Gas and oil

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

This may end up in language so please move it if deemed necessary.

 

I spend most of my time in the U.S. but have spent most of the last year here in Thailand. I've been here countless times over the past 15 years or so and have always wondered this and my gf and I bicker about it everytime we fill the car. Why do Thai's call the liquid you put in your car to make it go...oil? Is it not gasoline, hence, gas? I call it gas. Oil is the lubricant you put in the engine. Gas is the liquid that powers the engine. When she says we need oil, I think, no, I just bought Astroglide. Then I remember, she means fuel. Am I an idiot and it's really oil? Help.

[Mekong]

Why call a Liquid a Gas?

 

 

Gasoline (gas) or petroleum spirit (petrol) is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting mostly of aliphatic hydrocarbons, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase its octane rating, and is primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines.

 

Except for Canada, most current or former Commonwealth countries use the word "petrol", abbreviated from petroleum spirit. In North America, the word "gasoline" is commonly used, where it is often shortened in colloquial usage to "gas." It is not a genuinely gaseous fuel like liquefied petroleum gas, which is stored under pressure as a liquid but allowed to return to a gaseous state before combustion.

 

Mogas, short for motor gasoline, distinguishes automobile fuel from aviation gasoline, or avgas. In British English "gasoline" can refer to a different petroleum derivative historically used in lamps, but this is now uncommon.

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

Mekong.........I don't make the rules on why it's called gas. I said I spend most of my time in the U.S. in my original post. You said in your post that it is called gasoline, shortened to gas in North America. I again ask, why do the Thais call it oil? Am I wrong?

[shygye]

... because they are not Americans!

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

arghhhhhh.......anyone....anyone???

[..]

This may end up in language so please move it if deemed necessary.

 

I spend most of my time in the U.S. but have spent most of the last year here in Thailand. I've been here countless times over the past 15 years or so and have always wondered this and my gf and I bicker about it everytime we fill the car. Why do Thai's call the liquid you put in your car to make it go...oil? Is it not gasoline, hence, gas? I call it gas. Oil is the lubricant you put in the engine. Gas is the liquid that powers the engine. When she says we need oil, I think, no, I just bought Astroglide. Then I remember, she means fuel. Am I an idiot and it's really oil? Help.

It is the same word in Thai.

 

��ำมั� (naam man) = oil

��ำมั�ร� (naam man rot) = petrol --or--

��ำมั�����ิ� (naam man ben-sin) = petrol

 

But everyone drops the "rot" or "ben-sin" (benzine) and just says naam man when speaking of petrol/gas. One figures out which is which by context.

 

Cheers,

SD

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

Ahhhhh........now it makes some sense anyway. Guess I should expand my limited Thai a bit from just bar Thai, then I would know. Thanks for the info.

[..]

In case you were wondering, diesel in Thai is "diesel." Well, it is Thai-a-fied, and sounds more like dee-sen (�ี��ล).

 

Cheers,

SD

[Julian2]

One of the few words I recognise in the Thai script SD.

My mrs calls all go juice benzene. But she may have picked that up in Europe.

[Boo Radley]

Perhaps part of the explanation is because both oil (lubricant for engine) and petrol (gasoline) are both derived from the same source which is (petroleum) crude oil. Petrol is just the more volatile component separated by distillation.