On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 6:29 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <mar...@v.loewis.de> wrote: >> For the benefit of people who are not native-English speakers and who >> wish to write literate English: The English word 'precise' is only an >> adjective, and not a verb, so the above does not work as an English >> sentence. >>
I find it peculiar that in international forums "literate English" is not always the most effective form of communication. I had no problem understanding what Antoine wrote. In fact, Russian, just as French and German, has a verb form of the word "precise". I still appreciate Terry's and other native speakers' comments on English usage. As Edsger Dijkstra once wrote, "Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer." http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EWD498.html >> This mistake, which I have seen before, has an understandable reason. >> 'Precise' is derived (borrowed) from the French "pre'cis" which is at >> least a verb and noun. "Pre'cis" comes from the Latin 'praecisus' and >> 'praecidere'. Spanish has the same verb in the form 'precisar'. > > FWIW, we have "präzisieren", supposedly imported from the French word > in the 19th century. Too bad the Englishmen failed to accept that import > :-( The best the dictionaries come up with (besides "to specify") > is "to state more precisely", "to render more precisely". > > Regards, > Martin > _______________________________________________ > python-committers mailing list > python-committers@python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-committers > _______________________________________________ python-committers mailing list python-committers@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-committers
