Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2013 May 22

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May 22

Five more times => five times more?

As an English additional language speaker, I have a bit difficulty in understanding the following sentences in Cheetah:

Twenty-two such skins were found between 1926 and 1974. Since 1927, the king cheetah was reported five more times in the wild.

Should it rather be written as five times more (x5) or should it be interpreted as +5?

Thanking you, Suidpunt (talk) 15:26, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

In this sentence it means "was seen another five times" or "on five additional occasions" so "+5" is the correct sense. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 15:31, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes. "five more times" cannot be a quantifier, so it must mean "on five more occasions". "Five times more" is formally ambiguous, and could in context have either interpretation; but in most cases it will not be ambiguous: here it would have the same meaning as "five more times", because there isn't a number which it could be modifying. --ColinFine (talk) 23:00, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

The problem is the word "times" which has two numerical related definitions: "times" can mean "repetitions" or "iterations", as in "I only did it one time, but he did it two times". Times also means "multiplication", thus "Three times two equals six". So, the statement "five times more" is very ambiguous. Even in a full sentence, it would be hard to parse. If I said "I ran the Boston Marathon twice, but he ran it five times more than that", do you mean seven times (two times and five additional times) or ten times (five times two?) It's really hard to say. --Jayron32 03:27, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

The church bell chimes rang 841 times. That's 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald. --Trovatore (talk) 00:12, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

Is the term "Multichannel video programming distributor" used outside the United States?

It's a term used in U.S. law, and the Wikipedia article has no content referring to other countries.

Now I'm sure there IS a general term used outside the U.S.. I thought it was Pay television but a hatnote indicates that the Wikipedia article about that concerns premium networks and the like, not cable, satellite and other delivery systems in general.

If the specific term is not used outside the U.S. that might be a way to get that annoying tag removed.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:45, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Offenbach synagogue

What does the text here on the beam in the Offenbach synagogue mean? We read it as

בניז תקפד עקיבא

--Pp.paul.4 (talk) 21:22, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

I agree with your transcription.

As for translation, the wording is awkward, and the writer seems not to have known Hebrew well, but the translation is apparently: "Building [i.e. built] (in) 584 [5584 on the Hebrew calendar = 1823/1824] (by) Akiva". הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 21:33, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Thank you so much. So there is no reference to Bnei Akiva in the text? --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 22:26, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

No, as the second word is almost definitely the Hebrew year (5)584, that is 1823/1824, long before the foundation of Bnei Akiva. הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 06:56, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

בנין rather than בניז, I think. --ColinFine (talk) 23:09, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

The definition of the Greek word Metaphon that is no longer in use.

The greek word Metaphon is no longer in use and I've tried to find the definition for reference use in biblical classes in place of the word forehead, which use to not exist in the language and now only does as a body part I think. I haven't been able to find that either. The definition of the Greek word Metaphon is: the forefront of the minds eye, or memory. it's the way I learned it in a Theosopy( The Study of the Wisdom of God)class I was in in the early 1990,s. I was able to find it on the internet then, but don't remember where. Please see if you can find a reference point for me and for the benefit of my students as well as future students.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Lawrence Burney

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.55.103.237 (talk) 23:20, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

As far as I know, there's no such (or similar) word in classical Greek, but I'll suggest that, given that the meaning you recall has to do with thought, the second element of the word is more likely to be -phron (-φρων) than -phon, which would presumably mean "sound". Deor (talk) 04:16, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

I think the word in question is μέτωπον (métōpon), "space between the eyes, forehead", which is found in the Book of Revelation. See also metoposcopy. Lesgles (talk) 04:28, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Well done, Lesgles. That hadn't occurred to me. Deor (talk) 10:34, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

There's Metatron the angel (but not meaning "forehead"). In ancient Greek, the verb μεταφωνεω means "to speak among", while μεταφρενον means the lower back... AnonMoos (talk) 05:34, 23 May 2013 (UTC)