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| Path | csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail |
|---|---|
| From | Kragen Javier Sitaker <kragen@canonical.org> |
| Newsgroups | alt.comp.os.windows-11, comp.editors, comp.text.pdf, alt.comp.os.windows-10, alt.usage.english |
| Subject | Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays |
| Followup-To | alt.usage.english |
| Date | Fri, 28 Aug 2026 22:45:36 -0300 |
| Organization | Primarily biological and memetic |
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Cross-posted to 5 groups.
Followups directed to: alt.usage.english
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Marion <marion@facts.com> writes:
> it's kind of like when I ask people to use "lend" as a verb vs "loan"
> as a noun; or when I notice people using "further" for "farther" in
> terms of distances; or when people use "less" instead of "fewer" for
> things that can be counted; or when people use "dirt" when they really
> mean "soil"; or when they call a "stone" a "rock" when all of these
> things are actually not what people think.
- “Lend” is indeed not currently in use as a noun, outside of Scottish
and northern English dialects, where it has been in use as a noun
(meaning “loan”) since at least 01575, with attestations up to the
present day.
<https://archive.org/details/oed6aarch/page/n208/mode/1up>
- “Loan” has been in use as a verb (as well as a noun) meaning “to lend”
since at least 01200, with attestations pretty continuously for 800
years up to the present day.
<https://archive.org/details/oed6aarch/page/n385/mode/1up>
- “Further” has been in use with the meaning “farther” in terms of
distances since at least 01578, with attestations up to the present
day except for the 18th century.
<https://archive.org/details/oed04arch/page/n631/mode/1up>
- “Less” has been in use with the meaning “a smaller number of; fewer”
since at least King Ælfred in 0888, making this 1138-year-old meaning
the longest-standing one you ask people to refrain from using.
<https://archive.org/details/oed6aarch/page/n221/mode/1up> (A.I.1.c,
bottom of the left column)
Additionally, “less” has the meaning “Of not so great size, extent,
or degree”, a meaning which is not shared by “fewer”, and is
eminently applicable to things that can be counted. For example,
driving to work at 90 kilometers per hour uses *less* resources than
driving to work at 120 kilometers per hour, because your fuel
consumption is lower, but it doesn’t use *fewer* resources; it uses
*the same number* of resources (gasoline, the car, the brake pads,
etc.), just to a smaller extent.
- “Soil” and “dirt” are both fairly polysemous. Maybe you can explain
which usage you are taking issue with? For reference, the meanings of
“dirt” given in
<https://archive.org/details/oed03arch/page/n409/mode/1up> are
excrement; filth; worthless things; land; people you don’t like;
mud/soil; gangue; washdirt; dirtiness; meanness; bad weather; poison
gas in a mine; and to make dirty. The meanings of “soil” given in
<https://archive.org/details/oed9aarch/oed9aarch/page/n384/mode/1up>
are the ground; plains; site; estate; land/region; place of one’s
nativity; domicile; materials of the ground such as sand and clay;
mould/earth; sill; and lintel.
Similar remarks surely apply to the historical meanings of “stone” and
“rock”, but it is getting to be my bedtime, and I think this adequately
makes the point that, in general, you seem to be taking up arms against
the Oxford English Dictionary and centuries of established English
usage. Perhaps you have access to an arbiter of English meanings more
authoritative than the OED and the English-language literary corpus?
What might that be?
Kragen
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Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Kragen Javier Sitaker <kragen@canonical.org> - 2026-08-28 22:45 -0300
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 15:52 +0800
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-29 10:09 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 16:40 +0800
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-08-29 22:32 +1000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 21:10 +0800
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-29 16:34 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Alan K." <alan@invalid.com> - 2026-08-29 08:43 -0400
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-29 21:16 +0800
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-29 18:30 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-29 21:43 +0100
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> - 2026-08-29 23:12 +0100
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-30 10:08 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie> - 2026-08-30 16:11 +0100
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-30 16:30 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-30 19:18 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-30 17:45 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-31 08:24 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-08-31 09:42 +1000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-08-31 08:43 +0100
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-31 10:45 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-31 16:45 +0100
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-31 16:08 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-08-31 20:56 +0100
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) - 2026-08-31 16:54 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-08-31 13:36 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> - 2026-08-31 12:09 -0700
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-08-31 22:26 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-31 10:11 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> - 2026-08-31 20:48 +0100
different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Kragen Javier Sitaker <kragen@canonical.org> - 2026-08-31 21:00 -0300
Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-09-01 10:29 +1000
Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-09-01 08:08 +0200
active and healthy newsgroups in 02026 (was Re: different iron alloys) Kragen Javier Sitaker <kragen@canonical.org> - 2026-09-01 10:15 -0300
Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Richard Smith <null@void.com> - 2026-09-28 07:19 +0100
Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) "Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> - 2026-10-01 19:46 -0400
Re: different iron alloys (was Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays) Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2026-09-13 18:31 -0300
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-09-01 07:59 +0200
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com> - 2026-08-30 13:33 -0400
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Charles Hope <clh@candehope.me.uk> - 2026-08-30 19:45 +0000
Re: What is the best free software for creating & editing PDFs nowadays Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> - 2026-08-30 21:32 +0100
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