User talk:Sesquihypercerebral

"Firing" control
Hi. I am confused as to your wholesale changing of "fire control" to "firing control" in a couple of articles. What sources do you have which use that term? I have a number and I can't say I've seen it used before. --Harlsbottom (talk | library) 19:05, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Dear Harlsbottom, thank you for your kind enquiry. I am particularly grateful that you did not simply revert my changes. I have high hopes that sensible, intelligent people can reach a meeting of minds. The source I used was the dictionary.

Firing (noun) : the act of discharging a weapon. Fire (noun) : fuel in a state of combustion.

You will probably be familiar with the phrases "firing pin" and "firing mechanism".

"Fire" can also be used as a verb. Indeed, "fire" is used both as an attributive noun and as an attributive verb in the two meanings of "fire-control" as can be seen at the top of the article. Attributive nouns have been in use since the fourteenth century and are a well established part of the english language. Attributive verbs on the other hand do not share the same status. The use of attributive verbs can lead to ambiguities and misunderstandings because so many of them can be taken as attributive nouns, for instance.

Cook book : a work of biography. Pay point : where the staff collect their wages. Fry pan : a pan for cooking small fish Ski mask : a mask for a ski that wishes to remain anonymous. No fly zone : an area patrolled by spiders. Fail safe : ?

Now to some people this is all rather silly, and in a way, I agree, but I have to ask weather it is not easier for the reader to see the intended meaning if it does not have a silly meaning standing right in front of it. The intended meanings of most of these things can be discerned by moderately skilled readers with no more than a little time and patience, but to my mind at least the essence of good writing is to express one's thoughts clearly rather than to set puzzles for the reader to solve. The better terms are: cookery book, payment point, frying pan, skiing mask, flight exclusion zone, and failure safe.

I hope that this has answered your question. Best wishes Sesquihypercerebral (talk) 01:05, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

September 2019
Please stop your disruptive editing. If you continue to disrupt Wikipedia, as you did at Anne Hathaway, you may be blocked from editing. Krimuk2.0 (talk) 10:11, 30 September 2019 (UTC)
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