Talk:No man's land

Latest comment: 4 years ago by Chris2crawford in topic Demilitarized Zone

original definition edit

No Man's Land has more than this definition and the term predates WWI. The term could mean:

  1. An unclaimed or unowned piece of land; a wasteland.
  2. Land under dispute by two opposing parties; especially, the field of battle between two opposing entrenched armies.
  3. Any area into which a man does not venture because of fear or uncertainty; a realm of danger or ambiguity (this definition probably descends from meaning 2).

I suggest this page be moved to, maybe, No_man's_land_(war), and this name be for a disambiguation page. --12.74.169.88

The current version (changed by myself) implements this suggestion. I'm still not sure whether to keep the disambig marker or not... --Joy [shallot] 13:09, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)

land mines edit

I don't have much confidence in the land mines remark. Man traps yes.. land mines not the greatest problem. --86.207.40.149 18:13, 4 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

Land mine edit

Yes. Land mines were used atleast by Germany and Britain during World War One. Britain produced land mines during WW1 that used poison gas too. PyrE 12:06, 30 August 2007 (UTC)Reply

File:who actually claimed the no mans land today?

Merger edit

  • Strongly oppose - "the term referring to the unoccupied land between two opposing forces" is not the same as the legal term which allowed alienation of land. Both articles are of sufficient length to stand alone--Matilda talk 21:49, 19 March 2008 (UTC)Reply
  • terra = land (in Latin)
nullius = no man's (in Latin)
Also see it:Terra di nessuno:

Terra di nessuno (in inglese No Man's Land ) [...]

212.247.11.156 (talk) 23:10, 19 March 2008 (UTC)Reply
  • That the two terms can be translated into one in Italian does not make them synonymous in English --Matilda talk 23:19, 19 March 2008 (UTC)Reply
    • But terra nullius is just Latin for no man's land... (212.247.11.156 (talk) 16:16, 24 March 2008 (UTC))Reply
      • Please check what synonomous means per the link above - they may be the same words - they do not mean the same thing as per the articles. Terra nullius is a legal term and a subject of some importance in the dispossession of indigenous Australians, the description of "no man's land" in this article, ie No man's land is a term for land that is not occupied or more specifically land that is under dispute between countries or areas that will not occupy it because of fear or uncertainty. During war (especially World War I), it is a term used as the area of land between two enemy trenches that neither side wishes to openly move on or take control of due to fear of being attacked by the enemy in the process has nothing to do with the concept of Terra nullius, a term by the way that is never translated from the Latin when used in court cases.--Matilda talk 21:46, 24 March 2008 (UTC)Reply
  • In the absence of further comment I am removing the tags--Matilda talk 21:07, 1 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

I suggest the provincial anecdotical evidence of "no man's land" should be removed. No man's land is indeed the same as terra nullius. However, the article needs to be focused on the war zone and the article on terra nullius on the legal term. Arebenti (talk) 13:27, 12 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

WW I & WW I Use edit

It was called 'No man's land' because nether side could occupy the area without the occupiers being killed by the opposing side. With the advent of machine guns such as the Vickers and MG 08, both sides could bring down overwhelming fire on the land making survival without cover impossible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.40.116.56 (talk) 22:23, 19 March 2009 (UTC)Reply


Requested move edit

The following is a closed discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was move Anthony Appleyard (talk) 13:13, 14 February 2010 (UTC)Reply
No Man's LandNo man's land — Should likely be standardized as lowercase given it's not really a proper place but a battlefield concept. Labattblueboy (talk) 07:27, 29 January 2010 (UTC)Reply

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

"The U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba is separated from Cuba proper by an area called the Cactus Curtain. " Does this sentence sound a little odd? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.24.163.74 (talk) 04:00, 24 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

Origin edit

"The term was applied to a little-used area on ships called the forecastle" is incorrect on two counts. The forecastle was neither little-used nor no man's land. From William Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine: "It probably derives this name from its situation, as being neither on the starboard nor larboard side of the ship, nor on the waist or forecastle; but, being situated in the middle, partakes equally of all those places." James Galloway (talk) 15:23, 16 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

Israel edit

How long did the no man's land last following the 1948 armistice.--Labattblueboy (talk) 17:39, 22 September 2012 (UTC)Reply

It practically lasted until the Six-Day War when it was annexed by Israel (1967). The area was never internationally recognized as Israeli.
Pls see my objection to your deletion in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Etan_J._Tal#No_man.27s_land, and reply here, if convenient. Etan J. Tal(talk) 21:09, 22 September 2012 (UTC)Reply
Of similar relevance is: Latrun "In the 1949 ceasefire agreement, the fort remained a salient under Jordanian control, which was in turn surrounded by a perimeter of no man's land". Etan J. Tal(talk) 21:21, 22 September 2012 (UTC)Reply
Sections should normally contain more than a sentence or two of text. In such a situation the image crosses that section, the see also section and part of the references section. If you don't think you'll expand the text any further, you could place both it and the image in the Cold War section.--Labattblueboy (talk) 13:11, 24 September 2012 (UTC)Reply
No man's land between Israel and Jordan is of no relevance whatsoever to the Cold War, hence there is no need to artificially include it in this section. There are sure creative ways to solve the "crossing problem" beside deleting a very relevant photo. I did my best. Etan J. Tal(talk) 15:31, 24 September 2012 (UTC)Reply

“Terra nemo” edit

“Terra nemo” is a barbarism, since the Classical Latin genitive of nemo is neminis (often replaced by nullius: see Wiktionary). Neminis terra or Terra nullius would be more correct. — Tonymec (talk) 17:06, 27 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Entirely agree. I'm not sure when that chance happended but the inserstion of terra nemo in the lead was not appropriate. If anything were to be inserted it should be Terra nullius.--Labattblueboy (talk) 17:59, 28 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Requested move 9 June 2015 edit

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Favonian (talk) 17:37, 16 June 2015 (UTC)Reply


– The concept is not the primary topic, as there are countless topics (see disambigution page) with that name that have absolutely nothing to do with the concept. Timmyshin (talk) 01:45, 9 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

  • If you Google search the term, out of the first 10 results, 20% are about the 2001 film, 10% about the 1987 film, 10% about a History Channel programme that has nothing to do with the war concept; 20% about a nonfiction book that has nothing to do with the concept, that's 60% already. What data do you have to show it's a "clear" primary topic? Timmyshin (talk) 17:52, 9 June 2015 (UTC)Reply
  • If this concept is the primary topic as claimed, then most of the topics carrying the same name ought to be related to the concept, no? However, a quick look at the films, for example, shows that this is not the case:
Film related to the concept of "an unoccupied area between two opposing positions"?
No Man's Land (1984 film) most likely not, can't find the film anywhere
No Man's Land (1985 film) No
No Man's Land (1987 film) No
No Man's Land (2001 film) Yes
No Man's Land: The Rise of Reeker No
No Man's Land (2013 British film) No
No Man's Land (2013 Chinese film) No
I'm no native speaker, but it appears to me that the primary meaning of the term in English is "wasteland" or "barren land" (in both the literal and figurative sense), and not the political/military concept of "an unoccupied area between two opposing positions". Timmyshin (talk) 18:28, 9 June 2015 (UTC)Reply
Google book search:
  • "No man's land", war: 247,000 hits[[1]]
  • "No man's land", film: 30,200 hits [2].
Results seem rather self explanitory to me.--Labattblueboy (talk) 04:06, 10 June 2015 (UTC)Reply
  • Strong oppose it is not wasteland. No man's land may also be a wasteland (as is the case in the land between the lines in WWI). It is the primary topic. The usage as "wasteland" is for unclaimed wastelands between political entities in apocalyptic fiction, so is still using the meaning of the concept here. -- 70.51.202.183 (talk) 04:39, 10 June 2015 (UTC)Reply
  • Oppose Looking at online dictionaries, the term's primary meaning is the area between to armies or two opposing political entities.--Lineagegeek (talk) 19:45, 11 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

New research material here (BBC) edit

Editors interested in expanding the topic will find a very good article here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sb2s3 (talkcontribs) 10:57, 30 September 2015 (UTC) Sb2s3 (talk) 11:24, 30 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

Move discussion in progress edit

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:No Man's Land (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 09:32, 6 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

Move discussion in progress edit

There is a move discussion in progress on Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 20:01, 9 October 2019 (UTC)Reply

Demilitarized Zone edit

I'm not an expert, but I would like to see disambiguation between DMZ and NML The only connection I see is reference to the Korean DMZ. Chris2crawford (talk) 04:29, 6 April 2020 (UTC)Reply