4 ms·

Not really a reply to the whole tech debt bit, but the ~ symbol is called a tilde in English. I suspect spelling it with an a at the end comes from another lang

Not really a reply to the whole tech debt bit, but the ~ symbol is called a tilde in English. I suspect spelling it with an a at the end comes from another language?

thaumasiotes 6y ago
No, the symbol is called a tilde in Spanish, where it's part of the writing system. It's unused in English and therefore doesn't really have a name, but people who have learned Spanish may call it a tilde. If you were studying Greek, you'd call it a "circumflex". (Or, if you were Greek, you'd call it a "perispomene".) Spelling it as "tilda" just reflects the fact that a reduced vowel in English may be spelled in any number of different ways (and "e" is particularly unlikely); we can assume that superkuh is more familiar with the word orally than in writing.
- schoen 6y ago
  I think it's fair to say that, even though it's not part of the English writing system, "tilde" is the standard name of the mark in English now when English-speakers who are familiar with it want to discuss it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde This includes lots of detailed discussion of the mark under the name "tilde", including names of Unicode characters that include this term. Wiktionary also views it as an English noun borrowed from Spanish. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tilde#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tilde#English
  - thaumasiotes 6y ago
    > Wiktionary also views it as an English noun borrowed from Spanish. Sure, but it's not live in the same way that most words are. It doesn't refer to anything in an English speaker's normal experience; you could easily go your whole life without ever using the word.
    - zapzupnz 6y ago
      It's very much live. It's the name of the symbol. It's sometimes used as a symbol to mean 'approximately', as in "~100 BC". It's used in IT as a symbol for a home folder on Unix-based systems and for pattern matching in other languages. Regardless of the symbol's function in different domains, the symbol's name remains 'tilde'. Maybe you don't use the word much but that really has nothing to do with the price of fish.
- antonvs 6y ago
  The tilde is used in mathematics, logic, and computer science, and in those contexts the word in English that's commonly used for it is "tilde". The word is in conventional English dictionaries, like Oxford, Cambridge, and Merriam-Webster. As those sources will tell you, it's also used to describe the mark "used when writing some languages". As such, the idea that it's somehow not a word in English is just silly.
- zapzupnz 6y ago
  > It's unused in English and therefore doesn't really have a name No, it definitely has a name. Tilde. Heck, it's even the name used for the ~ symbol in Unicode, which famously names all characters with upper-cased English words. Just because it's not used in English orthography doesn't mean that there isn't a name for it, even if it's merely a borrowing. > If you were studying Greek, you'd call it a "circumflex". I suppose I would. Somewhat off-topic, though. > Spelling it as "tilda" just reflects the fact that a reduced vowel in English may be spelled in any number of different ways (and "e" is particularly unlikely) Or, as GP explained, they just misspelt it. Responding to a later comment: > you could easily go your whole life without ever using the word That doesn't invalidate the word's existence in the language.
superkuh 6y ago
Hah, oops. I don't know what I was thinking. The only time I see "tilda" is in the famous actor's name. English is my first language.

Not really a reply to the whole tech debt bit, but the ~ symbol is called a tilde in English. I suspect spelling it with an a at the end comes from another language?

thaumasiotes 6y ago

No, the symbol is called a tilde in Spanish, where it's part of the writing system. It's unused in English and therefore doesn't really have a name, but people who have learned Spanish may call it a tilde. If you were studying Greek, you'd call it a "circumflex". (Or, if you were Greek, you'd call it a "perispomene".) Spelling it as "tilda" just reflects the fact that a reduced vowel in English may be spelled in any number of different ways (and "e" is particularly unlikely); we can assume that superkuh is more familiar with the word orally than in writing.

schoen 6y ago
I think it's fair to say that, even though it's not part of the English writing system, "tilde" is the standard name of the mark in English now when English-speakers who are familiar with it want to discuss it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde This includes lots of detailed discussion of the mark under the name "tilde", including names of Unicode characters that include this term. Wiktionary also views it as an English noun borrowed from Spanish. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tilde#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tilde#English
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > Wiktionary also views it as an English noun borrowed from Spanish. Sure, but it's not live in the same way that most words are. It doesn't refer to anything in an English speaker's normal experience; you could easily go your whole life without ever using the word.
  - zapzupnz 6y ago
    It's very much live. It's the name of the symbol. It's sometimes used as a symbol to mean 'approximately', as in "~100 BC". It's used in IT as a symbol for a home folder on Unix-based systems and for pattern matching in other languages. Regardless of the symbol's function in different domains, the symbol's name remains 'tilde'. Maybe you don't use the word much but that really has nothing to do with the price of fish.
antonvs 6y ago
The tilde is used in mathematics, logic, and computer science, and in those contexts the word in English that's commonly used for it is "tilde". The word is in conventional English dictionaries, like Oxford, Cambridge, and Merriam-Webster. As those sources will tell you, it's also used to describe the mark "used when writing some languages". As such, the idea that it's somehow not a word in English is just silly.
zapzupnz 6y ago
> It's unused in English and therefore doesn't really have a name No, it definitely has a name. Tilde. Heck, it's even the name used for the ~ symbol in Unicode, which famously names all characters with upper-cased English words. Just because it's not used in English orthography doesn't mean that there isn't a name for it, even if it's merely a borrowing. > If you were studying Greek, you'd call it a "circumflex". I suppose I would. Somewhat off-topic, though. > Spelling it as "tilda" just reflects the fact that a reduced vowel in English may be spelled in any number of different ways (and "e" is particularly unlikely) Or, as GP explained, they just misspelt it. Responding to a later comment: > you could easily go your whole life without ever using the word That doesn't invalidate the word's existence in the language.

superkuh 6y ago

Hah, oops. I don't know what I was thinking. The only time I see "tilda" is in the famous actor's name. English is my first language.