From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Sun, 05 Oct 2014 12:52:51 +0100, Jacey Bedford   
    wrote in   
    in   
   rec.arts.sf.composition:   
      
   [...]   
      
   > Yes we use the word points in Britain, perhaps because the   
   > change of position points the train in another direction.   
   > I'm guessing.   
      
   The term seems to be shortened from , a   
   particular kind of switch that was also called a .  It replaced the .  As I understand it   
   (after very limited research online), in a point-switch the   
   two rails of the switch are not parallel, but rather taper   
   together, though they do not actually come to a point;   
   essentially one belongs to one line and the other to the   
   other line at the junction.   
      
   > In both cases the use of the word 'switch' meaning to   
   > change seems like the obvious one to me, however.   
      
   That sense came is first recorded later.   
      
   > A rider's 'switch' has no meaning in British English   
      
   But it did in the past: Shakespeare used it in that sense,   
   which is in fact the earliest recorded sense.  In that sense   
   it seems to be a borrowing of a Flemish or Low German word   
   meaning 'long thin stick, switch'.   
      
   > and I can't see the link between it and railway lines.   
      
   The railway switch is originally just the movable part of   
   the track, each rail of which moves rather like a switch   
   (whip).   
      
   [...]   
      
   Brian   
   --   
   It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their   
   holes to root for sandtatties.  The waves whispered   
   rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,   
   haggisss.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)