Talk:ex-serviceman

RFD discussion: September 2023–April 2024

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ex-serviceman

and ex-servicewoman. SOP Jewle V (talk) 14:07, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

Definitely keep. It seems to be the Commonwealth synonym of veteran, with most usages currently in Indian English apparently. The term is also cited by other dictionaries [1] [2]. ·~ dictátor·mundꟾ 22:17, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

Keep both. Used in NZ too. DonnanZ (talk) 09:15, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Probably keep, because serviceman feels very dated, while ex-serviceman is still in use in Australia, although veteran also gets plenty of use here. I believe the usual gender-neutral collective term is ex-service personnel. This, that and the other (talk) 11:06, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

When I see this vote, in my perspective, this vote illustrates a major flaw in the rigid and absurd SOP dogma on Wiktionary which is: that any English language word with a prefix and hyphenation is suspect, while an equally SOP word without a hyphen is not suspect. Would you bring exserviceman? And there are unhyphenated mash-ups of words that are legitimately hyphenated like pro-democracy that Wiktionary treated the unhyphenated form of as more correct. Pitiful. As I see it, this has lead to years of lack of coverage of hyphenated words in English on this website; disgrace and infamy. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 12:02, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

A hyphenless word like exserviceman has one part (the word itself), while "ex-serviceman" has two (ex- and serviceman). CitationsFreak (talk) 14:25, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

I don't think it's absurd, infamous, disgraceful, or some other moral enormity: the justification of WT:COALMINE, in as much as it's withstood attempts to abolish it, is that it's a somewhat useful index of lexicalisation and despite occasional silly results nobody has yet come up with a better one. The policy does not at all, of course, dictate that prodemocracy should be the main lemma. COALMINE entries are often not lemmatised at the single-word form (see stubble field, treated just above). There are other, more humdrum reasons why hyphenated (and for that matter multiword) terms are poorly covered on Wiktionary: mainly that they tend not to be covered by the other dictionaries and corpora many of our English entries are based on in the first instance, so their coverage depends on one of our limited number of individual editors deciding to add them when they happen to remember them or when it takes their fancy. But this is, at the end of the day a project involving real people who are all freely volunteering their time, and shouldn't be insulted just because they happen to have different views about entry inclusion or are more interested in some things than others. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 23:28, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

• Leaning keep per Dictator and This, that and the other, there seem to be contextual aspects of usage that make this worth retaining. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 23:31, 12 September 2023 (UTC)
• Delete both as SoP. — excarnateSojourner (talk · contrib) 23:55, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

The fact that printed dictionaries see fit to include these (I checked my own copies of Collins and Oxford) make them an exception. DonnanZ (talk) 10:35, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

@Donnanz We don’t make exceptions for that reason. Please learn how CFI works. Theknightwho (talk) 10:56, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

We do though (sometimes and unpredictably)... WT:LEMMING —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 11:36, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Looking through Oxford, the only other ex- (meaning former) examples I can find are ex-con and ex-service (related to ex-serviceman). Others included, ex-directory, ex-voto and ex-works (direct from the factory) don't mean "former". DonnanZ (talk) 12:53, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Keep per WT:LEMMING and maybe WT:ONCE. CitationsFreak (talk) 17:28, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Kept. bd2412 T 20:44, 16 April 2024 (UTC)