Wiktionary:Information desk

Wiktionary > Discussion rooms > Information desk

You can search in the archives of Information desk:

Click here to start a new Information desk discussion.

Wiktionary discussion rooms (edit) see also: requests
Information desk start a new discussion | this month | archives Newcomers’ questions, minor problems, specific requests for information or assistance.	Tea room start a new discussion | this month | archives Questions and discussions about specific words.	Etymology scriptorium start a new discussion | this month | archives Questions and discussions about etymology—the historical development of words.	Beer parlour start a new discussion | this month | archives General policy discussions and proposals, requests for permissions and major announcements.	Grease pit start a new discussion | this month | archives Technical questions, requests and discussions.

All Wiktionary: namespace discussions 1 2 3 4 5 – All discussion pages 1 2 3 4 5

Welcome to the Information desk of Wiktionary, a place where users can ask questions about words and about Wiktionary, ask for help, or post miscellaneous ideas that don’t fit in any of the other rooms.

To start a new topic, clicking on the “+” tab, or click here: Start a new topic.

Sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~), code which produces your signature, followed by a UTC timestamp.

For past questions, see /Archives.

May 2024

Meaning of lunchpail

Our entry for lunchpail has this quotation, from The New York Times:

Ortmeyer, a lunchpail forward who usually counts success in hits and blocked shots, was heading into his third season with the Rangers and was floored by the news.

The term is defined as:

Alternative spelling of lunch pail.

The meaning given for the latter is:

A lunchbox (food container) shaped more or less like a bucket with a handle.

So can we conclude that Ortmeyer is shaped more or less like a bucket with a handle?  --Lambiam 19:52, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Apparently the Boston Bruins team of 1978-85 garnered the nickname "Lunch Pail Athletic Club" and were known for "their charisma, camaraderie and most notably, their signature grit" (source: NHL.com and bostonhockeynow.com). Maybe the author describes Mr Ortmeyer as a "lunchpail" player on account of his exhibiting similar qualities. Voltaigne (talk) 23:13, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

My guess is that it refers to the concept of packing a lunch from home rather than eating at some fancy restaurant. It probably means the person is unpretentious, down-to-earth and hardworking. Chuck Entz (talk) 02:54, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

Linking to a specific definition

What is the way to link to a specific definition, e.g. that of sharpness in the meaning of "intellectualy sharp"? Garethphua (talk) 01:22, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

To do this you first need to tag the specific sense in the list of definitions you want to link to with an ID. See Template:senseid; the section Examples is probably all you need to get the idea.  --Lambiam 19:13, 3 May 2024 (UTC)

How to edit templates or create new ones?

This template in particular <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Template:pa-conj> I notice has quite a few errors. I don't know how to edit it as the edit page simple says invoke:pa-verb and the pa-verb template is empty too.

Also another thing, I'm not sure how to create a template. If I copy and paste the code from for example here <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Template:pnb-noun-m-%C4%81> onto a new page it comes out looking like just the lines of code, with no actual template format. OblivionKhorasan (talk) 08:00, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

In principle, most users can edit most templates. Some are protected so that only template editors can edit them. That is not the case here. Some templates are written with native MediaWiki code and many with Lua. So as long as you 1.) have the proper permissions and 2.) understand the languages, then you can edit a template. In this case, since you've noticed errors but it seems like you're not versed in template editing, it would probably be a good idea to AryamanA to see how you can collaborate on improving it. Note that Wiktionary is very template-heavy, compared to our sister wikis, so while not everyone has to know how to edit the code of the templates, it will be really difficult to contribute for most tasks without a basic understanding of how they work. See also mw:Help:Templates. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 08:06, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

{{#invoke:pa-verb|show}} means that the template calls the Lua code of Module:pa-verb. The errors are in the code of this module and need to be corrected there. Perhaps they are easy to spot and have an obvious fix. More likely, they can only be found and fixed if you understand the way the code works.  --Lambiam 17:24, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Is there a way to try out modules?

Is there any sandbox-like space here where one could try their hand at creating modules?
I'd like to start learning how to make them, but I think I can't really make any attempt at learning without creating a useless page in the meantime (as in, I believe I can't test one in a template without first saving it, but there is a really high chance of it having at the very least a few issues, so it would just be there, kind of useless, until I figure out how to do it).
If there is no such space, would it be frowned upon to create a page anyway, even with a high chance of it it being pointless for a good while? —— GianWiki (talk) 11:33, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

@GianWiki: Unlike templates, modules have to be in the Module namespace to work, so you would create it with "User:GianWiki/" in front of the name. See what others have done. You would create test templates in your user space ("User:GianWiki/foo") and either create test pages in your user space in the same way, or test them in preview in a regular page. Chuck Entz (talk) 14:12, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you so much! I didn't think about that at all. —— GianWiki (talk) 17:03, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

Importing material from Wikibooks

Hello! Wikibooks has a small Kashubian dictionary that may be deleted for being out of scope there. Before this occurs, I want to suggest that someone here add the content to Wiktionary if it would be useful. I already went through it and removed the words that exist here at Wiktionary. Cheers —Kittycataclysm (talk) 23:34, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

Imported to Wiktionary:Requested entries (Kashubian)/Kashubian Dictionary and listed at Wiktionary:Requested entries (Kashubian). Thanks, KC. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:09, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

We could potentially get a copy and make a reference template for it. However, I wouldn't be surprised if most terms are already covered by our existing templates, but a new one can't hurt. I'm not sure about mass-import, Kashubian is an LDL but also there's the issue of copyright and such. Justin's page should make a good starting point. I also wonder, is that really the entire list? Vininn126 (talk) 07:39, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, all! Have you extracted all the material you need from the Wikibooks version? —Kittycataclysm (talk) 18:43, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I haven't added the entries yet; they're still in the requested entries. Some may already exist however. Vininn126 (talk) 18:44, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Category:English internet slang

Is there a reason why we don't have a category for Wikimedia slang? Always seemed like an odd exclusion Trade (talk) 06:56, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

It's not the most clearly named category (and possibly there are other super-categories that this should be a subcategory of, like the Internet slang category you mention), but words labelled as {{lb|en|Wikimedia jargon}} go in Category:en:Wiki. - -sche (discuss) 08:19, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

accidentally made a page while logged out, could it please be deleted or credited to my account so that the ip doesn’t show?

kurcalamak Zbutie3.14 (talk) 01:58, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

I deleted it and recreated it. Your IP address is no longer in the conventional edit history, but it is viewable by admins. If you really need that deleted, that will require an office action from an oversighter. I do not have those permissions. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 02:23, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

thank you; just removing it from edit history is enough i don’t need further than that. Zbutie3.14 (talk) 02:51, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

Add definition to a protected page

xeet was protected indefinitely as a possible vandalism target but the word has become pretty widely used since then. I would appreciate if someone with the permissions could add the definition I suggested at Wiktionary:Tea room/2024/May#xeet plus category links etc Nicerink (talk) 06:16, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

@Nicerink done. If you create an English entry, please add appropriate citations. See the entry turbovirgin as an example. This, that and the other (talk) 23:29, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

June 2024

Formatting typo in declension table for Russian word "воздух".

On the page for воздух (Russian, noun, first definition), the declension table appears to have a typo. Each plural declension appears with a "*" character in front and is not a link. Additionally, the transliterations into Latin script are tagged in the page source as lang="ru", where they should be lang="ru-Latn". I'm under the impression that the table should be formatted identically to the second definition declension table on the same page.

I had tried to edit to fix, but the table is not hard coded into the page and I don't know how to edit it (nor do I generally know how to do anything on Wiktionary).

Hopefully this is the right place to mention this. 2601:14D:4A80:B757:83CD:37AC:A96D:BE1D 20:47, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

I think the asterisk signifies these forms are not attested for the non-religious senses. These senses seem rather uncountable.  --Lambiam 11:40, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

I had thought something like that was the case until I looked at the DOM (right click -> inspect) and saw that the lang attribute was listed as "ru" instead of "ru-Latn".

For example, the religious sense:

<span lang="ru-Latn" class="tr Latn" style="color: #888;">vózdux</span>

vs the non-religious sense:

<i class="Latn hypothetical" lang="ru">vózduxi</i>

Using lang="ru" seems to be an error because the language of the text is not, in fact, Russian.

But maybe I'm just misunderstanding the semantics of the lang attribute when used with "Latn hypotheical". 2601:14D:4A80:B757:FA52:201B:C630:35EB 19:25, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

Can I include words from my conlang's lexicon to wiktionary? If so, how?

Title says it all, I was thinking of adding words from kașu, my conlang's lexicon to wiktionary, and saw that other conlangs used an appendix, such as Toki Pona. Is it ok for me to do this or should I resort to other places to archive the lexicon? Aoscf77 (talk) 18:27, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

The appendix namespace is very flexible in what it allows, including some pretty trivial or just-for-fun things, but it does not allow for what is essentially personal hosting for projects like this. We do not have a single, unified constructed language policy, but it so happens that we are about to have a vote on the topic which is somewhat relevant: Wiktionary:Votes/2024-06/CFI for mainspace constructed languages (somewhat in as much as it's actually about the main namespace and potentially relegating some constructed languages to the appendix namespace). —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 18:43, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Interwiki links

Interwiki linking help page states the following: An interwiki link is a special link from a page on the English Wiktionary to a similar page on another Wikimedia project. These links do not show up in the page itself, but are displayed in a toolbar to the left.

Yet, when I add such a link to a wiktionary page and publish my changes, I get a warning that interwiki links should not be used for translations. What I'm trying to achieve, is to get the other language to appear in the language list (Sidebar or top of the page). Dangits (talk) 19:07, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

This is kind of a subtle point that makes Wiktionary different from its sister projects. If you are on the English language Wikipedia and go to w:en:foot and want to learn more about the topic, the Spanish language equivalent is at w:es:pie. The two ideas have two different words that represent them in the two languages. Here on Wiktionary, if you go to our entry "pie", it is not about the concept of a foot nor is it about the concept of a dessert, which is what "pie" means in English. Instead, it is about any words in any languages that are spelled "pie", so this includes the English "py" which means a sweet treat and the Spanish "pee-yay" which means the appendage at the bottom of your leg. So the interwiki links at pie should link to other Wiktionary editions where they have entries for the word spelled "pie", not interwiki links that translate "pie" in English to other languages. Does that make sense? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:13, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Yes it does. Thank you for your throughout explanation. I will fix my interwikilink changes and apply instructions from the Translations help-page. Dangits (talk) 19:36, 5 June 2024 (UTC)