Talk:empty space

RFD discussion: April–June 2006
Sum of parts. Preemptive strike: yes, each word empty and space have multiple senses, but this is the case for almost any given collocation, we don't need them unless the senses are counter-intuitive or unusual. - TheDaveRoss 00:52, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
 * This seems like an incredibly useful thing to translate, maybe it could be classed as a phrasebook entry. Kappa 00:55, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
 * keep: Empty space is not merely the sum of its parts. Consider outer space, inner space, storage space, blank space.  Each of the first three uses the word space in the sense of a 3-D region; the final one typically refers to an empty 2-D region. --EncycloPetey 04:38, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Keep the set phrase. I din't immediately think of as many senses as are listed. Davilla 12:42, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Keep - not all space is empty space! bd2412 T 23:45, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Keep. --Connel MacKenzie T C 06:38, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Delete as per Dave. Which Pawley test does it pass? &mdash; Hippietrail 21:21, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Removed rfd tag from article and noted rfv passed on talk page. Andrew massyn 15:00, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

empty space
Not sure whether every sense will be deleted, but to me, sense one is "a space that is empty", sense two is "space that is empty", and sense three is "space that is empty" (but maybe idiomatic enough to survive?). Doesn't seem to have any value for translations, since they are already at space. Was RFD'd a decade ago. Smurrayinchester (talk) 13:51, 9 October 2015 (UTC)


 * My first thought on seeing this was that it's always taken literally, and therefore should be deleted in toto. But after thinking about the examples, I note that in most cases the word "empty" is redundant; it didn't need to be there in the first place.  So why did the speaker feel the need to use the phrase "empty space"?  It's pretty common, and common in referring to particular situations where "space" may mean completely different things; i.e. a parking space, outer (or inner) space, negative space.  So I'm leaning keep on the grounds of an unusually tight association of the words to describe a particular condition, although I'm not sure what that condition should be called.  I'm thinking that in this phrase, the word "empty" has the specific meaning of "unoccupied" (as in a parking space, one of the examples) or "devoid of matter" (i.e. a vacuum, one of the current definitions).  Which is more specific than "empty" in general.  Just barely, perhaps.  But even so, the tight association of the words in situations where they oughtn't to need to be if taken literally, suggests that the phrase is independent of the literal meaning, and thus idiomatic.  P Aculeius (talk) 14:05, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The irony is that empty space, when used to refer to a vacuum, is not actually empty because of quantum effects. So in that sense, it's not literally empty + space. —CodeCat 20:41, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

delete defs 1 and 2 - merely SOP - keep def 3 as is for the time being (the term seems to be used in astrophysics and needs a def (or a number of defs) similar to current def 3... though I am not knowledgeable enough to know how to define it accurately) Sonofcawdrey (talk) 01:44, 13 October 2015 (UTC)


 * This entry should probably be kept due to that it in the physical sense it is often actually a misnomer since macroscopically "empty" space is usually anything but on a quantum scale. It can also have very different meanings in both metaphysical and artistic senses.  Nicole Sharp (talk) 04:11, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, definitely a physical misnomer, didn't see your comment above. Nicole Sharp (talk) 04:11, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Keep per the previous discussion, and per P Aculeius and Nicole Sharp. Sense 1 does not really correspond with existing senses of "empty" because it implies availability for use. Sense 3 is a technical sense due to the aforementioned quantum effects. bd2412 T 15:47, 28 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: I have added a fourth sense, for "empty space" being used to indicate the feeling of someone or something being gone from one's life. bd2412 T 15:46, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Kept. bd2412 T 13:40, 24 November 2015 (UTC)