Talk:parallel

Past

I think the UK past tense and past participle are "parelleled", but I'm not 100% sure off the top of my head. Could someone check in a UK dictionary, please. -- Paul G 14:20, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

This is the page where I first learned of the two spellings: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/parallelled.html but a Google search with both spellings soon turns up plenty. This is a nice one: http://www.future-perfect.co.uk/word1.htm Hippietrail 15:50, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Well, Hippietrail, your second link no longer works. I ran across this which seems somewhat edifying; if not in the Oxford nor Cambridge dictionaries, whence comes the two-L spelling? I assume it’s an un-American hypercorrection based on erroneous extrapolation from overgeneralizing the Commonwealth spelling of words like dialled and cancelled. —Wiki Wikardo 18:24, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

In the UK, parallelled is a common spelling, occurring six times in the OED (though only in cites). This siteconsiders that parallelled is standard British English. There is no logical reason why parallel should be an exception to the normal rules of British English (double the consonant before "ed", especially after "e"). I wonder why some dictionaries make it an exception. The only reason I've seen is "too many ells close together" which seems rather a weak reason to break a rule. Dbfirs 09:06, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

In the absence of any other explanation, and after reflection, I assume that the verb "to parallel" was coined in America, and so American spelling was common, but I see no reason for refusing to Anglicise (or should that be Britishise?) the word.

Pronunciation

The pronunciation I learned is consistent with what you hear sounded out here, with the first syllable (part) enunciated over the other two. But I do not believe this is universal anymore. I have heard a great deal of movies on YouTube where people are enunciating the last syllable (llel) more prominently than the other two. For example, at the end of this movie you can hear parallel pronunced this way when he talks about using the bench to gauge his squat depth. I think this may be a dialect that occurs more in southern United States. I don't know whether or not this pronunciation shift applies to any other words, but I think paralell is pronounced differently down there very often. Is there a way to study or reflect this difference in the description? Y12J 19:58, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Missing sense: something used in construction?

In the WP article on Altamont Free Concert, Chip Monck is quoted as saying: "the stage was one metre high – 39 inches for us – and [at Sears Point] it was on the top of a hill, so all the audience pressure was back upon them […] We weren't working with scaffolding, we were working in an older fashion with parallels. You could probably have put another stage below it...but nobody had one." Equinox ◑ 20:53, 24 September 2023 (UTC)