Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

Interesting. Presumably there's a connexion with the Old English wer (weregild, werewulf) which meant a rather more general 'man' rather than man -vs- woman, something a bit more like 'human'.

I find a suggestion that 'vir-vim' is connected with 'vis' meaning strength, power (ultra vires), not, according to the OED, connected with English 'vim' which is rather disappointing.

[Flosshilde]

I refer interested readers to a Guardian report on the CIA's style manual -

And in places you can almost hear the power rushing to the authors' heads. In the "Word Watchers List" at the end, there is mention of an elite squad within the directorate – the "redundancy police", whose list of banned phrases evinces an unmistakable love of power. Sure "first began" and "sum total" are best avoided, and "adequate enough" is plainly awful. But surely there are contexts where one would be justified in specifying a "young baby" or allowing the emphasis in "build a new house" when an old one stood there before? "Peevologist" is the name often given to people who enjoy this kind of petty and often faulty fault-finding. (Kingsley Amis preferred "wanker".)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/jul/09/cia-writers-guide-leaked-online

[jean]

triumgynate

Not really, because vir is Latin and gyne is Greek.

[jean]

I find a suggestion that 'vir-vim' is connected with 'vis' meaning strength, power (ultra vires), not, according to the OED, connected with English 'vim' which is rather disappointing.

The OED hesitates. For vim, it has:

Etymology: Commonly regarded as < Latin vim, accusative singular of vīs strength, energy; but the early adverbial use (see quot. 18501) suggests a purely imitative or interjectional origin.

But Lewis and Short does not suggest any connexion between vis (acc. vim) and vir (acc. virum).

Vir does of course give virtus, and we are aware that women are not well supplied with any of that.

[french frank]

The OED hesitates.

Not sure that it hesitates - 'Commonly regarded' doesn't necessarily signify authoritativeness; the 'but' surely suggests scepticism?

However, I can't think of a homo/vir doublet for women so feminae possess no qualities other than femaleness.

[amateur51]

Not really, because vir is Latin and gyne is Greek.

[gurnemanz]

Not really, because vir is Latin and gyne is Greek.

Purists will object but such hybrids do get into the vocabulary in everyday usage, eg "television". Interesting that when television was coming in, the Nazis were in charge in Germany and insisted on a word formed from Germanic word stock: "Fernsehen".

[Roehre]

Purists will object but such hybrids do get into the vocabulary in everyday usage, eg "television". Interesting that when television was coming in, the Nazis were in charge in Germany and insisted on a word formed from Germanic word stock: "Fernsehen".

an analogy from the then widely used "Fernsprecher" for Telephone.
Remarkably the latter is hardly heard in Germany any more nowadays, but "Fernsehen" has stuck.

[jean]

Does anyone remember Paul Jennings's Observer column of the 1960s, Oddly Enough?

There was a lovely one that featured the German telephone operator, the Fernsprechenbeamtin or Far-speaking beaming one, as Jennings translated her.

There seems to be very little of his work online, sadly.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Closer to home, when quadraphonic sound was introduced, it was suggested that tetraphonic or quadrosonic would have been more consistent with Greek and Latin.

[gurnemanz]

an analogy from the then widely used "Fernsprecher" for Telephone.
Remarkably the latter is hardly heard in Germany any more nowadays, but "Fernsehen" has stuck.

"Rundfunk" is still often used for radio or wireless - especially in the names of broadcasters and orchestras.

[teamsaint]

hello pedants.(In a good way, obviously).

A question.

Is it ok to have brackets inside brackets?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

hello pedants.(In a good way, obviously).

A question.

Is it ok to have brackets inside brackets?

It can be confusing {unless you have different types [styles, that is (if that's the right word)]} but I don't think it's inherently wrong.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It can be confusing {unless you have different types [styles, that is (if that's the right word)]} but I don't think it's inherently wrong.

- if it's good enough for Maths ...

[french frank]

- if it's good enough for Maths ...

... it may not be good enough for writing prose (or poetry, for that matter). If pushed, I'd say, 'It's inherently wrong'. :-)