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

[Jim Peavler]

How about "datura-base" (dhatura if you are a Hindu). Is one dose a  
daturum? Oh, that's another (interesting) subject.

On Jan 6, 2007, at 10:31 AM, Richard Hayes wrote:

> 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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Jim Peavler
jmp at peavler.org