User talk:6birc

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  • Hey, greetings and all that. I'm not sure why, but you left a message at some point on my userpage asking me: What is the difference between secretive, secretory and secret in English? (BTW, for future reference, if you put a question on a person's talk page, they'll respond quicker because there will be an asterisk next to their username on the screen. I just noticed your question now)

A "secret" is a noun, meaning a fact or opinion or idea that one wants to keep all or certain others from knowing. A person or plan or almost anything else can be described as "secretive", meaning they have a tendency towards keeping secrets.

A "secretary" (I guess this is what you mean by "secretory") is a person who acts as assistant to another, generally answering phones, setting appointments and doing other mundane jobs.

Tokerboy 06:00 Jan 3, 2003 (UTC)


  • On the other hand, "secretory" means related to something that's secreted, like saliva, mucus, tears, bile, or a hormone. Which is probably not what was meant. <G> -- Someone else 06:10 Jan 3, 2003 (UTC)


  • Oops, I should've scrolled down. You left other messages for me. The difference between "if he were" and "if he was" is confusing and, really, not terribly important. "If he were" is subjunctive, meaning you're describing something that was not true. "If he was" is indicative, describing something that may or may not have been true -- the difference is kind of academic, and many English speakers (at least Americans) use them interchangeably, but that is the technical difference. Tokerboy


  • One can survive with doobage in America, but one must be smart to avoid the five-oh (actually not true, it's damn easy to not get arrested as long as you're white). Tokerboy


  • Thanks!

—6birc, 18:06, 23 November 2005 (UTC) (...yes, 2005!—not 2003!)

Contents

[edit] Czemu nie założyłeś konta

...na polskiej Wikipedii? Tak chyba byłoby łatwiej :)


[edit] Account Unjustly Blocked

I have discovered that my account "Happyjoe" is blocked from editing due to some sort of misunderstanding over the Big Spring, TX article. I am uncertain who to contact to have this mistake fixed. Please remove this block so that I may complete necessary editing on other articles. Thank you for your timely assistance in resolving this problem... Happyjoe 69.145.215.206 04:15, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "...a dice is thrown..."

Why in the world would you change "a die is thrown" to "a dice is thrown" (in memorylessness)? "Dice" is the plural of "die". Two dice may be thrown; "a dice is" is ungrammatical. Michael Hardy 01:40, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

I apologise. I didn't know that die was singular for dice in English. I thought that someone missed a letter. Incidentally, I've learned what you're telling me independently from Wikipedia just before reading your message, a few days after editing Memorylessness, and I was about to revert it now.
—6birc, 19:04, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
Funny enough, I've just done a language test on my native English friend—and a translator—and he had no clue what throwing a die means. He told me that there is no singular for dice and that we say three dice, two dice, one dice. So it's not just I'm not native English and I didn't know. Apparently not even Englishmen realise that. It's rather that my English has just become one more bit better than that of a native Englishman. (Joking.)
—6birc, 19:34, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm surprised that a translator would say that. The irregularity of this particular plural causes some childish confusion, but one expects translators to be beyond that. Here's what the Oxford English Dictionary says:

“ I. With plural dice. (The form dice (used as pl. and sing.) is of much more frequent occurrence in gaming and related senses than the singular die.)

1. a. A small cube of ivory, bone, or other material, having its faces marked with spots numbering from one to six, used in games of chance by being thrown from a box or the hand, the chance being decided by the number on the face of the die that turns uppermost. Also, a cube bearing other devices on its faces, or a solid with more or less than six faces (see quots.). b. pl. The game played with these; esp. in phr. at (the) dice.

(α) sing. dee, dye, dy, die. 1393 GOWER Conf. II. 209 The chaunce is cast upon a dee, But yet full oft a man may see [etc.]. c1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode I. cv. (1869) 56 Nouht so gret as a as in a dee. 1570 LEVINS Manip. 96/41 A dye, alea. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 23 Hee'le cogge the die. 1610 B. JONSON Alch. II. i, You shall no more deale with the hollow die, Or the fraile card. 1656 STANLEY Hist. Philos. VIII. 85 So to cast the dy that it may chance right. 1680 COTTON Gamester in Singer Hist. Cards 336 He puts one dye into the box. 1705 S. CENTLIVRE Gamester I. i, To teach you the management of the die. 1779-81 JOHNSON L.P., Butler Wks. II. 191 To throw a dye, or play at cards. 1822 HAZLITT Table-t. II. vii. 156 Dependent on the turn of a die, on the tossing up of a halfpenny. 1838 DE MORGAN Ess. Probab. 74 The real probability that 6000 throws with a die shall give exactly 1000 aces. 1872 F. HALL Exempl. False Philol. 68 The cast of a die is absolutely impossible of prediction.

 ”

But then the dictionary goes on to say:

“ (γ) singular dice, plural dices: cf. obs. F. sing. dez.

1388 Act 12 Rich. II, c. 6 §1 Les..jeues appellez coytes dyces, gettre de pere. c1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 666 Hic talus, dyse. c1440 Promp. Parv. 121/1 Dycyn, or pley wythe dycys, aleo. c1450 Bk. Curtasye 228 in Babees Bk. 306 Ne at the dyces with him to play. 1474 CAXTON Chesse 132 He caste thre dyse and on eche dyse was a sise. 1483 Cath. Angl. 99/1 A Dice, taxillus, alea. 1552 HULOET, Dice or die, alea, talus, thessera. 1677 GALE Crt. Gentiles III. 100 Amongst the Grecians {kappa}{upsilon}{beta}{epsilon}{iota}{alpha} signifies a Dice..the cast of a Dice was most casual and incertain. 1751 MRS. E. HEYWOOD Hist. Betsy Thoughtless IV. 202 Protesting never to touch a card or throw a dice again.

 ”

Apparently what I think of as "childish confusion" is old and venerable. Nonetheless, I think that in the present century the first form is standard among literate people. Michael Hardy 19:58, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I've also just noticed that our own Wikipedia deals with this linguistic confusion in a satisfactorily elegant manner by providing a description that's both concise and exhaustive at the same time: Because of this, the singular word "die" is rare, but treating "dice" as interchangeably singular or plural is less common; the plural form "dices" is rarer still. (From Dice.)
—6birc, 04:08, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Just for amusement, our secretary once "corrected" a version of our observatory report to say that we had several "star atlantes" (not "atlases"). I found that "atlas" had two plurals. "Atlases" for collections of maps or the like, and "Atlantes" for two or more statues of Atlas holding up the Earth! Carrionluggage 09:52, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Please use the Move tab instead of cut&paste to 'rename' articles

EG Spearmint (chewing gum) to Spearmint (flavour). If you have performed similar moves, please report them to Wikipedia:Cut and paste move repair holding pen. Thanks. Ravenna1961 06:11, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

I've got the lesson. Thank you!
—6birc, 20:33, 30 October 2007 (UTC)