Timeline for How do you pronounce 2×4 (board)
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
21 events
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| May 31, 2020 at 12:59 | comment | added | David K | Since this is a site for English language learners, I think it's sufficient to point out that "board" is a word whose definition is a not completely clear, but the phrase "piece of wood" is suitable for a 2x4, a board, and many other such things (provided that they are actually wood, of course). | |
| May 31, 2020 at 4:02 | comment | added | kumowoon1025 | @DavidK Oh or, or... think about it this way: any piece of dimensional lumber is just called a "board" because, it's a general term; and they actually start out as larger, indisputably board-y lumber, milled down to size. General term because, okay you know how you have your typical chess board, but you've seen one of those stocky ottoman-looking chess sets right? I think (hope) you'll agree the nearly cube-shaped bottom is the chess board. Or imagine using two-by-fours to floor a house. It'd be one weird house (maybe a treehouse) but those creaky two-by-fours would be floor boards right? | |
| May 31, 2020 at 3:46 | comment | added | kumowoon1025 | @DavidK I agree that it'd be a stretch to call a length of lumber 2" thick and 4" wide on its own a "board." By the way, the term 2″ × 4″ refers to the cross-section dimensions of 2 by 4 inches, thought that might be worth pointing out because metric. And as I type this, I think adding the double prime notation for inches does a fairly good job at disambiguation. But anyway, as you may already be aware, it's only a historical, nominal size. The actual aspect isn't 1:2, it's 3:7... Okay not too much of a difference but for longer cuts it definitely feels like a board. No lie :( | |
| May 30, 2020 at 8:08 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| May 30, 2020 at 11:19 | |||||
| May 30, 2020 at 3:06 | comment | added | David K | A 2-by-4 is not a board. It is too thick, especially in comparison with its width. See dictionary.com/browse/board -- Yes, I see the caption "A common 2x4 board" in Wikipedia, but the opportunity to edit a Wikipedia article does not guarantee one will write it correctly. You can distinguish your 2x4 from other things that might be written 2x4 by writing "2x4 (lumber)" or even "2x4 (piece of wood)". | |
| May 29, 2020 at 19:53 | comment | added | Geza Kerecsenyi | @NickMatteo Also true; I was just looking to correct the inherently non-conventional usage in the post, not necessarily prescribe the standard usage. | |
| May 29, 2020 at 18:26 | comment | added | Nick Matteo | @Geza: I think "Five times three" is much more likely. | |
| May 29, 2020 at 16:29 | comment | added | Geza Kerecsenyi | Great answers from everyone here - I agree with 2x4 being correct for this context. Just for reference, though, I would like to point out that the standard usage of 'x' as in multiplication (e.g. 5x3=15) would be as 'multiplied by', not simply 'multiplies' - i.e. 5x3 would in most common dialects be pronounced as 'five multiplied by three', not 'five multiplies three'. | |
| May 29, 2020 at 15:59 | history | edited | ColleenV |
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| May 29, 2020 at 2:09 | answer | added | Norm | timeline score: 3 | |
| May 28, 2020 at 16:16 | answer | added | M. W. | timeline score: 1 | |
| S May 28, 2020 at 15:39 | history | suggested | T.J.L. | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Quotes for quotes, code for code.
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| May 28, 2020 at 15:05 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S May 28, 2020 at 15:39 | |||||
| May 28, 2020 at 14:50 | answer | added | Mazura | timeline score: 13 | |
| May 28, 2020 at 14:40 | answer | added | Wastrel | timeline score: 45 | |
| May 28, 2020 at 13:44 | history | became hot network question | |||
| May 28, 2020 at 12:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglishLL/status/1265976127732035584 | ||
| May 28, 2020 at 7:49 | vote | accept | eth4io | ||
| May 28, 2020 at 6:24 | answer | added | bhundven | timeline score: 56 | |
| May 28, 2020 at 5:46 | review | First posts | |||
| May 28, 2020 at 6:18 | |||||
| May 28, 2020 at 5:42 | history | asked | eth4io | CC BY-SA 4.0 |