Re: correct English usage
On Mon, 2 Apr 2012, Paul E Condon wrote:
As far as I know, Squeeze is posterior to Lenny, and the recommended
^^^^^^^^^
This is the wrong word in English to describe the relation between
Squeeze and Lenny. Maybe OK in some other European language, but not
in English.
. .
For named releases of software and to express a relationship in time,
posterior is the wrong word in English.
Since the thread seemed mainly about correct English usage, I thought
it would be helpful to point this out before the word got incorporated
into Debian documentation.
I agree that it is important to have a correct English usage, at least in
the documention, and that I am less qualified than you in that field.
Still, I am really puzzled by what I found in several dictionnaries.
I admit that most of the translation tools found on Internet are
not very reliable, but I thought that it was not the case for dictionnaries.
Here are some results I got for the "posterior" entry:
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
1 chiefly Anatomy further back in position . . .
2 Medicine . . .
3 formal coming after in time or order; later.
WordReference English Thesaurus © 2012
Sense: Subsequent, succeeding, next, following
Sense: Behind, at the rear, dorsal, in back o, back
Collinsdictionary.com
1. situated at the back of or behind something
2. coming after or following another in a series
3. coming after in time
Are all these distionnaries wrong?
--
Pierre Frenkiel
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