Pedants' Paradise

[ahinton]

Probably, though if one takes 'complete' in the sense of 'embracing all the requisite details' you can have further details which are not requisite, allowing for a superabundance. You can complete a task while still leaving more that could be done. There are contexts, albeit not in Logic or Mathematics, which imply that more could be added.

(Com)plere may be to fill up, yet even when the glass is 'full' we allow a little leeway so that our wine does not slop over on to the carpet.

Mightn't your example here be best elaborated by using "complete as far as..."?

[Pabmusic]

If I'd said, "At what was you sniggering at?" would that have helped?

[vinteuil]

Probably, though if one takes 'complete' in the sense of 'embracing all the requisite details' you can have further details which are not requisite, allowing for a superabundance. You can complete a task while still leaving more that could be done. There are contexts, albeit not in Logic or Mathematics, which imply that more could be added.

(Com)plere may be to fill up, yet even when the glass is 'full' we allow a little leeway so that our wine does not slop over on to the carpet.

... and we shd all be conscious of supererogatory acts.

Indeed, in mathematics, what infinity is there which is not addable-to?

[vinteuil]

... even when the glass is 'full' we allow a little leeway so that our wine does not slop over on to the carpet.

... ah, leading to one of my all-time favourite words : ullage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullage

[french frank]

Sounds like a PG Wodehouse character :-)

[Nick Armstrong]

... ah, leading to one of my all-time favourite words : ullage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullage

Oh yes - improbably, a concept intrinsic to the Saturn V space missions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullage_motor

And unrelated, ff, to Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukridge_(short_stories)

[ahinton]

Sounds like a PG Wodehouse character :-)

Should more like the work of a Swedish pianist to me (see http://www.bis.se/index.php?op=people&pID=2496 in which, for some reason, "�" appears in place of "é")

[french frank]

And unrelated, ff, to Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge

Yew-kridge. So is it Yew-llage, too?

[ahinton]

Yew-kridge. So is it Yew-llage, too?

Or maybe even Yew-kip...

Oops, I have transgressed the no politics rule again; sorry!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

From time to time, some people, who should know better, refer to a single kettledrum as a "timpanum". This, presumably, is based upon a very poor understanding of Latin. But it isn't a Latin word at all. It's modern Italian: timpano/timpani.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

From time to time, some people, who should know better, refer to a single kettledrum as a "timpanum". This, presumably, is based upon a very poor understanding of Latin. But it isn't a Latin word at all. It's modern Italian: timpano/timpani.

And no "y" - not in the Italian alphabet!

[Sydney Grew]

According to the O.E.D. there are now in English two separate concepts:

1) tympanum (a singular noun, of which the plural is tympana): a drum or similar instrument; also a stretched membrane (as there is in one's ear if one has an ear); also the recessed face of a pediment. [Derived directly from Latin, and at one remove from Greek tympanon, of which the root is typtein to strike or beat.]

2) timpani (a plural noun, lacking a singular in English; also spelled tympani): the kettledrums. [Derived directly from Italian, but of course from Latin at one remove.]

But why kettledrums plural? Tonic dominant I suppose. Surely, though, orchestras have existed with only one kettledrum?

[french frank]

also the recessed face of a pediment. [Derived directly from Latin, and at one remove from Greek tympanon, of which the root is typtein to strike or beat.]

I wonder why the architectural feature should be derived from a verb meaning to strike or beat?

[Serial_Apologist]

I wonder why the architectural feature should be derived from a verb meaning to strike or beat?

Because it's what frustrated people want to do when faced with an impediment, my twisted logic tells me.

[mercia]

the architectural feature is usually semi-circular in shape, like half a drum ?