bingle is more like when you reverse into a pole or scratch the bumper, or maybe rear end/reverse into another vehicle at <10km/h. Prangs require panel beating and maybe a trip to the hospital.

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Ah interesting I think we would maybe say dinged if it was a minor superficial bump, prangs go from there up to about what you described, generally no one gets hurt in a prang over here though. After that it’s probably just crash until you get to the totaled/wrote-off territory

        • itslola@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Yeah, I think “dinged” and “bingle” are pretty interchangeable. And a hospital trip from a prang is probably more for whiplash or a sprain - not broken bones in traction or being admitted to ICU… You can definitely have an injury-free prang, though, I agree.

          • The_Decryptor@aussie.zone
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            1 day ago

            “dinged” when your car gets hit by a trolley, “bingle” when you back into a bollard, “prang” when you get rear-ended at stop lights.

            • itslola@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              This interpretation is solid. I’ve lived in various regions over about a 2000km span of the east coast, and noticed usage varies a bit depending on where you are.

              (Kind of jarring when you find yourself talking cross purposes with someone of the same nationality and almost identical accent - like when I moved to Qld and discovered some people up there have a very different interpretation of the word “toey” from what we do down south… 😅 )