Talk:s r.o.

There is no such abbreviation as "s r.o.". The proper legal abbreviations for the Czech versions of LLC / Ltd. (společnost s ručením omezeným are "s.r.o." and "spol. s r.o." Note that these abbreviations specifically approved by the law on business corporations (90/2012 Sb.) which is in effect since January 1, 2014 are not orthographically correct (indeed the law issued by the Czech Parliament contained a small mistake) and orthographically correct versions should be "spol. s r. o." and "s. r. o." (these abbreviations were in accord with the commercial law that was in effect till December 31, 2013). --Auvajs (talk) 15:16, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

We don't deal with orthographically correct, merely with attested, more common, less common, rare, and the like. We are a descriptivist dictionary; the whole continental notion of spellings being stipulated by a Kaiser and everyone using a "wrong" spelling being sent to a prison is entirely foreign to us. It is the users of the language who get to decide which spellings and forms they want to use, not a central authority.

As for attestation, I found [1], [2], [3]. Now you might argue that this is actually "společnost s r.o." and not "s r.o."; I would say that when the non-native reader sees "společnost s r.o.", they are quite likely to look up "s r.o.", and so we should have the entry. --Dan Polansky (talk) 11:09, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Personally I don't like the practise that the orthography/spelling or even "correct language version" is imperatively set by some "authority" either. (But it's in many languages, definitely not only Czech). Speaking of "s r.o." I could agree that it could be meaningful to consider "r.o." an abbreviation but the first word "s" shouldn't be part of it since this is a short one-word preposition in its regular meaning, it doesn't abbreviate anything. --Auvajs (talk) 12:08, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I don't really know. Nonetheless, I created s. r. o., s.r.o., and spol. s r. o. based on what I could find in Google books. --Dan Polansky (talk) 12:24, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

For those who love videos, here is one having a part related to descriptivism: Erin McKean redefines the dictionary | Video on TED.com - TED2007, 16 minutes, "I don't want to be a traffic cop". --Dan Polansky (talk) 12:37, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I think that "s r.o." isn't idiomatic as per WT:SOP therefore shouldn't be included (but r.o. could. - so perhaps move?) Btw there are other legal abbreviations like k. s. / kom. spol., v. o. s. / veř. obch. spol. not to speak of ES, z.s.p.o., EHZS, SCE and I'm not sure what's the abbreviation for družstvo.

That women's great btw. --Auvajs (talk) 17:31, 7 April 2015 (UTC)