Alex in Bishop, California, works with an environmental nonprofit that partners with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. When his team goes out into the field for several days on assignment, they refer to that stretch of time as a hitch. The word hitch has several meanings, all having to do with “fastening on” to something, whether it’s a door hitch or getting hitched to someone. A person can also serve a hitch in the military, which means they’re “fastened” to a period of service, and in Alex’s case, the same word refers to a temporary assignment away from the office. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “A Hitch of Work or Service”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, yes, my name is Alex calling from Bishop, California.
What’s going on in Bishop?
Yeah, well, I work for an environmental nonprofit here in Bishop. We work with the Forest Service and National Park Service to do a lot of environmental projects on the ground out in the field. And I’ve noticed that whenever we go out into the field for multiple days, it’s called a hitch, and I’m just curious as to where that might come from.
Well, now I’m real curious what you’re doing out there in the field.
Yeah, yeah, so a hitch is an assignment to do what? You know, usually it’s a lot of environmental rehabilitation work, or maybe it’s cutting out logs from, you know, a trail. The logs have fallen down, so just opening it back up. And basically anything where we’re going out and bringing our tools and overnight work with us and kind of we’re back in the area for a while.
Okay. So you’re camping.
Yes, we’re camping. It’s more of an overnight. If we were just going out for the day, not usually call it a hitch, but I’ve noticed that we call it a hitch when we’re out for multiple days.
So your question is, why do you call this kind of assignment a hitch?
It’s an extended job, more or less, right?
Yeah.
Extended assignment.
Exactly.
And I’ve known, you know, obviously other ways we use hitch in language, but this one seems kind of unique.
Well, they’re all connected. They all involve getting caught or fastened, more or less, and I’ll explain that. For example, if you have a door hitch, you are fastening the door so it stays closed. Or you have a hitch that connects horses or a team of horses to a wagon, you’re making sure they stay connected. If you have a hitch and a plan, you get caught or entangled or impeded in a way that you weren’t expecting so things don’t go smoothly. It’s kind of the unexpected or unwanted hitch, an unexpected catch.
And so this kind of hitch you’re talking about is a job-related hitch, and you can have hitches in military service or hitches in the nautical life, or you might take out a hitch aboard a ship. These are you get hitched to the period of service, which means they have temporarily fastened you onto their team or temporarily caught you as a worker, so to speak.
Does that make sense?
Getting hitched, getting married is you’re tying the knot, literally, maybe, or figuratively. So all of that involves some kind of connecting of you to something else. So it’s a term of enlistment, more or less.
Gotcha.
I’m still entranced with the idea that you go out and spend all your days outdoors. That sounds lovely.
It’s not the worst thing to do for work, and I definitely am lucky to be able to do that.
Yeah, you’re right there at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada.
That’s right, yeah.
Yeah, more little middle. You know, Lone Pine and Mount Whitten are about an hour south of us.
Right, right.
And Mammoth, which is a big ski area, is about an hour north of us.
Yeah, so some great hiking there if you don’t have a hitch in your get-along.
Or a hitch in your giddy-up.
Yeah, that makes sense, too.
Yeah, the hitch in the giddy-up, you know, having an entanglement.
Yeah, exactly.
Don’t want to have one there.
You don’t have one.
Well, thanks so much.
That’s right.
All right.
Thank you, Alex.
Bye-bye.
Yeah.
Bye-bye.
Well, you can hit yourself to our wagon and join the Language Roadshow, 877-929-9673. You can also talk to us on Twitter @wayword.
