Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
Here, subterranean refers to the resting place, not the ereader, and I have no quibbles with using it for that. Would you say "and the subterranean ereader languished in its resting place"?
It comes down to whether you think the words refer to present location as well as proper location. I'm in the camp that prefers not to dilute definitions over multiple words, since you lose information that way. But, I wouldn't go so far as to say you were wrong for doing it, just sloppy. In the wrong context, I might even think you were being pretentious.  |
OK. I understand what you are saying now. I still disagree, but I understand.
Who says that those words are should only refer to proper location rather than present location? Just because biologists USE them that way, doesn't mean it's the only way they are supposed to be used. They took an adjective and used it as part of a proper name of a kind of climate or layer.
There is an animal called a Blue Whale. That doesn't make it sloppy call other things blue.
And why no quibble with the resting place? Not all resting places are subterranean. It could have had an arboreal resting place in a tree.
Now, if the author had referred to the lawn, with it's fleeting seasonal snowcover, as being in an subnivean climate, then I might agree that he misused the term "subnivean climate."