Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 July 28

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July 28

Check my grammar?

I just edited a paragraph/section at Mitt_Romney_dog_incident#Road_trip. I removed some redundant words/phrases, tried to make it more readable, found the proper medical term (I think), etc, etc. Warning! It is being discussed on the talk page as to wording.--Canoe1967 (talk) 06:47, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Here's the diff. I oppose the changes as at best unnecessary and at worst supposition and vague euphemism. μηδείς (talk) 07:06, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

I just did another edit to fix errors I made in the previous ones.--Canoe1967 (talk) 07:20, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Removing the unsourced medical diagnoses and unnecessary wording was good. However, unless the Romneys have ascended to a more rarefied status than I'm aware of, sticking a capitalized "The" in front was wrong. The last sentence is a bit clunky too ("to the destination"). A bit off the topic, but it's Romney's parents' cottage. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:04, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Change from 'destination' to 'cottage' then? And how do you recommend the 'The' thingy?--Canoe1967 (talk) 08:14, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Make it lower case. Just like "I am a member of the Smith family". -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 08:32, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your help Clarityfiend and Jack. I just dumped a link to a very good online vet manual on the talk page discussion for others to use as RS as well.--Canoe1967 (talk) 08:46, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation in Slavic languages

Is there any Slavic language, other than Russian, in which every unstressed (original) /o/ becomes /a/? 77.124.92.249 (talk) 18:50, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes, read the stub, it's called akanje. μηδείς (talk) 19:01, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

paunch

What's perfect meaning? "A fat abdomen" or just "Abdomen" ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by GiantBluePanda (talk • contribs) 21:37, 28 July 2012 (UTC) GiantBluePanda (talk) 21:37, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Strictly it's both - see Wiktionary - but when applied to humans it mainly takes the first meaning. You most often hear it (in BrEng) applied to middle-aged men. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:12, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

I have only ever heard the word in the US to apply to someone with a protruding belly. But not to describe someone who is really fat. Basically fat enough to hold it in your hands, but not so much that it is distended, which would be a beer belly, and certainly not so that the fat goes all the way around to your back side. μηδείς (talk) 22:21, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

This is the meaning I usually take the term to have. For example, you usually hear the word used in something like the phrase "He has a bit of a paunch", or some such. I'm sure you could use it for referencing a morbidly obese person and your meaning would be perfectly intelligible, but clearly the most common context/meaning is a reference to a person who has "let themselves go a little". Snow (talk) 00:45, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Also known as "Dunlap Disease". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:04, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

And a link to go with Bugs' comment: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dunlap+disease --Dismas|^(talk) 06:00, 29 July 2012 (UTC)