3 ms·

Sorry to ruin your pun idea, but Stein doesn't mean geometric shape. The most common meaning is simply stone, but it can also mean board game piece. Words you

Sorry to ruin your pun idea, but Stein doesn't mean geometric shape. The most common meaning is simply stone, but it can also mean board game piece. Words you might use for these shapes instead would be Form (meaning shape) or Kachel (meaning tile). Source: native speaker.

quesera 3y ago
Simplified for concise comment above, but translation taken from the article: > (The term “einstein” comes from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone” — more loosely, “one tile” or “one shape.”) I'm mostly reacting to the use of "Einstein" as a label, which I always dislike. The article seemed to hint at a reason for the pun/reference (Smith found a "one shape") but there no was justification for bringing Albert into the discussion. ... Edit: In retrospect, there's another way to read the article headline. If you ignore the capital E (or forgive it because of German Noun capitalization Rules), you might argue that the "Elusive 'einstein' (tile) answers/resolves a longstanding question in tile geometry". I think this would be too generous though. They did capitalize the E, and the verb makes more sense as a human action. Might be the result of multiple edits. NYT headline telephone game.
- codeflo 3y ago
  > (The term “einstein” comes from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone” — more loosely, “one tile” or “one shape.”) As I said, that "loose" meaning doesn't exist, but either way it would be "ein Stein". I guarantee that no one at the NYT bothered to ask a German speaker. However, I did check the German Wikipedia entry on tilings, which to my surprise does confirm that the word "einstein" is an established synonym for an aperiodic monotile. It also states that this usage isn't widespread in Germany itself. I presume that's because it doesn't actually make any sense in German.
  - quesera 3y ago
    Very interesting..! The headline looks even more sloppy with that context. By now, we've probably spent more time thinking about it than anyone at NYT did. Thanks for the authoritative view.
- dvgrn 3y ago
  Actually, that was the way I read it -- was going to post something about that but then noticed you'd already brought up the idea. If every word in the title weren't capitalized (as titles usually are) then I think the title would have been "Elusive 'einstein' solves long-standing math problem" which is certainly true -- aperiodic monotiles have been _very_ elusive. Not sure if the author was trying for a double meaning... if so, it does seem like the incorrect secondary meaning has overtaken the primary meaning in a lot of people's minds.

quesera 3y ago

Simplified for concise comment above, but translation taken from the article: > (The term “einstein” comes from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone” — more loosely, “one tile” or “one shape.”) I'm mostly reacting to the use of "Einstein" as a label, which I always dislike. The article seemed to hint at a reason for the pun/reference (Smith found a "one shape") but there no was justification for bringing Albert into the discussion. ... Edit: In retrospect, there's another way to read the article headline. If you ignore the capital E (or forgive it because of German Noun capitalization Rules), you might argue that the "Elusive 'einstein' (tile) answers/resolves a longstanding question in tile geometry". I think this would be too generous though. They did capitalize the E, and the verb makes more sense as a human action. Might be the result of multiple edits. NYT headline telephone game.

codeflo 3y ago
> (The term “einstein” comes from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone” — more loosely, “one tile” or “one shape.”) As I said, that "loose" meaning doesn't exist, but either way it would be "ein Stein". I guarantee that no one at the NYT bothered to ask a German speaker. However, I did check the German Wikipedia entry on tilings, which to my surprise does confirm that the word "einstein" is an established synonym for an aperiodic monotile. It also states that this usage isn't widespread in Germany itself. I presume that's because it doesn't actually make any sense in German.
- quesera 3y ago
  Very interesting..! The headline looks even more sloppy with that context. By now, we've probably spent more time thinking about it than anyone at NYT did. Thanks for the authoritative view.
dvgrn 3y ago
Actually, that was the way I read it -- was going to post something about that but then noticed you'd already brought up the idea. If every word in the title weren't capitalized (as titles usually are) then I think the title would have been "Elusive 'einstein' solves long-standing math problem" which is certainly true -- aperiodic monotiles have been _very_ elusive. Not sure if the author was trying for a double meaning... if so, it does seem like the incorrect secondary meaning has overtaken the primary meaning in a lot of people's minds.