Talk:asdf

All citations look like mentions, not uses. Should be deleted, IMO, for the same reason as that default computer password that failed RFD a couple of months back. (I've forgotten what it was now.) Equinox ◑ 20:08, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

No matter how you look at it, the entry should be kept since it is widely used as a fill-in word. Additionally, everyone who has ever tried to learn touch typing, have heard about asdf – referring to the way one place the left hand's fingers. Whether or not this is considered a sense or not, I'm not sure. --Eivind (t) 21:09, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the fill-in word is probably all right. I was talking about sense 1. Every musician has heard of the scale CDEFGAB, but it's not a word. Equinox ◑ 22:37, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Taken to WT:RFD#asdf. Equinox ◑ 22:04, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Tea room discussion

Note: the below discussion was moved from the Wiktionary:Tea room.

Yes, I know this entry has been deleted several times before, but I have now recreated it, as I found citations on the word being used to refer to the four first letters on the home row. Could someone please have a look at it, and tell me if they agree? I reckon the word is worthy an entry. --Eivind (t) 13:56, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

It looks to me like the only time this was deleted as something other than vandalism was when Williamsayers79 deleted it, apparently out of process, despite it having survived RFD three times (!). I think the use as a metasyntactic filler merits inclusion (provided it can actually be verified per CFI -- I see it all the time on blogs but not elsewhere). On the other hand I don't think the current sense 1 is really a sense, exactly; people aren't using "asdf" to mean "the first four keys of the home row", they're just listing the first four keys of the home row, in a way that is readily understood in context. That's the way it seems to me, anyway. So while I think the information itself is good, I'd rather it was in the etymology. -- Visviva 15:10, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Hm; I would have said delete, and the first citation is just listing four particular keys where you put four particular fingers. However, the second and third are arguably identifying the home row, just as qwerty identifies a particular keyboard layout.

Nothing whatsoever to do with typography though. The subject is typewriting, but I don't see the need for a restricted sense label. —Michael Z. 2009-03-12 15:42 z

Discussion in the office.........what does pp mean when you add it before you sign something on another persons behalf? We reckon its Latin??? Anybody help us?

See pp. —Michael Z. 2009-04-22 16:26 z

asdf

[Copied from here.]

Sense 1: "The first four letter on the home row on a QWERTY keyboard, and the start letters for a one's left hand when doing touch typing." This is not a dictionary definition of asdf as a word. It is a mention, not a use, just as the scale CDEFGAB — while familiar to musicians — is not a dictionary word. Contrast qwerty, which is actually used as a word to denote a style of keyboard. Equinox ◑ 22:03, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I can find a (very) few attributive uses such as “resting on the ASDF row of the keyboard”,[1] but I think it passes CFI. —Michael Z. 2009-03-24 17:16 z

Isn't "resting on the ASDF row" rather like "filed under the Flowers category"? Again, a mention rather than a use. Equinox ◑ 22:19, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Not unless you have a very unconventional keyboard. The flowers category contains all of the flowers and none of the non-flowers. So that could be an analogy for “resting on the asdfghjkl;, row.” —Michael Z. 2009-03-24 23:05 z

No, the Flowers category might not contain every possible flower. It merely contains at least some of them. Likewise, we could probably talk about the "Q side of the keyboard" (only one Google match, admittedly, but perhaps someone can come up with an equivalent but better example); it doesn't mean that the entire side consists of one huge Q key. Equinox ◑ 23:10, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I can't follow your analogy, unless you mean that the flowers category includes flowers and giraffes and flathead screws, just as the asdf category includes a's, s's, d's, f's, and also g's, h's, j's etc.

asdf is an attributive adjective derived from a representative subset of the contents of the referent, just like qwerty; asdf row is like qwerty keyboard. Three cites meets CFI, and we've only counted ones with the phrase asdf row. —Michael Z. 2009-03-24 23:49 z

RFV looking for cites like this, use not mention. DAVilla 08:59, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Quick cites for consideration:

1. “Keep shoulders relaxed, upper arms by the side of the trunk, and forearms level with the ASDF row of the keyboard.” (1 occurrence on p 509).
2. “The height of the desk or table should be such as to allow the forearm to be horizontal when the fingers are resting on the guide keys - the asdf row of the keyboard.” (1 occurrence on p 139).
3. “Wrists should be straight when fingers are resting on the ASDF row of the keyboard.”[2]
5. “In contrast to QWERTY, the most frequently used letters – AOEU – are placed in the QWERTY ASDF home row where typists most often go to rest their hands.”[3]

In the last one, “QWERTY ASDF home row” is actually referring to the position of letters on a Dvorak layout – so ASDF is a name for the physical row, with reference to the conventional type of keyboard, where the actual corresponding letters are AOEU (followed by IDHTNS_).

Admittedly, the use of this as a name is rare, it's very common to see “place the fingers of your left hand on the a s d f keys,”[4] or “Introducing the Home Row with ‘ASDF’.”[5] —Michael Z. 2009-03-26 18:11 z

RFV discussion: March–April 2017

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

---

asdf

ASDF

I realize this has been discussed before, but we now have established consensus that strings of characters such as abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ which are merely used as filler text and have no independent meaning are not deserving of entries. Thus, the current sole meaning of asdf as filler text is inadequate. This is to be distinguished from entries such as lorem ipsum which means "[a] pseudo-Latin text used in printing and website design in place of English in order to emphasise design elements over content", and QWERTYUIOP which designates a type of keyboard.

A March 2009 discussion archived from RFD at "Talk:asdf" contains a few quotations suggesting that asdf has an adjective sense. The quotations are all in the form "asdf row of the keyboard". Could we see if there is consensus that this is indeed an adjective use, or a mere mention? — SMUconlaw (talk) 11:06, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

"asdf" is not a true adjective in "asdf row of the keyboard" and the like, in my opinion. However, it seems a true use, as opposed to mention. Mihia (talk) 14:44, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Not adjectival. It's the old "tractor parts": not comparable, can't be used predicatively, etc. Equinox ◑ 14:47, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

In the cites provided, neither noun nor adj as far as I'm concerned. If we want to keep it, is there a way enter 'words' (or rather non-words) without any part of speech? - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 05:03, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Linguistically speaking, is there such a thing? If a particular collocation of letters cannot be categorized as a part of speech, doesn't that mean it is not a word? — SMUconlaw (talk) 15:19, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Kiwima has now added the sense "The home keys where the left hand rests when touch typing on a QWERTY keyboard", and some quotations. Is this a valid noun sense? I'm doubtful, as I've not heard of those keys being referred to as "the ASDF" or that the plural form ASDFs exists. — SMUconlaw (talk) 17:31, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

Actually, I don't think the cites given actually match def 2. I think they match def 1 better. I don't see any evidence for def. 2. Also, if we have "asdf" as the home keys for the left hand as an entry, then surely we need "jkl;" as an entry as well. - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 16:06, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Deleted as unverified. I'm not seeing any proper noun sense. — SMUconlaw (talk) 10:59, 3 April 2017 (UTC)