databases (was: Re: [Buddha-l] Tibetan for...?)

[jkirk]

"fleck"?
Some pedant
As you pointed out there ARE exceptions to the rules, and I suggest that 
database is one of them.
All the other word citations would sound awkward in English if the plural -s 
had
to be added to them, as in 'eyesglasses,' since we speak Engrish,  not Dutch 
or German.
Yes, 'data' has been added to the language as a word, few know of its 
origins, but I feel quite comfortable with my explanation of its meaning as 
a 'base' containing more than one datum.

JK
=========
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Hayes" <rhayes at unm.edu>
To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2007 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: databases (was: Re: [Buddha-l] Tibetan for...?)


> On Fri, 2007-01-05 at 18:23 -0700, jkirk wrote:
>
>> Recently Stephen Hodge suggested that 'datumbase'  would be the correct
>> form, not 'database,' which is used in the software industry. However, 
>> that
>> would work if there were only one item in the base.
>
> Stephen is correct. Compounds are usually formed by stripping all case
> and number markers from the first member of the compound. (There are
> exceptions, as in aatmanepadam and manasikaara.h.) So we say
> "toothbrush" even though most people use the brush on more than one
> tooth, "keyring" even when more than one key is on the ring,
> "eyeglasses" even when the glasses are used for more than one eye,
> "classroom" even when more than one class is taught in the room,
> "postoffice" even when there is more than one post in the office,
> "buddha-l" even though there are several buddhas in every 'L'. You get
> the idea. "Database" is a hideous barbarism, and everyone who uses the
> word is clearly a semi-literate troglodyte. Or, if you go for letting
> people get away wih linguistic murder, you could say, as Stephen did,
> that "data" has entered the english language as a new word that happens
> to be a mass noun rather than a count noun. Such things do happen. But
> NOT on buddha-l. We are pedants here, and each of us likes to fleck our
> intellectual bicep.
>
>
> -- 
> Richard Hayes
> Department of Philosophy
> Universiy of New Mexico
>
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