Timeline for Would it be more correct to call a polar bear a "preyer" , a "predator", or a "hunter"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
21 events
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| Nov 6, 2013 at 17:40 | history | edited | Jonathan Garber | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Minor grammar edits; modified title to be slightly more general; left the name of the brochure as written since it is part of the question
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| Nov 6, 2013 at 0:38 | vote | accept | dennylv | ||
| Nov 6, 2013 at 0:35 | vote | accept | dennylv | ||
| Nov 6, 2013 at 0:37 | |||||
| Nov 5, 2013 at 23:12 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @martha But on the ice the polar bear is the apex predator, so perhaps the use is excusable. I'd certainly buy it with a singular hunter. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 20:05 | comment | added | Martha | There's no reason to have the definite article in a title, especially if it's pluralized. Polar Bears: Hunters on Ice is vastly better than Polar Bears: the Hunters on Ice. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 19:12 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @FumbleFingers - No disagreement from me with that part of your reasoning. I just wanted to issue a caveat to the 78M vs 2.3M remark. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 18:33 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @J.R.: Below a certain age OP's son wouldn't be likely to even know the word "predator". Given he has a kindergarten teacher, I suspect such words would simply be advertising the fact that he's probably not using his own words in the first place. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 14:06 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @Fumble - I would expect hunter to be more predominant because it's used in more contexts. The Polar Bear is a hunter. So was Elmer Fudd. There are clothing and equipment lines for hunters, but not predators. Moreover, Hunter is one of the more common last names in the U.S. (#154 on this list), which could account for several hits. In this case, the more common word happens to be a good choice for the young lad, but I don't think that would necessarily be "obvious," since it depends on a range of factors. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 13:49 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | For his context, hunter and predator are effectively synonyms, but noting that your son is "little", it would probably be more natural for him to use the most common word. Google Books claims 78M instances of hunter, and only 2.3M instances of predator, so I think the choice is obvious. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 12:54 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglishLL/status/397708469350199296 | ||
| Nov 5, 2013 at 11:18 | answer | added | J.R.♦ | timeline score: 6 | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 11:06 | history | edited | J.R.♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 3 characters in body
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| Nov 5, 2013 at 7:25 | comment | added | user230 | I agree that predators on ice is a valid expression, but if I heard it out of context, I'd think it was an ice show called Predators on Ice, because so many ice shows have titles that fit the template "____ on ice". (Don't let that stop you from using it, though!) | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 5:04 | comment | added | Jim | I'd make Bears plural: Polar Bears: The Hunters on Ice. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 4:25 | comment | added | dennylv | Yeah, why not? And, is "Polar Bear: the Hunters on Ice" as a title of the brochure grammatically correct? | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 3:07 | comment | added | Jim | Yes, Predators on ice is a valid expression, and so is hunter. predator means any animal or other organism that hunts and kills other organisms (their prey), primarily for food But if you son chose hunter why not let him choose his own title? | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 3:05 | comment | added | user230 | Preyer is no longer used. There are no examples of preyer in COCA. (It still appears as the name Preyer.) | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 2:58 | comment | added | dennylv | I think, for animals, "a hunter" means an animal that chase and kill its prey. Maybe "hunter" is also a proper title. But is "predator" more sicentific than "hunter"? Is "a predator on ice" a correct expression? | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 2:51 | comment | added | Jim | How do you define hunter? I just recently watched a movie on the Arctic, where a polar bear hunted down a female and two cubs over the course of several days and many miles of ice and water. | |
| Nov 5, 2013 at 2:44 | history | edited | dennylv | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 16 characters in body
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| Nov 5, 2013 at 2:30 | history | asked | dennylv | CC BY-SA 3.0 |