From: Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>
Subject: [OT] "sensible" in English (was: Please list all the Ada libraries you know)
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:56:50 +0100
Date: 2013-03-06T20:56:50+01:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87ppzci9od.fsf_-_@ludovic-brenta.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: cb3ebee2-b0fb-4e56-8c4a-a1bf52ce4e25@googlegroups.com
Adam Beneschan writes on comp.lang.ada:
> On Wednesday, March 6, 2013 11:01:24 AM UTC-8, Niklas Holsti wrote:
>
>> So "sensible" has multiple meanings.
>
> You may be technically correct. My usual source, m-w.com, also lists
> a number of similar meanings. But I have to say that, in 52 years of
> speaking and reading (American) English, I have *never* seen or heard
> the word "sensible" used in that manner, or in any manner other than
> what's given in the 4th definition at m-w.com, "having, containing, or
> indicative of good sense or reason", or the 5th one. The examples
> they give in the first three definitions sound like a foreign language
> to me. Frankly, I'm surprised to seem them there at all. Perhaps I'm
> the outlier here, and other English speakers have heard the word
> "sensible" used with one of those meanings fairly often. If so, I'd
> be interested to hear from them. But based on my own experience, if
> you use the word "sensible" like that, other people will not
> understand what you're talking about. And being technically correct
> counts for little if you're not understood. So I'm standing by what I
> said.
I'll have to support Adam here. As a Frenchman I learned early on that
"sensible" was a "false friend" to native French speakers -- it looks
and sounds like a French word -- indeed, it *is* originally a French
word -- but has a totally different meaning than in French. In French,
"sensible" means "sensitive" while the English "sensible" should be
translated as "sensé" (i.e. "that which makes sense"). I've never
encountered a different meaning, not even when reading Tolkien or
Shakespeare, who are both known for their "creative" use of English :)
--
Ludovic Brenta.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-03-06 19:56 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 38+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-03-03 16:42 Please list all the Ada libraries you know ferrariv65
2013-03-03 17:13 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2013-03-03 17:29 ` J-P. Rosen
2013-03-03 19:18 ` Jacob Sparre Andersen
2013-03-04 1:02 ` Shark8
2013-03-04 1:23 ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
2013-03-04 3:32 ` Shark8
2013-03-04 6:32 ` J-P. Rosen
2013-03-04 20:43 ` Adam Beneschan
2013-03-04 21:09 ` gautier_niouzes
2013-03-04 22:57 ` Shark8
2013-03-04 21:13 ` Ludovic Brenta
2013-03-06 6:15 ` J-P. Rosen
2013-03-06 7:15 ` Simon Wright
2013-03-06 15:09 ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
2013-03-06 16:03 ` Simon Wright
2013-03-06 17:36 ` Simon Wright
2013-03-06 17:08 ` Adam Beneschan
2013-03-06 19:01 ` Niklas Holsti
2013-03-06 19:34 ` Adam Beneschan
2013-03-06 19:56 ` Ludovic Brenta [this message]
2013-03-06 20:33 ` [OT] "sensible" in English Niklas Holsti
2013-03-07 7:04 ` Geoff
2013-03-07 7:47 ` Jeffrey Carter
2013-03-07 10:23 ` Georg Bauhaus
2013-03-11 16:04 ` [OT] "sensible" in English (was: Please list all the Ada libraries you know) Ada novice
2013-03-06 20:15 ` Please list all the Ada libraries you know Niklas Holsti
2013-03-07 2:41 ` Randy Brukardt
2013-03-07 6:56 ` Geoff
2013-03-07 7:20 ` Simon Wright
2013-03-06 21:01 ` J-P. Rosen
2013-03-06 21:44 ` Adam Beneschan
2013-03-04 8:12 ` Simon Wright
2013-03-04 20:29 ` Shark8
2013-03-06 0:28 ` Jerry
2013-03-07 21:42 ` mockturtle
2013-03-08 9:02 ` Björn Persson
2013-03-07 22:02 ` slos
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