clawgrip wrote:
Salmoneus wrote:
Plinth is very common, in my experience. For instance, when there's discussion about what's going to be put on the fourth plinth in trafalgar square this time, newsreaders happily call it a plinth and expect everyone to be happy with this. Whereas they wouldn't use words like 'squinch' or 'quoin'. Or 'jamb', or 'lath', and probably not 'sconce' for that matter. 'Grout', 'sash' and 'joist' are common.
As Drydic Guy says, have you ever used the word "plinth" in reference to anything other than Trafalgar Square or perhaps some similar square in London or the UK? If a word is associated with a specific place, individual, or technique, and is not generally otherwise used, then it is definitely a "specific technical or rare" word. I think that you saying "plinth" is common is akin to an expert in Sassanid architecture contesting linguoboy's claim that squinch is specific, technical or rare because he comes across it all the time.
Yes, I use plinth on a regular basis, whenever I'm talking about plinths. Or, to be honest, anything vaguely plinth-like, since my architectural vocabulary is limited. Nobody has ever seemed confused by this. I see no reason at all to think that it's not a common word IMD.
For instance, searching the BBC website doesn't just give results about the fourth plinth. In July, a giant Gromit (from Wallace and Gromit) statue was 'ripped from its plinth' but later returned. A bicycle seat was mounted on a plinth at the manchester international festival. Something was put on a plinth in Guernsey. Bolton Wanderers (football club) had built a plinth for a new statue of Nat Lofthouse. Duthie Park in Aberdeen was renovated, including the tall flagpole on a granite plinth. In June there was scaffolding around the plinth of a statue of the duke of cambridge, due to vandalism by a naked man. A replica spitfire was suspended on a plinth as a war memorial. Permission was refused for a statue of a football referee with a hemispherical plinth to make it look like a giant subbuteo player. Rioters in Istanbul stood shoulder to shoulder on a plinth. In May permission was given for a statue of Britain's first female war pilot to be placed on a plinth, and at the Eurovision Song Contest at least one act had a rising plinth. Outside the news, in a July 2012 episode of The Archers (very long running radio soap opera), someone suggested that a dog be put on a plinth. Paul O'Grady, very low-brow popular entertainer, commented on his radio show a few years ago that he thought the studio was haunted because a plinth had flown across the studio. Discussing reorganisation of the Scottish football league system, a BBC columnist pointed out the inherent bias in how changes would be considered: "There is a massive percentage reward of the television money that goes to the clubs finishing first and second in the league, and guess who has a monopoly on these positions on the plinth?" Staying in Scotland, the BBC previewed a scottish cup final by asking "will it be Celtic's name etched onto the plinth?" Live online commentary for a football match laments the surprising lack of a plinth: "Anyone fancy some Monday night football? Both sets of fans are in fabulous voice as the teams, led by Nemanja Vidic and Kevin Nolan, emerge from the tunnel in one corner of the Old Trafford pitch. There's no plinth for referee Chris Foy to pick the ball up from, but we're moments away from kick-off nevertheless." A cricketer writing about taking part in the Emirates Airline T20 cup describes the shape of the trophy by saying "It turned out to be a heavy wooden shield on top of a heavy marble plinth - ideal for taking as hand baggage!".
And there's a link to a Daily Mail story from earlier today about "how an angry swarm of wasps nearly killed me: GAVAN NADEN was just mowing the lawn...
then horror struck!". Apparently it all went wrong when he picked up a wooden plinth in his garden. Meanwhile elsewhere today, or yesterday, the Deccan Herald reports the speech given by Nishant Savio of the industrial engineering and management department of the RV College of Engineering, in which he remarks "“I am grateful to the institute for giving me a solid plinth on which I can construct an excellent career path".
etc etc. Highbrow, lowbrow, literal, metaphorical... but no, please just assume that it's all just me making stuff up. Numerically, there were 757 hits for the BBC News pages alone, of which only 233 were about the Fourth Plinth. Likewise, only 19 of 38 blog posts and 10 of 30 sports posts mentioning plinths mentioned the fourth plinth. For comparison there were no hits at all on the BBC site for 'squinch', and only 2 articles for 'jamb' (if you ignore the handful of articles about the killing in The Jamb, a nightclub). And one blog post about a cricketer who learned to play with a cricket bat made from an old window jamb.
['Sash' and 'grout' are extremely common, though the former (ignoring the fashion sense) is only really found referring to sash windows, which are very common (and annoying, yet popular) here.]
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