[mw-devel] 'Grammarise gag' (fwd)

[Chris McKenna]

On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Steve Hill wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Peter Berry wrote:
>
> {"hoover","Hoover"},
>
> Whilest Hoover is a proper noun, it is also in common usage as a normal noun 
> - should it be capitalised in that case?
>
> {"biro","Biro"},
>
> Again, do we want to capitalise in cases where it isn't being used as a 
> proper noun (i.e. it's describing a generic ball point pen rather than 
> specifically a Biro)

These shouldn't be changed as they are "genericised" - i.e. the proper 
noun has become so widely used as a generic term it is now just a normal 
noun. It is debateable whether "Google" is genericised, although imho it 
is almost inevitable that it will become so.

>
> {"elsmorian","Elsmorian"},
> {"arthur","Arthur"},
> {"dez","Dez"},
> {"firefury","FireFury"},
> {"psychodom","psycodom"},
>
> Shouldn't have people's usernames in gags - this could go on forever with 
> every single user.

Also some people object to their usernames triggering gags - Manic wasn't 
happy when "manic" (-> "maniac" iirc) got added to the babelfish gag.

-- 
Chris 'Awkward' McKenna

cmckenna at sucs.org
www.sucs.org/~cmckenna


The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes,
but with the heart

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