- From: Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 11:21:53 -0700
- To: Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com>
- Cc: Alan Stearns <stearns@adobe.com>, www-style list <www-style@w3.org>
On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 6:32 AM, Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Jul 21, 2015, at 9:25 PM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 8:24 AM, Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> On Jul 20, 2015, at 10:01 PM, Alan Stearns <stearns@adobe.com> wrote: >>>>> On 7/20/15, 9:50 PM, "Brad Kemper" <brad.kemper@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> “Embiggening” is a word that is hard to take seriously. How about >>>>> “Expanding”? >>>> >>>> If I absolutely had to change the section title, I’d probably use >>>> “Expanding.” >>>> >>>> But I’m perversely reluctant, because I like the word. It’s just one part >>>> of the section title, which (to my knowledge) isn’t normative text. We >>>> have a tradition of levity in CSS section titles (see the 2.x Appendices). >>>> And if there’s even a tiny chance of this spec providing a citation for >>>> the word’s future dictionary inclusion, I want to help stack those odds. >>> >>> Really? Because I think that if there is even a tiny chance that this spec would add legitimacy to such a silly and unnecessary word, then we should leave it out. No offense, just a very different opinion. >> >> It's a perfectly cromulent word, from the well-known aphorism "A noble >> spirit embiggens the smallest man". > > That is from “The Simpsons”. Is that our standard? If a cartoon uses a word, it is good enough for us? I thought the specs were supposed to be written in real English, not in made-up TV show language. Maybe we should have a lang=“tv” attribute on our HTML. That's all real English; there's no English Authority defining which words are in and which are out. Embiggening is clear even to people who haven't heard the word before (unlike cromulent). Chill, it's a mildly amusing in-joke in a section title that doesn't detract or distract from the spec. ~TJ
Received on Thursday, 23 July 2015 18:22:40 UTC