Talk:per

Pursuant

I have always used "per" as a shortened form of "pursuant" (to). Thus: "I moved this page per request." This usage might be mainly from the legal profession. I'm afraid my limited print resources don't list it. --Stranger 00:16, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

"per" meaning "according to", or "in accordance with" is not yet standard English, and is considered erroneous by strict stylists.--anonymous

And as always the strict stylists are left in the dust, I see and hear this usage all the time. - TheDaveRoss 17:48, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

The fourth English preposition defenition, "in accordance with, I parked my car at the curb per your request. " Is not only not standard English, but not real-life English. The only place I ever see this usage is online. Real humans don't speak it.

I'd like to see your definition of "real human", if human internet users don't fit it. --Bran

Hi, I don't know if the definition given by the Miriam-Webster dictionnary [1] is considered "canonical" by a native English speaker. --YaK 20:38, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

per-?

Is per never followed by a hyphen? I've seen it used like this: "Configurable on a per-user basis." Is this wrong? I'm not sure if this is exactly the same usage of 'per' as in the examples in the articles. 85.1.186.89 14:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

English to French translations

Hi, I didn't mean to demonstrate once more the legendary French bragginess by flooding the Translations section ;) It seems to me that an example is clearer than the complicated rule mentionned in the previous version (although it was correct). I had then to find a logical way to discriminate the two possible translations. Please change my layout if inappropriate. --YaK 20:38, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Subtlety in the translations is usually explained on the page about that word, rather than in a Translations table. Translation is seldom exact, which is why the translations are linked. A person can follow the link to learn more about how that word is used. --EncycloPetey 20:53, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Neutral third-person singular

I seem to remember reading, about ten years ago, about a proposal to use the word "per" as a neutral form of the third-person singular, i.e. to replace him/her when the gender of the subject isn't known or isn't important. Does that ring a bell with anyone?

My vague memory is that it was a remark in a document of the GNU project, but none of my web searches are turning up anything. Gronky 21:24, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

This use of "per" occurs throughout Marge Piercy's novel Woman on the Edge of Time. Daniel Earwicker (talk) 19:32, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Deletion debate (one meaning)

The following information passed a request for deletion.

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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Rfd-redundant: sense 2, "used in expressing ratios of units" is just a specific case of sense 1, "for each". For example "miles per gallon" is just "miles for each gallon". Examples of this usage should be given with sense1, but I don't think it is a separate sense. Thryduulf 12:12, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

It's not exactly the same as "for each", is it? You can go "sixty miles per hour" even if you're only driving for a few minutes. In other words, I agree with you that they seem to be the same sense, but I don't agree that the current definition of sense 1 is sufficient to cover the examples under sense 2. I'm not sure if they should be merged. —Ruakh_TALK 12:21, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Keep per Ruakh (nice work). Mglovesfun (talk) 10:11, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Keep per above. DCDuring TALK 22:47, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Kept. Mglovesfun (talk) 20:38, 21 October 2009 (UTC)