Category talk:Early Modern English

RFD discussion: August–September 2023

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Category:Early Modern English

Redundant to Category:English obsolete terms and Category:English terms with obsolete senses, only has 29 items. Ioaxxere (talk) 17:06, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Strong keep - not all obsolete English terms are Early Modern English. Theknightwho (talk) 17:08, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Keep, not redundant since (obviously) not all obsolete terms are early modern. It only has 29 items because it was only recently created (Feb. 2022) and hasn't been added to entries systematically, but seems useful to me in principle. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 17:11, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

@Theknightwho, Al-Muqanna In your opinions, what does the (obsolete) label mean? Ioaxxere (talk) 17:18, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

@Ioaxxere: Per the glossary, "No longer in use, and (of a term) no longer likely to be understood." Early Modern English refers to English as spoken and written from the 16th to mid/late 17th centuries. "Obsolete" encompasses many terms that were used in the 18th, 19th, and even 20th centuries.—Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 17:20, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

@Al-Muqanna We also have Category:Late Modern English, which is little-used, but would also be useful to expand. Theknightwho (talk) 17:22, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Yep I have added entries when I come across them (I think I added all the current ones except "compleat"). There are plenty of obsolete terms which originate from after the EME period and could be appropriate for that category. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 17:24, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

@Ioaxxere It's defined in the glossary, and is not synonymous with EME. Theknightwho (talk) 17:21, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

@Theknightwho, Al-Muqanna I realize it's in the glossary. I mean, how would you determine whether to add a particular term into the category. For example, the OED has a "100 years since the latest use" policy. Ioaxxere (talk) 17:27, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

@Ioaxxere It's always going to be a subjective judgment about whether a term would be understood by speakers today, but the EME period ended a lot longer than 100 years ago. Theknightwho (talk) 17:29, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

I follow the glossary strictly and add "obsolete" when it's no longer plausible that the term will be understood, even by experts. Something like nolleity would still be understood by people who get the analogy to velleity, so I prefer "archaic" in those cases even if our last attestation is from 100+ years ago. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 17:30, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

• Kept. The category is being populated, and now serves a purpose Jewle V (talk) 22:07, 5 September 2023 (UTC)