Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 July 29

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July 29

"Al mismo tiempo, resolvía las solicitudes de nuevas autorizaciones de tebeos."

Cross-posting a question I posed at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities about a sentence in es:Justo Pérez de Urbel. Yes, I understand it literally, but I can't make much sense of it in context (in what sense did he resolve/satisfy the demands?). Please make any replies at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities#Justo Pérez de Urbel rather than here. Thanks in advance. - Jmabel | Talk 05:38, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

It seems he took care of requests for new authorizations of pedagogical religious comic books. I have asked at Spanish wikipedia to make sure I understand what the mean by tebeos in this context. μηδείς (talk) 07:01, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

It seems Jmabel is quite fluent in Spanish and has got his answer at the Spanish wikipedia. μηδείς (talk) 00:23, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

Opening ceremonies?

I've noticed, in the internet criticism of NBC's coverage of the Olympics, that a fair number of Americans refer to the Olympics "opening ceremonies". As far as I know, there was one opening ceremony. Is there a particular reason for this preponderance of pluralisation? 87.112.129.180 (talk) 22:30, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

It's similar to "festivities" when used to refer to only one event. The OED gives for "festivity" the following (definition 2):

A festive celebration, an occasion of feasting or rejoicing. In pl. Festive proceedings.

The part that begins with "in pl." is key here, apparently indicating the various individual facets of the event which may be considered "festive", together being "festivities". The same applies to "ceremony" and "ceremonies", at least in this usage, though it is interesting to note that "ceremony" (in singular only) may also refer collectively to formal observances and customs (e.g. without much ceremony, informally and perhaps lacking an aspect of grandeur or opulence which would otherwise be expected). Here, "ceremonies" are the individual, ceremonious facets of one event which may also be referred to as a "ceremony" in and of itself.  dalahäst ^{(let's talk!)} 00:10, 30 July 2012 (UTC)

I've wondered the same thing about the Papal States. There was only one, as far as I know, but in English this apparently is always plural. Why? Michael Hardy (talk) 13:18, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Because actually the Papal States were many dozens of small and historically separate entities loosely conglomerated, not all of them even contiguous; some of them were only nominally ruled by the Papacy and de facto autonomous. Read the article (but have a good map of medieval Italy handy). --Orange Mike | Talk 13:37, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Egyptian and French

Is there any connection between the Egyptian sky/night goddess Nut (also spelled Nuit) and nuit, the French word for night? --108.206.7.65 (talk) 22:47, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

No, the French 'nuit' is related to Italian 'notte' English 'night' and Latin 'noct-' etc., clearly of Indo-European origin. The Egyptian godess gets her name from the Egyptian word for 'sky'. The correspondence in spelling is merely a coincidence. - Lindert (talk) 23:27, 29 July 2012 (UTC)