"Ton" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> A chimney and a smokestack is the same word in Dutch, schoorsteen, so why does
> English need two words for it?

To be specific.
Imagine being in a workshop and saying, "Hand me that tool...."


The first link I found with a reasonable sounding explanation / differentiation.
https://www.proz.com/kudoz/English/tech_engineering/225483-chimney_vs_stack.html

Another site mentioned that chimneys are small and/or residential, whereas
stacks are the gigantic industrial-sized things that look like round brick
skyscrapers.

When I was installing furnaces (wood, gas, oil), there was the stove pipe, which
was a single-walled tube that led to the actual chimney pipe - a double-walled
insulated pipe that kept the heat away from the structure as it passed out the
wall and up the outside, or through the floor/ceiling/roof depending on how it
was installed.   I suppose that could then end up at the "stack" if there was an
old brick structure for that purpose. (It's New England)

Speaking of which:
I had occasion to look up the etymology of "Yankee" - and it's origins are
attributed to Dutch settlers.  Perhaps more commentary on that could be taken up
in the O.T. section.

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