Do we have a word for this in English? The mayor and a couple of other people come along and dig a symbolic first spadeful of earth on a building site – no matter, as I realize now, if work has been going on for a couple of months and huge holes have been dug and filled in again. It symbolizes the beginning of work on a building (this is a multi-storey car park).
Collins says ‘to turn the first sod’. I’m not quite convinced.
Anyway, this is distracting me from my work:
Unfortunately I missed the actual digging (see picture in Fürther Nachrichten).
Margaret
My “Wörterbuch Auslandsbau” gives “ground-breaking ceremony”. Don’t know how authentic that might be-am not an expert on building procedures.
Regards
Paul
Thanks, Paul. That definitely sounds better than turning the first sod.
In the U.S., “breaking ground” is correct. No matter that some work has already been done.
Patrick
The first term that came to this Canadian’s mind was “sod turning ceremony.” A search (with quotes) turns up some 2000+ hits. Of the top 10 (first page), 5 are ca, 4 are za and 1 is au. Of the next 10, 7 are ca, one each is za and au, and one is from Granada. So this term is apparently more common in other English-speaking countries than it is US and Britain. Hits for “ground breaking ceremony,” however are much more numerous, and interestingly, the sponsored link for the latter search is a site offering “groundbreaking [sic] ceremony shovels, awards, plaques, hard hats and more.”
@Margaret: Thanks very much for the searching. That’s very helpful. I think groundbreaking ceremony may be American, and I know Collins will have got ‘sod turning ceremony’ from somewhere authentic, so why does it sound odd to me? It’s partly the problem with the word ‘sod’, which is such a common mild insult. But I wonder how often these ceremonies are held in Britain. I think there have been three here in fürth quite recently. Will have to keep an eye on the English-language press! They have taken the shovels away now, but now you mention it, maybe they did have something photogenic about them.
I’ve seen quite a few mentions of “turning the first spade of soil/earth” – it’s also what I tend to use.
Ah – new one on me – so you say it’s four sods turning a spade?