[WikiEN-l] "Well known"

[Fred Bauder]

Only in the context of arbitration cases where some horse's ass took a
stand. Establishing a global standard is inevitably an ugly process, as
in the old saying that compares the crafting of legislation to the making
of sausage.

However, we can strive to maintain a high standard, high enough that if
someone adapts our style, their writing won't seem  eccentric or
illiterate.

Fred

> Have you ever read any of the more disputatious Manual of Style talk
> pages?
>
> Carcharoth
>
> On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Fred Bauder<fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
> wrote:
>> I suppose, as in matters of internet deportment, civility, we must also
>> accept the burden of maintaining the standard for English usage, global
>> English usage. It is a grim and dreary business, but I must admit it is
>> our responsibility.
>>
>> Fred
>>
>>> Fred Bauder wrote:
>>>>> For a change, something on English usage. A trawl through some usage
>>>>> books tells me nothing much about "most well known", which I'm
>>>>> convinced
>>>>> is a solecism, and should be "best-known". The hyphenation I think
>>>>> is
>>>>> standard anyway. Sadly Google believes there are 11,000 instances
>>>>> for
>>>>> "most well known" on enWP, and I'd prefer none to be in article
>>>>> space.
>>>>>
>>>>> Charles
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Well, both expressions, both with and without hyphen, seem to be in
>>>> general use. Now that you've mentioned it, I can't recall which of
>>>> the
>>>> four possibilities I habitually use. Right now "best known" seems
>>>> best,
>>>> but I wouldn't waste one second changing a most well known into a
>>>> best
>>>> known.
>>>>
>>> Ah ... I would. How about "much more well known", versus
>>> "better-known",
>>> because our general style tends to understatement? Anyway I have been
>>> zapping those. Any such trawl finds other problems to fix.
>>>
>>> Charles
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
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