what are duals?

i see "duals" used for sports/choir/etc competitions -- similar to how one uses "regionals" and "nationals", i guess -- yet i can't find a SINGLE dictionary which lists it. what the heck ARE they??

i assume there is more to this than just some lame TYPO for "duels", right?

secondly, what are "duals" on a SCHOOL BUS? e-dicts list a couple of things like "dual wheel configuration" but it's not clear to me whether anyone actually USES it for that.

caption in a cartoon last month refered to a rider dropping something "in front of the duals".

even armed with google, i am clueless.

from context, i'm thinking....BUMPERS?

 

I think that track Duals are where the men's team and women's team compete on the same day at the same site. Could be wrong... Apparently dual tack meets are a thing of the past for the most part.

 

Don't you mean "duels"? A competition between two teams or persons.

 

Commonly referred to as "dualies" in the states on any heavy duty truck, 6 wheels or greater.

 

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/gTboPW098Z.jpg

 

cmon, it is NOT "duels". i know what a "duel" is! DUH.

this is some specialized meaning, perhaps US only. anyone here of student age (or recent student mintage)? i assume it hinges on the number 2 somehow - such as some "pairing up" during the competition.

so far cipher is the only one with a reasonable meaning (M/F joint meet). any solid pages anywhere backing that up?

given the number of NEWSPAPER references i find with the term, i'm amazed it isn't easier to google up examples.

 

In mathematics a dual is an "opposite" or "involute" of an object in question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_(mathematics).

Also, the PS has a DualShock game controller: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DualShock

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_(grammatical_number)

I doubt it is any of these though and it's likely to be a modification of dual meaning two of.

 

Perhaps two competitors at a time, instead of two teams?

 

I've asked my son, a track and soccer man in high school, and sez it is when mens and womens teams compete same day, same site. For a school to win a dual means winning both mens and womens team victories by overall total points. This still allows for a mix of individual winners from both schools like any other meet.

There does not seem to be much in the way of a definition about, although this may due to the fact that such events are rare these days

 

rare or not, the e-dicts should cover this! it's not like it's last years' slang -- this has been around since at least when i was in school.

they have like 200 sub definitions for what "dual" (n) might mean, but i don't see any of them applying to this. yeah, a "pair" of something could fall under several of the definitions there, but 4 teams, 2 genders, same meet -- that's a pretty specific meaning which deserves an entry.

find me a solid site (big high school with "Duals" results or better yet some track MANUAL making ref to them) and i'll contact Mr. Webster. he needs to know!

 

Dualies slang
Just my $0.02

 

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/menfreestyle/usa-russia-filajrdual09/index.htm

This one is two men's teams, USA, Russia, but different age groups. This one was 2009...

Like I say, "Duals" are very rare, maybe why few mentions..

 

i dunno what a "grammatical" meaning is, but assuming that's a typo for semantic, it's all very easy to handwave that the two terms are vaguely "related to" the number two. that does not mean that they are the "same thing", in reality or anywhere else. when someone challenges you to a duel at sunrise, he/she is not telling you to bring along a complement of "male and female teams", afaik.

by your logic dual wouldn't even HAVE sub-entries, just one big entry saying "something in some way related to two of something".

worse yet, duel isn't even derived from the root for two, it comes from latin "duellum", battle!! so you got that wrong too.

but hey, thanks for the sarcasm....

 

I have to agree, the only thing Dual and Duel have in common is that Duels are generally between 2 parties. They are not really related words in any normal sense...

 

Dual duels are dangerous. Double the damage, double the Hospital bills.

 

I think you both misunderstood or misread what David said.
He never said the 2 words mean the same thing.
They both mean 2.
One means 2 parts or parties (Dual)
The other means combat between 2 parties (Duel)

They both mean 2 and as David clarified...

Bottom line is they both predominantly mean "2"

I know what he's saying

@OP... I would think in regards to the sports "Dual" they are using the wrong word, if it's competition then it would be "Duel" unless it's dual teams, meaning 2 different teams on the same side, like Doubles in Tennis. If 2 teams play each other who are Geographically Rivalled, then it could be touted as a "Duel", in Football (Soccer) when Everton and Liverpool face off, they are both in Merseyside so the competition is fiercer between them and would be considered a "Duel", we call them "Derby's".
Maybe that's what they mean, personally I think they are just using the wrong word, or using the right word but spelling it wrong :-D

 

So if you have 2 different teams on the same side playing rival teams on the other side, you would a "dual-duel". :duck

 

hoo boy. is it something in the water here?

"duel" has nothing to do with the number 2, zero, zip, zilch, nada. the resemblance to "dual" is...coincidence.

sure, most duels involve 2 parties. they also usually take place in a field -- do we now assert that duel basically means "a field"?

i will confess that i too assumed some shared etymology between "dual" and "duel" back when i started the thread, but we are well past that now. the terms are NOT related, and the sporting use of "dual" is NOT a typo for the other! no way, no how.

it is, rather, some specific aspect of two teams or two sets of teams or pairs of competitors or something like that.

cipher's posts about coed meets ring true to me. unless anyone can prove otherwise, i'm going to accept that he (and his son) have the answer 100% correct.

NEXT!

 

Has everything to do with the number 2

 

i will admit, many dictionaries (M/W included) are a litte confusing on the matter. but etymology is etymology.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=duel

duel (n.) 1590s (from late 13c. in Latin form), from M.L. duellum "combat between two persons," by association with L. duo "two," but originally from L. duellum "war," an Old Latin form of bellum (see bellicose). Retained in poetic and archaic language and apparently given a special meaning in Medieval or Late Latin of "one-on-one combat" on fancied connection with duo "two."


for good measure:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/duel

1. [Middle English duelle, from Medieval Latin duellum, from Latin, war, archaic variant of bellum.]

2. [from Medieval Latin duellum, from Latin, poetical variant of bellum war; associated by folk etymology with Latin duo two]

 

PS: for those that don't know, "folk etymology" is the mass delusion that "crayfish" is a type of fish and "cockroach" is a type of roach:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_etymology#Examples_of_words_modified_by_folk_etymology

it's the same reason duel has gotten "between two parties" tacked onto it in recent centuries....

 

or three.

or four.

or all existing world powers.

as all those LINKS pointed out (you really don't like EVIDENCE, do you?!) the word "duel" is inherently no more related to the number two than is "fight" or "war". over the years it has absorbed such limitation by yokels who flat-out confused it with "dual".

at this point, yes, it seems to be stuck with the "two" attribute. i would normally blame the "dumbing down of america", but in this case, i think it took place in ole blighty.

and "grammatical meaning" is meaningless. the word you want is "semantic", even in the UK.

cheerio

 

Hey you should check this thread out Duelling

Gloozit and myself are a dual of members who are duelling in conversation... because there are 2 of us

:-D Sorry, couldn't help myself.