Hacker News Reader

Comment by copperx | Hacker News Reader

As an English as a second language speaker, this is the first time in years that a sentence has stumped me. Is this a common construction?

Thanks to a dictionary I now know that "to see off" means "to fend off".

View on HN

As a native speaker of American English, I can assure you that "to see off" does not mean "to fend off"; I had no trouble understanding what the title meant, but I assumed it was an error.

A sidethread comment suggests this is a Britishism.

It's a British idiom rather than a general English construct.

It's definitely not common in America, where it's more commonly used in, e.g., a parting of ways with a close friend or relation for a journey ("see Johhny off [to the airport for college]").

That's the sense I understood this in. That the fish doesn't defeat the piranhas or "fight them off", but it can ignore them until they give up because of the armor, and then bid them goodbye.

By ”general English” I assume you are meaning American English?

"general English" reasonably applies to the common subset of the language.

I wouldn’t consider it common in the sense that it’s used often in every day conversation, but it’s definitely a construction I’ve heard enough to understand without thinking about it, if that makes sense.

It would be easier to read as " To see off piranha, this fish has strong armour" or "this fish has strong armour, in order to see off Piranha"

As a data point, the term seems to be in use in the UK, as I came across it now and again while there.

It's not in common use in Australia though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com