Talk:maximum security

RFV discussion: February–August 2015

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maximum security

Perhaps he means maximum security prison? SemperBlotto (talk) 07:33, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

• And ditto for minimum security

A single cite that I'm not very sure about:

2003, Ann Rule, Last Dance, Last Chance, Simon and Schuster →ISBN, page 462

Mr. Savage tells us he'll appeal, and appeal, and appeal. But you can be sure of one thing. A man in the maximum security on death row will never 'walk away' to prowl the countryside again.” The jury retired on Saturday evening to deliberate.

If not cited, I think this should become "Alternative form of maximum-security/minimum-security." Smurrayinchester (talk) 10:15, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

(By the way, there are few hits for "sent to maximum security", but these seem to refer to maximum security areas within a prison with several areas.) Smurrayinchester (talk) 10:20, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

I think if the definition was right the hits would look more like "sent to a maximum security", of course not followed by "prison", "facility" etc. Siuenti (talk) 22:34, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

One of the many widespread defects of our English definitions are, 1., incorrect, incomplete, or missing indication of countability and uncountability on the inflection line, 2., missing or incorrect marking of countability and uncountability at the sense level for polysemic terms, and, 3., wording of definitions inconsistent with the indicated countability or uncountability. The definition in question at least has the third defect: the indefinite article is not consistent with uncountable on the inflection line. DCDuring TALK 23:20, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

@Smurrayinchester: I found ten hits for "in|into|to maximum security [punctuation mark]" at COCA:

1 2011 SPOK NBC_Dateline After six years in maximum security , Glen Ake was nearly unrecognizable.

2 2002 NEWS USAToday brick prison walls passing by him are like scenes from his daydreams back in maximum security .

3 2002 NEWS Denver said he is ready to move from maximum to medium security. # While in maximum security , Glennie has been assaulted four times.

4 2002 NEWS Denver Glennie remains in maximum security ,

5 2000 FIC ScienceNews and I were unceremoniously shoved into soda cups and trundled back across the street into maximum security .

6 1996 NEWS WashPost receiving end, or made to spend a night at Lorton... in Maximum Security ... chained to a cell door... stark naked,

7 1994 SPOK CBS_Sixty So Joe Yandle was locked away in maximum security .

8 1991 NEWS AssocPress 66064 and his crew are ready with " the real deal " on life in maximum security .

9 1990 FIC Bk:Harvest Three years behind bars in maximum security !

10 1990 MAG WashMonth Younis is now serving 30 years in maximum security .

(I'm showing off COCA search capability.)

This indicates it is used without an article, possibly uncountable. Quote 3 suggests that it is not a set phrase. Quote 6 shows it being used as a proper noun in reference to a particular department or unit. Clearly maximum security is not a type of security in the usage here. In contrast under maximum security would indicate a type of security. I don't think it can be used after the same set of prepositions that security, in any sense, can. And etymologically it is clearly an ellipsis of phrases headed by prison, unit, detention, etc. Though I find it hard to believe that "it's likely that someone would run across it and want to know what it means", the meaning being always transparent in context, I know of no instance where an item failed to be included for failing to meet that criterion. DCDuring TALK 00:02, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

• I have added and cited a noun section. I look forward to someone trying to cite this as a true adjective. DCDuring TALK 17:05, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Hi, I notice Random House has "maximum security" defined as an adjective, perhaps we can go with that as opposed to a noun! WritersCramp (talk) 00:04, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

The noun section is well-cited by the citations mentioned above. As for the adjective section: we have maximum-security defined as an adjective. Should it be relabelled a noun used attributively? Or is it an adjective? If it's an adjective, I imagine maximum security is an alt form of it, since they exist in free variation. - -sche (discuss) 23:59, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

It's quite possible that there is predicate use of maximum security, but not highly likely that it is gradable/comparable. DCDuring TALK 01:48, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

It's already been cited and de-tagged so I'm going to strike this. Seems real, just a clipping of maximum security prison (facility, unit, etc.). Renard Migrant (talk) 11:02, 28 August 2015 (UTC)