Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 3/11/25 2:27 PM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

On 2025-03-11, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
 

On 10/03/2025 21:02, rbowman wrote:
>

On Mon, 10 Mar 2025 11:10:41 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>

On 10/03/2025 05:09, rbowman wrote:
>

On 09 Mar 2025 21:56:33 -0400, Rich Alderson wrote:
>

The original Tom Swift books date to before Curtiss, so that Tom
Swift's airplane (or was it still aeroplane?) used wing warping.

>
Probably. My brother went to college to become an AE when he got back
from WWII and always said 'aeroplane'. I suppose it was consistent as
he spent his career in the aerospace industry.

>
Aeroplane was the original spelling
>
Americans couldn't cope with the diphthong though.

>
Unless Brits say the word very strangely, which is entirely possible, the
AE has neither the long e (algae) or long i (alumnae) value.  'Air' and
'Aer' are pronounced the same.

>
By Americns.
>

The question is it really needs to be
turned into a three syllable word with the addition of 'o'.
>

No, the question is why Americans who are soi find of inventing
polysyllabic words like 'burglarize' or 'copacetic;' couldn't cope with
three syllables.

 "'Orientate' is an example of the trend toward polysyllabificationizing."
 

Its probably because they didn't invent the word.

 Ah, the NIH syndrome.
 

Aeroplane: late 19th century: from French aéroplane, from aéro- ‘air’ +
Greek -planos ‘wandering’.

 I've alwaqys thought of "plane" in the sense of a boat planing,
although I've heard there are differences.

   Well, a wing is KINDA like a "plane" - and looks like
   one from a little distance. Guess you could make 'em
   out of wide unoptimized lumber bits - just not very
   efficient ... more drag than 'lift'.
   Not 100% sure how 'plane' came to be applied to boats -
   but hydroplanes DO mostly "fly" above the water. High
   powered boats are even newer tech than aircraft, so I
   can see how the aircraft term could have been borrowed.
   REALLY not sure if the "wandering" bit came into the
   names. Perhaps some more colloquial use of "plane",
   which is a wood-working tool that glides over the
   surface.