Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2013 April 20

= April 20 =

Phonology
Theorectical orientation that gave rise to phonological theories — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.190.3.246 (talk) 01:37, 20 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Your question is not a grammatical English sentence. Is your question "Please name a theoretical orientation that has given rise to a phonological theory"?  Assuming that's the case you should read Ferdinand de Saussure as the most important case. μηδείς (talk) 02:33, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

the etymology of Diaslide
I work in clinic, and every day I use the Diaslide (it's slide of labrotory for urine culture). Apperntly, the name Diaslide it's trademark, but it's very intrests me to know what is the etymology of Diaslide (Dia+slide). Thank you for the help. 80.246.130.221 (talk) 12:24, 20 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Dia is a Greek prefix meaning "through, or across," and I assume slide is meant like a microscope slide, so it means "through the slide." Mr.Magik-Pants (talk) 12:39, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

oh Mrmagikpants, thank you for the information that i'm looking for a long time :) By the way, do you think that the company which make this product write this meaning in anywhere? because I want to link also (in addition to your answer) to the official company answer. Thank you a lot. 80.246.130.221 (talk) 14:34, 20 April 2013 (UTC)


 * It's possible that the company has no idea what it means, but they used it because "dia" just sounds like a medical word (diagnosis, diagnostic, etc). I guess it they are slides for diagnostics, they might not consciously be using it as a Greek prefix, specifically. Adam Bishop (talk) 18:09, 20 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Probably short for "diagnostic slide". You could contact Novamed and ask them. Itsmejudith (talk) 08:24, 21 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Agreed. They often shorten words by taking out needed parts that made them technically correct.  One example is "homophobia", which etymologically means "same fear".  "Homosexualphobia" is a bit better, as it means "same sex fear", but that still could just mean you are afraid of anyone of your gender.  It should probably be something more like "homocoitumphobia". StuRat (talk) 18:19, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Given that, there could be a parallel term, "heterocoitumphobia", which General Jack Ripper practiced: "I do not avoid women... but I do deny them my essence." ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:27, 21 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Just as heterosexuals do not need to be engaging in coitus at every possible minute of the day to qualify as heterosexuals, neither do homosexuals. The "sex" part of those words has nothing to do, at least not in principle, with sexual activity.  It is about the same thing as the "sex" box you're asked to tick on official forms to indicate whether you're a male or female (yes, I know those aren't the only possibilities), which a lot of people mistakenly refer to as "gender".  And even when there is sexual activity going on, it doesn't necessarily involve coitus in the traditionally accepted understanding of that term.  "Homocoitumphobia" would be more a fear of becoming engaged in homosexual coitus against one's will = rape. --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  01:11, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
 * ... which is probably what's really at the base of the term "homophobia". Among the many extremely strange beliefs out there about homosexual men that have absolutely zero evidence behind them, are: (a) they all want and need to have sex as often as possible; (b) they are all constantly checking out attractive straight men with a view to seducing them, or if that's not gonna happen, raping them; (c) they are all interested in sexually abusing young children, and they don't really mind which sex.  Wow!  We're different, but not that different.  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  06:08, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Jack is right that what we call homophobia is not really (only) fear of homosexual coitus. It is also not so much fear as hatred, for which the usual Greek root is miso- or mis- (as in misogyny).  Also, it is bad form to combine Greek roots such as homo (meaning "same") with Latin forms such as coitus or sexual (though of course there are many accepted words that do this, such as homosexual).  So if we really want a form that better conveys the meaning of homophobia, that could be mishomoerotism, or hatred toward sexual love of the same (in this case sex). Homoeroticism is a word, but it has a nasty and unnecessary Latin -ic- as an infix. Marco polo (talk) 14:18, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
 * So, misunderstanding is the hatred of 'understanding'. My 'mistake' (a hatred of taking'?) in misreading (hatred of reading?) your post. The purpose of writing is to use it and be understood in the way it is used and understood now, not hundreds of years ago. (And 'homo' means 'man' in Latin, unrelated to the Greek word 'homo' meaning same).  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  17:12, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Except that that doesn't work for lesbians. By that reasoning, the only homosexual attraction a woman could experience is to a man, not to another woman.  And that makes a mockery of the understanding of the expression.  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  21:06, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

"Homophobia" doesn't make too much sense etymologically, because it's hard to make it mean anything other than "fear of those who are the same as you are", using the classical Greek rules of compounding. Latin "Homo" is an unrelated form (with oblique stem "homin-"), and could not appear in compounds as "homo-" according to rules of Latin word-formation (cf. homicide)... Also, the classical Greek miso- "hatred" prefix is completely different from the French-based mis- "wrongly" prefix.AnonMoos (talk) 21:59, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
 * "Homophobia" is calqued on "xenophobia". I don't see why one would want to apply the classical Greek rules of compounding to an English word. As they don't in the "diaslide" that was the original query, if that is short for "diagnostic slide". Itsmejudith (talk) 12:37, 23 April 2013 (UTC)
 * "Diaslide" is a commercial brand name, and probably wasn't formed in order to have a Greek meaning any more than "Ibuprofen" was. However, scientific/technical terms in many fields (including psychological phobia terms) are quite a different case -- people go to elaborate lengths to coin terms like triskaidekaphobia, and the ordinary expectation is that such a term should have a somewhat correct meaning.  The word "homophobia" is perfectly Greek in form (more authentically Greek than hybrid forms like "television", "homosexual" etc.), but its clear Greek meaning would be "fear of sames"... AnonMoos (talk) 19:06, 23 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Xenophobia isn't a medical term either, and means dislike or hatred of foreigners as much as fear of foreigners. I'm not sure what it would mean in Greek, I suspect "fear of other" rather than fear of foreign people. Itsmejudith (talk) 19:21, 23 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Francophobia is a mix of two languages. Itsmejudith (talk) 19:22, 23 April 2013 (UTC)
 * More when considering 'Franks' were not French.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  21:08, 23 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Xenophobia is one of a whole series of "phobia"-suffixed words, many of which are used in psychology and related fields, and it has a perfectly correct Greek etymology, parallel to Ophidiophobia etc. etc.  It's a long-term understanding or convention that such "phobia"-suffixed words can refer to aversion as much as literal fear.  There's no similar convention which could make "homophobia" mean anything other than "fear of sames" or "aversion to sames", based on its morphemic structure.
 * "Francophobia" has a semi-classicized proper name (as opposed to the fully classical proper names in "Gallicism", "Sinophobia" etc.), but it means exactly what it should mean based on its morphemic elements -- while "homophobia" doesn't. AnonMoos (talk) 01:34, 24 April 2013 (UTC)


 * I don't know whether this played any part in the creation of that word, but homosexuals have been referred to as "homos" for as long as I can remember and probably way, way before that. It would make a kind of sense to attach the -phobia to the abbreviation rather than to the full word; "homosexualophobia" is quite a mouthful.  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  09:07, 24 April 2013 (UTC)


 * That's probably true, but colloquial abbreviations don't ordinarily feed into the coining of Greco-Latin based scientific or technical terms, which makes "homophobia" stand out as etymologically problematic... AnonMoos (talk) 09:24, 24 April 2013 (UTC)


 * There is appendectomy, which is -ectomy tacked on to append-, an abbreviation of the proper root appendic-, from 'appendix'. That it's an abbreviation can be shown by comparison with the word 'appendicitis', which is a recognised condition, while 'appenditis' is not. --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  10:30, 24 April 2013 (UTC)


 * That seems to be a case of haplology, which operated sporadically even within classical Latin. It's really not comparable with truncating "homosexualiphobia" to "homophobia" by cutting out a whole stem, which results in a striking divergence between the intended meaning and the literal etymological meaning... AnonMoos (talk) 12:56, 24 April 2013 (UTC)