non-6-sided dice > number cubes

[Jeff Prucher]

--- "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: non-6-sided dice > number cubes
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Laurence Horn
> Sent: Wed 10/24/2007 9:34 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: non-6-sided dice > number cubes
>
> >I learned today from a fellow editor that in some school texbooks,
> >dice are called "number cubes" even when they have pips rather than
> >digits. Not so surprising, I suppose, given the kind of influences
> >school texts tend to suffer under (referring to a "disabled car" can
> >be a no-no, as can be talking about tranquillizing a bear -- because
> >that refers to drugs). But non-cubic dice are also being called
> >"number cubes," even in math textbooks. After one editor mentioned
> >she was faced with "four-sided number cube" in a teacher's guide for
> >a math course and was not allowed to change it, I found the following
> >at http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2004/5/04.05.10.x.html :
> >
> >"John was tossing a 4-sided number cube numbered 1-4 and a 7-sided
> >number cube numbered 1-7."
> >
> >Note that this is a sample problem for teaching math. The page in
> >question begins with the following sentence: "Words and their
> >meanings may present the greatest obstacle to mathematical problem
> >solving for students." However, the reference to 4-side and 7-sided
> >number cubes is not being used as an illustration of problematic word
> >usage.
> >
> Maybe it's not necessarily the apparent endorsement of gambling
> that's being avoided but rather the problem of figuring out whether
> the singular of "dice" is really "die".  Well, as Caesar used to say,
> the number cube is cast.
>
> LH
>
>
> Oh, and here I was thinking this was just another example of the bad
> influence of Dungeons and Dragons on America's youth. Who else but RPGers
> needs to talk about dice of more (or less) than 6 sides?
>
> -Matt

Its too bad they didn't adopt RPG nomenclature for dice; I would have liked it
if the example would had read "John was tossing 1d4 and 1d7."

Jeff Prucher


Editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction
http://www.jeffprucher.com

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