Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 April 30

= April 30 =

the meaning of "tools"
What does "tools" mean in the following context? "Part of what we're trying to do with Upworthy is give people the tools to express a conscientious, thoughtful and positive identity in social media," said Eli Pariser, a co-founder of Upworthy. Is the word a technical one used in computers? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.249.231.175 (talk) 07:48, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * No, it's not a technical term. "Tools" is a bit of management jargon, really.  It just means that people can use the features of Upworthy (whatever that is) to express their identity etc. etc. --Viennese Waltz 07:54, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * "Tools" in this instance means "skills". Alansplodge (talk) 12:39, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Or "techniques" or even just "ideas". VW is right, it's management jargon. It's an annoying use of that term, which might turn up in Dilbert's "buzzword bingo". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:43, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * No, "tools" in this context does not mean "skills", "techniques" or "ideas". The speaker is talking specifically about the design and features of Upworthy (whatever they might be), saying that they enable people to express blah blah blah. --Viennese Waltz 12:56, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * I agree that it's not a technical term, but the word is commonly used in a software context, to mean a piece of software that carries out some useful function. For example in image-editing programs such as GIMP or PhotoShop, there is a "toolbox" containing "tools" for doing things such as altering colors, selecting portions of an image, blurring, painting, etc. Most browsers, along with many other programs, contain a top-level menu called "tools". Looie496 (talk) 13:01, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * True. However, the wording quoted by the IP sounds like "hype". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:42, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Nationality Issue for Spanish Catalan biographical articles
Dear Wikipedia community,

I'd like to ask what is the WP policy for biographical articles of Notable people born in Catalonia, Spain. I have noticed that some biographical articles of Spanish personalities born in Catalonia have the definition that is: Whoever is a Spanish Catalan WhateverTheyAre... Ex. Antoni Gaudí

In other articles they only mention that the personality is Spanish ex. Dalí

I think that in such a sentence in the lede, the article refers to the citizenship of the person. Since Catalonia is not a Country, as of today, then it is beyond me why these is included, other than to support nationalistic views. But what it is more important, I think that all these types of articles should follow some kind of uniformity.

How could I vind out what and how to do this? Thanks Arcillaroja (talk) 13:10, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * See Naming conventions (identity), specifically one of the first items on self-identification. "Use the name(s) and terminology that the individual or organization themselves use" (bold in original) is the relevant quote.  What does the person think of themselves as, according to reliable sources.  That is, if the person thinks of themselves as Catalan, we report it that way.  If they think of themselves as Spanish, we report it that way.  We don't impose our opinion on which identities should "count" and which should "not" based on our own set of criteria (such as whether or not an ethnicity is also a sovereign nation; which is an arbitrary distinction).  Instead, we default to a person's own self-identity.  -- Jayron  32  14:07, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Keep in mind one can have Spanish citizenship but consider oneself of Basque or Catalan nationality. μηδείς (talk) 17:33, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

French help: What does this news broadcast say about "Stellar Airways" (Congolese airline)
In light of Articles for deletion/Stellar Airways I looked for sources and I found a news broadcast from the Congo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmLooHBOBfg - What does this news broadcast say about "Stellar Airways"? Did it say it started services? What information is there about the television channel? Does it have a website? (Maybe it would have a story there?) WhisperToMe (talk) 15:29, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * I watched the video; it's too long to transcribe now but the gist is about the launch of Stellar Airways in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The airline started with one A320 aircraft, and planned seven routes serving Goma, Kinshasa, Kisangani, and two or three cities whose names I cannot make out. The broadcast seems to be from Digital Congo, which doesn't have an English Wikipedia article but which can be found on French Wikipedia - EronTalk 21:20, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * To begin, the airline planned to serve five cities. The two other cities are Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi. — AldoSyrt (talk) 09:55, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you! WhisperToMe (talk) 11:56, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

ENGLISH: Soaring Wings?
Can I say "Soaring its wings" when talking of a bird? Or "When soaring her wings, you can see she's a beautiful bird." ?

I do know the meaning of the word, but I'm almost convinced I have seen this word used in English to describe a bird stretching its wings out to the sides many times before, and yet it seems wrong...

You often see birds show their whole wingspan by stretching out their wings on heraldry/coat of arms. How to describe this, and which word(s) is best to use? I'm not really talking about "flapping" the wings, but just stretch them out and hold them still... 109.247.62.59 (talk) 16:00, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The way to say this is "stretching its wings" or "stretching her wings". To "soar" is to move quickly and at least partly horizontally high overhead.  An entire body soars, not just a part of it.  So wings don't soar, the entire bird does, and when the bird soars, its wings may or may not be extended, but the word soar does not describe the motion or position of the bird's wings.  Marco polo (talk) 16:20, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * But it's close enough to right that you might see it in poetry: "On soaring wings she did fly". Or it could refer to the type of wing.  Airplane wings are only for soaring, while hummingbird wings don't soar at all, and only work by flapping.  Larger birds tend to do a bit of each, with more soaring as they get bigger.  So, you might say something like "The classic airfoil shape is more important for soaring wings than for those strictly used for flapping". StuRat (talk) 16:23, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Great answers from both of you ;D In fact, I AM working on this poem, which is how I came to wonder in the first place. Thanks 109.247.62.59 (talk) 16:38, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * In heraldry, wings that are fully spread out are said to be displayed; if the whole bird is shown, the adjective follows the name of the bird, and the wings aren't mentioned, eg: Or an eagle sable displayed for a black spread-eagle on a gold background. Other postures are described in Attitude (heraldry). AlexTiefling (talk) 16:40, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * ... and in ordinary English, one speaks of a bird spreading its wings.  D b f i r s   17:40, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * One other important thing: the verb to soar is intransitive, meaning that it almost never takes a direct object; one may soar, but one may not soar something. (I can imagine saying "The eagle soars its way over the mountain", but that's a nonstandard usage.) So the bird may soar, or you may say that its wings soar, but it would not make sense to say (as in the OP) that 'the bird soars its wings'. AlexTiefling (talk) 14:07, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
 * That's correct - you could say it soars on its wings, though. - The Bushranger One ping only 03:38, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Siderian vs sidereal
The first apparently means "iron", while the second means "of the stars". How are these words related etymologically, if at all ? StuRat (talk) 16:57, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Siderian is from the Greek sideros, meaning iron. Sidereal is from the Latin sidus, sideris, a star, constellation. (From Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, 1983 edn.) DuncanHill (talk) 17:01, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * So, is it just a coincidence that "sideros" and "sideris" came from two civilizations in close contact with each other, but have unrelated meanings ? StuRat (talk) 17:07, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * It may not be. Latin sidus comes from the common PIE root *sweid- whereas there is speculation (Mallory & Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture) that Greek sideros (which would not be a normal internal development from *sweid-) may be cognate to English silver and othe metal words, which are often related to words that mean bright or shining.  Perhaps silver and sideros were borrowed from some other language. (Duncan's suggestion is also relevant, but would run counter to the silver connection.) μηδείς (talk) 17:26, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Hmm, found a couple of refs that suggest a relationship, elemental iron being associated with meteorites. This, from an old number of an American mineralogical journal, and this from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. DuncanHill (talk) 17:23, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * You might be interested to know that English also has the rare adjectives siderean meaning "of the stars" and sidereous meaning "of iron" (the first currently missing from Wiktionary and the second with conflicting etymologies and definitions in two authoritative dictionaries).   D b f i r s   17:28, 30 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Oh, there's also the speculation that Russian kamen, "stone" is cognate with English hammer and both may be associated with Thor's hammer, which comes from Himmel.


 * Con- sider this. I've always found it more than suspicious that "catastrophe" and "disaster" are related to "aster", a word for star (which contain lots of iron, incidentally), and hence cousins of all the astro- words. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:03, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Disaster is a dis-aster, or bad star, but _catastrophe_ is nothing to do with it: _κατα-στροφη_ (kata-strophe) down-turning. --ColinFine (talk) 23:47, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * But my error was both disastrous and catastrophic. Thanks for setting me on the path of righteousness, Colin. --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  09:54, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Catastrophe, apostrophe, anastrophe, we metaphorically turn all sorts of things all different ways! SemanticMantis (talk) 03:00, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

OK, thanks all, for you insider opinions. :-) StuRat (talk) 21:41, 7 May 2014 (UTC)