Talk:assload
Latest comment: 12 years ago by -sche in topic RFV
Consider splitting into two etymologies. The US slang sense presumably comes from ass, i.e. backside. Equinox ◑ 20:27, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- Hmmm. It seems like it's a crude play on the two etymologies of (deprecated template usage) ass. We do have (deprecated template usage) arseload. DCDuring TALK 23:27, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
(Can we verify(+) this sense?) An ancient unit of measure, as much as an ass (donkey) could carry. Used in http://books.google.com/books?id=NGEOAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PA133&ots=FODqGz4M-S&dq=price%20increase%20from%20land%20transport&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q&f=false .
RFV[edit]
The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification.
This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.
Rfv-sense: An ancient unit of measure. (I'd like to speedy it, but see buttload.) DCDuring TALK 20:36, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
- There are plenty of non-sense "definitions" given to assload in the internet. Two examples:
- The international unit of the assload is derived by multiplying the average mass/volume/surface area by the universal unit for load: Avagadro's Number (6.02 x 10^23). Therefore,
- Mass: 1 assload = 1.204 x 10^24 kg which is approximately 1/5 the mass of the earth.
- Volume: 1 assload = 1.12 x 10^27 cm^3 which is approximately 2.68 x 10^10 times the volume of earth.
- Surface Area: 1 assload = 4.395 x 10^26 cm^2 which is approximately 8.62 x 10^9 times the surface area of earth.
- "metric ass-load" is a unit of measure invented in the early 40's by the Royal Navy. It's about 30% heavier than a U.S. ass-load.
- The international unit of the assload is derived by multiplying the average mass/volume/surface area by the universal unit for load: Avagadro's Number (6.02 x 10^23). Therefore,
- Roland de Vaux explains in his book Ancient Israel: its life and institutions that the origin of the unit homer is an ass-load, i.e. as much as an ass can carry, but he does not suggest that ass-load would be the name of the unit. Another site www.metrum.org/measures/appendix.htm gives an exact figure of 91.125 kg to an assload, but it remains unclear how the writer has entered into this figure.
- Unless the contributor or someone else can provide better evidence, I would say delete. Nonsense written in Wiktionary seems to spread extremely fast to other internet sites, and becomes very soon "standard knowledge". It's a remarkable achievement to have reached this status, but it brings some responsibility also, IMHO. --Hekaheka 08:21, 2 October 2010 (UTC)
- Perhaps we could move the sense to the talk page and respect the RfV 30-day rule in cases like this. Defining what we mean by "cases like this" is a bit of challenge, however. Maybe I'm just too inclined to hold my fire on "cases like this". DCDuring TALK 12:53, 2 October 2010 (UTC)
- Nah don't speedy, it says as much as an ass (“donkey”) can carry. It's probably a joke, granted, but I see no reason not to give it 30 days first. Mglovesfun (talk) 13:20, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
- Perhaps we could move the sense to the talk page and respect the RfV 30-day rule in cases like this. Defining what we mean by "cases like this" is a bit of challenge, however. Maybe I'm just too inclined to hold my fire on "cases like this". DCDuring TALK 12:53, 2 October 2010 (UTC)
- There are plenty of non-sense "definitions" given to assload in the internet. Two examples:
- I'm not totally clear on the distinction you're drawing between the sense that you added and the sense that you RFV'd. It's not hard to find cites where assload is being used more or less as a unit of measure, much as handful or armful is today, but with the added twist that whereas nowadays we have thorough systems of standardized units (pound and kilogram and whatnot) that are used when precision matters, historically that was not necessarily the case. For example, this book mentions a tenth-century price of three assloads of coal at a certain place, noting that "an assload contained at least 60 kg.", and this one talks about how many ass loads a certain canoe could hold. (That one doesn't count for this entry, since it spells it with a space, but it's not atypical.) —RuakhTALK 17:19, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- We now use the word and similar word as a crude approximation. If there are explicit mentions of it use in exchange, especially in a market place or repeatedly or in a clearly mercantile context, than that suggests a little less crudeness. Human nature being what it is, there was probably some sense of what a "fair" assload was (eg half an oxload, 4 manloads, 8 deerskins). That would seem to evidence that it could be considered a unit of measure vs. a mere approximation. DCDuring TALK 18:04, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- As the balance scale is an ancient device, I'd bet a marketplace might have had standard weights for resolving disputes. DCDuring TALK 18:07, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- We now use the word and similar word as a crude approximation. If there are explicit mentions of it use in exchange, especially in a market place or repeatedly or in a clearly mercantile context, than that suggests a little less crudeness. Human nature being what it is, there was probably some sense of what a "fair" assload was (eg half an oxload, 4 manloads, 8 deerskins). That would seem to evidence that it could be considered a unit of measure vs. a mere approximation. DCDuring TALK 18:04, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
- I suggest we combine meaning [2] into meaning [1]. - -sche 19:05, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
- I have done what I proposed to do. - -sche (discuss) 18:33, 31 July 2011 (UTC)
- So because you assloads didn't take any steps towards deleting the entry, Google now officially defines the assload See https://imgur.com/a/zWzGmZm Idiocracy was a prophecy.