Talk:nowaday

RFV discussion: November–December 2014

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nowaday

b.g.c has some hits, but I doubt they are for the sense given. Some are seemingly misconstruals of nowadays. — Keφr 08:13, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

The adverbial usage is an archaic form of nowadays, and the only current usages I can find are in Indian English, plus Kurt Vonnegut in 1991. The OED has a number of archaic cites.

The adjective meaning contemporary seems to be in nowaday use. The OED has three cites from contemporary newspapers. Dbfirs 09:24, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

What about this?

• 2007, Ralph Krömer, Tool and Object: A History and Philosophy of Category Theory, Springer Science & Business Media →ISBN, page 74

  There, he distinguishes between représentations (in nowaday's language: group homomorphisms) and homomorphismes (in nowaday's language: continuous group homomorphisms; p.11).

Does this warrant a separate noun sense, or an entry at nowaday's? — Keφr 10:18, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

By policy Wiktionary excludes English possessive forms, though I don't know whether there was ever a case of only a possessive being attestable.

The usage above is clearly of a non-native speaker or his editor and a mathematician yet. DCDuring TALK 11:40, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

I can find usage, but not current, of nowaday as a noun as object of prepositions like of and to. The ones that are clearly native are pre-1930. It would get an "archaic" label.

I think nowaday is also an alternative form of nowadays as an adverb. DCDuring TALK 11:56, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

I consider that an error by a non-native speaker; note the (German?) surname. Equinox ◑ 13:20, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

We've excluded attestable but rare errors before: WT:CFI says all words in all languages, not all mistakes in all languages. Renard Migrant (talk) 13:25, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

@Renard Migrant In which PoSes is nowaday an error? Has it always been so? Why do you say so? DCDuring TALK 23:14, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

I wasn't sure which PoS Renard meant, but I assumed that the noun PoS cite (Keφr's 2007 one) was the erroneous one, unless we can find other cites of course. We do have today as a noun. The adjective and adverb seem to be well-established in the OED. Dbfirs 09:20, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Some more instances of "nowaday's":

• 1884, George Augustus H.F. Sala, Echoes of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three

  Do many people, I wonder, nowaday's read Stillingfleet's “Essay on Conversation?” There are some excellent bits of advice in it.

One from a linguist(!):

• 1987, W.J.Aerts, "Appendix: The Latin-Greek Wordlist in MS 236 of the Municipal Library of Avranches, FOL. 97v", Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1986 edited by Reginald Allen Brown, Boydell & Brewer →ISBN, page 69

  If so, it should be noted that ουντυγχάνω does not exist in nowaday's South Italian, and, probably, did not either in medieval South Italian (though it is not excluded, of course, because during the presence of the Byzantines in (Southern) Italy a greater influence of the Byzantine koine of that time can be postulated).

One in a thesaurus of sorts:

• 2006, Robert Hartwell Fiske, The Dictionary of Concise Writing: More Than 10,000 Alternatives to Wordy Phrases, Marion Street Press →ISBN, page 361

  the present-day: nowaday's; the present's; today's. ■ Discoveries, innovations, surprises, and complexities of the present-day South multiply beyond what it seemed possible for him to cover. Discoveries, innovations, surprises, and complexities of the today's South multiply beyond what it seemed possible for him to cover.

One from an article by two authors, at least one of which is probably a native English speaker:

• 2007, Zvi Nevo and Mark M. Levy, "Musculoskeletal", Stem Cell and Gene-Based Therapy: Frontiers in Regenerative Medicine, edited by Alexander Battler and Jonathan Leor, Springer Science & Business Media →ISBN, page 156

  As emerging from nowaday's hottest cell source, the stem cells in general and mesenchymal stem cell progenitors in particular, are enriched in bone marrow serving as a major vital fountain for progenitor cells of both tissues, cartilage and bone.

Here it looks like a contraction of "nowaday is", but interesting nevertheless:

• 2013, Martin Armstrong, Adrian Glynde, A&C Black →ISBN

  The Lord knows what's come over you, Adrian. Why can't you pull yourself together, man? You never used to be like this. Being with you nowaday's as bad as being at a blooming funeral.

— Keφr 10:48, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

@Kephir I've been looking at too many Google Books hits for nowaday and nowaday's. Nowaday's seems to be used most frequently not as a possessive of noun nowaday, but as an alternative form of adverb nowadays. Where it is used as a possessive it is invariably either in a work by an author who is probably not native, in a translated work (probably a non-native translator), or in technical literature with the author not determinable (probably not native). DCDuring TALK 15:54, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

• I think this is cited in all PoSes, including those not originally challenged.

Nowaday is, by my lights, a better form than nowadays or nowadays for adjective use, and seems to be more commonly used, except by apparently non-native speakers, than nowadays. DCDuring TALK 16:04, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

The nominated sense passed, some were even added. Thank you, DCDuring. — Keφr 21:18, 8 December 2014 (UTC)