Whatever happened to maximum?

Sorry to be such a pedant but I have been lurking here for a while and am curious to know why
so many people use the term Œmaximal¹ where I would use Œmaximum¹. Is this typical American
English usage?

Geoff.

--

http://www.sputnik-one.com

 

Geoff F wrote:

> Sorry to be such a pedant but I have been lurking here for a while and am curious to know why
> so many people use the term Œmaximal¹ where I would use Œmaximum¹. Is this typical American
> English usage?

Maximal is an adjective, as in "maximal pedantry".

Hope that helps.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/

 

Typical American English usage is post-literate. Rather than burning our books, we are busy
convincing ourselves that they don't mean what our predecessors said they did and corrupting our
language to make it so. The Silent Fire burns

"Geoff F" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sorry to be such a pedant but I have been lurking here for a while and am curious to know why
> so many people use the term Omaximal¹ where I would use Omaximum¹. Is this typical American
> English usage?
>
> Geoff.
>
> --
>
>
> http://www.sputnik-one.com

 

In article <[email protected]>, Terry Morse <[email protected]> wrote:

> Geoff F wrote:
>
> > Sorry to be such a pedant but I have been lurking here for a while and am curious to know why
> > so many people use the term Œmaximal¹ where I would use Œmaximum¹. Is this typical American
> > English usage?
>
> Maximal is an adjective, as in "maximal pedantry".
>
> Hope that helps.
> --
> terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/

Thanks for pointing out that maximal is an adjective. You are obviously very erudite but you didn¹t
answer the question - ie why do you use maximal instead of maximum?

Geoff.

--

http://www.sputnik-one.com

 

Typical American English usage is post-literate. Rather than burning our books, we are busy
convincing ourselves that they don't mean what our predecessors said they did and corrupting our
language to make it so. The Silent Fire burns

"Geoff F" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>, Terry Morse <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Geoff F wrote:
> >
> > > Sorry to be such a pedant but I have been lurking here for a while
and
> > > am curious to know why so many people use the term Omaximal¹ where I would use Omaximum¹. Is
> > > this typical American English usage?
> >
> > Maximal is an adjective, as in "maximal pedantry".
> >
> > Hope that helps.
> > --
> > terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/
>
> Thanks for pointing out that maximal is an adjective. You are obviously very erudite but you
> didn¹t answer the question - ie why do you use maximal instead of maximum?
>
> Geoff.
>
> --
>
>
> http://www.sputnik-one.com

 

Geoff F <[email protected]> wrote:

> Sorry to be such a pedant but I have been lurking here for a while and am curious to know why
> so many people use the term Œmaximal¹ where I would use Œmaximum¹. Is this typical American
> English usage?

My dictionary (WordNet 1.7) lists "maximal" as a valid synonyme for "maximum", when used as an
adjective. The other dictionary (1913 edition of Webster's) doesn't list "maximal", though.

URL: http://www.dict.org/

-as

 

"Doug Huffman" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Typical American English usage is post-literate. Rather than burning our books, we are busy
> convincing ourselves that they don't mean what our predecessors said they did and corrupting our
> language to make it so. The Silent Fire burns
>

Yo, word.

Mike

 

Geoff F wrote:

> you didn¹t answer the question - ie why do you use maximal instead of maximum?

I use "maximum" as a noun and "maximal" as an adjective. I don't know the etymology, but "maximal"
has been in use for some time. You'll find it used commonly in technical articles, maybe because
those writers are often using "optimal" and are comfortable with that form. Contrast "we have
determined an optimal cadence", with "data point A identifies the optimum on the power versus
cadence graph".

The American Heritage Dictionary writes that "maximal" and "maximum" both can be used as an
adjective, but "maximal" is never a noun.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/

 

Geoff F <[email protected]> wrote:

> Sorry to be such a pedant but I have been lurking here for a while and am curious to know why
> so many people use the term "maximal" where I would use "maximum". Is this typical American
> English usage?

I wouldn't say that "maximal" is *typical* American English; in fact, it doesn't seem to be at
all common. It's considerably younger than "maximum", which itself only dates back to the early
18th century.

If you're really interested, you might want to try your query on alt.usage.english and/or
alt.english.usage. Those groups love this sort of topic.

--
Ray Heindl

 

"Doug Huffman" wrote...
> > Typical American English usage is post-literate. Rather than burning
our
> > books, we are busy convincing ourselves that they don't mean what our predecessors said they did
> > and corrupting our language to make it so.
The
> > Silent Fire burns

"Michael Dart" wrote:
> Yo, word.

Very funny! If this were r.b.racing, it would deserve my vote for post of the month. And it's only
the second day of the month.

Dave dvt at psu dot edu