Talk:naked-ape

RFV discussion: April–July 2016

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

---

naked-ape

I couldn't find even a single use in google books. 73.71.174.75 08:09, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

You tagged the term for deletion, so I created a discussion at "Wiktionary:Requests for deletion#naked-ape". — SMUconlaw (talk) 10:17, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

There is agreement at that page that the discussion should continue here, so I've copied the discussion below. — SMUconlaw (talk) 17:18, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

[Copied from "Wiktionary:Requests for deletion#naked-ape".]

An anonymous poster nominated this term on the basis that there are "[n]o uses in google books". I found one (and only one so far), but do we generally create entries for attributive uses of this sort? — SMUconlaw (talk) 10:13, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

We should just nuke all of these for a) redundancy to hyphenless form b) wrong part of speech (noun, per definition) and c) many of them seem to not even exist. Renard Migrant (talk) 16:09, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Sorry, my bad. 73.71.174.75 16:42, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

"[A]ll of these"? 73.71.174.75, did you create a number of such entries? If so, please identify them so they can be reviewed. Thanks. — SMUconlaw (talk) 17:00, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

I only created hyphenated versions when actual uses can be found. I didn't create this one. I think hyphenated variants should be in the dictionary when they are used that way. 73.71.174.75 18:58, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Renard is suggesting that such variants may not be necessary. Perhaps we could hear from other editors on this issue and reach a consensus before you continue to create more of such entries. — SMUconlaw (talk) 19:43, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Using a hyphenated form of a multi-part noun, even one that is dictionary-worthy, is basically a matter of style. I sometimes use them to help disambiguate the interpretation of a noun or other phrase.

As the search engine seems to take users to the unhyphenated form when an entry for such is available, I don't see much of a rationale for keeping these. Even for vernacular names of animals that sometimes appear in specialized and dated works, I don't see the rationale. Unlinked alternative forms don't seem objectionable to me. There should be relatively few hyphenated entries in English, IMO. Terms like devil-may-care and Schleswig-Holstein are examples of exceptions, I think. DCDuring TALK 21:09, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

This is not a new discussion. The usual route has to be to correct them and put them through RFV. I think correcting them could be a bot job. I wouldn't really mind mass-deletion but I don't think there's a consensus for it, not in other discussions and likely not now either. Renard Migrant (talk) 22:09, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Put it this way. All words in all languages versus all typographical variants in all languages. Are snow-leopard and snow leopard really different words? They have identical spelling but non-identical typography. Compare clubhouse and Clubhouse. But yes... this is not a page for policy discussion. Renard Migrant (talk) 22:59, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Send to RFV and hopefully discuss the wider issue somewhere, because I hate these entries too, and agree with Renard that it's similar to having upper- and lower-case words. Equinox ◑ 08:29, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Actually I got that comparison from you in the first place. Just for clarity's sake. Renard Migrant (talk) 10:50, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

• RFV failed: no citations provided. Feel free to start a discussion about the wider issue in the WT:Beer parlour if anyone is interested. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 23:35, 25 July 2016 (UTC)