Talk:stopgap

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Wikipedia Edit History[edit]

This page was m:Transwikied from Wikipedia. Below is the edit history for the Wikipedia article.

Why 'stopgap' preferred to 'stop-gap'?[edit]

Just doing a quick Wikipedia search: 'stop-gap' gains 4000-odd hits, while 'stopgap' has only 400-odd. Why is 'stop-gap' listed as the alternative spelling when it is the more prevalent usage? EdJogg 11:06, 26 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Google Book Search suggests that they’re about æqually common (vide: stop-gap vs. stopgap; 2,570:2,720). I’ll go make the two forms parallel entries per the resolution to the façade–facade controversy. † ﴾(u):Raifʻhār (t):Doremítzwr﴿ 15:45, 26 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

RFD discussion: September 2019–May 2020[edit]

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for deletion (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.

The adjective section: not an adjective. 31.173.85.103 18:07, 20 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever is decided here should also apply to stop-gap. -Mike (talk) 21:17, 20 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Delete the adjective, but keep the usex and put it in the noun section. Incidentally, stop-gap is less common than stopgap in the UK, so that statement is wrong. DonnanZ (talk) 23:14, 20 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I've almost never seen it hyphenated; that would look quite dated to me. The statements might still be correct with some really sneaky interpretation, i.e. "stopgap is more common in the US" (...than stop-gap is), while "stop-gap is more common in the UK" (...than it is in the US). Perhaps best just to remove. Equinox ◑ 23:24, 20 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Is this 'Ngram' syntax correct? I'm really not sure. If it is, it shows "stopgap" now significantly more common than "stop-gap" in the US, and the two now roughly equal in the UK. Mihia (talk) 01:26, 21 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Keep adjective. M-W indicates "stopgap" as "noun, often attributive"[1]; AHD has an adjective[2], Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition at collinsdictionary.com has an adjective[3]. “stopgap”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.. Searching for "is stopgap" finds the following predicative adjectival uses:
  • "It is stopgap in the sense that it is intended to continue in force until the complete ..."
  • "Their income is stopgap until a transition can be made ..."
  • "The trouble with the mechanism is that it is stopgap and piecemeal."
  • "Hand pallet and powered pallet trucks are needed for use in aircraft Skate conveyor can be used in the plane, but I feel that this is stopgap and that the way to ..."
  • "Welfare or unearned income (at the lower end of the economy, not the higher end) is stopgap and stigmatized."
  • "Everything else in the U.S. aid package is stopgap ..."
While attributive uses can be explained away as attributive uses of a noun, predicative uses not so.
--Dan Polansky (talk) 10:59, 15 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
In GoogleBooks you can also find a few examples like "more stopgap than imaginative", "more stopgap than sustainable", or "the most stop-gap [whatever]". -Mike (talk) 05:00, 24 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Mike: Good finds. So is that a keep from you? Or abstain? --Dan Polansky (talk) 08:55, 29 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I would keep. -Mike (talk) 19:57, 29 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I think there are some borderline cases where nouns can be used ad hoc apparently as adjectives, yet may not merit a full adjective listing. For example, we could also cite "this solution is very workaround" or "the most bodge job" (BrE), but do we want adjective sections for "workaround" and "bodge"? I'm not sure. I suppose this RFD depends on which side of the line "stopgap" falls, in terms of frequency of properly established adjectival use. Maybe it's OK. Mihia (talk) 19:43, 10 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • RFD-kept: no consensus for deletion: 2 bold keeps and 2 bold deletes if I include the nom, which is anonymous and maybe should not be included. I am one of the 2 keeps but since no one closed this for such a long time, I am closing it based on the support-oppose counts. Even if I count Equinox' "Perhaps best just to remove" as a delete, we get 2 keeps and 3 deletes => no consensus. --Dan Polansky (talk) 10:14, 2 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]


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