Talk:kidney-shaped

RFD discussion: December 2019–March 2020

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kidney-shaped

SOP, right? --Vealhurl (talk) 13:10, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

It has at least one lemming. I was quite proud of a kidney-shaped table I made in woodwork at school (many moons ago). I would say keep. DonnanZ (talk) 13:34, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

• Wow. That seems completely SOP to me, but then I also noticed that we have a lot of other XYZ-shaped terms as entries.

While I can see idiomatic grounds for keeping pear-shaped, we can have just about anything-shaped as a collocation. How is it not SOP? ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 21:04, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

Just checked and saw that we don't even have the figurative meaning(s?) listed at pear-shaped, as in, "things have gone pear-shaped". Hmm. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 21:07, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

We do have go pear-shaped, though. Canonicalization (talk) 21:24, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

People seem to like these entries:

• A-shaped - B-shaped - C-shaped - D-shaped - E-shaped - F-shaped - G-shaped - H-shaped - I-shaped - J-shaped - K-shaped - L-shaped - M-shaped - N-shaped - O-shaped - P-shaped - Q-shaped - R-shaped - S-shaped - T-shaped - U-shaped - V-shaped - W-shaped - X-shaped - Y-shaped - Z-shaped DTLHS (talk) 21:22, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm really not fond of those entries, but they were kept in a previous RFD discussion: Talk:H-shaped#RFD_discussion:_September–November_2017. Canonicalization (talk) 21:24, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

See also Template:object-shaped. Canonicalization (talk) 21:26, 3 December 2019 (UTC)

• Ostensibly SOP, but the questions we need to ask ourselves are: (1) If one knows (from our definition?) what a kidney is, then is its characteristic shape obvious? (2) If its characteristic shape is not obvious, then should this be explained at "kidney" or at "kidney-shaped"? What if someone reads that something is "shaped like a kidney"? Where do they look in that case? Mihia (talk) 00:34, 4 December 2019 (UTC)
  • Good questions. Something called heart-shaped does not have the shape of an actual heart (the organ), but of the heart symbol ♥, so that is clearly not SOP. I also expect that a significant fraction of people have no idea of the characteristic shape of a kidney. IMO its should be explained at the lexical item that contains the component “shaped”. When expressions are used like “shaped like a kidney“ or “having the shape of a kidney”, you can’t expect a dictionary to avail the reader, any more than you would hope to find a description of the sound of “howling like a frenzied mob of ravenous Black Friday bargain-hunters” in your trusted dictionary. However, howl like a banshee is an idiomatic expression that deserves inclusion and a helpful definition. One more thing: X-shaped can also mean “shaped by (an/the) X”. For example, in this book cross-shaped is used in the sense “shaped by the cross”, where “the cross” means something like the spiritual Christian sense of being reborn. Should this be noted somewhere, like at shaped?  --Lambiam 09:59, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

If we are saying that "kidney-shaped" is SoP in the sense that readers are expected to understand that it means "shaped like a kidney", then the missing information that we need to provide is "What shape is a kidney?". It seems to me that this information logically belongs under "kidney". Mihia (talk) 11:01, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

Reniform apparently, just nominated for WOTD. But maybe not a lot of people know that. DonnanZ (talk) 11:40, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

• I will just point out that, though not very common, kidneyshaped exists. -Mike (talk) 17:25, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

Oh super. Mihia (talk) 22:03, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

• RFD kept: no consensus. No boldface delete apart from nomination; one boldface keep; kidneyshaped supports WT:COALMINE if really attested. --Dan Polansky (talk) 12:31, 6 March 2020 (UTC)