[Ads-l] Manually--now also by foot?

[Dan Goncharoff]

How, in 1991, could he "do the computation on his laptop manually" without
typing with his fingers on the keyboard and hitting the Enter key to
execute each step? (Today you could use voice commands.)

I don't see an issue with "manually" referring to a process requiring a
finger on the keyboard to make each step happen.

I do agree with the original point, thanks to Latin. I wonder if the author
doesn't realize that "manually" means "by hand", and not "by a person".
Does the word "pedally" exist? ]8}

DanG

On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Manually--now also by foot?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > On Jul 22, 2015, at 4:30 AM, Margaret Lee =
> <0000006730deb3bf-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
> >=20
> > Subaru  has released a notice to owners of their Outback, Crosstrek, =
> and Legacy models that the vehicles' Eyesight Driver Assist System is =
> now a safety hazard due to a "brake lamp switch failure."  Eyesight is a =
> safety device that is supposed to warn the driver of an imminent frontal =
> collision and automatically stop the vehicle. In light of this safety =
> defect, the driver will now have to "manually apply the brake pedal,"  =
> according to the notice.  Does _manually_  now also mean performed by =
> the foot?
>
> If not, it sounds *extremely* inconvenient for the driver.  (But at =
> least for me, "manually" has already generalized to "non-automatically" =
> or "in a one-by-one-manner" in electronic contexts, e.g. having to =
> change the footnote numbers in a document "manually" as opposed to using =
> a global command. (You're still using the computer  The OED sort of =
> alludes to this extended use, but not as explicitly as they might, in =
> the "later use" half of the basic definition:
>
> manually, adv.
> 1a. With or using the hand or hands; by manual operation or =
> intervention. In later use: by human effort rather than by automatic, =
> electronic, etc., means.
>
> And the one cite still does involve a contrast between electronic and =
> human energy, rather than between using a less automatized rather than a =
> more automatized method:
>
> 1991   What Personal Computer Dec. 105/3   This meant the =
> computer-generated statement of accounts couldn't be used, and had to be =
> recalculated manually.
>
> Is there another dictionary that contains the relevant meaning? (AHD =
> doesn't.)  Notice that the use of "manually" I have in mind doesn't even =
> need to involve the use of fingers or hands on a keyboard:
>
> "Hawking couldn't get the program to work, so he had to do the =
> computation on his laptop manually", where neither method involves using =
> his fingers but the two differ in degree of automaticity. =20
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org