davetallo wrote:
I was in a (non-cycling) work team meeting yesterday and mindlessly described needing to "soft-pedal" an item I was working on. My cyclist colleague piped in to say "um, Dave, I think you might need to give a Cylist-to-English translation for the rest of the group on what you mean."
I contend the term is known by the general population. Cyclist colleague thinks it's esoteric and exclusive to people who ride bikes. (softly, I guess)
Who's right?
The phrase originally comes from music, you use the "soft pedal" on a piano to lower the volume and mute the tone:
Quote:
The
soft pedal (or
una corda pedal,
Italian for 'one string') is one of the standard
pedals on a
piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a
grand piano this pedal shifts the whole
action (including the keyboard) slightly to the right, so that the hammers which normally strike all three of the
strings for a note strike only two of them. This softens the note and also modifies its tone quality. Tone quality is also affected by forcing the remaining two strings being struck to make contact with a part of the hammer felt which is not often hit (due to the whole action being shifted); this results in a duller sound, as opposed to the bright sound which is usually produced (due to the felt being hardened from regular use)
<snip>
When used as a verb, 'soft-pedal' refers to the toning down, damping, muting or obscuring of a thing; it means to proceed in a less forceful, circumspect or subdued manner.
I was well aware of the term long before I ever heard it used in a cycling context, but then I was already studying music back in grade school...
"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"