Talk:ozone
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RFV[edit]
The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification.
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.
Rfv-sense: (informally but erroneously) Fresh air, especially that breathed at the seaside and smelling of seaweed. Tagged but not listed, a bit of a strange one. Mglovesfun (talk) 12:26, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
- Looks good to me. The OED has " Also colloq.: fresh, invigorating air." and also " fig. Something fresh or invigorating." SemperBlotto 12:33, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
- It sounds ok to me; the definition needs to be a bit better, such as no 'smelling of seaweed'. Mglovesfun (talk) 12:39, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
- Compact Oxford shows it as UK informal. I'm not familiar with the sense in the US currently. DCDuring TALK 17:30, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
- The word has been used in this sense of fresh or invigorating (seaside air) in the UK since 1865. The OED has three cites spanning 127 years. I'm sure we can find many more, but our entry does need attention. We should blame the error on the Victorians who confused ozone with dimethyl sulfide! There's a completely different US slangy usage. Dbfirs 11:30, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
- Compact Oxford shows it as UK informal. I'm not familiar with the sense in the US currently. DCDuring TALK 17:30, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
- It sounds ok to me; the definition needs to be a bit better, such as no 'smelling of seaweed'. Mglovesfun (talk) 12:39, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
- I've added some citations (of each sense). SemperBlotto 20:44, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks. All of those citations seem to me to indicate a belief that the beaches smell of actual ozone. Certainly the author of the 1998 cite means literal ozone, else his statement would make no sense, and the 2004 and 2007 cites talk about the smell of ozone plus other seaside smells. Maybe the sense should tagged "by confusion" or something? —RuakhTALK 20:56, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
{{look}}
- Anyone else have an opinion on whether the cites are using the RFVed sense? - -sche (discuss) 05:15, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
- This seems to be a case of a sort of reverse Hesperus is Phosphorus. Presumably the reasoning was: ozone has a pungent smell, and so does rotting seaweed, so seaweed must contain ozone. Having made that step, it seems perfectly natural to reason that since the seaside is a healthy place, ozone must be good for you. — Pingkudimmi 06:33, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
- Because the OED has it, I'll close this as "kept", although I don't think the cites given support the meaning given. - -sche (discuss) 20:27, 19 October 2011 (UTC)