crepuscular rays have no "anti" (APOD 17 Sep 2006)

brian fraser · Post by **brian fraser** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 8:41 am

In todays APOD they talk about "crepuscular rays" and "anticrepuscular rays".
The word "crepuscular" means "twilight" - hence there are birds that are "crepuscular" meaning they are active during twilight, morning or evening.
There is no such thing as "anticrepuscular" , for that would mean "anti-ywilight" - a nonsensical idea.
Please remove the "anticrespuscular" term as it is confusing.

sorry to sound pedantic, but it is just wrong.

astro_uk · Post by **astro_uk** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 10:25 am

I know how you feel but I think that that term is now the accepted one, so its pretty hard to change.

Speaking as someone in the UK we often have to sit by as Americans, even educated ones mangle the language. My favourite similar example of the above is when people use anti-hierarchical in astronomy when they mean non-hierarchical. There is actually a big difference anti-hierachical would mean big galaxies split up to form small galaxies, non-heirarchical just means that small ones don't merge to form big ones, subtle but important.

The most annoying one at the minute though has to be when Americans use disconnect when they mean disconnection. i.e "there is a growing disconnect between A and B"

craterchains · Post by **craterchains** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 2:30 pm

Where have I heard this rant before?

astro_uk wrote:have to sit by as Americans, even educated ones mangle the language.

when Americans use disconnect when they mean disconnection. i.e "there is a growing disconnect between A and B"

It seems to be in an anomaly that has shown up in recent years in ALL "english" language countries. Improper usage of a word, my english teacher would be having a fit! I am not sure if it is occurring in other languages as a I am only fluent in english. We have noted the usage of the word "you" many times when it should be "your". There are several more misused words that stand out also. But, what is even more interesting is the attitude of those that annoy others with their word misuse, is their annoying segregationist attitude. one country better than another, for an example.

Norval

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:10 pm

Wow...I didn't see this picture until yesterday, then when I was driving home from work, I looked over the west hills of Portland and what should I see? A set of crepuscular rays (not anti, though) very similar to those in the picture.

I've definitely never heard the term anti-hierarchical before, and I think if I did, I'd be like to think "those crazy British and their weird prefixes." I've only ever heard non-hierarchical. Then again, I don't work in astronomy. Regardless, I seriously doubt this is a case of Americans mangling the Queen's English, of which I admit there are many cases, the worst being the lazy mispelling of "donut" (doughnut).

Anyway, is anti-crepuscular really that bad? I can't think of a necessarily better term. Anti means against or in opposition, and these are certainly opposite the sky from the normal crepuscular rays.

Also, I think there is a growing disconnect between the English spoken in the United Kingdom and that spoken in North America.

astro_uk · Post by **astro_uk** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:23 pm

Nice.

Well I suppose the strength of the English language has proven to be the fact its a bit loose, picking up words from anywhere, grammar is probably fairly similar, and hey I can hardly talk, my grammar is atrocious.

Disconnect still annoys me for some reason though. Not quite as much as the gratuitous use of ? marks in US news shows these days though.

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:34 pm

Ohh, yeah...posing news headlines in the form of a question really bugs me. You're not asking for a stinkin' answer! You're supposed to be the one with information. That's why I read your stinkin' service!

That and it's always a topic along the lines of "Britney Spears Pregnant?" (answer: who cares?)

Whew! Glad we got that one settled. Now back to globular clusters and why news reporting of science always gets it wrong...

andyrint · Post by **andyrint** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:15 pm

"Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man." ~J. Robert Oppenheimer (speaking about Albert Einstein)

unfortunately Oppenheimer's will take a bit longer!