Talk:business

what is the possessive form of the word? --Remi 08:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Business's (singular) or businesses' (plural). Widsith 08:25, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Hyphenation
Is it really proper to hypenate at a silent vowel? It is certainly not a very good idea. Does Strunk and White weigh in on this. Is there a citable authority on the matter? Brothercanyouspareadime 20:08, 9 February 2011 (UTC)


 * What hyphenation are you talking about? You also need to indicate whether you are talking about British or American hyphenation, since they are different. Are you referring to "busi‧ness"? That is the standard American hyphenation of this word. I have no idea how the British hyphenate it. —Stephen (Talk) 23:56, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

RFV
Rfv-sense: adjective. Probably the attributive use of the noun. I probably should have been bold and just deleted it, but I suppose there is a change it could be cited. Mglovesfun (talk) 01:22, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I'd welcome collocation ideas for this. I've tried the most direct approaches that are somewhat selective. DCDuring TALK 03:39, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I've cited a slightly different sense. — Pingkudimmi 10:51, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Good definition. Good cites, I think, except for the 2010 cite. It seems to show "fully" being a clausal/verbal adverb rather an adjective-modifying adverb.
 * Now that the adjectivity is cited in that sense, more central usage examples or citations would be desirable, reflecting common collocations in the sense given and possibly in attributive position.
 * One of the disadvantage of the adjective-proving citations is that they are not very representative of overall usage. Often these adjective uses seem "wrong" to me. It can keep me from seeing that a given collocation of the word is not of attributive use of the noun rather than of the putative adjective. DCDuring TALK 12:38, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I've replaced the cite with one using what might be regarded a nonstandard parse/usage of business men.
 * Also some citations for the rfv'd sense. — Pingkudimmi 15:53, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * They also look good. I like the one with business once after "a" and twice it. "Solely" and "purely" should be on a list of adjective-modifying test adverbs at English adjectives, which probably could use some updating. DCDuring TALK 18:03, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I interpret this as RFV-passed. If I err in this interpretation, reopen the discussion. - -sche (discuss) 18:17, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
 * On a later discussion at Requests_for_deletion, I've wondered whether any focus adverbs are good for such a test. I'd forgotten about this discussion. DCDuring TALK 18:54, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

Is business an adjective?
In what way is business an adjective? All the examples cited seem to be compound nouns, and I am not sure you'd be able to have comparatives or superlatives of this "adjective" (i.e. you cannot say "Wearing a suit and a tie is more business than jeans and T-shirt?")? Is the adjective not business-like or something else, but not business? Hfossa 15:15, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Sorry to follow up on my own question, but I have just spotted the RFV section on this page, and fail to see how this discussion can constitute a confirmation of the word business as an adjective. Why the references to adverbs? Hfossa 15:23, 18 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Because adverbs qualify adjectives, not nouns. If business: is only a noun, then constructions like ‘thoroughly business’ as cited make no sense. < class="latinx" >Ƿidsiþ 15:27, 18 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Where are the citations? To me "thoroughly business", as well as "truly", "wholly" or "completely", do not sound right - but I guess that is not relevant in the Wiktionary.Hfossa 09:52, 19 October 2011 (UTC)


 * The citations are listed after the definitions at business, including a link at the end of each one to the source of the cite. (Click on the "quotations" link to display the quotations.) —Stephen (Talk) 10:25, 19 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks. It seems to me that all the examples cited in the adjective section are US-American, and the uses of the word listed appear flawed in British English. How would one go about getting a US-specific (or chiefly US) tag added to the adjective? Hfossa 12:19, 20 October 2011 (UTC)

Examples of business as attributive noun
There is plenty of evidence at BNC and at Google News. DCDuring TALK 14:22, 19 October 2011 (UTC)


 * The Google link above refers mostly to examples of the noun "business" being used in a compound noun, in my understanding. The similar search |rate|news|head|asset|award|executive|manager|management%22+location%3AUK&btnG=Search&oq=%22business+card|rate|news|head|asset|award|executive|manager|management%22+location%3AUK&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=63320l78321l1l83167l35l31l1l0l0l1l243l4102l7.21.2l30l0#num=30&hl=en&safe=active&gl=us&as_qdr=a&tbm=nws&sa=X&ei=oSCgTufOOMPwsga8wMz-Ag&ved=0CCsQBSgA&q=%22wholly%7Ctruly%7Cfully%7Cpartly%7Cthoroughly+business%22+location%3AUK&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=da4f0647a1f16f3e&biw=1039&bih=892 with adverbs yields no relevant results.Hfossa 13:25, 20 October 2011 (UTC)

This is not relevant to the prior topic. DCDuring TALK 17:41, 20 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry if I misunderstood. I took your comment to be providing examples of (evidence for) non-US use of the word "business" as an adjective (so I moved it to the topic above). I subsequently understand that "attributive noun" would be more correct than "compound noun" for the uses your search finds. My apologies. I still think that the examples cited do not provide evidence of "business" as an adjective in UK usage. Hfossa 07:59, 21 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Nor do I. DCDuring TALK 10:14, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Quality or state of being busy
Can "business" mean this, i.e. the same as busyness? We have no such sense here. Equinox ◑ 22:43, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

b'ness
b'ness is an alternative form. --Backinstadiums (talk) 08:51, 12 September 2020 (UTC)