At 3:42 PM -0500 11/19/03, Stephen Black wrote:
On 19 Nov 2003, Allen Esterson wrote:
>
> Has anyone else had the experience of having a copy editor changing
> the tenses throughout an article?
>
No, but I did have an editor change "body weight" to "body mass"
throughout. While I suspect that may be techically correct ( I
imagine Allen, given his boffin background, would know), it's
certainly not current usage. For example, imagine saying you went on
a diet to lose mass.
From Merriam-Webster's unabridged:
weight
1 a : the often specified amount
that a thing weighs : quantity of heaviness <a basketball
player with a playing weight of 215 pounds>.
mass
1 a (1) : a quantity of
matter cohering together so as to make one body usually of indefinite
shape <a mass of dough> <a mass of ore>
(2) : an aggregate of particles or things making one body or
quantity usually of considerable size <a mass of sand>
(3) : a homogeneous pasty mixture compounded for making pills,
troches, and plasters <blue mass> (4) obsolete
: UNIVERSE,
EARTH b (1) : the
extent of body of a solid object : the extent of space that an
object occupies :
EXPANSE, BULK <the
highest mountain mass on the globe -- Encyc. Americana>
<lifts its bulky mass over the tangled summits -- Wynford
Vaughan-Thomas> (2) : massive quality or effect
: MAGNITUDE,
MASSIVENESS <in the face of
their mass and virtuosity, what was the use of rebelling
against his frequent abuse of the language --
Time>
Note the last exemplar!
Since the term mass has many more meanings, its use would
be less precise.
Also, it does not have a usable verb form:
one may weigh a subject, but not mass it!
--
* PAUL K.
BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
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