Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 April 19

= April 19 =

Not religious. Not agnostic. Not atheist. Just doesn't care.
Is there a simple label for someone who is clearly not religious, but doesn't fit the formal definitions of atheist or agnostic? This would be someone who never really thinks about the matter, and doesn't really care of god exists, or not. It's a description I feel would apply to a lot of people I know, but we don't seem to have a formal label for them. Or do we? HiLo48 (talk) 01:08, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I think you're talking about apatheists, although your first sentence would also apply to people who very strongly believe in God and want to serve God, but don't believe in churches and such. --Trovatore (talk) 01:09, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I definitely don't mean the latter. That would involve too much thinking about the matter. Apatheist comes close - "someone who considers the question of the existence of gods as neither meaningful nor relevant to their life" - but is obviously not a common word. HiLo48 (talk) 01:25, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Apatheism covers the "doesn't really care" part of the question but it's not a statement of belief or disbelief. So there's typically a better term to describe the apatheist's actual beliefs (after all, apathy doesn't mean you've never thought about it -- just that it's not important). Nontheism would be the broader term. If your version of not caring allows for the possibility of a god, agnostic could also apply. "Strong agnosticism" is similar to apatheism in that it renders the question of god unknowable in an absolute sense. Post-theism considers the idea of God irrelevant for the modern world. Irreligious indicates lack of religion (i.e. belief/disbelief in god not required, but religion is rejected). --&mdash;  Rhododendrites  talk  |  02:20, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Nah, that's all far too complex for the approach to life I'm talking about. HiLo48 (talk) 05:12, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
 * You can be agnostic (not claiming to know that a deity exists), atheist (not believing that a deity exists) or irreligious (not interested in organised religion), or any combination thereof without actually giving much consideration to your formal position. In any case, the relevant terms would still apply. Similarly, the autonomic processes that keep you alive may be complex, but a lack of awareness about how those processes work doesn't change the fact that they happen and that the terms for those processes still apply to you.-- Jeffro 77 (talk) 05:20, 20 April 2014 (UTC)


 * To greatly oversimplify, The view of Epicurus was that the gods may exist, but there's no point in worrying about them. μηδείς (talk) 16:51, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Czech sentence
Could anybody fix the Czech sentence "moja žena je raniena" for me please? Google Translate gives me "moj e žena je z ran ěn " but (though having zero knowledge of Czech), I find this implausible as it seems to lack gender agreement. In contrast GT gives me e.g. "moja żona jest ranna" and "моя жена ранена" so it can do gender agreement - does it just have blind spot when it comes to Czech? Also, where did the initial "z-" come from? do I really need it? Also, Czech_declension says ''There are also short forms in some adjectives. They are used in the nominative and are regarded as literary in the contemporary language. - so if a participle isn't one of the some, or one doesn't have literary'' pretensions, how can one form a predicate of the type needed for my sentence (also why would one decline a short form?)? Thanks, --catslash (talk) 02:38, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't know Czech, but I know that Slavic languages distinguish between perfective aspect and imperfective aspect, and that very often verbs without a prefix are imperfective while verbs with a prefix (such as z-) are perfective. So that's probably where the z- comes from. At any rate, this Czech headline says of Ariane Friedrich (who ruptured her Achilles tendon), "Friedrichová je zraněná", so maybe " moja moje žena je zraněná" is the right way of saying it. I hope an actual Czech speaker shows up, though. Angr (talk) 10:24, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * According to Wiktionary's entry for můj, the nominative singular feminine form is moje (not moja), so Google Translate seems to be right in translating "my wife" as moje žena. Angr (talk) 10:30, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you, particularly for the link to the Dnes article. Yes the perfective is surely wanted for the past passive participle, but for this particular verb I was expecting it to be the same as the imperfective - as in the Russian version of the sentence above. The original sentence was an utterance reported by someone who though able to communicate freely in Czech, had not studied it formally and so was very likely using a sort of generic Slavonic with a Czech accent. This might have made the z- unexpected and easily missed, and likewise caused moje to be heard as moja. There is a small chance that even though the speaker was reported as being ethnic Czech, the utterance might have been intended as being in Slovak. So (supplementary question), could anybody give me the correct Slovak rendering of the sentence please? --catslash (talk) 14:58, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

It's "moje žena je zraněná". The short form version would be "zraněna" without the long vowel on the end, either I think are acceptable. My Slovak is only rudimentary but I think it would be the same except with moja for moje, and zranena, -á without the ě. - filelakeshoe (t / c) 17:56, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Re: short forms, they're usually used with adjectives that derive from verbs. For example the verb here is zranit - to wound (perfective), "zraněn ,-a ,-o" is the passive participle or the short form and "zraněný, -á, -é" is the full, declinable adjective. There are a few other adjectives that do it like "jsem si jistý" (I am sure) can just be "jsem si jist" in formal writing. - filelakeshoe (t / c) 18:04, 19 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Many thanks filelakeshoe. As you are a Czech Republic resident, I will take that to be an authoritative answer. --catslash (talk) 00:55, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Artificial 'boo' in horrors
Is there a name for the sudden, artificial 'boo'-like sound effect often added at the end of the suspension moments in horror films to increase terror? Brandmeistertalk  15:22, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure because "boo" sounds so meek, but do you mean something like a "scare chord", "cousin to the sting"? ---Sluzzelin talk  15:35, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Specifically, like at 2:15, 2:04 or at 1:25? Brandmeistertalk  15:58, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Those three examples use a non-musical noise (heavy slamming with heavy reverb, shots) for the main sforzando. Though technically not chords, I still view their function as that of a scare chord. A related tool, the "last note nightmare", sometimes uses this sort of echoing slamming door too, instead of an actual chord. In a symphony orchestra you'd have to make do with the percussion section for this noise effect, but in the studio you're not limited to instruments and performers. Besides being scary for being a sudden loud noise, the slamming can also evoke the eerie "ghost butler" effect. (Ok, I'm done spamming you with links to TV Tropes now). ---Sluzzelin talk  16:32, 19 April 2014 (UTC)


 * If you've ever tried watching a horror movie with the sound muted, it's amazing how much less scary it is. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:57, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Euthanize in Spanish
Hello, I was wondering how to say "euthanize" (the verb) in (Castillian) Spanish, but online machine translators were not very helpful. Could someone please give me the verb in Spanish? Thanks! Sincerely, 68.175.115.117 (talk) 17:42, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Spanish has no such verb, according to This site. It appears that only the noun form "eutanasia" (as in English, a borrowing from Greek) exists.  I also believe that the English verb is a much more recent neologism from the noun, which is probably much older.  English, as a language, is known for inventing words like "euthanize" with more easily than other languages.  Etymonline dates "euthanize" to 1915 while it dates "euthanasia" to around 1600.  -- Jayron  32  19:33, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

68.175.115.117 (talk) 20:16, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much!


 * A phrase used is administrar la eutanasia μηδείς (talk) 02:26, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

is there a word to describe three vessels merging into one vessel (i.e. as occurs in veins)
Is there a word that describes fusion of three inputs into one (as in 3 veins coalescing into one common vein)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.199.139.183 (talk) 20:57, 19 April 2014 (UTC)


 * I would borrow from rivers and call it the confluence. That word normally means two merging into one, but I suppose you can use it for three, as well, or call that a "triconfluence".  There seems to be a "Heun triconfluent" math function, which presumably combines 3 inputs into one: .  StuRat (talk) 21:00, 19 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The term "triple confluence" seems to be known in medicine and elsewhere. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  00:41, 20 April 2014 (UTC)


 * And here's a map of the triple confluence of the Rivers Irt, Mite and Esk in Wales Cumbria, England referred to here. They don't meet at exactly the same common point, but it's close enough. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  00:48, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Wales? Cumbria, rather./176.10.249.240 (talk) 17:06, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Oooh, my bad; apologies to the Englischers. I was thinking Cumbria = Cymru = Wales.  Thanks.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:03, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
 * That's OK -- we do have a Celtic ancestry in common, and a strange way of counting sheep.   D b f i r s   20:50, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Confusing Cumbria with Cambria is an easy mistake to make, and they are etymologically the same word. Angr (talk) 09:42, 21 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Cumbria takes its name from the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which was a early medieval Welsh kingdom centered on what is now the Western Scottish/English borderland. There are other such pairs of lands which share very similar names for much the same reason (c.f. Cornwall and Cornouaille, Brittany and Britain, etc.)  -- Jayron  32  18:52, 21 April 2014 (UTC)