Friday, April 9, 2010

Windpompe - What's in a Name?












Windmills? - What's In A Name?

Everyone I know has always called these creatures 'Windmills' in English but, that seems to be a misnomer because a 'mill' is something that grinds or pulverizes.

The Afrikaans word 'windpomp' seems more accurate - 'wind pump' - because that's what they do, they pump water from the ground.

Does anyone know the correct English name for these machines? Windpump?

Anyway, I love photographing them and most of these images were captured from a moving car in Namibia and South Africa - hence the sometimes fuzzy foregrounds.


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11 comments:

  1. from wikipedia -
    A windpump is a windmill used for pumping water, either as a source of fresh water from wells, or for draining low-lying areas of land.

    I would probably call them a windmill but growing up around farmland but not on a farm, I have seen many of them and learned that they were pumps.

    Does the one have flowers growing near it? I wasn't sure if that was a bed of flowers.

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  2. I, too, call them 'Windmills' but you're right, they should be called 'Wind Pumps' ... your photographs, as always, are wonderful.

    (P.S. Hope that you had a great Easter out in the sticks !)

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  3. According to google, they are known as "wind powered water pump", bit of a gobfull, I prefer "Windpompe".

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  4. Windmill is the only English name I know but you are right it does not really make sense. They are certainly a lot more attractive that the wind turbines which are popping up all over France for electricity. Diane

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  5. Thanks Friends - I seem to recall a song about the 'Windmills Of My Mind' - can't remember if they were pumping water or grinding away at something ... in my case they're probably generating a lot of hot air ... :)

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  6. Like a circle in a spiral
    Like a wheel within a wheel
    Never ending or beginning
    On an ever-spinning reel
    As the images unwind
    Like the circles that you find
    In the windmills of your mind

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  7. I know them as windmills also. Your comment made me go and look up the song "Windmills of Your Mind" as it has been so long since I've heard it!

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  8. You might like to try this?

    http://afcsoac.blogspot.com/2010/04/it-has-happened-again.html

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  9. I have tagged your blog in this little game.
    blog tag game
    Come out to play if you like.

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  10. Great pictures to be taken from moving car. We always called them windmills, I don't know why. They produce energy from the wind, like the huge area in the desert in southern California, hundreds of windmills that produce energy for so many homes.

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  11. I adore windpumps .... but can only capture them relatively far out of Jhb ... so I haven't done a great job yet ....
    Love your images ... that last one with the reddish flower carpet in the foreground is awesome!!!
    Gena @ Thinking Aloud

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