Talk:average Joe

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average Joe

Sum of parts: we have (deprecated template usage) joe as "a male; a guy; a fellow", so this is just an average guy or fellow. Forms like "typical Joe" also exist. Equinox ◑ 14:33, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

"average joe" appears in RHU and AHD. "joe" and "joes" are the only male names or synonyms for this sense of "joe" that appears after "average" at COCA, appearing 94 times. "Average Jane" also appears, BTW, though only 3 times. I assume that phonetics has brought this about. It is readily decodable, but not so readily anticipated from an encoding perspective. DCDuring TALK 15:18, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

• Keep. Idiomatic, because "average Bill" or "average Frank" would be incorrect. bd2412 T 11:35, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

But "Bill" and "Frank" are not defined as "a male; a guy; a fellow", and (deprecated template usage) joe is. I don't see your logic. Equinox ◑ 12:13, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

So? It would be equally incorrect to say "your average Tom, Dick or Harry". Also, to make the finer point, the term is average Joe, not average joe. bd2412 T 19:51, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

No, it's both. Equinox ◑ 20:17, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Right, but his point (I think) was that in average Joe we have Joe, whereas it's joe that means "guy", so this is not SOP. That logic is good IMO, but Joe also means guy.​—msh210℠ (talk) 20:22, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Um, google:"average tom dick".​—msh210℠ (talk) 20:19, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Gets about 48,000 hits compared to google:"average joe" getting one and a half million. bd2412 T 13:08, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

"Average" selects for "Joe" relative to other names, but "Joe" doesn't select for "average" rather than "ordinary" or "regular", let alone semantically close determiners like "any", "some", "no". I don't think we need follow AHD and RHU, though there is an idiomatic construction here. "Joe" doesn't select for "the", "that", "this" whereas apparent synonyms like "fella/fellow/feller", "guy", and "bloke" do. I think it is the existence of some differential collocation of modifiers of "Joe" compared to purported synonyms that makes people here and at RHU and AHD think of it as an idiom. DCDuring TALK 20:45, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

{{look}}

Delete, given that we define Joe as "(informal) A male; a guy; a fellow". - -sche (discuss) 02:25, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Kept for no consensus.--Jusjih 13:36, 4 October 2011 (UTC)