Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Text formatting/Archive 8: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:45, 30 September 2023

Revision as of 03:46, 29 October 2023

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I've moved this discussion to [[Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style#Conflicting styles for names of laws]] in an attempt to get more eyes on it. --<span style="border-top:1px solid black;font-size:80%">[[User talk:Miesianiacal|<span style="background-color:black;color:white">'''₪'''</span>]] [[User:Miesianiacal|<span style="color:black">MIESIANIACAL</span>]]</span> 03:41, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

== exemption of MOS:SMALLFONT==

This [[Template talk:Infobox settlement#exemption of MOS:SMALLFONT on infobox settlement|discussion]] on exemption of MOS:SMALLFONT on infobox may be of interest to editors here. [[User:Ckfasdf|Ckfasdf]] ([[User talk:Ckfasdf|talk]]) 00:07, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

== Does "words as words" justify bold-italic for lead terms that are just words? ==

On [[concentric objects]], another editor is italicizing the already-bold terms in the lead: the words "concentric" and "coaxial", which are somewhat technical words but in this case are being used as words with their usual (technical) meaning, stating that bold-italic instead of just bold is justified by [[WP:WAW]]. Is it? If it is justified, how can we distinguish this case from that of every other Wikipedia article whose title is a word rather than a name? Or should all such articles have bold-italic lead terms? —[[User:David Eppstein|David Eppstein]] ([[User talk:David Eppstein|talk]]) 06:26, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

:As I see it from a hurried glance, whoever last formatted the lead was trying as best as she or he could, to meet several needs:

:#Bold-facing the '''title word''';

:#Using italics to distinguish ''concentric'' from ''coaxial'' (not part of the title); and

:#Matching the two terms.

:Strictly speaking, I suppose, '''''concentric''''' should (or could) be bold-faced and italic, while ''coaxial'' should be just italic, but while that would best meet abstract logic, it just doesn't seem that such a distinction would be readily apparent to the average passing-by reader, i.e. it might just look odd. Hard cases make bad law and "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", so I'm not sure what the best solution for [[Concentric]] would be, and whether that would be any useful guide for other articles of this type. [[User:Shakescene|—— Shakescene]] ([[User talk:Shakescene|talk]]) 07:39, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

:No, do not italicise. The article is not discussing the {{em|words}}, but the {{em|concepts}}. Consider: {{xt|Two objects are said to be coaxial when they…}}, versus {{xt|… ''coaxial'' derives from the Dutch word, ''koe'' and the American word, ''axel''. }} <span style="font-family:Avenir, sans-serif">—&nbsp;<span style="border-radius:5px;padding:.1em .4em;background:#faeded">[[User:HTGS|HTGS]]</span>&nbsp;([[User talk:HTGS|talk]])</span> 03:29, 29 April 2023 (UTC)