"center meters"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/18/2009 11:37 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 9:25 AM -0500 12/18/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>... Doesn't one need a phrase that makes sense semantically?  I don't
>>know what "six center meters" could mean.
>>
>>Joel
>It's a relatively opaque measure expression,

Very opaque to me!  Although "zero" works:  I see "The zero-center
meter then indicates the difference in output of the detectors.".

There is also "City centre meter zone permit application", but that I
suspect is distinguishable from "The city centimeter is different
from the country centimeter" by a "pause" phoneme.

>but my point is that it
>would be *less* opaque than centimeter for those who are familiar
>with the word "center" (or "centre"; see below) and not the prefix
>"centi-".  And if you don't think there are a bunch of such folks,
>just page through the 25.7 million hits for "centre meter",

I feel deprived -- I only get 10,400 hits for "centre meter" (when
quoted).  And only 52,400 for "center meter".

>many
>(although obviously not all, or perhaps even most) of which are
>relevant.
>... linear measure terms for "centre/center") so the reanalysis
>sort of makes sense.

Joel

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