Wiktionary:Information desk/2015/June

If an adjective is neither comparative nor superlative, what is it? --Romanophile (talk) 11:33, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

positive. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 19:09, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

felting (a noun)is a word used in the U.K. by the building trade for something to do with roofing, perhaps about tin at the edge of the roofing tiles. Because I couldn't remember exactly i turned to Wiktionary but couldn't find any path. Rameshkkhanna (talk) 16:55, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

• See felting. SemperBlotto (talk) 19:46, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

It has been noted that the term WTF has been added to the Webster's Unabridged dictionary.

Here in Flagstaff Arizona we have bumper stickers with WTF in large letters, and in small letters it says Welcome to Flaagstaff

Submitted this to Wikipedia, twice, second review came back that, "it probably belongs in Wiktionary." Bobmodikiw (talk) 01:38, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

Can you show it to us? —CodeCat 17:22, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

I beleive its properly formatted, entered a new Wiktionary word, food broker Bobmodikiw (talk) 19:31, 7 June 2015 (UTC)

Is the a specific rubric/heading to use in a word entry to list a faux amis -- a warning or advisory that the entry does not mean the same as a specified word that it superficially resembles? Thanks --67.244.30.139 07:51, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

I think that should become clear from the definition that's in the entry. If one term resembles "chair" but means "table" then the entry will say "table" which makes it obvious. —CodeCat 17:24, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

• i just want to translate english to french language --07:51, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

Same thing. There is no specific heading to mark faux amis. See prétendre. —Stephen ^(Talk) 12:44, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

Requesting the contents be modified to not involve tables (there is absolutely no need to use HTML tables for something so basic). See Template_talk:color_panel —suzukaze (t・c) 22:39, 7 June 2015 (UTC)

We are in the midst of considering forbidding HTML tables.

I assume you would keep the template-default logic in the replacement. DCDuring TALK 23:42, 7 June 2015 (UTC)

What is the correct pronunciation? re- PRIZE or re- preeze ?

See reprise, which says /ɹɪˈpɹiːz/ . This means that it is "re- preeze". Not "re- PRAIZ". NativeCat ^{drop by and say Hi!} 02:57, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Look at the IPA pronunciation... "/ˈeiːjɪnˌnapn/". I was making Wikitoslav articles when I realized that the sounds "pn"... How can two sounds go together without an ə in between it? Like /ˈeiːjɪnˌnapən/ ? Can someone please explain this to me? NativeCat ^{drop by and say Hi!} 02:52, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Nasals are sonorants, so they can serve as syllables without a vowel. I'm sure there are lots of people who say happen so that it would rhyme with this (I tend to pronounce it like "hapm" or "ha'm"). It's true that syllabic consonants should, strictly speaking, have a diacritic under them, but that's strictly speaking. Also, there are all kinds of what you would consider strange consonant clusters in all kinds of languages: "gd", "dn", and "gb" are just a few. The last one is mostly restricted to Africa, but the first two are European. Chuck Entz (talk) 03:14, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Also, not all languages follow the same rules of syllable structure as English does. Just because English doesn't allow syllables like /napn/, that doesn't mean Icelandic doesn't. In Icelandic, /napn/ might really be a single syllable, in which case there shouldn't be a syllabic diacritic under the /n/. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 17:43, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

Is there any reason the full Conjugation of أَتَى in الفِعْل المَجْهُول not done?

I do not find any entry named الفِعْل المَجْهُول. I don’t know what you are talking about. —Stephen ^(Talk) 10:45, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Either letting it automatically get the page name or manually entering it lowercase, the Wikipedia template will always link to the uppercase page on the wiki. In the Lojban language capital letters aren't used, so that creates a problem. For example, on the zdotu'a page it will always link to the Lojban Wikipedia page as opposed to the as it should. How exactly could I get a lowercase link to a Wikipedia page?

Brantmeierz (talk) 15:19, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not case sensitive for the first character in the page title, so this shouldn't be a problem. —CodeCat 15:20, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

He is linking to the Lojban Wikipedia, not the English one. It is case-sensitive. SemperBlotto (talk) 15:22, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Could someone give me the link of wiktionary user promotions list? It is a list of user jobs I guess like admins and stewarts. I cannot seem to find the page — This unsigned comment was added by 96.226.225.164 (talk).

Here is a list of user rights:

• bot
• administrator
• bureaucrat
• steward
• account creator
• importer
• transwiki importer
• oversight
• check user
• confirmed user
• IP block exempt
• autopatroller
• Flood flag
• patroller
• rollbacker

Note that most of these are almost never used in Wiktionary. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 22:35, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

See WT:Admin, I think the important ones are covered there. —Stephen ^(Talk) 07:50, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

This definition of the word woot implies that it is a modern word, a corruption or alternative of "w00t", an internet/texting expression. However, the definition then goes on to relate "woth" and "witen" apparently as different forms of the word from Middle English. How do we get from a brand new word meaning one thing to a MIddle English word that means something entirely different, according to the definition of "woth" in the Wiktionary? It seems like a step is missing, or we have two different words. If anyone knows sometng about this relationship, or lack of, I would like to know! Thanks. Peacedance (talk) 15:01, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

I think the confusion here arises from the fact that the page woot contains two entries: one for a modern English exclamation and one for a Middle English verb form meaning "know". As far as I know, these two words are completely unrelated, even though they're spelled the same and are therefore defined on the same page. I hope that clarifies the situation. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 14:54, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Hello All, I am not certain how to edit a page. On the müde page there are two superlative sections and I believe only one is needed. Just thought someone might want to fix that minor detail. Tony 108.23.167.66 00:22, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

The two superlative tables don't look the same though. They have different forms. —CodeCat 01:03, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

They are labelled the same though. Why are there two, and can the headings be distinguished in some way? Are they different dialects? Different standards? Keith the Koala (talk) 21:09, 4 July 2015 (UTC)

There are a lot of forms in the German language where a short -e can be elided. Müdeste and müdste are the same. The form müdeste is much more common, but müdste is allowed. On the German Wiktionary, see de:Flexion:müde. —Stephen ^(Talk) 04:25, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

Is German from the 15th till 17th century considered "German" (= Modern High German), or is Early Modern High German separated from "German", or is it (partly) Middle High German?
Background: Joseph Kehrein's Grammatik der deutschen Sprache des funfzehnten bis siebenzehnten Jahrhunderts. Erster Theil: Laut- und Flexionslehre (Leipzig, 1854; google book: /books?id=bhMJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA151) mentions several "unusual" declinations, and so did in his famous grammar book. Of course, grammar books aren't citations, but most likely some of those old declinations are attestable. For example these are Schottel's plural of Bürger and Haus: Nom. die Bürgere, Gen. derer Bürgerer, Dat. denen Bürgeren, Acc. die Bürgere, Voc. O ihr Bürgere, Abl. von denen Bürgeren; Nom. die Häuser, Gen. derer Häuser, Dat. denen Häuseren, Acc. die Häuser, Voc. o ihr Häuser, Abl. von denen Häuseren. Kehrein also mentions an Albertus who should be (his grammar book is in Latin though (

The answer should be yes, at least now and at least in case of German from the 16th century and later. -eXplodit (talk) 15:39, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

I tried to attest Dotz (cf. the attestable words Dötzchen, I-Dotz, I-Dötzchen), which should literally mean point or dot, related with English dot, but might figuratively mean (little) child. I couldn't attest this meaning, but found something else. A few search results:

• (see also & ): There is one result where "Dotz" means "Tods" (genitive of Tod = the dead); "gestorben des schantlichen Dotz", "es ist nichtz Unsicherers dan die Stund des Dotz"
• - google OCR has: "und in Gottes Lob zu lernen ist des Holtzmeyers des Dotz frölich zu warten einem yeden Menschen Nütz und gut"
• : "Geprediget von dem hochgel. D. J. K., darin geschicklich red in Gottes lob zu lernen ist, des Holzmeiers des Dotz frölich zu warten."

So Dotz (also Dots) should be an (attestable) genitive of the old word Dot meaning Tod.
But: I've never seen a grammar book (not even old ones) which uses a genitive -z - though there's also nichtz, so it's a more general thing...

• Was z instead of nowadays s somewhat regional (like used in Low-German regions, cf. Dutch dood which is also spelled with d), non-standard, rare?
• Was z just used sometimes out of typographical reasons, like when not having a ligature of t and s (*ʦ), one used a ligature of t and z (ꜩ)?

-eXplodit (talk) 15:39, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Just tried to edit a page, but since I was unfamiliar with the format of the page, I decided to make a request to have it added on the article's "Discussion Page." I was informed that it might not be read (because the page might not be monitored) and instructed to visit the "Tea room" or the "Information desk." It looked as if this was the best place for my comment, so I've pasted below what initially made me want to edit the page:

The page is: https://en.wiktionary.orghttps://dictious.com/en/Talk:fire

My comment is (somewhat edited here): I discovered that "fire" means something entirely different in Turkish than it does in English, I wanted to get that information added to this page. I attempted to edit the page for it and add it, but I'm just not familiar with how this page is set up or how to add an entry for Turkish. If it helps legitimize this request to have it added, I have two sources for my information -- WordReference (http://www.wordreference.com/tren/fire) and Tureng (http://tureng.com/search/shrinkage).

Added. —Stephen ^(Talk) 04:58, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

I would like to be able to link directly to the third alternative usage on the page for "prosaic".

The following HTML code would achieve this:

<a name="main-usage"></a> — This unsigned comment was added by 202.124.123.170 (talk).

• I believe that you are supposed to use the {{anchor}} template for that sort of thing. SemperBlotto (talk) 07:05, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

How do I go about adding the template {{main-usage}} to the page "prosaic"?