Talk:drift

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The following information passed a request for deletion.

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.


rfd-sense: "The material left behind by the retreat of continental glaciers. It buries former river valleys and creates young river valleys. The Driftless Area, a geographical area of North America, was unglaciated for the past 510 million years. Mass noun." Should this be a new entry or is it too encyclopedic? DCDuring TALK 23:39, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Keep it, but remove that part about the Driftless Area (which does make the definition sound a bit encyclopedic). There's no need for a new entry.--♠TBC♠ 02:42, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Kept with a citation from a 19th century science magazine matching the definition. --Jackofclubs 12:23, 16 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

RFV discussion: April–October 2012[edit]

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.


Encyclopetey wrote in his friendly tone that I should "not regroup senses for English entries, as your knowledge of English does not seem adequate to distinguish different senses". Therefore I need to ask the rest of the community whether you also think that the senses 2 and 11 on one hand and 10 and 24 on the other listed for drift actually constitute two senses instead of four:

2. A place, also known as a ford, along a river where the water is shallow enough to permit oxen or sheep to be driven to the opposite side.
11. (South Africa) a ford in a river.
10. A collection of loose earth and rocks, or boulders, which have been distributed over large portions of the earth's surface, especially in latitudes north of forty degrees, by the agency of ice.
24. (geology) The material left behind by the retreat of continental glaciers, which buries former river valleys and creates young river valleys.

--Hekaheka (talk) 09:31, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have to agree with you on this one. Mglovesfun (talk) 10:57, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I generally agree with the combination of the senses. But I wonder whether "drift" is used in a non-technical sense as well as a technical sense. I always wonder about definitions of a phenomenon that include stories of the origins of a phenomenon, whether those stories are based on science or folklore. DCDuring TALK 12:05, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I can't believe EncycloPetey doesn't consider "a place, also known as a ford" and "a ford" to be the same definition. Mglovesfun (talk) 17:38, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved. - -sche (discuss) 02:07, 2 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]