> But language is for communication, and the most correct language is that which communicates best.

This seems to be biased in US-American culture. In Germany, people are in my observation much more prone to analyze words and sentences (often by their origins), and many people wouldn't accept a "wrong" way to express things to be correct.

Just to give one example (which also works in English): "[die] Alternative" (the alternative): this word comes from Latin "alter, altera, alterum" (the other). This means, that there exists only one other. So educated people love to point out that talking of multiple "Alternativen" [alternatives] is wrong; by the word origin there can only exist one alternative (the other one). If more than one "alternatives" exist, so, to be precise, you likely want to use a different word.

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horsawlarway 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I think this implies a meaning of "the" that doesn't actually exist in modern english.

"The" often refers to a group or category.

"The other" is actually a phrase I would take to be incredibly inclusive in meaning if not followed by another specifier (it means "the category of everything that is not us").

"The alternative" is similarly a category structure. It's a singular category, made of many possible members, or alternatives.

You may still only pick a single alternate for each case, but that does not mean that a category of multiple possible alternative choices does not exist.

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All that said, sparkfun is messing up by labeling this DE9. Spoken as someone who's done quite a bit of serial communication work. The defacto industry term is DB9, whether they like it or not, and most searching/purchasing will be done using that term. This is a "technically correct" fun article, with a name that would immediately mean I don't ever find this product (and would not purchase this product) unless they highlight that this is a DB9 breakout board with a bad name.

Simple test? Amazon has more than 4000 results for "db9 cable" and only ~110 results for "de9" cable. Even specialty sites like McMaster, which are usually pretty particular with their terms are happily calling this a db9 connector: https://www.mcmaster.com/products/connectors/computer-connec...

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aleph_minus_one 5 days ago | parent [-]

> I think this implies a meaning of "the" that doesn't actually exist in modern english.

> "The" often refers to a group or category.

But this does not hold for the meaning of Latin "alter, altera, alterum" (the other one), from which the German and English word "Alternative"/"alternative" is derived.

	▲	spauldo 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Our language started out as a bad habit shared between French soldiers and English barmaids. And the barmaids were speaking a language that started as a bad habit shared between Viking raiders and Anglo-Saxon villagers. Meanings have shifted since Roman times.

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UncleSlacky 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"(The/an) alternate" is probably the ahem _alternative_ term you're looking for...

	▲	aleph_minus_one 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I am not a native English speaker, so I honestly was not aware of this English word. Addendum: nevertheless: "alternate" is also derived fron "alter, altera, alterum" (the other one), so my point above still holds.

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shermantanktop 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I think you're proving my point. If the people I am talking to and the language I am using both demand precision in word choice, then I would be foolish to use the wrong term and then say "well, you should have known what I meant."

But that is a communication context, and there are other contexts where implications and assumed meanings are expected, and spelling everything out would be considered pompous, self-important, and ridiculous.

Perhaps not in Germany? But certainly elsewhere (but i believe that in German the pronoun "sie" can require assumed context to understand).

	▲	aleph_minus_one 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		> But that is a communication context, and there are other contexts where implications and assumed meanings are expected, and spelling everything out would be considered pompous, self-important, and ridiculous. > Perhaps not in Germany? But certainly elsewhere (but i believe that in German the pronoun "sie" can require assumed context to understand). I would indeed claim that in German such assumptions are often spelled out more explicitly than in English.