User:Andrew massyn/discussion archive 2006

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South African English

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Hey Andrew Massyn. I am an American. I found the South African English words and their etymologies in a book of mine on linguistics and language death. As for standardisation, hmm.. I do not know. You probably know more about the Khoisan languages than I (I certainly wouldn't be surprised much). I perfer, now that I've visited Wikipedia, Khoisan. This encompasses both the Khoi and San peoples. Chimerical 17:23, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

talk page

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Hello Andrew,

Thanks for the VIP alert. Did you mean to hide it in my talk page that way? I think anyone smart enough to check Special:Recentchanges will figure it out soon enough...fortunately only two vandals so far have been even that intelligent. So I think it would be safe to just tack any future alerts onto the end of the talk page, signed. SB is often faster than I am, if he's online. Likewise tawker, Dvorty and others.

I think the best way to address spamming is to blank the entry and rfd it. As long as you tag the entry and put an entry on the Requests for deletion page, it will get taken care of. Some vandals like to remove the rfd tag. Go ahead and let them - initially. As long as an entry is on the requests page, it'll get whacked anyway (if it really is spam.)

Many vandals come here, screw up an entry, check back on it in 5 minutes, then again in a couple hours. If entries are cleaned up the next day, this seems to prevent rounds of revandalism, saves the sysop (me!) the hassle of blocking them, and gives the vandals a false sense of superiority. (They are thereafter watched closer by the anti-vandal bot; subsequent abuses are sometimes autoblocked, sometimes autoreverted.)

So, I'm not worried that a vandal might read your talk page. Apparently they don't, in general. If this one spammer is the exception to the rule, well, there's nothing said here that he couldn't be discovered elsewhere.

--Connel MacKenzie T C 21:10, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Translations

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Hi Andrew! We usually don't include translations of non-English words; these should go in the English entry in order to avoid duplication. Could you perhaps add smeek to the correct English verbs? Thanks! — Vildricianus 20:37, 25 March 2006 (UTC) sure

Aha, a lawyer!

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Greetings, fellow member of the legal profession - thank you for improving my contributions! Is Black's Law Dictionary used in South Africa as well? I'm trying to get hold of the 1910 edition, which is in the public domain and can be posted here en toto. Cheers! bd2412 T 21:53, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Ah, when the private citizen sues the government after hitting a state vehicle, it is still a civil action, but the government is treated like a private party. bd2412 T 20:52, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Pictures

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I see you already have a picture of a cow, you can upload them by going to wikimedia commons [1] and signing up, then clicking the "upload file" link. Then the images will work on any wikimedia project. Wiktionary:Pictures has more detail. Kappa 01:38, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

picture
A cow (sense 1)

The template {{G}} which I think you were using for "Greek" is apparently not what you expected. Is that what you were referring to? - TheDaveRoss 18:38, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Sometimes we all are ;) - TheDaveRoss 18:45, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

beatles

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Yes, sorry :) I reverted myself even before you posted your comment ;-) Kipmaster 17:32, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Wiktionary book

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Copy from Itay's talk page. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Itay/The_Wiktionary_Book

mondigheid, meerderjarigheid

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Hi Andrew,

Mondigheid means that one is able to stand up for oneself in a conversation. The ability to 'talk back' or the ability to make one's opinion heard. Especially if something happens, a wrondoing, an injustice.

Meerderjarigheid means that one is above 18 years old (or whatever the age of legal maturity is in the country of residence). 20 years ago it was 21 here in Belgium.

Polyglot 08:09, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

OK, the above is my interpretation of the word. Since you are a lawyer you'll probably need something more official. I found the following on http://www.nizw.nl/Thesaurus/mondigheid.htm:

(recht op) erkenning als volwassene en tot medezeggenschap bevoegde; het vermogen zelfstandig te beslissen, te handelen en te oordelen

the right to be treated/recognized as an adult and permitted to have a say in matters; the ability to decide, act and judge independently/for one self

I hope this helps Polyglot 08:18, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

172152 41 137

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He's just changing some categories from fun stuff to Wiktionary pools (he didn't create the pools), I don't see what's bad in that. Well, I see that SB is deleting most of the pools, so maybe we can put what's left of them back to "fun stuff" ;-). Btw, you should be admin now, maybe we should talk PaulG about it. Kipmaster 21:53, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

What a great word! Are you certain that hunting pinks is specifically a hunting jacket? I've been looking at some of the quotes on Google Books and the term seems to be used in the general sense of ‘scarlet hunting clothes’ (ie plural). Cheers, Widsith 09:24, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Hi you sent me on quite a mission. As far as I can tell, the colour is hunting pink but the clothes are hunting pinks. Just from watching TV it seems that breeches, riding hats and so forth are not "pink" and that it is just the jacket that is. It seems that the right to use pink comes from Royal perogative - see discussion at the article - it is the right to use royal (scarlet) livery when hunting. I have still not found out why it is called pink. Perhaps we should get HM to become a wiktionarian? She could probably resolve it. Regards Andrew massyn 12:26, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Fantastic! Nice work - that website you found was very useful, I've linked to it from the Etymology. I added a couple of cites and commented out your quotation for now, since it doesn't actually use the phrase ‘hunting pink’. Maybe we should add it to pink - looking in the OED, it seems that pink was used for hunting scarlet before it meant ‘pale red’...v interesting! Widsith 14:00, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

See discussion there. I think we got it wrong. I am not very good at grammer though, perhaps you could give me your thoughts? Regards Andrew massyn 08:42, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

The Kinsey scale shows the possibility for comparative usage (as opposed, for example, to "unique"). On English Wiktionary, though, citations trump speculation, so the comparative exists because it is used. Right? Rod (A. Smith) 14:26, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Category:Etymology stub

Sysopship

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I've just made you a sysop. Congratulations! Enjoy your new responsibilities. If you need any help, contact any of the other sysops at WT:A. Please visit that page and enter your timezone in the table at the top. Thanks. — Paul G 07:28, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Congrats! —Vildricianus 12:32, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks all for your vote of confidence.Andrew massyn


I've thought of entering this but do you need the whole quote? Perhaps I can leave it up to you to decide?

Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in. {Lynden B. Johnson, of J. Edgar Hoover)Andrew massyn 21:50, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Reply

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I'm afraid you might be on your own for this one. I've never heard "pissing out of the tent". I can offer some general advice, though, about where to put it. First, I generally file idioms under the infinitive of the verb: (to) piss out of the tent, unless the infinitive makes no sense or is never used that way. I also try to file things under the most common phrasing, if I possibly can. You might see how many hits you get on Google for a given phrasing, in quotes. In this case, I'm not finding an encouraging number of hits for any phrasing I tried, so you might verify whether it's really idiomatic or simply a quotation before you enter it. --Dvortygirl 03:58, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I think it is too specific for here. So I'll leave it.Andrew massyn 19:38, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

rfvpassed

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I like the comments you are doing for rfv-survivors. Do you think you could make a template {{rfvpassed}} as the counterpart for {{rfvdelete}}? --Connel MacKenzie T C 07:18, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll try. It may take me a while. I am a technical twit. Andrew massyn 07:27, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Why p2

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I'm wondering... why is your talk page here and not at User talk:Andrew massyn? —Vildricianus 07:30, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

As I said, I am a technical ignoramus. I moved it by mistake and couldnt get it back again. Oh dear! :) In fact I created a playpen for myself which Kappa kindly moved somewhere, and the only way I can find it is to go to my watchlist and access it from there. That's why some of us are lawyers and not useful things like engineers and street sweepers. Andrew massyn 07:45, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
Oh my! :-) I'm sure you can move it back now, as an admin (you'll probably get to confirm to delete the old redirect). And you can always put a link to User:Andrew massyn/playpen on your userpage! If you got any more technical questions, please don't hesitate to ask them! —Vildricianus 08:23, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
I did it for you, your talk page is now back where it should be. I hope you don't mind? Cheers. —Vildricianus 21:31, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
Thank you very much.

rfvpassed template

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I'm not really a template expert but I've created Template:rfvpassed and it appear to work. I've also messed around with Category:Survived verification and Wiktionary:Survived verification process (like you, I'm not sure if that page is necessary). Feel free to edit them as you like. Kappa 10:06, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Andrew massyn 11:27, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
No prob. Also, when moving entries to RFD from RFV, I usually just replace {{rfv}} with {{rfvdelete}} instead of having both templates there. --Connel MacKenzie T C 06:32, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
Good to know. I will use it in future. Regards Andrew massyn 19:45, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

eweqweqweqweqw

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Oh yes, please remove it. I do not vandalize, but I just tried to open a page to get the letter ĥ to copy it and use elsewhere. I am most active in http://wiktionary.org and, "of course", a lawyer like you :-D

Ferhengvan 14:53, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

You image has been nominated for speedy deletion on Commons, due to a lack of license attribution. See: Wiktionary:CommonsTicker#2 June for the notification, but respond on Commons, please. --Connel MacKenzie T C 06:42, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I will go to the shoe shop site and ask if we can use it. Andrew massyn 15:56, 3 June 2006 (UTC). I have asked and will get a reply on Monday
Hrmm. Could you take a picture of that style of shoe then? If you encounter any problems, I suggest removing the link from the Wiktionary page. --Connel MacKenzie T C 18:36, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Absolutely. It was the first picture i had tried to download and didn't quite get it right. All the others are mine. Andrew massyn 18:46, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I did not get any response, so I have deleted the pic. Andrew massyn 17:46, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
Much appreciated! --Connel MacKenzie T C 17:49, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I got the approval and have put it at the commons page. Andrew massyn 19:47, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Stamps

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Hi, I hope I am replying in the right place. Never could get these messages right. Anyway, yes, I have been collecting stamps for most of my life. (Mid forties now) At first it was collect everything, but now I have narrowed it down to British Empire up to the death of George 6th in 1952, and Australia (where I was born) up to decimal currency in the 1960's. Denis

E-mail

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Hello Andrew. If that e-mail you put on User talk:Dmol is kind of important to you, remember to remove it after a while, for your own privacy. Wiktionary pages are getting ever higher rankings on the net. Cheers. — Vildricianus 22:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks I will do so. Andrew massyn 03:34, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Policy re verification

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Absolutely, I'll move it over and note the move on WT:BP, good luck in court :) - TheDaveRoss 06:51, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I had him at nightwatchman! SemperBlotto 21:08, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Idioms

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Andrew, You're not alone in doing this, but please note that Category:English idioms is an outdated category. For idioms, please simply add {{idiom}} to the beginning of the idiomatic definition(s) and the term will be correctly filed in Category:Idioms. We do have sub-categories for other languages, but the decision some time ago was that this is the English Wiktionary, so English idioms are, somewhat by default, just idioms. Thanks. --Dvortygirl 03:25, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Right. I'll use that in future. Andrew massyn

Name change

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...just letting you know... cheers! bd2412 T 23:08, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

noted. Ta. Andrew massyn

Something for you. Please comment. — Vildricianus 18:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC) Thanks. I put a comment there. Andrew massyn 18:23, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Great...

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...work, by the way, in patrolling the RFV/RFD lists. Much-needed too. Thanks! Widsith 12:17, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Ta. It gives me a good excuse to remove words that offend me. :) Andrew massyn 12:44, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

RFV result

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Here's a system predating yours: Category:RFV result with Template:rfvResult. Could you merge some stuff or else delete it? Failed RFVs should be in Wiktionary:Requests for verification/archive, right? Cheers. — Vildricianus 16:07, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

I have asked somebody clever to do the merge. (Sounds like survivor doesn't it?) If I use the template rfvResult where do I put it? On the talk page of the article and then save the talk page? Andrew massyn 19:08, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
This needs to move to WT:ID so other people can learn this...maybe even WT:FAQ too.

Hi. Great excitement. We need an entry for Nix capitalised. I tried to put it in, but was redirected to the lower-case word. Would you be able to un-redirect it or give it a separate page? Many Thanks. Andrew massyn 05:29, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Done. For future reference, when you are redirected, there is a small line just below the headword that says, e.g. "Redirected from Nix". If you click on that small link, it adds the "&redirect=no" to the url, so you can edit it just like you would any other normal page. --Connel MacKenzie T C 05:36, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for nothing

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Is there a problem with Flash Gordon articles? Thank you for graciously explaining to me why you continually deleted them, asshole</a>. No wonder most people just go to dictionary.com. Morn 11:11, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

While Andrew might have done a better job explaining the deletion of utter nonsense, the first time around, no explanation is needed for subsequent, abusive nonsense. You might have actually read some of our criteria to see why, maybe, just maybe, your assumptions were wrong. You might have asked the question on any number of talk pages.
But instead, you took a vandal tactic of sockpuppetting. And personal attacks. So, good bye. --Connel MacKenzie T C 11:27, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
"Subsequent, abusive nonsense"? I was TRYING to create legitimate articles, using the format on this site instead of just "blah blah blah"... But in any case, I apologize for the personal attack and whatnot. The only sockpuppeting I did was because this site will not allow blocked users to edit their own talk pages (as on Wikipedia) or even create an account, which is required before you can e-mail an administrator, which is interestingly enough the only way to contact anyone. So it was a catch-22 where I had no choice... Norm 11:31, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Is this about 67.181.63.245? Well I don't know what really happened, but communication may often solve things, rather than blocks and deletions. Sure these things didn't meet any CFI, but they may have been contributed in good faith. Sorry if I'm wrong on this. — Vildricianus 11:55, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Actually what happened is that the entries were made this morning. I deleted without blocking. They were then re-entered. I blocked for an hour. They were then entered a third time. I blocked for a day. it was only then that I received any communication.

Point taken. I shall in future explain the criteria for those who cannot read. Andrew massyn 19:38, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

The thing is that there are people who don't know there are sysops, there is a deletion log, there are CFI etc. They just re-enter their terms when they can't find them back, without knowing they have been deleted. — Vildricianus 19:40, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Came across this one recently – new to me – thought you might want to have a look. (You may wish to add to it – is there a category for S African English?) Widsith 16:09, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah. Its the common name. I'll add the scientific entry and category. Andrew massyn 17:10, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I corrected this entry, to use {{cattag}} instead. If you are going to add categories to an entry, remember to use [[]] not {{}}. The curly-braces force page inclusion, and the category contents are likely to change. --Connel MacKenzie T C 18:22, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi. Please look at the etym. of constabulary and see if I got the Old English right. Many thanks. Andrew massyn 20:14, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Hiya. Er – not sure what your source was, but the word is purely Latin – it didn't enter English till the 1400s, long after Old English had disappeared. Were you going from Webster's? Webster had a very confusing habit of using the term ‘Old English’ to mean ‘old-fashioned English’. Anyway, cheers – Widsith 20:23, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Ta. I was using Websters. I'll be aware of that in future. Andrew massyn 20:26, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

RFV

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Have you already seen WT:BP#Failed RFV? Please comment. — Vildricianus 09:31, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I have been out of CT recently. I have put a comment there. I should be back in action shortly. My ward is doing the Ukoluka and there has been quite a lot going on.

Thanks

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I don't know whether you were thanking me or that anon, but either way, you're welcome; and I say thank you for stopping that vandal. Dankie!, I believe the phrase is in South African (see, now that's close enough to German that I can speak a little of it ;) Beobach972 03:38, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

rfvfailed

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Aren't the discussions supposed to go under WT:RFVA? Orphan talk pages are routinely deleted. --Connel MacKenzie 05:17, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Vlid suggested earlier to put them to Catagory RFVresult via Template frvResult, which is what I have been doing. All the orphan pages are at Catag RFVresult and are intact. Regards. Andrew massyn 05:26, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
Hrm. That doesn't sound right. I'm not the only one that does deletion sweeps like that, on the Talk: namespace...and I'm not sure I'd remember to check there, even on a good day. --Connel MacKenzie 05:31, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
I will add WT:RFVA to the template. Andrew massyn 05:35, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
Three other things:
  1. {{rfvResult}} is only for entries where a sense fails, but the entry is kept.
  2. Use the "text=" parameter when using that template. (See Talk:easy jetter.)
  3. The WT:RFV page does not seem to link that category page, as an archive, anywhere.
--Connel MacKenzie 05:37, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

In that case, there is no template for rfvfailed. Temp|rfvResult seems to work for both sense and the main entry. Is there any point in splitting them? Andrew massyn 05:45, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, yes. Orphan talk pages are routinely deleted. So the discussion archives should only by kept at WT:RFVA. --Connel MacKenzie 06:00, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Archiving WT:RFV

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Hi, can you archive rfv to June. I don’t know how to do it. Also, it should apparently link to WT:RFVA, but I dunno how to do that either, so I'll leave it to clever & competent people - like you. Many thanks Andrew massyn 17:55, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

I archived the May entries stricken since the last archive, but there weren't very many June entries stricken yet. I am uncertain as to the exact the rules for deciding when to strike an entry from WT:RFV. It looks like entries more than a month old can be stricken after a week of no activity, but that means each such entry must be reviewed to see whether it passed RFV. Are you (or anyone else) able to review the remaining entries up to "ho tag" to determine which ones to strike? If so, I'd be happy to archive them. Rod (A. Smith) 00:47, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
The most recent proposal I saw, was to skip the RFD one-week-portion and just delete failed RFVs, after they are one month old. The reason I stopped doing RFV archiving was that the rules seemed to change with each RFD nomination I made. I recommend taking a liberal, inclusionist approach when deciding borderline cases. Otherwise you'll get too much negative feedback and get burnt out. --Connel MacKenzie 17:26, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Yeah. I have taken the consensus into account and am deleting at RFV rather than sending them on to RFD. (Saves a hellova lot of time aswell).

I am trying to verify all but the most offensive words, and makng a judgment call on what I see either on Google or on the page itself. i have asked Rod if he can link the rfvfailed template to WT:RFVA automatically, but perhaps if it is done, your suggestion of sub-pages at WTRFVA is still good, because otherwise that page will become humongous.

July is done. Can you archive or perhaps teach me how? Andrew massyn 19:09, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I've archived July, but if you want to try it yourself sometime, the steps to archive follow:

  1. In one web browser, open the edit page for the new archival month from Wiktionary:Requests for verification/archive.
  2. In another web browser, open the month section to archive from WT:RFV, e.g. http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Wiktionary:Requests_for_verification&action=edit&section=1 .
  3. Cut each stricken or red-linked term from the RFV page to the archive page.
  4. Save the archive page.
  5. If the RFV month section is now empty, remove the month header.
  6. Save the RFV month section.
  7. Add the next month to Wiktionary:Requests for verification/archive.

Rod (A. Smith) 06:14, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi there. No big deal (I hadn't noticed it was RfV). This was requested by Paul G - see User talk:Paul G#phosphorus for our conversation (I also couldn't find it online). I shall keep the red link at phosphorus in case it ever turns up. SemperBlotto 13:46, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I have added the discussion to the talk page, so if it ever comes up, the note is there. Andrew massyn 16:18, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
  • This is a word that has citations at the bottom of the definition. So why are you nominating it for deletion ? 70.48.55.61 01:36, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
Because a fascist, whatever his religion, nationality or allegiance remains a fascist. Andrew massyn

I continued this discussion on the talk page of Islamic Fascist. Ccrrccrr 13:50, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Oops, sorry--found the disucssion on the RFD page. Nevermind. I'm headed there now...Ccrrccrr 13:55, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

lower case L. it fooled my elderly eyes, and my need for new glasses. You are welcomed to correct. Never heard of patriclan, by the way. --Allamakee Democrat 13:51, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah,I hadn't heard of it until yesterday when I was reading the book I quoted in the article. Andrew massyn 13:59, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
Noble (nobilis, I think) and Patrician are distinct words in Roman terms. A Noble was descended from a consul, and only holding a consulate made you noble. Removed "noble" from the Roman def.--Allamakee Democrat 14:19, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I've just restored this entry. In America, this is a common term. I'll find some cites for it. But last I checked, the citations generally go to the "root" form of a term, unless a particular inflection is contested. The primary definitions are supposed to be at the "root" form whenever applicable (such as this entry.) --Connel MacKenzie 21:30, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Hello Andrew, Widsith pointed me to your kind self :

The person to speak to is Andrew, who has a whole system going on. I'm not entirely sure how long he normally leaves it, but it should be at least a month. Widsith 07:54, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

The two words plamph and reekin o' pish have been on RFD for a while now and apear to have passed RFD? can have their RFD status removed yet?

Hi. I have been involved with RFV for a few months now, and haven't really looked critically at RFD for ages. I will look at both words on the weekend and make a decision. The problem is that at rfv alone, there are about 100 words per month to verify and there is also a backlog on both pages. I dont think that there is an admin specifically dealing with RFD at this point.

On another related topic I've noticed that people have put in the dicussion pages of articles whether or not they have passed RFD, RFV etc. Is this something that is standard practice or would it be a good idea to do this anyway?--Williamsayers79 11:35, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I have been asking people to use the talk pages, and to move discussions from the general forums to the talk pages once the topic is talked to death or finalised. Quite often, the same words come up again, particularly if they are contentious and if the history of the discussions are not on the talk pages, it makes it difficult to establish what the consens was relating to the word. Regards. Andrew massyn 02:51, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Napoli (rfv failed)

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I agree your edits to Napoli and Napoli:Talk were correct and appropriate, but did you have the minor edit flag set by mistake, or are we saying that all edits due to an agreed admin procedure are minor? (Excuse me if this has just been discussed somewhere, but I've been away and am catching up.) --Enginear 20:05, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi, no. I just got tired of the system trying to save all edits I made. It did'nt really help though, it saves them anyway, so I will revert my settings. Andrew massyn 20:16, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

En-noun

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For a normal plural (-s) the code is {{en-noun}}. For an irregular plural the code is {{en-noun|...}} where ... means the irregular plural, e.g. {{en-noun|moose}}. Good luck (or veel geluk, as we say in Dutch)!

collective nouns

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At first sight, it was obvious to me that it was vandalism. But I reverted my edits almost immediately. I should have checked before... Sorry. Lmaltier 20:09, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

I was not aware of the discussion in the beer parlour. Well, this shows that some comment is needed in the page. Without a comment, "a superfluity of nuns" may be wrongly considered as anti-religious vandalism or (and it's not better) it might even be used in the real life, with unexpectable reactions... Lmaltier 17:05, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

The original was poorly formatted and said "tim is a googlephile", which is why it got tossed. The latest revision is slightly better, I will clean this one up, but with only 302 google hits and 0 books.google it is a close one. - TheDaveRoss 20:16, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

RfD

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Could you please revisit the rfd for satguru based on the evidence there? Thanks - Taxman 21:37, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I love the cites, but the haggis one does not seem to be really an attestation of use in English...? Widsith 20:19, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

It came from a television programme called Carte Blanche. The presenter was talking to the interviewee in English, who was also speaking English. he lapsed into his home language Afrikaans, but believe me, the term is widely understood in S.A. I will add a third English citation to boilerplate it. Andrew massyn 20:24, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

No, I believe you! I just think that if someone ‘lapses into his home language’ it's no longer a citation demonstrating usage in English. Maybe the cite in question should be dropped down into the Afrikaans section..? Anyway, thanks for looking at it. Widsith 20:29, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Patrol flags

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If you go to your prefs tab, in the 'editing' tab there is a checkbox for "Mark edits I make as patrolled". Would you mind checking that for me? Thanks :) - TheDaveRoss 20:32, 10 September 2006 (UTC) OK. Done that. What does it do? Andrew massyn 21:03, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

It reduces the duplication of effort, for sysops that patrol recent changes. It you turn on the enhancement in WT:PREFS, it becomes a more usable system. --Connel MacKenzie 09:07, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

By the way, I added a thing for your clock towards the bottom of WT:PREFS, so you don't have to do anything beyond checking a couple boxes on that page. --Connel MacKenzie 05:15, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Andrew massyn 18:46, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

The image you added was deleted from commons:. See WT:CT. --Connel MacKenzie 09:05, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

I dont think it was my pic. I have put baboon pics on commons, but that one was just a rather nice one and I used it instead. I'll put one of mine on. Andrew massyn 18:44, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Translations, etc.

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For some weird reason I asked you a question here.

I was also thinking of reviving Wiktionary:Collaboration of the week but simplifying it even further, to a single phase, concentrating on maybe five entries that seem to be pretty well done anyways in terms of definitions, then picking the more active three which are fed directly into Wiktionary:Translations of the week. Are you the one who picks those entries, or do you know how they're currently picked? DAVilla 09:46, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

No, I don't have anything to do with picking the translations. I think Connel is doing them in the absence of Vlidricanus. We should probably speak to him.I think it would be great to revive the collaboration, and agree that it should be simplified. A few points.
  • I think it was my ignorance which made accessing the boxes for COW difficult. In the light thereof, we should probably delete all the COW pages and start again.
  • We should define exactly what we want.In this regard, if we are going to feed into TOW, then we need.
quotes.
etymologies
pronunciations
pictures, animations etc.
amplified definitions (if necessary).
synonyms
antonyms
links (both internal and external).
  • I also think that we should concentrate on perhaps three words max. at a time, just because five or more is too daunting.

Let's start it up again after having spoken to Connel re linking it to TOW. I think you should put in the first entry in the tea room, and perhaps a new or renamed COW page. I will then follow up and see if I can whip up any enthusiasm. Fingers crossed. Andrew massyn 18:02, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

--Connel MacKenzie 19:43, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

  • OED - (Obs) A kind of courier: see quot.

14.. Direct. Travellers in Eng. Stud. VIII. 278 Who-so woll ride faste and with-oute hevy cariage, good were to fynde atte Brigges suche a scarceler as bereth marchauntes lettres; which will fayne ride with men for fyndyng of hym and his hors, wtoute eny other wages.

This has been on Rfv for a while. Any idea whether it is an actual word, or just an oddity? Andrew massyn 07:51, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of it. If that's the only quote on the OED, it may be a nonce word. I'll check it tomorrow at work (where I have access to the OED). Widsith 08:20, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I can't figure this out (could make a wild guess). [2] has most types of error, but not this one. SemperBlotto 15:45, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

It is a WP vandal

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An impostor of legitimate WP sysop Konstable. He added the stuff to a number of user pages and I rolled them back. Dealing with it. Robert Ullmann 09:53, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Old English synonymous with Anglo-Saxon

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On the listen entry, you modified the etymology to say:

{{AS.}} [[hlysnan]] through {{OE.}}

which produces:

{{AS.}} hlysnan through {{OE.}}

Because "Anglo-Saxon" is a synonym of "Old English". This is why the ISO code for Old English is ang. --EncycloPetey 22:59, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Oh! I guess I have been wrong all my life. I always thought Anglo-Saxon was Anglish and Saxon and Old English was Anglish, Saxon, Jutish and Norman. Change it back if you like. I have no objections. Andrew massyn 20:29, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
It's not a question of right or wrong, but one of changing definitions on the part of the linguists. Germanic (and Romance) languages are the most heavily studied by European linguists, so those languages end up with more terms and shades of meaning than others. If your ever need to give yourself a headache, try piecing apart the Dutch/Flemish/Netherlandic/Diets/Old Low Franconian mess of terminology. --EncycloPetey 01:29, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Pyridinoline

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I think I have a partial answer. Check out [3]. --HappyCamper 17:41, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Afrikaans help

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Hello, I keep forgetting that you know Afrikaans or I would have asked for this help a long time ago. Would you please add the Afrikaans translations to Appendix:Units of time? Thanks, --EncycloPetey 02:52, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Done. Andrew massyn 17:49, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, but I noticed that the link for "minute" was given as [[minuute|minuut]]. I assume the spelling was supposed to be minuut (as in Dutch) for the link and made that change. If this is incorrect, it will need to be fixed. --EncycloPetey 19:17, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Def =a very keen Amway person. portmanteau of Amway and robot.

I don't think so. It is too specific to a company and large though Amway is, I think this differs from microserf or macjob which can be universally understood. Rfvfailed. PS if you feel really aggrieved, talk to me. Andrew massyn 17:58, 4 December 2006 (UTC)Andrew massyn 17:53, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Huh? Where do these arbitrary merits that you're raising in objection to this cited word originate? This should be RFV passed and then RFD'd if you think it doesn't deserve inclusion. DAVilla 07:42, 5 December 2006 (UTC)