Originally posted by kris_smith87:[..]Again, I've heard it referred to as an ATM machine on television before, specifically a news cast I was watching one night.
For example, a news report comes on and it says ''An ATM was set on fire today at so-so location''. People are going to wonder ''What the hell is an ATM?'', whereas adding the machine suffix, it sort of gives them an idea of what is, such as ''Oh, of course! The cash dispensing machine''.
They don't say cash-dispensing machine; I've never heard it referred to like that at least. It gives the viewer / listener an idea of being able to get what the reporter means without having to try and remember what an ATM is. They use them all the time, but it may not occur to them that quickly in the time of the report when it's being done in real-time.
Wikipedia has an interesting piece on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome