Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!olivea!tymix!cirrusl!ss168!dhesi From: dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: What's in a name? (was Re: wanted: UNIX or clone) Message-ID: <3034@cirrusl.UUCP> Date: 4 Apr 91 02:45:28 GMT References: <1991Mar29.020148.24672@pegasus.com> <1991Apr1.144722.1753@telly.on.ca> <3028@cirrusl.UUCP> <1991Apr3.053653.592@mtxinu.COM> Sender: news@cirrusl.UUCP Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc. Lines: 30 In <1991Apr3.053653.592@mtxinu.COM> ed@mtxinu.COM (Ed Gould) writes: >I wonder where bizarre ideas like "Unix" is different from "UNIX" >come from. Have the people who foster them ever talked to a lawyer >about trademarks or read an AT&T license agreement? Trademark lawyers and the AT&T license agreement do not define parts of speech. Common usage does. If enough people verb a noun, the dictionary writers must--however reluctantly--update their dictionaries accordingly. The term "Unix" in all its typographically different incarnations has, because of common usage, been a noun far longer than it has been a registered trade mark. Parts of speech are not defined by legalistic fiat. (In "Legalistic fiat", fiat is a noun, and in "Fiat automobile", Fiat is an adjective. Letting our brains wander, we also find that in "Fiat lux", Fiat is a verb while lux is a noun, but in "Lux soap" Lux is an adjective while soap is a noun; but in "Soap opera", Soap is an adjective. Etc.) In deference to AT&T's attempts to use only the capitalized term "UNIX" and insist (in deference in turn to trade mark law) that it is an adjective and not a noun, I simplify the whole complex picture by saying that "Unix" is a noun and "UNIX" is an adjective. This should keep most everybody happy. -- Rahul Dhesi UUCP: oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi