×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

1 word/ words nouns

1 word/ words nouns

1 word/ words nouns

(OP)
Ok, everytime we do cad drawings and label stuff we try to be consistent.  Some of our engineers use:

Crawl space or Crawlspace
Ridge line or Ridgeline

Which one is correct?

I am sure there are plenty more.

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Sounds like you need a dictionary.

Don
Kansas City

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

(OP)
some dictionary list it, some dont.

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Shear wall
Shearwall

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Man Hour
Manhour

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."   
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

I think that as long as you are consistent, it really may not matter.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."   
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Forcemain
Water Main

Is that right?

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Spell Checker (Black Magic, White Magic, VooDoo, ???)
Spelling Checker

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

I also vote for picking one and being consistent.  (But  I'm not one for dwelling on the finer points of grammar as long as the message gets through.)

I'm surprised no-one has chimed in with a rule from Fowler or Oxford or whatever.  Surely the Queen of England must have 6 or 7 rules (each with exceptions) covering this situation. Usually there's an abundance of that type of advice here.

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Eng-Tips
EngTips

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Pipework
Pipe work

Flowmeter
Flow meter

Setpoint
Set point

Annoys me every time I have to choose one, and I can never remember which I chose last time so consistency becomes a bit of a problem!

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Bill Gates chooses for me... wrongly most of the time. I pefer flowmeter and pipework but Big Bill doesn't.
But the irritation value of seeing the red underline certainly lets me know which evrsion I prefer.
Once away from Bill's programs, you don't have spell-checker?
AH! the "-".
Back to "Eats, shoots and leaves" !!
I'm sure this was discussed.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

wombats ?, or pandas ?

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

well... to me two separate words are two separate words. Even a name could have two words. Just because it is a name or noun does not mean it has to be a single word.

To me ammeter is a word, but not amperemeter. It should be ampere meter or amp-meter. A lunch room sounds and reads better than lunchroom. So does a flow meter than a flowmeter. For some reason voltmeter is accepted as a word, to me it should be volt meter. Or use hyphens volt-meter or man-hour.

But I do agree that both (or all three, inlcuding hyphenation) forms are accepted and have not heard anyone complain. Being consistent is nice. Again, I am also a beleiver in conveying a clearer message than trying to be a purist.



RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Do we need another thread on the sad demise of "ammeter"?  I don't think I've ever actually heard the word used among welding people; they all say "amp-meter" (parallel to "voltmeter").

(Fun with Wiki:  looks like most European languages go for variations on the theme of "amperemeter"; still no "ampmeter" though.)

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

I have not heard the demise of word "ammeter". It is very much alive and kicking. In fact amp-meter is seldom used.

In fact a wikipedia  says: "An ammeter is a measuring instrument used to measure the flow of electric current in a circuit. Electric currents are measured in amperes, hence the name. The word "ammeter" is commonly misspelled or mispronounced as "ampmeter" by some."

Go figure.

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

In fact the news of demise of the word 'ammeter' are slightly exaggerated.

Just do a google search and on the first page all references including wikipedia, encyclopedia Britannica and Duke University show up, even defining an "ammeter".

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

I wouldn't place too much store in Wikipedia. It is a good & often accurate quick reference but I would never take its information as fact without getting corroborating evidence from other sources.

IMO, it is "ammeter" which is the "commonly mispelled & pispronounced" term. I think it has been used for so long & so often that it has become accepted as being correct. I often use it myself, but it just makes more sense that amp-meter (with or without the hypen) would be the more correct version.

Will we will soon see volmeter (sans 't') being adopted?

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

ampmeter never existed or became common. The complte word is ampere, whether you truncate it to am or amp or ampe is immaterial. It has always been ammeter and so it is. There is no "need" to change it. Volt probably was short enough word not requiring a truncation. Regargless, voltmeter it is. I have no problem with that.

The grace is in accepting what has been accepted for decades in a language and not try changing established norm for "no reason". One can try, however, I have no problem with that either. Just declaring death of a live item does not kill it.

Now one may ask: Can a item be "live"? smile



RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Wikipedia tells you what the official right answer is.  I am reporting what I hear people using, despite what the official right answer is.  (Hey, if "gage" could make it into textbooks...)

"Ammeter" has apparently been around since the 1880s.  I think that rates above "commonly misspelled and mispronounced".  "Ammeter" was, if anything, a contraction of "amperemeter", not "ampmeter".  There's an online version of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica that uses the term "ammeter".  If that ain't official, I don't know what is.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

A 'Google' for "amp meter" returns 6,430,000 hits ... "ammeter" returns 941,000.

Majority rules! poke

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

How about a compromise - ampmeter, pronounced with a silent "p"?

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

You need the quote marks CBL, then "amp meter" scores 155,000, while ammeter gets 955,000 -  as you say majority rules.

Incidentally even that is inflated as amp meter is a valid unit of something to do with coils.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: 1 word/ words nouns

Good point Greg. Never thought of the quote marks.

Oh well, can't win em all. smile

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources