Talk:short-legged

RFD discussion: January–February 2018

The following information passed a request for deletion (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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short-legged

This type of compound possessive adjectives is very common in English (cf. CAT:English parasynthetic adjectives) and their meaning is predictable; unless they have acquired a figurative/idiomatic meaning (green-eyed, tight-lipped), I don't see a good reason to keep them.

See Wiktionary:Tea_room/2018/January#broad-winged and the RFD debate of big-dicked for relevant discussions.

--Per utramque cavernam (talk) 01:48, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

• Keep - all words in all languages. SemperBlotto (talk) 06:35, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Delete. Would open floodgates for "purple-haired", "mild-flavoured" etc. which are all totally transparent, like this one. That's just how hyphens work in English. Equinox ◑ 06:49, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

• But you've just added nimble-fingered yourself! SemperBlotto (talk) 16:11, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Because it has the secondary meaning of thievish, yes. It would be a bit silly not to include the primary meaning: I could have used the "&lit" I suppose. Do you really want entries for red-haired, yellow-haired, blue-haired, green-haired, long-nailed, short-nailed, long-tailed, short-tailed, two-fingered, three-fingered, four-fingered...? Whom will this serve, apart from some misguided god of "all words in all languages"? You would be the first person to delete an entry like "red hair" or "long fingers", so why does a hyphen make a difference? Please think about this hard. Equinox ◑ 05:47, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

Delete for the reason given by Equinox. — SGconlaw (talk) 07:59, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Delete. I agree with the rationale. -- · (talk) 18:03, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

• I was about to delete this, but shortlegged is attested, so this passes WT:COALMINE. I recommend changing it to an "alternative form of". bd2412 T 01:02, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
  • @BD2412: Damn, I hoped nobody would notice it! :p --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 01:08, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
    • Well. that's not very sporting. bd2412 T 01:09, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

Given consensus to delete but a previously un-noted WT:COALMINE variation, I have refactored to an "alternative form of" definition and moved the translations to shortlegged. bd2412 T 04:12, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

Well closed: should be kept per WT:COALMINE. --Dan Polansky (talk) 17:03, 3 February 2018 (UTC)