Talk:steam

Copyright violation?

This looks like a scanned dictionary page, with OCR errors. What is the copyright status? -- Ortonmc 23:14, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

It appears to be from the Webster's revised unabridged dictionary, 1913 edition, which is in the public domain. — Jeandré, 2004-10-08t20:48z

Tea room discussion

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Tea room.

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.

---

I have defined an adjective PoS of steam as: Old-fashioned; from before the digital age and provided citations for the sense. However, it does not meet the "become" and gradability/comparability tests that a true adjective should meet, AFAICT. Can anyone come up with a suitable wording for a definition as a noun that would support the putative attributive use of the noun in the citations? DCDuring TALK 18:37, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

I suspect it is derived (ellipsis?) from the true adjectives "steam-driven" or "steam-powered" or "steam-age" etc. The term "steam radio" has been in popular usage for a long time. Try a google search "steam+driven+radio" -- ALGRIF talk 15:55, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Something like "old technology"?​—msh210℠ 16:14, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Both seem possible. The usage reminds me of some use of diesel#Adjective to mean "industrial", "industrial-strength", "heavy-duty" applied to nouns where an internal-combustion engine is not involved. DCDuring TALK 20:05, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

I had been thinking along the lines of msh210's idea. A logical progression (if that's the right word) is to suggest a noun sense "steam engine-based technology," which would also be used attributively, and of which the "old technology" sense would be a figurative extension. Perhaps "steam age" might count as a usage. Pingku 10:33, 16 March 2010 (UTC)