Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 December 10

= December 10 =

Dialog from The Matrix Reloaded

 * Lock: I'm recommending that you be removed from duty.
 * Morpheus: That is, of course, your prerogative, commander.
 * Lock: If it were up to me, you wouldn't set foot on a ship for the rest of your life.
 * Lock: If it were up to me, you wouldn't set foot on a ship for the rest of your life.
 * Lock: If it were up to me, you wouldn't set foot on a ship for the rest of your life.

What does "If it were up to me" mean? Rizosome (talk) 04:32, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * If the decision were mine to make. —Tamfang (talk) 05:05, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * See Wiktionary's definition number 7 for up to: "For the option or decision of." This formulation is admittedly rather clunky. The following sentence is presented as an example of usage: It’s up to you whether to get the blue one or the red one. (While based on a scene from The Matrix, this sentence does not occur as such in the dialogue of the film.)  --Lambiam 10:40, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * "J'avoue ma faiblesse pour ce mode, et pour le beau langage, en général." Yeah, I just showing off here. Pierre en Australie aka --Shirt58 (talk) 11:14, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * "Up to me" / "Up to you" / etc. is very common English usage. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:08, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * And what Shirt58 is hinting at is that the sentence uses the subjunctive mood (with "were" as the verb form, rather than the more usual "was"). This is common in French but increasingly rare in English. It is used because it is not Lock's prerogative to decide, so his sentence is based on a supposed situation, not an actual one. Xuxl (talk) 13:44, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Where do these phrases even come from? Is "measure up to" the ancestor of them all, and conceptually like a Nilometer? Or perhaps up to me is short for given up to me, and conceptually related to pick up (out of somebody else's hands). Card Zero  (talk) 16:01, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

This sentence solved my question: If the decision were mine to make. Rizosome (talk) 05:40, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

What is the "politically correct" name for a master key.
What is the "politically correct" name for a master key? I was thinking "service key" but that might be offensive to some people too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.59.100.28 (talk) 08:09, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Skeleton key, perhaps. clpo13(talk) 08:11, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * The term "skeleton key" is applicable to keys for opening so-called warded locks, but not the more secure pin tumbler locks. --Lambiam 11:28, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Master key is politically correct. Even the most PC person would be hard pressed to be offended (slave key?). Otherwise we'd have to find new terms for music masters, master's degrees, masterpieces, etc. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:27, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * About that... To clarify, there aren't really "slave" branches in Git (at least, not by that name), but that hasn't stopped people moving away from the term "master" in favor of alternatives like "main". clpo13(talk) 08:44, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Git can do whatever they want. But I doubt if a company such as Master Lock is going to change its name anytime soon. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:10, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Maybe they need to change both words, we wouldn't want to upset people who've been incarcerated ;-) -- Q Chris (talk) 11:29, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * There does not seem to be a substitute name. If I had to come up with one, I might consider "group key" – a key that will unlock any lock from a specific group. Compare the use of the term "group key" in cryptography, and the group concept for assigning permissions to users of an information system. --Lambiam 11:28, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * In German, we would use Generalschlüssel or, more old-fashioned, Passepartout (from the French: passer partout, to get through, to pass everywhere). I don't know if the expressions General Key, or perhaps even Main key are used in English, though. Lectonar (talk) 13:53, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Jean Passepartout was a servant ... anyway, you have an alternative word in passkey, if you really need one. Wiktionary has this as a synonym of passe-partout.  Card Zero  (talk) 15:16, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah. passkey suffices. --jpgordon&#x1d122;&#x1d106;&#x1D110;&#x1d107; 07:16, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Why the pronoun "Hers" is rarely used?
I don't know the idea of how the rare pronoun hers is barely used in talking nor written comments? for example even youtube video title does not mention the word "Hers". Well this is very unusable for the word "Hers" and might get removed from dictionary. 2404:8000:1005:555:1422:A887:1E54:5A69 (talk) 10:37, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * What YouTube video title are you talking about? In any case, "hers" is quite common in English. Like this example: "Is that his jacket?" "No, it's hers." ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:03, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Of course there are YouTube videos with "hers" in the title: Woman tries to claim the Tesla is hers; My Girlfriend Thinks my Truck is Hers; Her Hair Is Not Hers. Also, Woman has slowly been gaining power to make decisions that are hers: . --Lambiam 11:06, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * The confusion may be that his is used both as a pronoun and determiner, while the determiner for hers is her. Probably because the pronoun his already ends with an s, the determiner is unchanged. Otherwise it would be his's. TFD (talk) 11:14, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * As for his, the same is true for its. I wonder if "it's its" is in use. 185.24.76.178 (talk) 11:36, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * "It's its" has quite a limited usage but is very much alive, as in "What's that thing sticking out of the top of the satellite phone?". "It's its areal" -- Q Chris (talk) 16:29, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * In that sentence, "its" is a determiner, like "her". You could not respond to the question "What's that thing sticking out of the top of that woman?" with ✽"It's hers hair comb." You need something like "When XQR-217-c went to the meeting of the Robot Liberation Front, it brought a friend of its along." --Lambiam 23:36, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I mean "it's its", full stop. Just as you could say "It's mine", I've wondered if "it's its" (full stop) is in use. 185.24.76.183 (talk) 08:58, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm not a native speaker, (albeit quite advanced by now), but it sounds pretty strained. I think you'd rather say "It's the dog's", "It's name's" or similar, in these theoretical cases. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:33, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
 * That would also explain why "his" occurs more often than "hers", in case the OP is looking at corpus data. – filelakeshoe (t / c) 🐱 13:18, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * On the other hand, I think "her" might be more common than "his", due to "her" being the female equivalent of both "him" and "his". 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 18:05, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Hers is like His, but the His is the winner and Hers is the loser. Why the word his is more common than hers. I don't know how is happened to word of usage hers? I mean possesive gender pronouns Hers and His. Please somebody explain the language phenomenom! 2404:8000:1005:555:1422:A887:1E54:5A69 (talk) 12:30, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * You've made some assertions about "hers" being less common than "his", but have provided no evidence that your assertions are correct. Which is to say, we cannot even begin to explain something when you haven't even established that the thing we're trying to explain is true!  It may be, or it may not be, but without knowing one way or another, there is no way to proceed with answering your question.  This is a concept known as a plurium interrogationum, as it states in the article "It is committed when someone asks a question that presupposes something that has not been proven or accepted by all the people involved."  First, establish that it is true before trying to answer "why" it is true.  -- Jayron 32 12:58, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * And as hinted above, don't fall into the following trap: the feminine form of "his" can be either "her" or "hers", depending on grammar. E.g. His car is parked = Her car is parked; but: The car is his = The car is hers. So obviously "his" will be more common than "hers" as it can be used in a wider array of sentences, but it has nothing to do with some sort of anti-feminine conspiracy. It's just grammar. Xuxl (talk) 13:51, 10 December 2021 (UTC)
 * It is also worth noting that the "gender-indeterminate" pronoun in English used to be "his". This has changed over the past decades.  During the 80's and 90's for example, "his/hers" was prescribed, but was resisted because of its awkwardness.  During the past two decades "they" has taken on that role, and is increasingly accepted both casually and by formal style guides as the preferred pronoun for when gender is unspecified.  From the mid-20th century and earlier, "his" was used in that role.  -- Jayron 32 13:54, 10 December 2021 (UTC)


 * It may depend on which version of "the dictionary" you're talking about, but no word is ever removed from comprehensive dics like the OED. The longer words remain out of regular use, the more likely they are to be labeled obsolete or archaic, but they're always there, available for any of us to give them a new life. --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:51, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Well, many people are abandoning the word hers in favor her. That's why people are suspected to commit devaluing many female people around the english speaking world. There is no reform for the word hers should be used in formal manner, or informal manner. hers (possesive item) should be used truly. 2404:8000:1005:555:C0EE:F0EE:B396:6DF3 (talk) 14:00, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
 * As noted above, this is not the place "for opinions, predictions or debate." Please don't use this page as a forum to discuss your opinions or feelings.  -- Jayron 32 14:34, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Plus 2404's barely-readable complaint makes no sense. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:29, 13 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Dear 2404:8000:1005:555:C0EE:F0EE:B396:6DF3 -- maybe you should be less quick with categorical and dogmatic pronouncements in an area you appear to know relatively little about. "Hers" has a more limited role than "his", but it's not disappearing from the language.  If you want a pronoun-type word that's disappearing from the language, look at "whom" (though it's going rather slowly).  If, in some semi-distant future, "hers" does disappear from English, it will be almost certainly because the words "ours", "yours", "theirs", and "mine" are also disappearing... AnonMoos (talk) 23:12, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

For example, the lyric i feel fine with the beatles shows an slightly inccorect pronoun spelling, like hers became her on the possesive items. see here: I'm so glad that she's my little girl (ooh-ooh) She's so glad she's telling all the world (ooh-ooh) That her baby buys her things, you know He buys her diamond rings, you know well i really the word her, because it's very demonizing and devaluing the female people as a whole around the world. I believe many males are staging anti-feminine conspiracy by using her on the possesive type words, like item, work, action, etc. her is more like a freaking kitten! 2404:8000:1005:555:1593:6682:BD3B:D7BC (talk) 10:20, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
 * The IP is a blocked user. I've raised an SPI. --Viennese Waltz 11:21, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
 * It's probably the OP as well. But either way, the IP's rant makes no sense. --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:37, 16 December 2021 (UTC)