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Explanation: Oddly enough, we've had something similar to this recently in EN > FR.
Now, I think they are actually talking about the sort of 'pillars' of cable trunking that are sued a lot in open-plan offices etc., which bring computer network and power connections to ground level from their runs above the false ceiling. Like this: http://img-europe.electrocomponents.com/largeimages/C121006-...
Of course, they might not be actual trunking, but just cables dangling out of the roof!
I do not know for sure if these are called 'drops' in IT, but it seems a logical translation of 'descente'; I have seen 'drop' used to refer to the abstract concept of a 'network connection point', but I suspect it originates from the physical connection, which very often comes down from the ceiling. Certainly, in other electrical work, we use 'drop' to refer to the cable coming down from the ceiling to a light fitting, for example.
Either way, this seems to be the most logical thing to be moving if you're changing the layout of a space.
To add credence to my comment to Tony's answer (and in case anyone wants to verify the lead); this meaning of the word is all but gone from the modern German (or perhaps it was a homonym). Russian, however, has many fossils of European origin. I witnessed the use of "Schleif" in Russian when I was young; I heard it said a few times by the old guys and by the military, and saw it in the books, but then it dwindled, but not without a trace. The letter "Ш" (the first letter of the Russian transliteration of "Schleif") is still commonly used to label connectors on wiring diagrams (although no one knows why). It was once used to describe antenna feeders, then spread to cover any descending wire bundles, then any wire harness regardless of its manner or shape.
But the original meaning seems to have been "something that drops or trails in the shape of a lady's gown":
Schleif, m. (an eintem Rock) the Train of a Gown, f. Schweif, Schleppe
["Vollständiges enlisch-deutsches Wörterbuch", Nathan Bailey, Anton Ernst Klausing, Theodor Arnold]
Explanation: Oddly enough, we've had something similar to this recently in EN > FR.
Now, I think they are actually talking about the sort of 'pillars' of cable trunking that are sued a lot in open-plan offices etc., which bring computer network and power connections to ground level from their runs above the false ceiling. Like this: http://img-europe.electrocomponents.com/largeimages/C121006-...
Of course, they might not be actual trunking, but just cables dangling out of the roof!
I do not know for sure if these are called 'drops' in IT, but it seems a logical translation of 'descente'; I have seen 'drop' used to refer to the abstract concept of a 'network connection point', but I suspect it originates from the physical connection, which very often comes down from the ceiling. Certainly, in other electrical work, we use 'drop' to refer to the cable coming down from the ceiling to a light fitting, for example.
Either way, this seems to be the most logical thing to be moving if you're changing the layout of a space.
Tony M France Local time: 07:57 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 75
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