On 07/02/2016 08:57 AM, william degnan wrote: > Couldn't have said this better myself. Absolutely agree. I very > much understand that the majority sees "vintage computing" to mean > more than the sum of the dictionary's definition, but doing so does > not adapt well over time. If a person writes instead 8-bit vintage > computing, 60's mini vintage computing, Apple vintage computing, and > so on would be more correct...In short if one adds a modifier before > "vintage computing" a lot of the clarification problems go away.
In my lifetime, I've seen the word "vintage" go from the conventional use of "pertaining to wine produced from a specific year's harvest of grapes" to "something old, but of unspecified age". After all, the "vin-" in the word indicates the wine connection. One can have a vintage 2015 Bordeaux, but apparently not a vintage computer of the same age. Like Humpty-Dumpty's "impenetrability", it can mean whatever we want it to mean, I suppose. --Chuck
