Talk:drinking water

RFD discussion: July–August 2018

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drinking water

Is this SoP? See also Wiktionary:Requests_for_deletion/Non-English#питьева́я_вода́_(pitʹjevája_vodá). --Anatoli T. ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 01:57, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

It is extremely common and something of a set phrase (we don't talk about "drinking juice" or "eating plants" [noun phrases]). Could be reduced to a translation target or something... very useful phrase for travellers. Equinox ◑ 02:05, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

Keep. It's a set phrase and means more than just drinking + water. ---> Tooironic (talk) 04:30, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

If it passes, I want to know on what grounds. I'm OK with a "translation target" being very useful for tourists, etc. but I am not sure it's idiomatic or a set phrase. Is it because it's "drinking", not "drinkable"? Maybe worth checking lemmings? --Anatoli T. ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 04:58, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

Comparable phrases (Y for doing X with) might include eating apple, cooking sherry, living room. This kind of phrase was traditionally hyphenated (to distinguish the living-room from the room that is somehow alive!) but in my experience 99% of modern English users have almost zero understanding of hyphens. Equinox ◑ 05:04, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

Keep, reference added. I can remember when I was young we had a well where the water was unsuitable for drinking, due to iron content I think, and we had to rely on rainwater for drinking water. DonnanZ (talk) 05:52, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

It passes the lemming test, being in many dictionaries (ODO, MWO, Dictionary.com, Cambridge, Macmillan,...), and seems like a set phrase. I don't know that I could articulate why it might be idiomatic, though. To Equinox's examples above might be added drinking horn, which we also have. Compare German fließend Wasser, where the form differs from fließendes Wasser. - -sche (discuss) 06:28, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

So, keep. - -sche (discuss) 21:34, 19 July 2018 (UTC)

Keep as a set phrase meaning "potable water". — SGconlaw (talk) 06:45, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

Keep - set phase. John Cross (talk) 19:37, 12 July 2018 (UTC)

• Kept --New WT User Girl (talk) 23:31, 3 August 2018 (UTC)