Why do people living in the US use gas as a term for vehicle fuel (petrol/diesel)?

0x4E4F@infosec.pub to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 17 points –

I mean, I could understand if they used natural gas as fuel for vehicles (which I know they don't), but they only use it in households. It makes no sense 🤷.

17

It's short for gasoline, which is the term for refined petroleum.

Which originates from Cazelline, named after the businessman who patented it, which quickly morphed into gasoline, but not because of anything to do with gas as a state of matter, as far as I can tell.

What term do you use for gasoline? Has Europe assigned petrol for gasoline?

Petrol or petroleum is diesel or gasoline by definition. If you say or petrol in you tank you are basically saying put fuel in your tank without specifying what it is.

Yeah, we use petrol and diesel. Petrol is the refined stuff (as far as I know), diesel is the less refined stuff (ignition by compression, not spark). You say petrol for regular gasoline, diesel for the less refined stuff.

Ya both terms are a bit confusing. I think the refining levels are about the same other then diesel is done at a higher temp among other process. For automotive anyhow. There is a less refined process for bunker fuel or some off road applications but mostly shipping.

So what do you use to distingush between regular gasoline and diesel?

Exactly that. Gasoline or diesel. Both different amounts of refinement of petroleum. This is the one case where I think Europe describes something weirdly. Petroleum is the raw product, not the final output.

Well, wiki says gasoline and petrol are used interchangeably in English.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline

My wife works in the industry, they do not refer to petroleum as gasoline until it is all the way downstream. Gas always refers to natural gas at the midstream point. If you are an end consumer then you have natural gas, gasoline, and diesel.

I wouldn't use Wiki as an official designation for terms but ya most people know what you mean. Diesel and gasoline are both petroleum products. Gas is short for gasoline but alone it can mean something else. Petro is slang for gasoline and most would know what you mean as well but anytime in the industry would not be sure if you said that.

checking in from an european country; for petrol, we say "benzin" and for diesel we either call it just "dízel(olaj)" or "gázolaj" (olaj -> oil, so they translate roughly to diesel-oil or gas-oil)

for the fuel that gas operated cars use we have the "autógáz" word, which means... well, car-gas

The yanks insist it is short for gasolene, but it is actually short for the name of the guy who marketed it in their country. Like saying "hoover" for vacuum cleaner or "wettex" for sponge.

It always sounds wrong to me as we have both gas (natural gas) and liquid petrol (refined oil) powered cars, as well as deisel cars. What they call gas is a liquid. But no one said language has to make sense I guess. Diesel, btw, is also a name based on a persons name.....

Diesel, btw, is also a name based on a persons name....

Vin Diesel?

/j