percussive maintenance
- noun
- /pərˈkʌsɪv meɪnˈteɪnəns/
- Informal
:
mantenimiento percutivo
- She gave the printer a dose of percussive maintenance, and surprisingly, it began working again.
Examples
-
Engineers sometimes resort to percussive maintenance when a stubborn machine refuses to start.
-
The old television finally worked after a bit of percussive maintenance from my dad.
-
He tried percussive maintenance on the old radio.
-
Don't underestimate percussive maintenance!
-
Engineers sometimes resort to percussive maintenance when a stubborn machine refuses to start.
-
She gave the printer a dose of percussive maintenance, and surprisingly, it began working again.
-
The old television finally worked after a bit of percussive maintenance from my dad.
How Forceful
Surface Forms
Morphology
percussive + maintenance
The adjective 'percussive' (relating to striking or tapping) combined with 'maintenance' (repair/upkeep) yields a directly derivable meaning: attempting to fix something by hitting or tapping it. Although the term is informal and somewhat humorous jargon, its meaning follows straightforward compositional logic and would be understandable to a learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Percussive maintenance comes from the simple picture of someone hitting a stuck machine, like tapping a radio or printer, to make it work. Percussive means 'to hit' and maintenance means 'care to keep something working', so the phrase means trying to 'fix' a device by hitting or tapping it, often as a joke or last attempt.