Talk:acres of column inches

Request for deletion

 * Moved from WT:RFV

Is this sum of parts, or wrong, or what? Mglovesfun (talk) 09:48, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, it's real - quite a few hits for the phrase on Google books search. It doesn't seem like sum of parts to me as the term acres: is being used figuratively for lots:. SemperBlotto 10:00, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Well yes, acres of = lots of. Should probably be at RFD then, right? Mglovesfun (talk) 10:22, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Delete or move to RfD. I don't see how "acres of" is any more idiomatic than "gobs of". I suppose one could argue that the collocations that result from any adjective/preposition or noun/preposition combination could be entries. That would seem to be a revolutionary approach to grammar, far beyond what has gained consensus among grammarians. It would certainly distinguish en.wikt from other dictionaries. We also wouldn't have to worry about invidious quality comparisons with other dictionaries for such entries. DCDuring TALK 12:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * at RFD now
 * Delete. We have this sense of acre already, by the way. Column inch we don't have, but that's as it should be IMO. We also lack square foot inch, kilowatt hour, and others, and should lack kilowatt-hour, watt-hour, and others. (A list is (currently) at [[User:Msh210/sums of parts]].) &#x200b;— msh210 ℠ 17:02, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Delete, the number of X of collocations is a lot, and I think they're better listed under acres, tons than acres of and tons of. Also masses of, loads of, bags of, tonnes of. There's perhaps an argument for an appendix to list the attestable ones, what part of speech is this? Quantifiers? I dunno. Mglovesfun (talk) 17:39, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Delete. This is just "acres" (noun, "lots of") + "column" (adjectival use, "in a column") + "inch" (noun, "a unit of length" [here, width]). In general, I think Wiktionary should limit itself to the minimum necessary to clearly understand English text/speech, not try to cover combinations that can be understood individually (sum of parts). Facts707 19:23, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * It's not column (adjectival use, "in a column") + inch. That would imply that it's in one column: but if you have something three inches long spanning two columns, it's said to take up six column inches. Column inch is, rather, a phrase formed by multiplying units, like kilowatt hour. If you want to break it up, I suppose it's column (attributive (or adjectival) use, "multiplied by the unit of measure called column") + inch (unit of measure). See my comments above. (Going now to check whether we have a "unit of measure" sense of column....) &#x200b;— msh210 ℠ 17:03, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't think column as an adjective here implies "in one column". For example, if we say 8 board feet, we are not saying whether it is all in one long board 8 feet long (x 1 foot wide x 1 inch thick) or two or more boards (eg. 6 feet long and 2 feet long), and perhaps we don't know, we don't care, it's not relevant, or we'll get to that later. Having said that, I realize we need to define the term column inch, since it clearly means a newspaper or magazine (or website) column, and that meaning cannot be determined from its two component parts. Incidentally, I should have said "height", not "width" in my first post above. Cheers, Facts707 22:08, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
 * OK, I added column inch (can't be determined as sum of parts). I think it's safe to delete acres of column inches now. Facts707 11:34, 8 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Argh, my point (one of them) was that column inch is SoP. (Sigh.) &#x200b;— msh210 ℠ 16:13, 8 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Technically it is, but only if we know the context. I like the conciseness of the OED's definition: “one inch of a newspaper column.” —Michael Z. 2010-03-08 23:38 z 


 * By the way, Msh210, you were right that "column" in "column inch" is not just adjectival, there is the implied meaning of "newspaper" (or magazine, etc.) column. Also, OED doesn't mention magazines or web pages... Facts707 08:51, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Deleted. &#x200b;—msh210℠ 17:00, 22 April 2010 (UTC)