Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pedantry

Better way to say "datacentre"?

TheophileEscargot — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:04:59 -0800

Is there a more elegant, grammatical or pedantic way to say "datacentre"? Both words have Latin origins, but there seems to be something clumsy about that combination. Should it be a datumcentre? One word, two words or hyphenated?

When is a cover song not a cover song?

SansPoint — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:13:30 -0800

Is it still, technically, a cover song when the original songwriter records a track that they wrote for someone else? Take, as an example, Iggy Pop's "China Girl" - written by David Bowie for Iggy and recorded in 1977. In 1983, Bowie rerecorded it and put it on the Let's Dance album. Another example, slightly more obscure is "Video Killed the Radio Star" - written by Trevor Horn for Bruce Wooley and The Camera Club, and then re-recorded by Horn's group Buggles. We know which of those versions was better known.

There's other examples too. Are the re-recorded versions, then, still covers, or is there some other term for this?

de Medici or de' Medici? Apostrophe or no?

otio — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:43:05 -0800

Anyone know the reason why in some sources de Medici (as in Catherine, Marie, Lorenzo) takes an apostrophe like so: de' Medici. Wikipedia uses this form, for example. Newspapers don't seem to bother with the apostrophe.

Full stop, no stop, or what?

pdb — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:19:00 -0800

How do I end a sentence that's a list item? I'm creating some end user documentation for my work, and I have several processes delineated as numbered lists, like so:

1. Open Remedy
2. Choose the Update Employee Information form
3. Completely fill out the form
4. Click Save, note the ticket number

etc.

My question is, do there need to be periods at the end of these lines? The ones above are short, but I have several items that are at least a "real" sentence length - it seems awkward to not end them with a period, but on the other hand in a list format it doesn't seem quite right, either, if that makes sense. Any advice?

What is the History of English Capitalization?

freebird — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 09:41:00 -0800

What is the History of English Language Capitalization? I have been Interested for some time in the Capitalization used in Older English Texts - I think of the style as fading into the "Modern" System sometime in the 1800s, but have No Idea if that is Accurate. Many "Improper" Nouns and even some Verbs are Capitalized, but it often Appears as though there is little System to it all but Individual Aesthetic. Is that the case? If not, what is the Underlying Method? When and Why did it change?

As a fairly representative Example, this Text (via Mefi).

is none singular?

cortex — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 17:44:12 -0800

Which is correct, and why? (a) "None of those were..." (b) "None of those was..." I mean, seriously. Is "none" singular?