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Re: The really dumb thing about the planetary classification conference

Subject: Re: The really dumb thing about the planetary classification conference
From: Harlan Messinger
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 23:17:48 -0400
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Ekkehard Dengler wrote:
"Harlan Messinger" <hmessinger.removethis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4lgn7aF1qpokU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A proposal before the IAU conference that ended a few days ago was to
categorize Pluto, Charon, and a couple of other bodies as "plutons".
Never mind the fact that they rejected it given that "pluton" turned out
already to be a geological term: How was this idea sustainable for any
period of time given the (presumable) participation of astronomers who
speak languages in which "Pluton" is already the name for Pluto?

I should have mentioned that these are more than just one or two. Referring to the page Yusuf provided: French, Spanish (ignoring the accent), Galician (ignoring the accent), most of the major Slavic languages, Basque, Greek, and Farsi.


I'm afraid I have no idea, Harlan, but what irritates me no end about the
new term is that "[adjective] planet" should logically be a hyponym of
"planet". I really dislike that sort of jargon. In fact, my aversion to
usages like the following probably made it easier for me to empathise with
Daniel's preoccupation with the meanings of "rare".

The exceptions perplex even further: "fake planet" or "phony planet" would not logically be a hyponym of "planet".


www.usaid.gov/iraq/form/aan_01-14-04.pdf:
"The purpose of this notice is to provide guidelines for purchasing and use
of Vehicles and Armored Vehicles."

I've come across legalese like this. It does make it hard to focus through the tears, doesn't it?

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