Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 July 23

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July 23

–age

Does the French suffix –age, as in language and marriage and outrage, have a Latin form, or is it of later coinage? —Tamfang (talk) 00:35, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

See wikt:-age#Etymology_3 (and wikt:langage and wikt:mariage for spelling).

—Wavelength (talk) 00:45, 23 July 2016 (UTC) and 00:50, 23 July 2016 (UTC) and 01:00, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

Why shouldn't I use English words to illustrate a French morpheme? —Tamfang (talk) 05:45, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

-aticus, (-aticum/-atica) as in French fromage "cheese" < Latin, formaticum "formed" http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fromage μηδείς (talk) 03:26, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

Frottage is a good word. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 09:30, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

What's that, @JackofOz:? Like a cheese & coffee milkshake? μηδείς (talk) 00:16, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Sounds ghastly. Your taste, as always, is in unmentionable places.  :) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 01:04, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. —Tamfang (talk) 05:45, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Advance Australia Fair

How should the title of the Australian national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", be parsed?

1. Is "fair" a post-modifier, or is it a noun?
2. Is the title as a whole supposed to be understood as:

• Advance[,] Australia fair
• Advance_{(transitive verb)} (Australia fair)_(object)
• [May] (Australia fair) advance

or should it be understood some other way? --72.78.149.18 (talk) 16:19, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

1. It's an adjective, not a noun.

2. In the antepenultimate line of each verse, at least ("In history's page, let every stage / Advance Australia Fair", "With courage let us all combine / To Advance Australia Fair"), it seems to be transitive verb + object.

— Deor (talk) 19:11, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

I would have thought your third meaning for the title, except as a direct second-person imperative rather than your third-person imperative. The third-person imperative subjunctive seems like it might be a little more available if the "advance" came after rather than before "Australia fair". --Trovatore (talk) 19:50, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

• "Anecdote alert" alert. I first learned "Advance Australia Fair" as a kid growing up in Canberra. I wasn't sure what some of the words meant, but - going by the context of "We've golden soil and wealth for toil" - I was sure that "Our home is girt by sea" referred to "girt", a uniquely Australian kind of soil, which was obviously comprised of a mixture of grit and dirt.--Shirt58 (talk) 10:05, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Awesome story, thanks! I'm sure I was already grown when I first figured out how to parse whose broad stripes and bright stars/thro' the perilous fight/o'er the ramparts we watched/were so gallantly streaming. Specifically, I always thought we were watching the stripes and stars rather than the ramparts, and then the last line seems to kind of hang there. But that's not as much fun as yours. --Trovatore (talk) 20:20, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

I had similar difficulties with O Canada, specifically the line about (old wording) true patriot love in all thy sons command. Is the love in the command of the sons, and we have a missing apostrophe? No, turns out that Canada is being instructed to command love in her sons. That's not confusing at all. --Trovatore (talk) 22:01, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Is appearance of white hair in early age belongs to psychological troubles?

[Question moved to Science Desk. Tevildo (talk) 23:05, 23 July 2016 (UTC)]