call out or callout?

[Richard Fontana]

Previously, on alt.usage.english, Tina said:
> Should this be one or two words or call-out with a dash?
> Thanks for your help!

If you mean "call out" as a verb, it's two words. I am unaware of
"call out" being used as a noun (if it is, what does it mean?).

Richard

[Jack Gavin]

Richard Fontana wrote in message ...

Perhaps it is the act or process of calling out the National Guard?

--
Jack Gavin

[Matti Lamprhey]

Richard Fontana <re...@cunix.columbia.edu> wrote in message
news:slrn7rh4ea...@localhost.localdomain...

> Previously, on alt.usage.english, Tina said:
> > Should this be one or two words or call-out with a dash?
> > Thanks for your help!
>
> If you mean "call out" as a verb, it's two words. I am unaware of
> "call out" being used as a noun (if it is, what does it mean?).

MS Word uses the noun "callout" to refer to what we might have called a
text-box -- placed near an item in order to add explanatory material. I've
never seen it elsewhere, and it's not in NSOED93.

It needn't be a box -- it may be cloudlike. (Why does this make me think of
funerals?)

Matti

[Truly Donovan]

On Mon, 16 Aug 1999 22:45:03 GMT, re...@cunix.columbia.edu (Richard
Fontana) wrote:

>Previously, on alt.usage.english, Tina said:
>> Should this be one or two words or call-out with a dash?
>> Thanks for your help!
>
>If you mean "call out" as a verb, it's two words. I am unaware of
>"call out" being used as a noun (if it is, what does it mean?).

"Callout" (noun, one word, no hyphen) is a very common term in
technical publishing and refers to a reference from within the body
text to a figure, a footnote, another section of the text, etc. So
"see Figure 3-2" is a callout.

--
Truly Donovan
tr...@lunemere.com
*Chandler's Daughter* [Write Way Publishing, Jan 1999]

[Skitt]

Matti Lamprhey <ma...@polka.bikini> wrote in message
news:37b90...@news.netdirect.net.uk...

> Richard Fontana <re...@cunix.columbia.edu> wrote in message
> news:slrn7rh4ea...@localhost.localdomain...

> > Previously, on alt.usage.english, Tina said:
> > > Should this be one or two words or call-out with a dash?
> > > Thanks for your help!
> >
> > If you mean "call out" as a verb, it's two words. I am unaware of
> > "call out" being used as a noun (if it is, what does it mean?).
>

> MS Word uses the noun "callout" to refer to what we might have called a
> text-box -- placed near an item in order to add explanatory material.
I've
> never seen it elsewhere, and it's not in NSOED93.
>
> It needn't be a box -- it may be cloudlike. (Why does this make me think
of
> funerals?)

"Callout" as a noun is used by engineers (wouldn't you know?}. When looking
at a drawing for a mechanical assembly and seeing a bolt on the drawing, one
could say, "What is the callout for that bolt?" A glance at the parts list
would reveal the specific type of that bolt. That is the bolt's "callout".
--
Skitt (on Florida's Space Coast) http://skitt.i.am/
CAUTION: My veracity is under a limited warranty

[Chris Rogers]

I've a book called "Call-Out", written by Hamish McInnes, of Glencoe
Mountain Rescue Service. He uses it to mean a summons to help out someone
stuck on the hills.

Chris

Jack Gavin wrote in message ...

>
>Richard Fontana wrote in message ...

>>Previously, on alt.usage.english, Tina said:
>>> Should this be one or two words or call-out with a dash?
>>> Thanks for your help!
>>
>>If you mean "call out" as a verb, it's two words. I am unaware of
>>"call out" being used as a noun (if it is, what does it mean?).
>>

[PBusw13724]

>>If you mean "call out" as a verb, it's two words. I am unaware of
>>"call out" being used as a noun (if it is, what does it mean?).

I'm surprised that you've not heard it used as a noun. My employers use 'a
call out' <style between one and two words varies> to describethe occasion when
an employee on stand by at home is actually called in to work to deal with a
problem out of hours.

PB

[Joseph C Fineman]

Tina <anon...@web.remarq.com> writes:

>Should this be one or two words or call-out with a dash?

The phrasal verb "to call out" is so spelled. The corresponding noun
is callout or (rather oldfashioned) call-out. The past participle of
the verb is "called out" in predicate, but "called-out" when it stands
before what it modifies.

The modern tendency is for nouns made from phrasal verbs to be spelled
solid: printout, workout, standby, leanto, fuckup. But those formed
with in & on still keep the hyphen (sit-in, put-on), and many people
still hyphenate many of the others. It will be a long time before
usage in general settles down. For established terms you can consult
a dictionary -- but Webster's 10th hasn't caught up with "callout".

--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com

||: The dirt in the cracks is where life goes on. :||

[John Holmes]

PBusw13724 wrote in message
<19990817124102...@ng-fj1.aol.com>...

>I'm surprised that you've not heard it used as a noun. My employers use
'a
>call out' <style between one and two words varies> to describethe
occasion when
>an employee on stand by at home is actually called in to work to deal
with a
>problem out of hours.

"Call-out" is the style I have usually seen for that meaning. It is odd
that it is called a call _out_, but from the employee's point of view he
is being called _in_, as in your sentence above.

Regards,
John.