"We are delighted to expand out fleet of boats as we introduce this NEW Ship Of Thebes..."
New is defined as "not previously used or owned". Otherwise it would be used. The 810s which will be seen on the MML in a few years are not currently in existence and are being built for EMR customers to use for the first time. Therefore they are definitely new trains.
The 360s were built and first used almost 20 years ago and were previously used by other operators - therefore, by definition, they're not new !
Are the 810s definitely "
new" trains though?
By the pedantic standards of this thread, they will be new to Hitatchi,
then given to Rock Rail, and only
then used by East Midlands Railway - but made up of atoms that are billions of years old - some of which will have previously been used in other structures!
Sorry, but you're both wrong.
If someone says "I've bought a new house" or "I got a new car" do you assume they are newly built?
I was coming on the thread to make exactly the same comment - e.g. if I said that I had a new girlfriend then you wouldn't argue about the fact that she'd previously been someone else's girlfriend would you? Or is she only a "new" girlfriend if she's never been in a relationship before?
By the same token, if you see a press release telling me that a firm is opening a new shop, do you argue that "actually, I think you'll find that the premises were used by another company in the past"?
This thread highlights a shortcoming of the English language. If two different words for
new - just built
new - an existing item built reappropriated
there would be clarity.
e.g. A ' reappropriated ' train fitted with ' just built ' ( as against overhauled / refurbished ) engines.
Interesting point - especially as English often has a variety of words to allow more nuance than languages that are either "managed by committees" (e.g. French has some strict rules) or "effectively dying due to lack of use or because of adopting a lot of words from other languages" (I won't mention specific examples to avoid offending the kind of people who are rather sensitive to this kind of thing)... for example, some languages have nothing to distinguish "house" from "home", which makes English better to do poetry/ songs/ stories in (since you can be a lot more expressive) - yet here is an example where we use the same word to mean some rather different things (I know we sometimes say "brand new" or use other words, but generally "new" can be used for a variety of meanings)
