From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/38801 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Didier Verna Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Backend is not a word Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 09:41:43 +0200 Message-ID: References: <2n3d5lldop.fsf@piglet.jia.vnet> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035174608 24441 80.91.224.250 (21 Oct 2002 04:30:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 04:30:08 +0000 (UTC) Cc: ding@gnus.org Return-Path: Return-Path: Original-Received: (qmail 28255 invoked from network); 18 Sep 2001 07:41:49 -0000 Original-Received: from hermes.epita.fr (163.5.255.10) by gnus.org with SMTP; 18 Sep 2001 07:41:49 -0000 Original-Received: from goa.lrde.epita.fr (mail@goa.lrde.epita.fr [10.223.13.2]) by hermes.epita.fr id f8I9dRp18453 Tue, 18 Sep 2001 09:39:27 GMT Original-Received: from uzeb.lrde.epita.fr ([10.223.13.53] ident=mail) by goa.lrde.epita.fr with esmtp (Exim 3.32 #1 (Debian)) id 15jFgm-0002mY-00; Tue, 18 Sep 2001 09:53:04 +0200 Original-Received: from didier by uzeb.lrde.epita.fr with local (Exim 3.32 #1 (Debian)) id 15jFVn-00017L-00; Tue, 18 Sep 2001 09:41:43 +0200 Original-To: ShengHuo ZHU X-Attribution: drv X-Url: http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~didier X-Web: http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~didier X-Home-Page: http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~didier In-Reply-To: <2n3d5lldop.fsf@piglet.jia.vnet> (ShengHuo ZHU's message of "Mon, 17 Sep 2001 17:17:42 -0400") X-Face: |j}\)O|k##MrRz#VK$Jy=0r=3Qc,,a/Tr6*JQbE73dy17]2YcmW$9Z&H21e}#~#pgc>dn(is5Bv1l!{1re+Q9suKIOUmOqZs2>QMxHlR;;}kaGYA@HR3D C6 X-Face: 6o|eiKqaHN.ANh8HXDzntcWUOCg\]RsOd.ctvm~*y}Y^R&*a+Co,\s#=HWsw3x$b_n2kJ#g (7u?J^@^xP)f,jUF|0Z'J:|G/bMA5O12*b,7`-Q`=pKsCRIpso07.Y>YB2H{7`?u&yh;C_ZtLHfj "Backend" is not a word. RMS suggests to use "back end", while > "back-end" is found in FOLDOC. What should we write? Opinions? ,---- | From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English [gcide]: |=20 | Word \Word\, n. [AS. word; akin to OFries. & OS. word, D. woord, | G. wort, Icel. or[eth], Sw. & Dan. ord, Goth. wa['u]rd, | OPruss. wirds, Lith. vardas a name, L. verbum a word; or | perhaps to Gr. "rh`twr an orator. Cf. {Verb}.] | [1913 Webster] | 1. The spoken sign of a conception or an idea; an articulate | or vocal sound, or a combination of articulate and vocal | sounds, uttered by the human voice, and by custom | expressing an idea or ideas; a single component part of | human speech or language; a constituent part of a | sentence; a term; a vocable. ``A glutton of words.'' | --Piers Plowman. | [1913 Webster] `----- "backend" is very much of a written form of a "spoken sign of a conception or an idea" to me. Whether or not specific to gnus, the fact that it does not appear in dictionaries doesn't imply that this is not a word. M= any words do not appear in dictionaries, especially in the scientific domain. I don't think there's a really clean definition of the term "backen= d" anywhere in the texi (it appears almost as a synonym of "method" in the fir= st node), but we all know what it means. Let's not be over-pedantic. --=20 Didier Verna, didier@lrde.epita.fr, http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~didier EPITA / LRDE, 14-16 rue Voltaire Tel.+33 (1) 53 14 59 47 94276 Le Kremlin-Bic=EAtre, France Fax.+33 (1) 44 08 01 99 didier@xemac= s.org