|
Components and Circuits For discussions about component types, alternatives and availability, circuit configurations and modifications etc. Discussions here should be of a general nature and not about specific sets. |
|
Thread Tools |
2nd Mar 2018, 9:09 pm | #61 |
Nonode
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Kirk Michael, Isle of Man
Posts: 2,346
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
I don't recall GERUND, but all the english and latin grammatical expressions acquired 65 years ago no longer seem to apply. Present, future, perfect, future perfect, pluperfect etc all seem to be different today. My russian speaking wife is struggling to get her grammar correct, but I can help little other than offering a correct sentence as an example since she is learning the modern equivalent terms. Fortunately I can both speak and write in good english (most of the time).
Les. |
3rd Mar 2018, 12:10 am | #62 |
Nonode
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Cambridge, Cambs. UK.
Posts: 2,196
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
The resisting (gerund) of a flow of current is commonly achieved by a length of resistance (adjective) wire usually called a resistor (noun).
We also of course had the French Resistance (noun and completely OT!). Martin
__________________
BVWS Member |
3rd Mar 2018, 11:00 am | #63 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,526
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
Then there's the resistance which is futile......
__________________
....__________ ....|____||__|__\_____ .=.| _---\__|__|_---_|. .........O..Chris....O |
3rd Mar 2018, 10:00 pm | #64 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
Posts: 7,059
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
|
4th Mar 2018, 12:36 pm | #65 | |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Chard, South Somerset, UK.
Posts: 7,457
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
Quote:
Al. |
|
6th Mar 2018, 1:56 am | #66 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Todmorden, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 870
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
"The resisting of" is terrible English. The correct formulation is just "Resisting a flow of current is...". "Resisting" is still a gerund in that context.
|
6th Mar 2018, 3:09 am | #67 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Melbourne Australia
Posts: 898
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
My 1897'ish Webster's provides 1 of 3 'physics' meanings to condenser: An instrument for concentrating electricity by the effect of induction between conducting plates separated by a nonconducting plate.
Capacitor hadn't been coined then. Jar is described as the measure of what is contained in a jar. Example of Leyden Jar. |
6th Mar 2018, 4:00 pm | #68 | ||
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Chard, South Somerset, UK.
Posts: 7,457
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
Quote:
Quote:
Another example: The opening paragraph of this chapter is misleading. I don't see anything incorrect in that: it's all a matter of style. Anyway, all of this is irrelevant: the question is "resistance" - adjective or noun? Al. |
||
6th Mar 2018, 4:20 pm | #69 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,192
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
We obviously need someone to look it up in the OED, but I expect, whatever it says, some people won't accept it.
__________________
Graham. Forum Moderator Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron. |
6th Mar 2018, 6:08 pm | #70 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: West London, UK.
Posts: 865
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
The name lives on with microphones. People normally refer to a condenser mike, not a capacitor mike.
John |
6th Mar 2018, 7:46 pm | #71 | |
Guest
Posts: n/a
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
Quote:
It does irk me slightly when conventions aren't used by those who should know better, in the end it is the message that matters after all. And when that happens I become un-irked. Anyway (to quote Douglas Adams and others) "Resistance is futile". |
|
7th Mar 2018, 12:53 am | #72 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,316
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
The preface to my (now rather ancient) Concise Oxford Dictionary observes that its contents reflect the then-current British English idiom and do not prescribe what that idiom ought to be.
|
7th Mar 2018, 2:05 pm | #73 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Solihull, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 4,872
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
The modern trend is for dictionaries and grammarians to wash their hands of any responsibility, thus condoning poor English by failing to discourage it. Most dictionaries still indicate if a word is colloquial or vulgar. Perhaps they should also indicate if a word/construction is helpful or unhelpful. If not, we will soon have "of" listed in its new meaning: 'he could of stopped them', when this is clearly an error.
|
7th Mar 2018, 2:06 pm | #74 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
Posts: 7,059
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
And the rotary synchronous condenser, used for power-factor correction. Though the only thing that this has in common with the two-plates-plus-dielectric is that it draws current in quadrature with applied voltage!
|
10th Mar 2018, 12:41 pm | #75 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 3,496
|
Re: Origin of 'condenser' name
Quote:
Hey Al, I just caught up with this. Your sentence above, on closer inspection, doesn't have the same structure at all as: 'The resisting (gerund) of a flow of current is commonly achieved by a length of resistance (adjective) wire usually called a resistor (noun).' 'Opening', in 'opening paragraph', describes what kind of paragraph that is. Hence 'opening' is simply an adjective here. Whereas in 'The resisting (gerund) of a flow of current is commonly achieved by a length of resistance (adjective) wire usually called a resistor (noun)...' 'the resisting' is a gerund. I'm only saying this because it looks as if you posted your sentence as if it were structurally a mimic of the earlier one (you imply that you can substitute the bracketed terms.) It isn't.
__________________
Al |
|