Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 March 13

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March 13

Which one is true?

Which one is true?

• to stabilize the grid’s voltage
• to stabilize the grid voltage37.27.73.249 (talk) 03:57, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Either one would work, but the possessive might be more commonly used. You could check power grid and see if that phraseology is used there. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:16, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

By the way, "true" was the wrong word here. The correct word is "correct". StuRat (talk) 04:28, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

That's true. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:37, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

I suspect the OP is referring to a national electricity supply grid, but he/she may mean the control grid of a vacuum tube (radio tube), which is most often simply referred to as "the grid". In this context, it's almost universal to speak of stabilizing the grid voltage, ie. the voltage applied to the grid. This type of grid does not transport electricity to some place where it can be utilized, unlike an electricity grid, so it cannot be thought of as "possessing" a supply of energy for consumption. Akld guy (talk) 07:33, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

What are these adjective pairs called?

'Scary' and 'scared'. 'Stressful' and 'stressed'. 'Exciting and excited'. Etc.

What is the term for these pairs of adjectives? It's not opposites, quite. But I feel there must be a word for it? Amisom (talk) 20:14, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Not sure this is established terminology, but the contrast in meaning is basically active vs. passive (i.e. "causing fright/stress/excitement" vs. "affected by fright/stress/excitement"). The second member of each pair is a passive participle. AnonMoos (talk) 23:01, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Not necessarily. "You scared me" and "You were really scary" are both active constructions. So are "The porn mag excited me" and "I've been having an exciting time in my bedroom". And so on. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:50, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

"Scared" in "You scared me" is a finite verb and not a participial adjective (two completely different things). If the verb is "take", it would be "He took the money and ran" vs. "This seat is taken"... AnonMoos (talk) 02:19, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

Exciting/excited specifically is a pair of active and passive participles -- you can read all of the excruciating details at participle. -165.234.252.11 (talk) 18:51, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

The members of each pair are derived from the same root word, making them part of a word family, if that helps. -165.234.252.11 (talk) 18:23, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

How about reciprocal? That's the term I use for pairs like lend:borrow, compose:comprise ... —Tamfang (talk) 19:18, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

They have nothing in common with the pairs the OP posted. Linguistically speaking, reciprocal is not what you call word pairs. Reciprocality is a trait of a verb some languages express through a particular morpheme. It describes an action that people can "do to each other". Do not misuse terms just because they sound fancy. --188.99.143.117 (talk) 07:09, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Concave base of a glass bottle

A lot of glass drinks bottles have a base which isn't flat, but concave. There's a circular pyramid of glass pointing inwards. What is this called? --129.67.118.22 (talk) 21:14, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

It is called a punt. DuncanHill (talk) 21:17, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

It helps glass bottles to be more effective in making improvised shaped charges. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 02:36, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

lol to the above post—very funny. Bus stop (talk) 21:45, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Poland Spring water in the 3 liter plastic container also has a very concave bottom. Bus stop (talk) 22:12, 16 March 2017 (UTC)