Talk:absolute

RFV discussion (1)

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The grammar sense: "The first of the three degrees of comparison". I have understood that this is the definition of positive and that an absolute adjective is one that is used as a noun. --Hekaheka 11:12, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

This is my understanding too. Examples of adjectives used absolutely as nouns are "mobile" and "portable", meaning "mobile phone" and "portable TV/radio/etc" respectively. I don't know whether "absolute" is a synonym for "positive" as in the three degrees of comparison, so I can't comment on that, but I suspect the contributor was confusing the two terms. — Paul G 09:21, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Short reply: It looks like this sense is real, but not a grammar sense.

Long reply: Going through the Google hits, (deprecated template usage) absolute as applied to adjectives seems to have a few different uses, here in order of [my impression of their] frequency: (1) ≈incomparable, said of an adjective that supposedly cannot be compared for semantic reasons, (2) ≈substantive, said of an adjective used as a noun (or with an implicit noun), (3) ≈set off, said of an adjective that is not explicitly attributed or predicated to its noun. Notably, none of these matches the sense in question; however, the OED's sense 10 is “Viewed without relation to, or comparison with, other things of the same kind; considered only in its relation to space or existence as a whole, or to some permanent standard; real, actual; opposed to (deprecated template usage) relative and (deprecated template usage) comparative”, and it goes on to define (deprecated template usage) superlative absolute as “that which expresses a very high degree of quality, as distinct from stating that it is the highest of a set compared together ((deprecated template usage) superlative relative)”. On the other hand, not one of the OED's quotations is about adjectives specifically or grammar generally — its modify-ees are “height of mountains” (1666), “misery” (1753), “space” (1785), “motion” (1822), and “quantity of moisture in the air” (1878).

—Ruakh_TALK 04:02, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

I regard this sense as unverified - deleted --Hekaheka 20:10, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

RFV discussion (2)

[1]

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Rfv-sense: Noun sense 2: "(grammar) The first of the three degrees of comparison." Created here, rfv-ed 6 Aug 08 here, but the link is dead - was it brought here, and if so, what was the conclusion? --Duncan 17:39, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

The discussion is at #absolute (noun) above. DCDuring TALK 18:53, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. --Duncan 20:27, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Striking - settled cf link above. --Duncan 21:54, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

RFC discussion: July 2015–February 2021

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absolute

This article, particularly the adjectival sense is an absolute mess. The glosses on the translation tables don't clearly match up with definitions, are out of order, and many are missing. I attempted to rearrange the definitions a bit to add some clarity, but I found the mess absolutely confusing myself, so what I've done may be undone without causing me any offense, so long as the article is improved. The definitions also contain a level of vocabulary above that of the word they're defining, which will absolutely not be helpful to most people looking up the word.

I was halfway through fixing the translation section when my browser crashed, leaving me absolutely annoyed, so I'm afraid I must pass the unpleasant job off to someone else, since I feel what I tried to do ended up being an absolute waste of time. Andrew Sheedy (talk) 19:35, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

I've overhauled the adjective section, following a Tea Room thread which highlighted the same issue. I've moved the tag into the noun section, which I'll try to overhaul later. - -sche (discuss) 05:57, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

I'm glad someone finally got around to it! I'd forgotten about this... Andrew Sheedy (talk) 17:41, 13 July 2018 (UTC)

@-sche — surjection ⟨??⟩ 21:41, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

I combined a few senses, and expanded the first sense, and added citations to various senses, including the neat chemistry sense. I did not attempt to verify the existence or correctness of the geometry sense. What do you think of the entry as it stands now? - -sche (discuss) 22:59, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

I think it looks much better now, so I suggest closing this RFC. @Andrew Sheedy? — surjection ⟨??⟩ 07:35, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

So much better. Thanks -sche! Feel free to archive or remove this discussion. Andrew Sheedy (talk) 13:29, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

Absolute verb; yourself

b. Of, relating to, or being a transitive verb when its object is implied but not stated. For example, inspires in We have a teacher who inspires is an absolute verb.

Yourself (pronoun) 1c. Used in an absolute construction: In office yourself, you helped push the bill along.  Yourself having so little money, how could they expect you to help?

--Backinstadiums (talk) 09:44, 24 July 2021 (UTC)