Light well/light-well/lightwell
HVS
default tendency is to spell it as one word, which gets a sniffy
response from the spellchecker; the OED hyphenates it (which makes
it look like an adjective to me); Collins appears not to recognise
it at all; but two words somehow doesn't look right. (It's a
lightwell, not a well that's light.)
So assemble ye all and kindly pass judgement for me, please: light
well, lightwell, or light-well?
--
Cheers, Harvey
CanEng and BrEng, indiscriminately mixed
bert
It's a light well - a space which is shaped
something like a well, but whose purpose is
to admit light, not to provide water.
The phrase seems perfectly familiar to me, in
descriptions of buildings which pre-date the
electric light era. "Why is it that shape?"
"Oh, that's a light well".
--
HVS
So one vote for "light well"; ta.
(It's more than perfectly familiar to me, too -- absolutely bog
standard term -- but mentally I guess I think of it as a compound
noun rather than a phrase.)
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
wrote:
>I have occasion to refer repeatedly to lightwells in a report. My
>default tendency is to spell it as one word, which gets a sniffy
>response from the spellchecker; the OED hyphenates it (which makes
>it look like an adjective to me); Collins appears not to recognise
>it at all; but two words somehow doesn't look right. (It's a
>lightwell, not a well that's light.)
>
>So assemble ye all and kindly pass judgement for me, please: light
>well, lightwell, or light-well?
As a layman I would spell it as a single word, "lightwell".
Googling finds all three versions.
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
James Hogg
>I have occasion to refer repeatedly to lightwells in a report. My
>default tendency is to spell it as one word, which gets a sniffy
>response from the spellchecker; the OED hyphenates it (which makes
>it look like an adjective to me); Collins appears not to recognise
>it at all; but two words somehow doesn't look right. (It's a
>lightwell, not a well that's light.)
>
>So assemble ye all and kindly pass judgement for me, please: light
>well, lightwell, or light-well?
COD, which I tend to follow, has "light well".
Wikipedia, which you tend not to follow, has "lightwell".
--
James
Don Phillipson
news:Xns9C1CBFDB...@news.albasani.net...
> So one vote for "light well"; ta.
>
> (It's more than perfectly familiar to me, too -- absolutely bog
> standard term -- but mentally I guess I think of it as a compound
> noun rather than a phrase.)
We may also compare:
dry well
oil well
treacle well
and so on.
Light well seems structurally the same.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Paul Wolff
gas wells I don't join them up, and I don't see why light should be
differently treated, though I concede it does go down rather than up;
but in all cases the well is a conduit for the fluid. And I'm happy to
have an argument about quantum electrodynamics, if the fluidity of light
is questioned.
I don't know what to make of light-well. It's a bit of a trimmer,
avoiding major offence to either party. Call it the Vicar of Bray of
optical technology - a bit of a luxury, what?
--
Paul
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
wrote:
My mind seized up when I read this:
http://www.urban-rock.co.uk/lightwell-access-abseiling.php
A major concern for facility manager on large and small buildings
alike is how to gain access to an area in which the fall of the land
prevents the use of traditional methods of access. Many building
have an area like this in the form of light wells, court yard,...
As a matter of personal preference I would write "lightwell" rather than
"light well" or "light-well".
But as a matter of correctness I would write "courtyard" rather than
"court yard". OED has "court-yard" but not "court yard".
stephanie...@telenet.be
wrote:
> As a matter of personal preference I would write "lightwell" rather than
> "light well" or "light-well".
>
> But as a matter of correctness I would write "courtyard" rather than
> "court yard". OED has "court-yard" but not "court yard".
I'm for courtyards and lightwells myself; don't really see the
parallel with oil or water wells.
Just my two new pence. Or centimes, whatever.
S in B
James Hogg
A better parallel than an oil well would be stairwell, which is
written as one word in COD.
--
James
>
>S in B
HVS
Aha! I'd not thought of the parallel of "stairwell", which I would
never in a very large number of years write as "stair well" or
"stair-well".
"Lightwell" it is, and to hell with the spellchecker and the OED...
HVS
> I have occasion to refer repeatedly to lightwells in a report.
> My default tendency is to spell it as one word, which gets a
> sniffy response from the spellchecker; the OED hyphenates it
> (which makes it look like an adjective to me); Collins appears
> not to recognise it at all; but two words somehow doesn't look
> right. (It's a lightwell, not a well that's light.)
>
> So assemble ye all and kindly pass judgement for me, please:
> light well, lightwell, or light-well?
Many thanks to for the help. James's mention of the parallel of a
"stairwell" -- rather than an oil well or a water well -- has
clinched it for me.
One word it is.
HVS
> "HVS" <use...@REMOVETHISwhhvs.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:Xns9C1CBFDB...@news.albasani.net...
>
>> So one vote for "light well"; ta.
>>
>> (It's more than perfectly familiar to me, too -- absolutely bog
>> standard term -- but mentally I guess I think of it as a compound
>> noun rather than a phrase.)
>
> We may also compare:
> dry well
> oil well
> treacle well
> and so on.
> Light well seems structurally the same.
I've gone with the James's parallel of "stairwell", which strikes me
as a closer structural comparison.
Mark Brader
> So assemble ye all and kindly pass judgement for me, please: light
> well, lightwell, or light-well?
Air shaft.
Or any of the other five alternatives.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Winning isn't everything, but not trying to win
m...@vex.net | is less than nothing." --Anton van Uitert