Talk:ophiure

RFV discussion: October–December 2014

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ophiure

English section. I can't find any evidence of its usage. The more common term is ophiuroid or the brittle star. Jamesjiao → ^{T ◊ C} 21:33, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I've added three quotations, from 1815, 1845, and 1864. I don't see anything more recent, so maybe it should be marked "obsolete" or "archaic". —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 22:05, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Never mind - Ungoliant has added more recent quotations. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 22:23, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

What about rare or uncommon? It’s hard to be sure, due to interference from French and German, but that’s the impression I got. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 22:26, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Except for one work, apparently of fiction, translated (from French?), all of the use seems technical (biology). One can find more at Google Scholar, though most of the usage I found was in works in French an in bibliographies citing those works.

This seems like exactly the kind of word that we should discourage translators from using. What would it take to discourage someone from using the word, rather than brittle star or ophiuroid, which do seem more common. Would using those words as glosses instead of the fuller definition help? Certainly {{trans-see}} would help a bit. DCDuring TALK 22:42, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

The OED lists it as obsolete and rare, if that is any help. —JohnC5 ^{(Talk | contribs)} 22:45, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I have the feeling that this is one of those words that lies dormant as a mention in translating dictionaries, which rarely drop terms that have been replaced by others, to come to life as a use only in a translated work or a work by a non-native speaker. DCDuring TALK 22:56, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

• RFV passed: attesting quotations provided. Tagged as rare in diff. --Dan Polansky (talk) 13:31, 26 December 2014 (UTC)