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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Hjalamanger@feddit.nu to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

I've seen .: used two times now, and I really wonder what is? The first time I saw it was in an extract from the Swedish dictionary SAOL in NE. They used it something like this so:

History.: since year x

More lately I saw it used in this comment by @nodsocket@lemmy.world like so:

What make bikes so expensive?

R.: The willing of people to buy them.


What is this? Were does it come from? Should I use it?


Edit: thanks for all the answers :). It turns out it was actually used for abbreviation in the dictionary, they wrote "hist." instead of "historia".

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[-] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 60 points 1 year ago

FYI, "i.e." comes from the Latin id est, meaning "that is".

"e.g." means "for example", from the Latin exempli gratia.

The meaning is a little different, though the two are often interchanged. You should use "i.e." to clarify a singular meaning (think "in other words...") and use "e.g." to give one of potentially many examples.

See https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/ie-vs-eg-abbreviation-meaning-usage-difference for more examples and explanations.

[-] wjrii@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

For English speakers, you can mentally substitute "idiom explained" and "example given" as a mnemonic to help remember the difference.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 2 points 1 year ago

"idiom explained"

Mischief managed?

[-] wjrii@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

My parenthetical seems to have mysteriously vanished!

[-] PlexSheep@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Good to know. I'm not a native English speaker. I was going for the equivalent of the German "z.B." - "zum Beispiel".

[-] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

z.B. = e.g.

d.h. = i.e.

this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
41 points (95.6% liked)

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