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Thread ID: 62626 2005-10-14 04:27:00 An English question Renmoo (66) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
395995 2005-10-15 01:21:00 Now, following on from Graham, and being mischievously confusing, the physics of contact stresses, such as you would get when a steel ball is pressed against a flat steel plate was initially derived by Hertz, clever bloke that.

In all the literature you will find mention of Hertzian stresses, but of course such literature is written generally by literate scientists.

For those interested, Hertzian stresses are important to consider when making corrections to measurements that exert contact pressures, such as when a micrometer is used.

Now 'micrometer' has to be distinguished from 'micro-metre'. The former is a measuring instrument, the latter is one millionth of a metre, different pronunciation.

Which brings us to the most mispronounced word of all...kilometre, pronounced kilo-metre :)

It is not pronounced ki-lometer no matter how many times you hear it said that way. 		Terry Porritt (14)
395996 2005-10-15 01:49:00 Does "Megameter" make sense, then?

Cheers :) 		Renmoo (66)
395997 2005-10-15 01:55:00 Does "Megameter" make sense, then?

Cheers :)

Of course. That's just a very big measuring instrument. (But you should use "m" rather than "M".)

Terry's Hertzian stresses are not units, therefore you still give the clever gentleman the courtesy of a capital letter to his name. 		Graham L (2)
395998 2005-10-15 03:13:00 Greetings PF1, I am wondering should I put a capital "D" for the word "draconian" whenever it is being used as an adjective even though it is not at the beginning of a sentence? I always thought that it is compulsory to put a capital "D", but after reading yesterday NZ Herald's World section, in which a sentenced claimed "In many US states, draconian laws stipulate that being present at the scene of a murder can be equivalent to being guilty of the murder", this had made me re-think. Have I got a point here? Or is this word a flexible-typed?

Cheers :)

I must be of the old school. Since when did adjectives get capitised. :confused: 		mikebartnz (21)
395999 2005-10-15 03:19:00 As a colloquial expression James, it requires the hyphen .

Note that it is called a hyphen, not a dash . Looks the same, same key, different purpose .

Cheers

Billy 8-{)

Sorry James, that was a bit cryptic .

A dash marks a break in sense

A hyphen joins words together or divides a word into parts, eg re-enter


Not too sure of NZ English classes, but here in the US, it's customary to assume a hyphen is surrounded by two words without a space between . . . like this : "self-portrait . "

However, a dash is used correctly with spaces between the words and the dash, to connote a break in thought or manner of expression, perhaps even to note sarcasm or hyperbole as such: "and so basically - ethically the president was indicted on charges of treason . "


Just a note . . . . . . . . . . . :nerd: 		SurferJoe46 (51)
396000 2005-10-15 05:16:00 Billy, as Met the Man put it:
"My dictionary is better then your dictionary . . . . . Meh . "

So here is more:

http://dictionary . cambridge . org
draconian Show phonetics
adjective FORMAL
describes laws, government actions, etc . which are unreasonably severe; going beyond what is right or necessary:
draconian laws/methods
He criticized the draconian measures taken by the police in controlling the demonstrators .


http://www . britannica . com/
Disagrees with critics in New Jersey who claim that the proposal is overly radical and draconian and would gut the state budget .


http://www . m-w . com/ (Mirriam-Webster)
Function: adjective
Usage: often capitalized << Note they say OFTEN . Other dictionaries do not state this . >>
Etymology: Latin Dracon-, Draco, from Greek DrakOn Draco (Athenian lawgiver)
1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of Draco or the severe code of laws held to have been framed by him 		Strommer (42)
396001 2005-10-16 00:23:00 Typographically, a "dash" and a "hyphen" are different. A hyphen is one "en" wide; a dash is an "em" wide. (That is, they have the same body width as an "n" and a "m", respectively.) That, like many other things has suffered from the introduction of computer "desktop publishing". (I often use "--" as the nearest I can get to an em dash.)

From the range of letter widths used in proprtionally spaced fonts, the computer experts decided that at first, three, and later seven different widths were enough. And it made their software easier. All round the world people whose surname was "Burns" became the butt of rude jests when their companies produced internal phone directories. 		Graham L (2)
396002 2005-10-16 01:02:00 I must be of the old school. Since when did adjectives get capitised. :confused:

Ok, I'll play the pedant then. Proper adjectives formed from proper nouns take a capital.

eg "I enjoy French food." "The Venetian merchant is waiting for his ship to come home".

But, common usage 'degrades' the proper noun, eg. "I hate french fries". Or, 'venetian blinds'.

However no one is going to argue with French fries.

So it is with Draconian or draconian. Common usage has changed it to draconian, and the word is no longer associated with Draco. A good dictionary will say either usage is ok. Online dictionaries are generally brief and don't go into much detail. 		Terry Porritt (14)
396003 2005-10-16 01:04:00 Hi Graham, et al.
Word 2003 readily accepts em and ens......

When you type a space and one or two hyphens between text, Microsoft Word automatically inserts an en dash ( – ). If you type two hyphens and do not include a space before the hyphens, then an em dash (— ) is created. 		Scouse (83)
396004 2005-10-16 01:06:00 You will notice that newspapers have abolished capitals in many terms. Dog breed names are an example. Now, it's "english setter", or "dalmatian". I don't know if they have a reason for this. Graham L (2)
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