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Subject:arborescence (Re: Synonym for tree) From:JIMCHEVAL -at- AOL -dot- COM Date:Fri, 3 Jul 1998 03:05:30 EDT
In a message dated 98-07-03 01:55:04 EDT, rkg -at- WORLDNET -dot- FR writes:
<< arborescence
Although I have not seen it used in English language technical
documents, I find this noun to be elegant, easy to pronounce, and
suitably descriptive. >>
Lovely word, which I'd half-forgotten (my first computer training was in
French.)
But like many things French its beauty is offset for Anglo-Saxons by its
excess intricacy - 4 syllables against one for the good old dull but effective
'tree'.*
Not to mention that, for those of us who are relatively bi-lingual, its use in
English has a suggestion of "phosphorence" which is a tad too poetic for the
intended use.
Tant pis -
Jim Chevallier
North Hollywood
* I think that I shall never sense
A poem that scans in 'arborescence'.
