Talk:Western Europe

Wiktionary:Requests for verification - kept

Kept. See archived discussion of November 2007. 14:35, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Deletion discussion

The following information passed a request for deletion.

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.

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Western Europe

"A sociopolitical region in the west of Europe." So it is, in essence, western + Europe. Nothing more, nothing less. No need to keep this or its brethren. -- Liliana • 19:10, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Is there any reason to believe that it is not also a geographical region? If not, as I suppose, then delete. Equinox ◑ 19:12, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

• keep. Yes, this is a region at the West of Europe. But not any region. You forget sociopolitical, and this is a very important word in the definition. But the definition is not precise enough: it should explain which region it is, either by giving geographical limits, or by mentioning the sociopolitical characteristic. The geographical sense exists too, but it's very fuzzy. Lmaltier (talk) 20:51, 20 January 2013 (UTC)
• I kind of agree with Lmaltier, weak keep. Western Europe is more than just the west of Europe. It also specifically refers to the part of Europe that lay on the western side of the Iron Curtain, the countries of the original EU, and so on. I would consider it on par with Southern United States in terms of connotation. —CodeCat 21:03, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

• Keep per Lmaltier. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 23:28, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

• With this definition, delete. If it turns out the definition is more specific, say, only a specific set of countries is Western Europe, or if a certain country is in the west of Europe but is not considered part of Western Europe, then keep. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 23:34, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

I don't think Western Europe has any geographical limits. It would be a bit like defining 'tall' using a number of centimetres. We should not define it geographically if that information is false. Mglovesfun (talk) 00:13, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

• Keep, but redefine. There are at least a few different concepts of Western Europe. The iconic Cold War one consisting of the non-communist countries west of the Iron Curtain looks idiomatic to me. I seem to remember seeing another one that groups France, the Benelux countries and the British Isles, but not the Iberian Peninsula. Yet another treats the former boundary between the Eastern and Western Roman Empires as the dividing line. Any based strictly on physical location/longitude would probably be SOP, but those at least partly based on historical or political factors probably aren't. It would be good to nail down which concept(s) we're using in our definition(s)- not the physical boundaries, but the concept(s). Chuck Entz (talk) 00:56, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
• I think a good case to look at would be Greece. I think Greece was considered part of the West, so there may be uses calling Greece a part of Western Europe, even though it is geographically in the east. —CodeCat 01:12, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes, similar to how "West" included Japan, Australia, etc. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 02:03, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, there's [the table of contents to Western Europe 2012] Which shows that Greece is included, but not the Czech Republic- or even Germany or Austria. I would say that there are many more books that contrast Greece with Western Europe rather than including it, but this example at least shows that one of the concepts of "Western Europe" in actual use isn't based strictly on longitude. Chuck Entz (talk) 03:00, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

See also Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe and corresponding Wikipedia articles. None of them can be defined with only one definition. --Hekaheka (talk) 18:52, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Which is because they're central + Europe, eastern + Europe, northern + Europe and southern + Europe. Depending on the viewpoint of the speaker, central, eastern, northern and southern (and of course western) can have a variety of meanings. This doesn't really make them idiomatic. -- Liliana • 19:38, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Delete per Liliana. --WikiTiki89 19:45, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Albania, which is in Eastern Europe according to the Cold War sense, is physically to the west of Greece, which is in Western Europe, according to the Cold War sense. Please explain the geographical viewpoint that makes that possible. Chuck Entz (talk) 21:02, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

There are many such cases. Central Asia directly borders Europe, despite the name suggesting it should be in the center. That doesn't mean we need an entry on Central Asia. -- Liliana • 10:51, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

We've already got it, and it's really useful. Lmaltier (talk) 21:50, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, now you know what entry's the next to land on RFD. -- Liliana • 05:26, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Central Asia looks quite nice. keep Western Europe so that it may be turned into something similar. 11:38, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

• Keep per Lmaltier from 20:51, 20 January 2013. --Dan Polansky (talk) 20:50, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

Striking as no consensus to delete. bd2412 T 23:58, 25 June 2013 (UTC)