Ross in Lyme, New Hampshire wonders what those machines that dispense tickets at the entrance to a parking garage are called. In the business, they’re referred to as ticket spitters, entry stations, or parking ticket dispensers. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Ticket Spitters”
Ross McIntyre of Lyme, New Hampshire wrote us to say that he’s been pondering the relationship that we humans have with the machines in our environment.
And this was prompted by an experience he had when he parked on the upper level of a parking garage and he left after hours.
And so what he was supposed to do was take the little ticket that you get at the beginning from that machine and put it into an envelope along with the payment.
Well, he left the payment, but he forgot to include the parking ticket in there.
And he got home and he was looking at that ticket and had the number of the ticket and the time and the date of his arrival, but it also contained the words upper spitter.
And he was thinking, what in the world? Is there actually a machine that gives you a ticket that’s called a spitter?
Because it spits out tickets? Yes, yes. In that industry, those little tickets are called spitter tickets.
And that device, that machine that gives you the ticket that spits it out is called either a spitter or an entry station or a parking ticket dispenser.
But spitter is a term in the industry. I love it.
Because that’s what it does. It spits out tickets. Right? The tickets better.
That’s fantastic. Send us your stories about language.
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