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Post by Geoff on Apr 30, 2009 22:24:29 GMT
I wasn't going to ask this question, but it's bugging me. I was having my breakfast a while ago with the TV playing in the background. The speaker in one advertisement spoke of the adaption of a book. No, while my attention was not focussed fully on the TV, I did not mistake what was said, adaption, not adaptation. Is there such a word as adaption?
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Post by Verbivore on May 1, 2009 0:15:00 GMT
According to my Merriam-Webster's Collegiate (10th edn), adaption has been around since the mid-1700s -- about a century less than adaptation. The era is the only information given, accompanied by a cross-reference to adaptation.
The SOED doesn't mention it at all.
The Macquarie has a bare entry for it, with an immediate cross-reference to adaptation.
Although I acknowledge the logic of adaption (from adapt~), it sounds wrong; I've rarely seen it written, and usually hear it only from under-educated speakers (their under-education being apparent from numerous other clues).
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Post by Sue M-V on May 1, 2009 0:31:06 GMT
Is there such a word as adaption? It depends on what you mean by "word"! But I regard it as a bit of folk etymology, or just a misconstruing of "adaptation". I don't like it and I never use it. It is certainly used by other people, though. I remember recoiling at a huge sign that someone had put up in York Minster many moons ago apologising for any inconvenience caused by the "adaptions" to the building! It might catch on in time, as it's shorter. Sue |
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Post by Verbivore on May 1, 2009 4:05:48 GMT
[...] It might catch on in time, as it's shorter. Sue It has already long caught on in Oz, I'm afraid. To my ear it just sounds ugly. (Is that why the extra syllable was there in the first place?  ) |
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Post by Geoff on May 1, 2009 8:05:00 GMT
Is there such a word as adaption? It depends on what you mean by "word"! Interesting, Sue. You know what I mean, I'm sure. (Is this shades of 'the great unwashed'?) So, how would you have asked my question? |
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Post by Sue M-V on May 2, 2009 14:10:46 GMT
I was only joking, Geoff! I'd have said the same as you and then have sat back to wait till some smart-Alec asked my follow-up question! It's like going into a pub with a group, and finding you're a chair short, and going over to a table and asking "excuse me, is this chair taken?" whereupon someone will always say "No, it still seems to be there"! I was perhaps prompted by the fact that, since you'd written it, and evidently knew what it meant, and someone else had used it, meaning something, then it must be a "word" according to the strictest interpretation! But I did, indeed, know what you meant! Sue  |
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Post by Pete on May 3, 2009 11:11:01 GMT
The SOED doesn't mention it at all. It does, Vv, but it's at the end of the entry for 'adapt'. It tells us that 'adaption' is M17 and a synonym of 'adaptation', which has its own entry and is E17. I assume there is some complicated rule whereby two words that mean exactly the same thing cannot be Tone's true synonym?  |
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Post by Dave on May 3, 2009 16:25:48 GMT
I assume there is some complicated rule whereby two words that mean exactly the same thing cannot be Tone's true synonym? The rules are there to block, not aid! |
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Post by Tone on May 3, 2009 21:04:35 GMT
>The rules are there to block, not aid! <
Harsh ... but true.
a) The "rules" rule out a variant spelling ... but is it merely that?
b) There is plenty of evidence that it is not a generally accepted "word", so should it be counted as slang or dialect and thus not be fully interchangeable "in all circumstances"?
Tone
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Post by Pete on May 3, 2009 22:21:22 GMT
>The rules are there to block, not aid! <Harsh ... but true. a) The "rules" rule out a variant spelling ... but is it merely that? b) There is plenty of evidence that it is not a generally accepted "word", so should it be counted as slang or dialect and thus not be fully interchangeable "in all circumstances"? Tone It's in the SOED, with no reference to being slang or dialect. So there!  |
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