Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 July 21

Language desk
< July 20	<< Jun | July | Aug >>	July 22 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 21

Couple

Resolved

Can the word "couple" be used to describe people who are not only not married but not cohabiting either, or is there a better term? Debresser (talk) 02:18, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes. It can be used for any pair that are on a date or are "seeing" each other. There's no cohabition requirement. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:27, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

It would be misleading. There is surely a better term, but what it is depends on what you want to say. ("The two of them"?) Looie496 (talk) 02:32, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

"Pair", "duo", "twosome"? BurtAlert (talk) 02:48, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Couple generally means "exclusive sexual partners" or "exclusive potential sexual partners"; (that is they may not plan on boning right now, but the two have decided to stop pursuing other people to bone, and are looking forward to establishing a boning situation in the future). Other pairings of people usually aren't called "couples". Depending on the context, other pairings could be called a "partnership" or "friends" or something like that. --Jayron32 03:03, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Do lesbian couples "bone"? -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 04:56, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Not while you are watching ;-) Actually, from my (limited and decidedly second-hand) understanding of what lesbians do when they do what they do what it is that makes them lesbians, they do all sorts of things, with all sorts of things. Sexuality isn't so much a question of what you do, but of who you choose to do it to/with. AndyTheGrump (talk) 05:05, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

It's not so much that what they do makes them lesbians (or otherwise a whole pile of straight guys in prison could be considered temporarily gay), it's that being lesbians causes them to decide to do whatever it is they do. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 12:10, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

In my world, "couple" is not necessarily related to coupling, a few dates will do it. And I have always liked Gamble Rogers's expression "current pelvic affiliates" for the stage to which the preceding comments refer. Bielle (talk) 06:19, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Ok, it is clear that "couple" do not necessarily mean cohabitation. Thank you all. Debresser (talk) 11:50, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes, and another example would be "all couples please join us on the dance floor". They clearly don't mean to restrict the dance to only those who are married, cohabitating, or exchanging bodily fluids. StuRat (talk) 17:17, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Functionality

I've just realised that the word "functionality" isn't in my 1980 (concise) OED. What did we say before this gobbledigook was invented? I know it is often synonymous with "features", but that doesn't seem to cover it sufficiently. I dislike using the word, but I might have to bow to the inevitable - it is useful in describing software and the like. Thanks in advance, It's been emotional (talk) 12:40, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

There's a whole class of these long words that seem to have no purpose for existing: 'methodology' and 'symptomatology' are two others - what was ever wrong with 'method' and 'symptoms'? -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 12:47, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

A method is different from a methodology. A method is a specific technique to accomplish a specific goal. A methodology is what several related methods may have in common, or a framework from which new methods arise. --Trovatore (talk) 00:51, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Mmm, but people often mis-use them that way:

• "What are you doing?" - I'm writing a COBOL program to destroy the world - "Cool. What's your methodology?". ("Method" would be better there)
• "Doctor, can you please look at my patient Mr Smith, who's in severe distress and is not responding to my treatment" - Of course. What's his symptomatology?. ("What are his symptoms" would be better there, as "symptomatology" is about the general description of a condition and all the symptoms that may typically apply, but not all of which will necessarily apply in a specific case, such as Mr Smith.) -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 21:12, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

The OED has citations of "functionality" from 1871 (in a linguistic sense) and 1879 (mathematical), but nothing more recent, so I guess it hasn't caught up with the present-day use (which I find unobjectionable and useful, FWIW) yet. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:23, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

The present sense of the word relates mainly to software running on graphical user interfaces, which were only in preliminary stages of development in 1980. So the concept didn't really exist at that time, except perhaps in the minds of a very small number of programmers. Marco polo (talk) 14:21, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

To me, "function" suggests a single purpose, use, or feature of a tool, whereas "functionality" suggests a set or continuum of functions, or the quality of having numerous or well-developed functions. "This multitool has more functionality than that one; it has thirty functions while the other has only ten." "I don't need all the functionality of GNU Emacs; I'm content with Nano." —FOo (talk) 06:16, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. However, a more concise form is usually available using "function" alone. In your examples: "This multitool has thirty functions, while the other has only ten." "I don't need all the functions of GNU Emacs; I'm content with Nano." StuRat (talk) 17:11, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Disagreement about formatting of aircraft type designations.

WikiProject Aircraft could use some help. Please take a look at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Aircraft#Apostrophes and italics and help solve the issue. Roger (talk) 14:07, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Shrug

Where did the word 'shrug' (as in ladies small cardigan), come from?--92.28.78.50 (talk) 17:06, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

I had always assumed it was called a "Shrug" because it covers only the sholders and arms, or the parts of your body that you shrug with. That's just a WAG tho... --Jayron32 18:18, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Agreed, and just as guessy, it is something you could easily shrug off. Itsmejudith (talk) 21:43, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

It would be an easy Christmas present for indecisive or non-commital ladies - "What would you like for Christmas?", [shrug]..... ;) --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 22:13, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Maybe a portmanteau of "shawl" and some other word? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:42, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

"Rug" ? StuRat (talk) 17:07, 23 July 2011 (UTC)