From: G&P
Message: 62466
Date: 2009-01-12
>Why English 'blow' has the meaning 'explode' beside 'the motion of the air'?
I remember as a child being puzzled by that use of “blow” where I expected “blow up”. I suppose it’s possible “blow” is simply a shortening.
In this context, I cannot resist telling you of a Japanese manual that warned me not to put batteries in the fire, or they might blow off. (For non-native speakers, that has an entirely different meaning, connected with flatulence.)
Peter