Subject: Re: CCL:PRONUNCIATION ON CONFORMER

From: [email-masked] (Peter Shenkin)
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 96 14:40:12 -0500

> From [email-masked]  Sat Mar 16 13:13:59 1996

> This was a recent question on the Net; correct usage and pronunciation
> are not trivial, and it is not unreasonable to devote a modicum of
> attention to these matters. I think that by analogy with _informer_,
> _conformer_ should be given given the accent on the second syllable;
> INformer is simply wrong.  

This is a false analogy, based on a false etymology.  "Conformer" 
doesn't derive directly from "conform".  In the chemical sense,
"conformer" derives directly from "conformation" (one of a group
of entities formed together) and inherits its most common pronounciation
(CONformer) from its parent.  We should stick to this pronounciation,
if only on the principle of "Honor thy father and mother," which we
still believe in here in the good old U. S. of A. (though I'm not sure
about Canada).

Someone who conforms is indeed a conFORmer, just as someone who informs
is an inFORmer, but this has nothing to do with the the meaning or
origin of the term "conformer" in its technical chemical sense.

>...On a not unrelated matter: "principle axes"
> should be _principal axes_.

Here I agree, as a matter of principle. :-)

Also, "data" and "media" are plural nouns and should take plural
verbs;  "datum" and "medium" should be used when the singular is
intended (which is rare for data/datum).  For example, "These data
demonstrate that...." (not "This data demonstrates that....");  
"The advantage of the medium of disk is that it provides random 
access" (not "the media of disk is that it...).  But I fear that 
these are lost causes, and that "data" and "media" have gone the 
way of "agenda".

We still have a chance of rescuing CONformer, though, and I think
all red-blooded chemists, regardless of race, sex, creed or national
origin, ought to join in a campaign to do so.  We could adopt the
slogan, "You should be ashamed to say 'conFORmer'."

-P.
**************** In Memorium, Minnie Pearl, 1913-1996, RIP *****************
*** Peter S. Shenkin, Box 768 Havemeyer Hall, Chemistry, Columbia Univ., ***
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