Talk:hot as hell

RFD discussion: April–May 2016

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hot as hell

hot + as hell. --Romanophile ♞ (contributions) 00:22, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

Delete per #scared as hell (to be archived at Talk:scared as hell) —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 00:28, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

The entry is written badly but keep because Hell is actually hot, so it's a legitimate simile, like "cold as ice" or "silent as the tomb". This makes it distinct from "ugly, annoying, cool, funny... as hell" where Hell has no actual role to play. Equinox ◑ 00:59, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

• Keep high-frequency similes for the encoding direction. idioms.thefreedictionary.com[1] has it; there it says The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. One Ngram search: hot as hell,crazy as hell,cold as ice,scared as hell at Google Ngram Viewer. --Dan Polansky (talk) 06:55, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
• I feel like saying delete per Dan Polansky who points out it's not idiomatic. '[F]or the encoding direction' he means they make good translation targets (he will correct me no doubt if I'm wrong) but that's not in CFI, ergo delete per Dan Polansky. Renard Migrant (talk) 16:08, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

  CFI says "In rare cases, a phrase that is arguably unidiomatic may be included by the consensus of the community, based on the determination of editors that inclusion of the term is likely to be useful to readers." Admittedly, that was added without a vote proposing that wording but rather as a result of a failed vote that proposed something else: Wiktionary:Votes/2014-11/Entries which do not meet CFI to be deleted even if there is a consensus to keep. I find it eminently reasonable and good to include some sum of parts terms as long as there is a meaningful rationale to keep them, and the vote shows I am not alone. I find it obvious that deleting fat as a cow did not help our readers of this multi-lingual dictionary at all.

  Let me further note that "hot as hell" is something you say in English but not in Czech, per google:"horký jako peklo" and google:"horko jako v pekle"; in Czech, you may say horko jako v peci (hot as in furnace). Sum-of-parts nay-sayers would probably delete horko jako v peci as well since it is obvious that there is a great heat in furnace; but the point is the encoding direction: how do you know that they say it that way in the first place? --Dan Polansky (talk) 08:56, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

• Delete. The fact that it makes sense makes it less idiomatic, not more idiomatic. We don't have or need hot as fire. --WikiTiki89 16:52, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

• But nobody actually says "hot as fire", nor "hot as electric blankets", nor "hot as a car engine". This is idiomatic. Equinox ◑ 08:30, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

  Doesn't look like nobody to me. --WikiTiki89 17:29, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

• Hm, seems you are right. So I'd be correct in thinking you would also want to delete "cold as ice", yes? Equinox ◑ 23:14, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

• Keep. This one actually makes sense. It is an actual simile. It was likely the original "as hell" combination. Then people started using other adjectives before "as hell" producing "scared as hell", "dark as hell" etc. 2602:306:3653:8920:2077:A92C:8FB3:77AF 17:53, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

• Keep in my opinion. - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 04:17, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
• RFD kept: no consensus for deletions. There are 4 keeps; more than a month elapsed from nomination. --Dan Polansky (talk) 08:49, 22 May 2016 (UTC)