Language desk
< July 21	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 22[edit]

Euroasia vs Eurasia[edit]

I recently came across the spelling 'Euroasia' for Eurasia. I was unaware of this alternative spelling, and it is far more common than I had realised. I found it used in many academic publications and other places. Is this a completely valid alternative to the spelling 'Eurasia', or is there some sort of distinction between the two? Our article on 'Eurasia' doesn't say anything on this. Carcharoth (talk) 08:59, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It is not a valid alternative spelling for the name of the landmass. This Google Books search shows that all the occurrences of "Euroasia" are not references to the landmass but to other things such as companies. --Viennese Waltz 09:30, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Viennese Waltz: that is incorrect. If you re-do the search and include the word 'continent' as well, you get lots of results for "Euroasia" as a continent. They all look absolutely legitimate to me. I can see no reason to think anything other than that this is a valid alternative to Eurasia. Carcharoth (talk) 23:06, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The NOW corpus shows that a significant minority of tokens are of the landmass. I don't know what you mean by the notion of "validity" in spelling. (If your question is "If you used it, would a proofreader be likely to alter it to 'Eurasia'?", then I'd say the answer is yes.) -- Hoary (talk) 10:15, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Hoary: how do you use that corpus? I tried searching it, but the results don't seem particularly helpful. Agree about proofreading. I was effectively proofing a text that used the spelling "Euroasia". Possibly some non-English languages may use this spelling? Carcharoth (talk) 23:09, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, bit of a rush now, so I really can't guess what the problem might be and describe what to do. Have you registered? (This costs nothing.) If not, do so (if you don't, yes, it really is frustrating). Once you're in NOW, search for something -- let's say "euro*", though without the quotation marks. Just use "Find matching strings": don't bother with any alternatives or options till you're accustomed to the basics. It's all case-insensitive. You should now see a list of "FREQUENCY". If, within this list, you're intrigued by, say, "EUROLAND", then click on it. You should now see a list of "CONTEXT". For any item that interests you, click somewhere towards the left in order to see an extended context ("CONTEXT+") for that item. Doesn't interest you after all? Then don't click the back button; instead, click "CONTEXT". Various aspects of the website design seem rather perverse or out-and-out annoying, but persevering is worth the effort. (And if it really doesn't seem to make sense, then it may be partially down. On occasion I've observed this: you get results in a crippled sort of way, with no error messages. Just forget about it and return a couple of hours later.) -- Hoary (talk) 00:18, 23 July 2019 (UTC) PS When I do have time for WP, I'll have to attend to the article Morris Schwartz. -- Hoary (talk) 02:21, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

On Wikipedia, it seems to be mainly used with reference to the EuroAsia Interconnector. By the way, there was a minor controversy over the word "psychoanalysis" in the 1920s(?), with classical language mavens insisting the correct form would be "psychanalysis"... AnonMoos (talk) 13:36, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@AnonMoos: interesting point about the 'o' being dropped there. I wonder what that construction is linguistically? See the discussion here. Carcharoth (talk) 23:10, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Elision is a somewhat technical term, but "vowel-dropping" is also satisfactory... AnonMoos (talk) 02:44, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

There are Euratom, Euravia (company), Euractiv (TV station), Eurabia (in anti-Islamicist demagoguery, Europe (over)run by Muslims), Euramerica, and more. I suppose that Euro was a back-formation from Europa (or its cognates); historically, there's nothing particularly "proper" about it; and though in English "Euro" became established as a bound base, slightly whittled down "Eur" should really be no less respectable. I could idly speculate that, when used to refer to the land-mass, "Euroasia" could be a hypercorrection; but it could be a slip of the tongue/digits, or the result of second-language or other disfluency. -- Hoary (talk) 02:23, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

True, that it could just be academics engaging in hypercorrection or being disfluent. I wonder what people make of Afro-Eurasia (far less commonly used) which according to the Wikipedia article can take many forms: Afroeurasia, Eurafrasia. But clearly not Euroafrasia, or Eurafroasia or Euroafroasia or Afreurasia or Afroeuroasia or Afreuroasia... :-) Carcharoth (talk) 07:53, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This is commonly considered to be a grouping of the unit of Eurasia with Africa, so any combination with "Afr(o)-" in the middle would be very unlikely. AnonMoos (talk) 14:32, 23 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I encountered "Eurafrasia" well before "Afro-Eurasia". And "Afro-Eurasia" seems to me to be a set of two things (Africa and Eurasia) as opposed to a coherent entity that includes Africa, Europe, and Asia as parts of itself. --Khajidha (talk) 14:43, 24 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Fanny Fanackapan[edit]

Was Our Gracie responsible for "Fanny Fanackapan", or only for Fred? Is this name ever used still and if so in what context? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:24, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

??? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:40, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"Fanny Fanackapan" is British English "idiomatic nickname". I would link to a YouTube video of "Fred Fannakapan", sung by Gracie Fields on HMV No. B3595, from November 1930. But of course, it's forbidden, because it's not from an "official source". Martinevans123 (talk) 17:40, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I would have said it is more of a placeholder name, but I haven't heard it used for some years. Alansplodge (talk) 18:25, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Ah yes, that's what I was thinking of. Thanks, ~~buggerlugs~~ Alan. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:33, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"Fanny Fanackapan" hasn't made it onto our List of terms related to an average person#United_Kingdom and Google is silent on the issue except for some inconclusive forum threads. The only printed source I could find is it being used as the name of a horse in a historical novel called The Obsession by Catherine Cookson, apparently set in an Edwardian country house.

BTW, I used to know a girl who called me "buggerlugs" which I hoped was a compliment. A Proustian moment. Alansplodge (talk) 18:25, 22 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for being so brief there. "Good evening, and welcome to the Arthur Ludlow Memorial Baths, Newport...." Martinevans123 (talk) 19:10, 22 July 2019 (UTC) [reply]

"Is the name still used and in what context?" Yes it is. I use it as a term of derision when talking to a fussy child, just as my mother used to use it when talking to me. --TammyMoet (talk) 19:49, 24 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Tammy. It's not easy to tell from your User page in which country you might be located. I'm guessing it might be one where the leader has a funny hairdo. Does that narrow it down at all? Martinevans123 (talk) 21:14, 24 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Well that narrows it down to 3 I guess... --TammyMoet (talk) 20:19, 27 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Goodness me. Now you have got me guessing. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:57, 27 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]