Surveying, like any profession, has its special terms and slang. Some are just humorous, some help distinguish similar sounds (e.g. eleven and seven), and some are just plain strange!
- Balls – Slang for numeric .00, as in 4-balls (4.00)
- Beep – Verb. To use a magnetic detector to look for iron pipe, etc.
- Boot – To raise the levels rod some number of inches so as to be visible to the instrument man, e.g. “Boot 6!” means “raise it 6 inches.”
- Blue topping – In road or grading work the surveyor sets stakes and paints their tops blue to represent the required elevation. Graders then work to just cover the blue tops of the stakes.
- Bug – To use a magnetic locator to search for an iron pipe.
- Bullseye – Zero degrees of inclination.
- Burn – See shoot
- Burn one – Measure from the one foot mark on the tape rather than from the end of the tape in order to increase the accuracy of the measurement.
- Cut line – To clear vegetation for a line of sight between two survey control points.
- Double nickel – Slang for .55, as in 6-double nickel (6.55)
- Dummy or dummy-end – The base or zero end of a tape or chain, as in “hold dummy at the face of the curb.”
- EDM – Electromagnetic Distance Measurement device, the instrument used by modern surveyors that replaces the use of measurement chains. It determines distance by measuring the time it takes for laser light to reflect off a prism on top of a rod at the target location.
- Ginney – A wooden dowel 6-9 inches in length with a sharpened end. Set in the ground to mark survey points.
- Glass – The EDM prism.
- Gun – Originally, a transit, but potentially any measurement instrument in use, e.g. theodolite, EDM, or Total Station.
- Hours – Degrees
- Hub and Tack – A 2″ by 2″ stake that is set in the ground and that contains a nail (“tack”) that precisely marks the point being set.
- Jigger – Transit (Australia and New Zealand)
- Legs – Tripod
- Pogo – Prism pole
- Punk – See railroad.
- Railroad – Slang for eleven, as in 42-railroad (42.11)
- Rodman – The person holding the rod with the EDM prism. This person is the modern version of a chain carrier or chain man.
- Shoot – Measure distance with an EDM
- Spike – Usually a 60 penny nail used to mark survey points in hard ground.
- Tie – To locate something with the transit or other measuring device.
- Top – Slang for eleven. See railroad.
- Trip – Slang for triple digits, as in trip5 means 555, and 43trip7 means 43.777
- Turn – The rodman is told to stay in place while the gun or level is moved to a new location.
- Zero – Zero degrees, minutes, and seconds. A perfect zero.