"real-time" = ?(of a message) instantaneous; "palfrey" = medieval warhorse; charger

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 10:08:14PM -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 8:53 PM, Mark Mandel<thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Jonathan Lighter:
> >> > This a.m. on CNN somebody mentioned that you can now get "real-time Tweets
> >> > on your Blackberry."  Sounds like the start of the Canterbury Tales.
> >
> > Ben Zimmer:
> >> Seems to fit the definition of "real-time" given in many current
> >> dictionaries, such as NOAD2:
> >> ---
> >> _real-time_ (Computing) of or relating to a system in which input data
> >> is processed within milliseconds so that it is available virtually
> >> immediately as feedback, e.g., in a missile guidance or airline
> >> booking system: _real-time signal processing_.
> >
> > JL:
> >> Close, Ben, but today's usage attached it to the *message* and not to the
> >> system itself.
> >
> > I'd say the definition is inadequate. If your Blackberry is delivering
> > messages to you as they are posted, without delay, then you are
> > receiving them in real time, and "getting real-time Tweets on your
> > Blackberry" is not problematic at all.
>
> Agreed -- transferring "real-time" from the system itself to the
> output of the system is no big stretch. OED3 has a 1960 cite with
> "‘real time’ forecasts of the weather" and a 1997 cite with "real-time
> on-line events". So in these cases "real-time X" = 'X transmitted in
> real time'.

But this is the point of using a flexible definitional phrase
like "relating to" (as OED has), or "of or pertaining to" (RH
style, I think), and so forth. Maybe the definition can be
tweaked, but it does cover the sense....

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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