Talk:sexa-

Six is NOT Sixty

There is a conflation happening here. Sexagenarian is not a six-year-old but a senior citizen. Sexagesimal is not counting by sixes but by sixties. The only derived term in the list I can't dispute is sexavalent. And that's only because I don't know enough about it -- not because I agree with it!! 70.27.169.176 21:07, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

I've nominated it for deletion- if it exists at all, it's Latin, with the compounds having been borrowed whole into English. Chuck Entz (talk) 03:56, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

It can't be deleted because it is part of a linked series, with quinque- coming before and septua- following. There is a "taboo avoidance" thing going on though in English because people don't want to say "sex" so they adulterate the prefix or else take recourse to "hexa-" from Greek in preference to Latin. This should be noted in the entry. 70.27.169.176 14:36, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Final a

it's sextet, not sexatet. This prefix doesn't exist, or only by confusion with hexa-. 85.1.110.79 11:08, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I updated the entry to show that the a appears only for euphony. Note the list of derived terms to see that sexa- is a prefix. Rod (A. Smith) 18:14, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

RFD discussion: March 2020–April 2021

The following information passed a request 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.

---

sexa-

As was noted on the talk page, all but one of the derived terms are about sixty, not six.

What I noticed is that removing the prefix leaves things that don't seem like real morphemes (genarian?, gesimal?). Also, the compounding seems to have been in Latin, not in English.

Finally, this is simply not used in the dictionary: none of the derived terms references it in its etymology, and the category for the prefix is empty. Chuck Entz (talk) 03:54, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

• It's an old form of hexa-. I've modified it accordingly. SemperBlotto (talk) 08:38, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

  It’s not just a matter of age but of provenance; sexa- meaning "six" is dog Latin, whereas hexa- is from the genuine Ancient Greek prefix ἑξα- (hexa-).  --Lambiam 11:10, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

A New Eng. Dict.[1] mentions it in passing as an irreg. form of sex-, sexi-. It looks like the definitions of sexa- and sex- in Wiktionary are a bit mixed up. -Mike (talk) 17:55, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Keep I don't see how this one page can be deleted when it is part of a linked series of parallel terms (numeral prefixes), with quinque- before it and septua- after it. It was never the issue that sexa- was incorrect as the prefix for "six" but that the examples provided were for "sixty". Just find better examples!! Also, there is an issue of "taboo avoidance" in English concerning the prefix "sexa-" because it conjures up too many naughty images. This should be noted in the entry. English has leaned to preference for the Greek "hexa-" even in otherwise Latinate contexts. Again, this should be noted, but the special circumstances or connotations surrounding "sexa-" do not invalidate the entry itself. 70.27.169.176 15:19, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Keep - Dentonius (my politics | talk) 13:30, 4 October 2020 (UTC)

RFD kept — Dentonius 09:10, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

Reopened. Not enough input to call this. ←₰-→ Lingo ^Bingo _Dingo (talk) 11:01, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

{{look}}

Chuck opened this with the argument that this wasn't properly attested (which is really an RFV issue). Semper then provided some derived terms. Seems open-and-shut. Keep.__Gamren (talk) 13:27, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Keep, as there are sexadecimal, sexagon, sexavalent. --幽霊四 (talk) 01:42, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

• Keep for all the excellent reasons above. Used in sexangular as a synonym of hexangular (six-sided). Facts707 (talk) 13:22, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Kept. There is definitely now enough input to call this. bd2412 T 20:54, 11 April 2021 (UTC)