Language desk
< March 18	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 20 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 19[edit]

What does oceanic mean??[edit]

According to Wiktionary...

When the word is not capitalized, it means related to the ocean.
When the word is capitalized, it means related to Oceania.

But what if it occurs at the start of a sentence?? How can we distinguish the 2 adjectives?? Georgia guy (talk) 22:43, 19 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

By context? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:46, 19 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The same way we distinguish reading and Reading, or polish and Polish. Or, for that matter, Indian and Indian. ColinFine (talk) 23:17, 19 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia article Capitonym... AnonMoos (talk) 00:04, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Reminds me of the time I was working at the UN, and they asked me to get Kofi Annan a gram of cocaine. --Trovatore (talk) 23:58, 19 March 2023 (UTC) [reply]

The English word "polish" regarding making an item shiny has two meanings that can confuse even native English speakers. As a verb, it can refer to a mechanical process of sanding and buffing a surface using progressively finer abrasives until it is shiny. Or, as a noun, it can refer to an oily or waxy substance that can be applied to an object to make it shiny, such as furniture polish or shoe polish or car polish. Cullen328 (talk) 01:43, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hence the old joke about a product made in Poland and used to make things shiny: Polish Polish. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:15, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can you use Polish polish to give furniture a Finnish finish? --136.56.52.157 (talk) 07:05, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

What would a French polisher make of this? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 07:32, 20 March 2023 (UTC) [reply]

This is the English language Wikipedia. Versions in Finnish, Polish and French are also available. Sadly, there is no "Bad Joke" Wikipedia. Cullen328 (talk) 07:37, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not any more. But see WP:SILLY. --174.89.12.187 (talk) 03:13, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Should we start one up, or would that be Russian Things? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:29, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Given the covid- panic covering here, the last comment might be taken with a grain of salt? Oceanisches Gefühl: Freud: "Das Unbehagen in der Kultur".--Ralfdetlef (talk) 07:51, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

When has "Oceanic" EVER been used? The word for "related to Oceania" is "Oceanian" and always has been as far as I know.--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 06:19, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You ask, you get: Shakespeare ... is of no age, nor of any religion or party or profession. The body and substance of his works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 07:08, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

He's looking for uses of the word meaning "related to Oceania". --Viennese Waltz 08:12, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Politically, yes, but "Oceanic art" is a common phrase. Added that to the wikt entry. — kwami (talk) 08:22, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Also Oceanic cultures, Oceanic peoples, Oceanic Linguistics etc., basically used for everything referring to Oceania as an anthropological region (in contrast to the gepolitical entity). –Austronesier (talk) 08:37, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Is this an Engvar thing? Because I've only come across Oceanian in those uses. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 10:58, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Khajidha: Apparently not, although this use of "Oceanic" in relation to Oceania is new to me (on the British English side of the pond) as well. Bazza (talk) 13:27, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe the OP could tell us where he's ever seen that. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:53, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Baseball Bugs: The OP has, in the first three words of their question, just above your first comment. wikt:oceanic and wikt:Oceanic. Bazza (talk) 17:43, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

What is wiktionary's source for that seemingly-obscure usage? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:42, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Did you look? It's given as Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

See also Oceanic languages. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 5.64.160.67 (talk) 01:03, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Using what link? I don't know the link to wiktionary. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:18, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Seriously? Google "wiktionary:oceanic". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 08:17, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Baseball Bugs: I gave two links to the two words' definitions in Wiktionary above, in response to your "Maybe the OP could tell us where he's ever seen that" comment. Here they are again: wikt:oceanic and wikt:Oceanic.

You could have the decency to occasionally read what other contributors are writing before asking yet more already-answered questions. "Troll" has crept into my thoughts, probably without reason, but you've helped put it there nonetheless. Bazza (talk) 09:53, 22 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My own Webster's, which is considerably newer than 1913, does not list Oceanic as a resident of Oceania. And my question for the OP (wherever he might be by now) is where have you ever seen that usage in real life, not in a century-old dictionary. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:11, 23 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not the OP, but "real life" includes reading old factual and fictional texts. In any case, answering well-formed Refdesk questions is not supposed to involve questioning the querants' reasons for asking them. Georgia guy has been editing Wikipedia since 2004, so knows what relevant data to include and has earned some assumption of good faith (not that it needs to be earned). {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 5.64.160.67 (talk) 03:42, 23 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to hear from the OP, if possible. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:45, 23 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]