>>> object.__doc__
'The most base type'
I and several people on python-list thread "interactive help on the base
object" (Dec 2013) thought this could be improved. On
https://bugs.python.org/issue20285 and
https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/4759
After some research, I believe the following, which is wrote on the
issue, explains the uneasiness many feel.
'Base' is actually two words. As a noun (or verb), it comes from
Ancient Greek βάσις (básis), a foundation from which other things extend
or derive. As an adjective, it comes from Late Latin bassus (“low”).
In computer science and Python, the couplet 'base class' is being used,
it seems to me and apparently others, as a noun-noun compound, meaning,
'foundation class', not as an adjective-noun phrase meaning 'low class'
(let along 'depraved class'). However, 'most base class' must be parsed
as '(most base) class', with 'base' re-interpreted as the adjective
meaning 'low' (or worse). The switch in meaning of 'base' is similar in
'baseball' versus 'most base ball'.
---
I have suggested
"The superclass for all Python classes."
"The starting base class of all types and classes other than itself."
I intended to pick the second, but Serhiy Storchake wants more opinions.
--
Terry Jan Reedy
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