A Linguistic Gripe
Jul. 21st, 2004 03:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaThe terms "three-dimensional," "four-dimensional," and "multidimensional" are what used to be called barbarisms - smushings-together caused by English's mongrel roots.
Clearly, a di-mens-ion is one of two measurements. Length and width. x and y.
If you have three measurements, then you have trimensions. If you have four measurements, then you have quadmensions, or perhaps tetramensions. If you have an indefinate number larger than two, then you have multimensions.
This has bothered me for a long, long time. But English is unabashedly a bastard tongue, and no one cares about this particular barbarism except math teachers who teach ESL gifted kids.
Clearly, a di-mens-ion is one of two measurements. Length and width. x and y.
If you have three measurements, then you have trimensions. If you have four measurements, then you have quadmensions, or perhaps tetramensions. If you have an indefinate number larger than two, then you have multimensions.
This has bothered me for a long, long time. But English is unabashedly a bastard tongue, and no one cares about this particular barbarism except math teachers who teach ESL gifted kids.
