Forum for Coordinates
Choice of language [#4495]
To: RobertPauli
Please consider the general results of looking up 'Bastard'. eg: ![[ext]](images/extlink.gif)
googling. Please think about the wide usage of Sensei's library by a broad mix of people. Some for whom English is a second language, as well as children. For me, a different choice of word or phrase for naming your observation might be a better choice.
The page WikiEtiquette has good guidance relating to appropriate language.
I'm guessing you were aiming for a meaning that was some mix of fiendish difficulty with humour. Perhaps 'abominable' might be a satisfactory replacement?
Some other possibilities, depending on the meaning you are looking for: brutal, dreadful, horrible, egregious, superlative, sufficient, suboptimal.
Thanks, PeterHB
.cough. Non-native speakers (such as http://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Player_Card.php?&key=10386519) often don't share the same sensibilities, thus come up with different terms ;) I have to look up half of your proposed substitutes for children and non-native speakers, while bastard seems perfectly serviceable to me.
A bastard child of different coordinate types (only letters, only numbers etc.) or someone sporting Bastard as a surname invented them.
I'm hoping Robert will just choose to change the word himself, perhaps after speaking to friends of his.
B*****d is part of adult verbal banter, for example in a drinking environment. The intended meaning has to be perceived by the listener based on the tone with which it is said. It is context sensitive. A level of sophistication and emotional control is expected from the listener interpreting the meaning. In banter it is most commonly meant as humour. In the wrong intonation, in the wrong pub, with the wrong person, it is an invitation to a fight.
Children, being less sophisticated, use it more commonly as an offensive insult.
A reference that supports my point of view is TV's most offensive words.
I agree with the result of its survey finding b*****d is polarising. For some fairly middling, equivalent to bitch, for others very strong and offensive.
No idea how to rename a page. Seems I can't do it myself (Page name change requests). Call it scramble, I'd like that too. Thanks.
Thank-you for your consideration Robert. I appreciate it. I've renamed the page to your suggestion of scramble.
( It might seem a bit silly that I didn't just go and rename it myself in the first place. The reason is due to the cooperative nature of the wiki. I have rename and deletion rights, but that in a way means I have to be extra careful not to abuse my position and force my point of view. Its a wiki for everyone, not a place for me to impose my point of view just because I have the computer rights to delete stuff. )
English hybrid is German Bastard (among others). False friend?
hybrid and B*****d have distinctly different meanings in English. hybrid is fine with no layers of extra meaning. I don't speak German and have no intuition of meanings in German. So it is entirely reasonable that B*****d could mean hybrid in German, and be a perfectly commonplace word to German speakers. I don't know.
P.S. I can rename this thread from RobertPauli : Choice of language to just Choice of language if you request it, as it was a little bit poor judgement on my part to put your name up there on it. I only used your name to attract your attention via recent changes.
bugcat: Not to be too boring, but Robert could always name them after himself and call them the Pauli coordinates. Or, for a bit more colour, what about the "Gordius coordinates" after the tangled and untieable Gordius' knot of Greek history?
They are "bastard coordinates" though, in both senses, so it's a decent name as it is and we shouldn't be too sensitive. Can't child-proof the whole Internet, after all.
Correction, the usual English spelling is actually "Gordias".
Yeah, I agree. "Gordian coordinates" sounds pretty cool.
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