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From: Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: QUERY: "dead" battery
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 12:31:56 +0100
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On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 21:05:42 -0700, Jack Hamilton
<jfh@aqcm.org> wrote:
> "Dan" <DELETEMEdan_slaughter@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>>You write very well for a non-native writer. Yes, "dead battery" is
>>perfectly acceptable, and, in the United States, would be the term most
>>widely accepted. One would find the term "flat battery" foreign. We would
>>understand, but we would know that it was written by a person whose native
>>tongue isn't English.
>
> Absent conext, I would think that a flat battery is one which is is
> not tall. The battert in my mobile phone is flat but not dead.
The word 'flat' has multiple meanings, like a lot of words in English.
Some words have opposite meanings in one context but identical ones in
others (for example 'fat' and 'thin', but 'fat chance' is the same as
'thin chance'). You can't take words out of context in general and
expect to retain the meaning.
For instance, if an American says "I have a flat" they are probably
referring to a tyre (or tire) which has lost its air, whereas if a
British person says it they are probably referring to an apartment.
And I play music which is written in three flats.
But that's also why English is so rich in wordplay and puns.
> If you use flat to mean discharged (or uncharged), how would you
> describe a battery shaped like this:
>
> ============
A thin battery. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (1996) has 12
meanings of 'flat' as an adjective, none of which means exactly 'thin'
(the closest is "level or smooth, as in a flat surface).
www.dictionary.com lists, for the American Heritage dictionary alone, 17
meanings of 'flat' as an adjective (#3 would describe your battery) and
11 as nouns (three of which I didn't know before looking up that site).
You'd better use context...
Chris C
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