On 11/11/2011 09:39, Tim Streater wrote:
So how do we deal with those people who annoyingly describe
something as being 'three times smaller' than something else?

That's just a minor English usage point, and nowhere near as silly as
the other above reversals.


Maybe, but it's still annoying.

Why? It's just stating the factor that you multiply or divide with.

How would you rewrite the following anyway?:
"Tom's cock was three times longer than Jim's, but Jim's nose was five
times smaller than Tom's."

You can't get less than one times smaller - which makes it zero. What
you want to say is that Jim's nose is one fifth the size of Tom's. "Five
times smaller" is meaningless.

Unfortunately such practices are impossible to stamp out once the usage
becomes common. There is some modern usage that doesn't actually make
sense if you don't know the convention. I was reminded of the original
meaning of 'port your helm' (turn to starboard) before it was turned on
its head but thought I had best look it up before mentioning it and came
across this:

"A steering wheel is usually connected to the rudder by cables and
pulleys in such a fashion that the wheel, the rudder and the vessel all
turn in the same direction."

Wheels, like control knobs, don't move in any direction, they rotate but
common usage (or convention if you will) now dictates that turn to the
right is clockwise and turn to the left anti-clockwise.

And don't get me started on Grid References ...

--
Roger Chapman