- There was a time when all that was required to use the office copier, printer or fax machine was the ability to fish out paper jams and a knack for percussive maintenance—known in layman's terms as a good hard thump.
Percussive maintenance
noun; compounding
The fine art and technique of whacking an electronic device to make it work or keep it working Percussive maintenance is a fabulous euphemism for how many people try to fix their electronics. The term itself seems a bit oxymoronic. Nearly everybody has tried to fix a device by tapping, hitting, or whacking it. What’s great about this term is that it can be used quite universally through all of the speech communities.
Etymology : From Middle English, from Latin percussion, percussio, percussus, from percutere “to beat, to percuss, to strike hard,” from per- “thoroughly” + quatere “to shake, to strike” + from Middle English maintenaunce, from Middle French maintenance, from Old French maintenir “to maintain,” from Medieval Latin manutenEre, from Latin manu tenEre “to hold in the hand,” from man, manus “hand” + tenre “to hold”
Source : Sydney Morning Herald
Last modified: 10 June 2008