Why do some call it a truck but others say pickup ?

There, I said it. We've all been thinking it, but I just said it out loud. Why does half of America call this particular vehicle a "Truck" yet the other half of America calls it a "pickup" ? I have lived in six states and stationed in at least 12 more (Army Orders) and it is truly split down the middle. Why ? (Disclosure; it seems rural/farmers & ranchers cousins tend to say "pickup" while my Urban cousins always say "Truck"). And on my current Texas title, it states "pickup truck". So which is it ?

 

‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet’ –
William Shakespeare

 

It's a pickup truck, people just aren't unified on which half they want to use to shorten it.

 

Truck and pickup are interchangeable but a lot of people (myself included) call body-on-frame SUVs trucks too. So the "pickup" descriptor denotes a bed. Tundra and Sequoia and basically the same truck, one is a pickup, the other is an SUV.

The term "pickup truck" implies there are other kinds of trucks such as tractor trailers, military trucks, SUVs.

 

I call it a Tacoma ..

 

Your title has it accurately, everything else is simply a short version. Just like cellular phone, gets shortened to cell or phone.

 

Because there's different dialects and colloquialisms across the US? Soda, pop, or coke is the same thing. It's irrelevant.

 

You call your dad, soda or coke?

 

Pops, papa, dad, or father. What's your point?

 

Soda, Coke, Pop, Soda Pop.....

 

Because this is a truck:



I still call my Tacoma a truck though.

 

Soda - carbonated sugar drink
Coke - cocacola
Pop - is what weirdos and old people say

 

And midwesterners.

 

I always laugh when people call SUVs trucks.

 

I think it's like the hood/bonnet debate. Just goes to show just how varied this country is.

Personally, in my house (with four trucks of various sizes and capabilities) I refer to my Tacoma as the Taco. My early '90's T100 generally gets referred to as the pick-up, since it's got a full-size bed and generally gets tasked the most with being used for pick-up truck-type stuff (at this point it can probably drive it's self to Home Depot it goes there so often LOL!)

 

I remember in 1975 going with my Dad to pick up his new Van which body on frame, everyone called it a truck.

 

I mean it depends, the 4Runner is still body on frame so the argument can be made.

 

Let's think back.

There were Cattle trucks, Grain trucks, and pickup trucks. Back then.

Pickup...---Truck----

Well, if there are no other trucks in your life. a pickup is a truck.

But when I talk to the dog, It's "load up in the TRUCK! And over the tailgate he goes. The dog never loads up in the grain truck. But it would with the command "Load up".

 

Guys, really? Look at the etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary is your friend.

And we can blame Roaring ‘20s dorks in Ohio until someone someone finds an earlier usage; Historically it’s the Germans that are good at this, but with OCR and machine learning, it’ll be some bot that offers the next update.

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons:pick v.1, up adv.1
Etymology: < pick v.1 + up adv.1, after to pick up at pick v.1Phrasal verbs 1.
A. n (noun)
III. That which picks up something or someone
21. Originally U.S. A pickup truck.
1929 Athens (Ohio) Messenger 9 Jan. 13/4 (advt.) Ford 1925 roadster $50. Two Fords 1926 pickups $125 and $50.
1973 A. Ross Dunfermline Affair 45 He must be going out in the pick-up.
1994 G. Paulsen Winterdance ii. 55 My wife and I had driven up to Canada in an old borrowed pickup with a camper shell.
2006 Oxford American Spring 36/3 I stopped by a dealership..and happened to get caught by a salesman wandering the rows of baby pickups.

 

I go with Truckoma