Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 March 30

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March 30

Modesty or reserve or what

Hello. How do you name the "unwillingness to expose one's body"?--Pierpao (talk) 11:23, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• "Modesty" will do.[1] Bazza (talk) 11:53, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

See also coy and shy, but "modesty" is the best fit. Alansplodge (talk) 12:02, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• Could also be "shame". Jmar67 (talk) 12:32, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No it couldn't. --Viennese Waltz 12:36, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot. Shame is a peculiar feeling to be guilty that came after an act or a fact Jmar67. Kind regards--Pierpao (talk) 12:58, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if someone is ashamed to expose one's body, I would call it "shame". Jmar67 (talk) 13:14, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on where, and to what extent. <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 13:19, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Shamefastness is, however, a possible (if somewhat antiquated) answer to the OP's question. Note the 1624 quotation given at the Wiktionary definition of shamefast. Deor (talk) 15:11, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I misinterpreted as "reasons for the unwillingness ...." Jmar67 (talk) 20:20, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Dishabiliophobia. -- Hoary (talk) 13:31, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you want a term with proper Greek roots, we have an article on gymnophobia... -- AnonMoos (talk) 13:56, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It's a long ways from normal modesty to gymnophobia. The OP needs to define the context better. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:27, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wooder

This is a common pronunciation of "water" in the area around Philadelphia (U.S.). Is it so in other regions or countries? Jmar67 (talk) 20:27, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Can you find a youtube clip of someone saying it that way? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:43, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It (/ˈwʊtər/, "wooter" or "wooder") is described as "considered by many to be the defining characteristic of a Philadelphia dialect" in our article Philadelphia_English#Phonemic_incidence. Patricia T. O'Conner's Grammarphobia blog locates it "in areas of New Jersey and Pennsylvania that are part of the Delaware Valley region". There's a bit more in that blog article. ---Sluzzelin talk 22:21, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wiktionary also gives NYC for this pronunciation. I can't remember having heard it there, but our article on the New York accent states that the realization of /ɔ/ varies on a scale from [ɔ] to [ʊ].  --Lambiam 06:50, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The way New Yorkers pronounce "water", to this Midwesterner it sounds like "wawter". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:48, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

On the consonant, see Why is “t” sometimes pronounced like “d” in American English? and Flapping. Alansplodge (talk) 17:26, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• It is pretty much unique to the metro-Philadelphia area, and unknown outside of it. See here. It states that that specific pronunciation as "wooder" is a shibboleth for the region; that is it is a unique identifier. Much in the same way that "Like, as if!" is a shibboleth for the valley girl dialect, the "water as wooder" pronunciation serves the same for the Philly accent. --Jayron32 18:30, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]