Post by Dave Miller on Oct 24, 2020 22:10:18 GMT
Mmm, I must admit that I felt unsatisfied - or perhaps disappointed - at the examples given of numeronyms. I understand the idea that they are words formed from numbers, but c10k and the like just seem like abbreviations of structure. I’ve never encountered any of those listed, so any of my own determining, such as A26m (Antidisestablishmentarianism) and o0n (on) might be just as valid - and then, in their potentially almost infinite range, of no interest at all.
I’d include “y2k”, certainly, as that is the full, unabridged, totally representative common-use name of the problem we (thought we) were facing as the major change in year-number approached. Perhaps also “101”, as in “He didn’t know that? Wow, that’s Biology 101”. I suppose “ten”, “four” and so on don’t count, but I’d include “ten-four” (even spelled like that). Probably “69”, too. These are more directly nyms which are numbers, but which carry non-numeric meaning.
Edit: further thought leads me to wonder what is the opposite of numeronym - where the number is known and written not by numerals, but by its name or letter? For example i (the square root of -1), e (the base of the natural log) or pi/π.
I’d include “y2k”, certainly, as that is the full, unabridged, totally representative common-use name of the problem we (thought we) were facing as the major change in year-number approached. Perhaps also “101”, as in “He didn’t know that? Wow, that’s Biology 101”. I suppose “ten”, “four” and so on don’t count, but I’d include “ten-four” (even spelled like that). Probably “69”, too. These are more directly nyms which are numbers, but which carry non-numeric meaning.
Edit: further thought leads me to wonder what is the opposite of numeronym - where the number is known and written not by numerals, but by its name or letter? For example i (the square root of -1), e (the base of the natural log) or pi/π.
