Talk:square

Adjective or noun?

In the example given under adjective "square" is used as a noun. Shouldn't this be "Don't be so square"? 212.35.106.250 10:57 May 22, 2003 (UTC)

I've corrected that. But what on earth is "Squaresoft"? -- Ortonmc 16:23, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

A video game company. But any reference has since been removed! Equinox ◑ 16:21, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Technical correction, Equinox: A former video game company. Merged with Enix earlier this century, and is now "Square Enix". Tharthan (talk) 20:05, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

square (usage in respect of meals)

My understanding was that this dervied from the fact that naval plates were originally square? Anyone able to confirm this? Sfan00 IMG 16:53, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Doesn't seem to be. The OED has "1868 All Year Round 19 Sept. 354/2 Roadside hotel~keepers..calling the miners' attention to their ‘square meals’: by which is meant full meals." SemperBlotto 16:57, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

To me it seems likely to relate to the sense of "honest, fair", which is 500 years old. DCDuring TALK 02:28, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Possible missing noun sense

Chambers 1908 has "square, n. due proportion, order, honesty, equity, fairness". We don't have such a sense, unless you count on the square. Equinox ◑ 16:22, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

adverb

adverb 
1. so as to be even, straight, level, or at right angles to something 
2.  in a direct or forceful way (informal) 
She drove square into the wall.
3. in an honest and straightforward way (informal) 
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 17:45, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

Postpositive

1. (abbreviation sq) used after a number to give a measurement of area: an area of 36 square metres/feet/miles/kilometres/inches
2. used after a unit of measurement to say that something measures the same amount on each of four sides a carpet four metres square
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/square_1?q=square

--Backinstadiums (talk) 16:41, 14 April 2021 (UTC)

square measure

Idiomatic enough? --Backinstadiums (talk) 12:50, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

RFV discussion: February–April 2022

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square

Adjective sense 8: “Hearty; vigorous.”

Does this exist outside of the term “square meal”? I note that the etymology of “square meal” states that “this sense of square (originally US) is possibly from the fact that square plates were used to serve food on ships”, but that sounds like the etymology of that particular term deriving from the ordinary sense of “square”, and not the etymology of a different sense of the word “square” in its own right. Theknightwho (talk) 16:29, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

@Theknightwho: The OED has a more targeted sense: "Of meals: full, solid, substantial. Of a drink: copious; of full measure." — SGconlaw (talk) 18:03, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

square go can also mean ‘hearty attempt/attack/fight’ in expressions such as he had a square go at him, they had a square go and make a square go of it in Scottish English (and occasionally British English more generally, and New Zealand English). A search for square go on GoogleBooks yields many usable quotes [1] Overlordnat1 (talk) 19:22, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

Here are uses of “a square breakfast”: [2], [3], [4]. In the last one, the adjective is obviously synonymous with decent in the sense “substantial”, as in “a decent meal”. The OED’s sense of full is IMO more on the nose than hearty, vigorous. I’m suspicious of the square-platter theory. I’m more inclined to see an extension of the sense “honest”, which can also be used in the same sense for a meal: [5], [6], [7]. In the last use, the combination with square forms a rhetorical pleonasm.  --Lambiam 22:55, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

That’s true but there are also hits for do a square job and do a square day’s work where square could be interpreted to mean honest but the implication is that this honest job or work is vigorous/hearty, unlike in the examples for adjective sense 4 at square (square deal/man/everything). Also, to have a square go is to vigorously/heartily attack/fight, rather than to have a fair/honest fight, so I think that there is support for the challenged sense (sense 8) of hearty;vigorous on that basis - even if the lines can be blurred between sense 8 and sense 4 at times, depending on context. Overlordnat1 (talk) 01:32, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

Interestingly OED glosses "square go" as "a fair fight". I might gloss the impugned sense of square as "decent, substantial". This, that and the other (talk) 10:06, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

Consider also the word squarely which presumes the senses of "square" in question to be well-grounded. —Soap— 01:18, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

I altered the gloss to "Solid, decent, substantial" and was about to close as RFV-resolved, but there is still only one cite and I feel that we would benefit from having two more for expository purposes, given the uncertainty over the signification of this sense. I would add them myself if I had time. This, that and the other (talk) 09:33, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 21:42, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 23:47, 24 April 2022 (UTC)