What is the respectful abbreviation to refer to the deceased people in your family?

[Jan K.]

It's my turn to prepare the family printable calendar which has birthdays
and anniversaries for everyone going back a generation or two where the
newest are confused as they don't even know some of the family members who
died before they were born.

What abbreviation is respectful for the deceased?

I was thinking "RIP" but maybe there's a better word than "deceased"
(which sounds too nasty).

Is there an abbreviation that doesn't sound so bad?

[Janet]

In article <unpfjc$2tl$1$kozi...@news.chmurka.net>,
janice...@nie.ma.spamu.prosze.com says...

January 15th, birthday of the late Mary Smith.

To widen family education you could add

Born 1905, died 1960. Wife of Tom, mother of Sam.

Janet

[Paul Wolff]

On Thu, 11 Jan 2024, at 20:37:37, Jan K. posted:

I'd favour (d. 1984) after the name. It's pretty clear what it means,
and including the year of death seems more respectful than just "died".
--
Paul W

[Jerry Friedman]

I like the date suggestions, but if you don't have room for that, the dagger
or cross symbol is often used, unless the people are definitely not
Christian.

Can you do it the way previous members of your family did?

--
Jerry Friedman

[Peter Moylan]

If it's a calendar, "d. 3 Feb 2005" will do the job.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

[Jan K.]

W Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:59:00 -0800 (PST), Jerry Friedman napisal:

> Can you do it the way previous members of your family did?

Of course. But that's why I said the younger members are confused.
The way it was done before is each birthday has three lines in the
calendar. The name, the year born and a phone number to call them.

That way people can wish them a happy birthday when the date comes up.

At the moment, the only difference between the deceased family members and
the others is there is no phone number listed for those dearly departed.

I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.

[Garrett Wollman]

In article <unqbsj$71l$1$kozi...@news.chmurka.net>,

Jan K. <janice...@nie.ma.spamu.prosze.com> wrote:

>I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
>hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.

There's the German style (as seen, e.g., in de.wikipedia.org) of using
an asterisk for birth and a dagger for death. Can't promise it would
be less confusing, though.

-GAWollman

--
Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can,
wol...@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is
Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

[Jerry Friedman]

On Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 8:40:31 PM UTC-7, Jan K. wrote:
> W Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:59:00 -0800 (PST), Jerry Friedman napisal:
> > Can you do it the way previous members of your family did?
> Of course. But that's why I said the younger members are confused.
> The way it was done before is each birthday has three lines in the
> calendar. The name, the year born and a phone number to call them.

...

> I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
> hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.

You could tell people that "d." stands for "decessit" rather than "died".
:=)

--
Jerry Friedman

[Hibou]

I'd go with "Name (b. 1950, d. 2015)" - and perhaps distinguish
no-longer-extant members typographically - in italics, or grey not
black, or black not a colour....

If your family is Christian, you could use a cross.

[Madhu]

* Hibou <unqn8q$3cf4h$1...@dont-email.me> :
Wrote on Fri, 12 Jan 2024 06:46:49 +0000:

> Le 11/01/2024 ? 19:37, Jan K. a ?crit :

Unicode has bunch of crosses ✝ (latin cross) there isn't any
typographical representation of "memento mori" as there is for the
hebrew or yiddish (A""H) (olav hashalom,alevasholem).

for those who insist on being absolutely non-religious there is the 💀
(SKULL) codepoint.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Is "requiescat in pace" (usually abbreviated to RIP) not Latin enough?

Anyway, I'd go for "d. 15 May 2021".
--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 36 years; mainly
in England until 1987.

[Hibou]

Le 12/01/2024 à 03:40, Jan K. a écrit :
>
> At the moment, the only difference between the deceased family members and
> the others is there is no phone number listed for those dearly departed.

The calls would probably be too dear anyway.

[occam]

On 12/01/2024 04:48, Garrett Wollman wrote:
> In article <unqbsj$71l$1$kozi...@news.chmurka.net>,
> Jan K. <janice...@nie.ma.spamu.prosze.com> wrote:
>
>> I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
>> hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.
>
> There's the German style (as seen, e.g., in de.wikipedia.org) of using
> an asterisk for birth and a dagger for death.

Are you sure that's a dagger, or just a Christian cross? After all,
those are the two symbols associated with the birth and death of Christ.
("From star to stardust".)

> Can't promise it would
> be less confusing, though.

It would be. I prefer 'b.' (for born) and 'd.' (for died) as suggested
up-thread,

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

A problem with b. is that it can also mean baptised, as it often does
in older records.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

occam wrote:

>> There's the German style (as seen, e.g., in de.wikipedia.org) of using
>> an asterisk for birth and a dagger for death.
>
> Are you sure that's a dagger, or just a Christian cross?

It's the Christian cross. We also use it in Denmark.

--
Bertel, Denmark

[J. J. Lodder]

Garrett Wollman <wol...@bimajority.org> wrote:

> In article <unqbsj$71l$1$kozi...@news.chmurka.net>,
> Jan K. <janice...@nie.ma.spamu.prosze.com> wrote:
>
> >I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
> >hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.
>
> There's the German style (as seen, e.g., in de.wikipedia.org) of using
> an asterisk for birth and a dagger for death. Can't promise it would
> be less confusing, though.

Better known as an Obelix,

Jan

[occam]

If both 'b.' and 'd.' are recorded, one must be seen in the context of
the other. If 'b.' is for 'baptised', what would d. stand for?
'deconsecrated'?


Reminds me of a joke:

Soon after they bury Mozart, rumours start spreading that strange,
vaguely musical sounds are coming out of his grave. Some musicologists
claim that they are his compositions - played in reverse.

They ask the caretaker of the cemetery if he knows what the sounds are
about? Without raising an eyebrow, he says: "Oh, that's just Mozart,
decomposing."

[Hibou]

Le 12/01/2024 à 10:12, occam a écrit :
>
> Reminds me of a joke:
>
> Soon after they bury Mozart, rumours start spreading that strange,
> vaguely musical sounds are coming out of his grave. Some musicologists
> claim that they are his compositions - played in reverse.
>
> They ask the caretaker of the cemetery if he knows what the sounds are
> about? Without raising an eyebrow, he says: "Oh, that's just Mozart,
> decomposing."

<Like>

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2024-01-12 10:12:29 +0000, occam said:

> On 12/01/2024 10:05, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>> On 2024-01-12 08:40:29 +0000, occam said:
>>
>>> On 12/01/2024 04:48, Garrett Wollman wrote:
>>>> In article <unqbsj$71l$1$kozi...@news.chmurka.net>,
>>>> Jan K. <janice...@nie.ma.spamu.prosze.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
>>>>> hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.
>>>>
>>>> There's the German style (as seen, e.g., in de.wikipedia.org) of using
>>>> an asterisk for birth and a dagger for death.
>>>
>>> Are you sure that's a dagger, or just a Christian cross?  After all,
>>> those are the two symbols associated with the birth and death of Christ.
>>> ("From star to stardust".)
>>>
>>>
>>>> Can't promise it would
>>>> be less confusing, though.
>>>
>>> It would be.  I prefer 'b.' (for born) and 'd.' (for died) as suggested
>>> up-thread,
>>
>> A problem with b. is that it can also mean baptised, as it often does in
>> older records.
>>
>
> If both 'b.' and 'd.' are recorded, one must be seen in the context of
> the other. If 'b.' is for 'baptised', what would d. stand for?
> 'deconsecrated'?

You need to ask someone who used both b. and d.

>
>
> Reminds me of a joke:
>
> Soon after they bury Mozart, rumours start spreading that strange,
> vaguely musical sounds are coming out of his grave. Some musicologists
> claim that they are his compositions - played in reverse.
>
> They ask the caretaker of the cemetery if he knows what the sounds are
> about? Without raising an eyebrow, he says: "Oh, that's just Mozart,
> decomposing."

--
athel -- biochemist, not a physicist, but detector of crackpots

[charles]

In article <l0cdno...@mid.individual.net>, Athel Cornish-Bowden

My copy of Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage uses d. for died (at least that's
how my father is listed) and simply b for born (my entry).

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4t้ฒ
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Yes, but I imagine you were born in the 20th century. I was thinking of
much older entries than that, say before 1800.

[Hibou]

Le 12/01/2024 à 10:21, Athel Cornish-Bowden a écrit :
> On 2024-01-12 10:12:29 +0000, occam said:
>> On 12/01/2024 10:05, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>>> On 2024-01-12 08:40:29 +0000, occam said:
>>>>
>>>> It would be.  I prefer 'b.' (for born) and 'd.' (for died) as suggested
>>>> up-thread,
>>>
>>> A problem with b. is that it can also mean baptised, as it often does in
>>> older records.
>>
>> If both 'b.' and 'd.' are recorded, one must be seen in the context of
>> the other. If 'b.' is for 'baptised', what would d. stand for?
>> 'deconsecrated'?
>
> You need to ask someone who used both b. and d.

In France, that would be a cartoon character, Obélix perhaps.

I quite fancy 'ba' for born-again.

[J. J. Lodder]

Athel Cornish-Bowden <m...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 2024-01-12 03:40:24 +0000, Jan K. said:
>
> > W Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:59:00 -0800 (PST), Jerry Friedman napisal:
> >
> >> Can you do it the way previous members of your family did?
> >
> > Of course. But that's why I said the younger members are confused.
> > The way it was done before is each birthday has three lines in the
> > calendar. The name, the year born and a phone number to call them.
> >
> > That way people can wish them a happy birthday when the date comes up.
> >
> > At the moment, the only difference between the deceased family members and
> > the others is there is no phone number listed for those dearly departed.
> >
> > I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
> > hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.
>
> Is "requiescat in pace" (usually abbreviated to RIP) not Latin enough?
>
> Anyway, I'd go for "d. 15 May 2021".

Alt t (aka Opt t) will make a /dagger/obelisk/christiancross/ symbol
on a standard Mac keyboard. It may be different on your AZERTY.
Hard to see on my screen, but it looks more like a cross than a dagger,

Jan

[HVS]

On 11 Jan 2024, Jan K. wrote

The abbreviation "ob." is seen on tombstones and in genealogical
documents.

--
Cheers, Harvey

[HVS]

On 12 Jan 2024, HVS wrote

Sorry - should have mentioned that "ob." is an abbreviation of "obiit",
meaning "he/she died" (and the "double-i" isn't a typo...)

--
Cheers, Harvey

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

A cross and a dagger at that size look much the same, but I think it's
what's known as a dagger in typographic terminology. † If I increase it
to 1200% it is clearly a dagger -- again, as understood in typography.
If you had an object that shape you could probably stab someone.
However, if you carried one in a parade on a saint's day everyone would
take it to be a cross. To you (I suppose) and me, a swastika is
different from a cross, but in French it is a croix gammée.

[Silvano]

Athel Cornish-Bowden hat am 12.01.2024 um 14:44 geschrieben:

> To you (I suppose) and me, a swastika is
> different from a cross, but in French it is a croix gammée.

German: Hakenkreuz.
Italian: croce uncinata.
Spanish (according to Wikipedia): cruz gamada.
etc.

[Paul Wolff]

On Fri, 12 Jan 2024, at 13:19:59, HVS posted:

It seems there should be a crossover between that 'ob.' and the obelus
(the printer's dagger) which is also called obelisk.

(Just my obligatory observation.)
--
Paul W

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

> A cross and a dagger at that size look much the same, but I think it's
> what's known as a dagger in typographic terminology. † If I increase it
> to 1200% it is clearly a dagger -- again, as understood in typography.
> If you had an object that shape you could probably stab someone.
> However, if you carried one in a parade on a saint's day everyone would
> take it to be a cross. To you (I suppose) and me, a swastika is
> different from a cross, but in French it is a croix gammée.

In Danish it is known as a "hagekors" - "chin cross".

--
Bertel, Denmark

[Jerry Friedman]

On Friday, January 12, 2024 at 1:40:34 AM UTC-7, occam wrote:
> On 12/01/2024 04:48, Garrett Wollman wrote:
> > In article <unqbsj$71l$1$kozi...@news.chmurka.net>,
> > Jan K. <janice...@nie.ma.spamu.prosze.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I like the suggestion of 'd. May 15, 2021' the best so far, but I was
> >> hoping for a Latin term (or something of that ilk) that sounded better.
> >
> > There's the German style (as seen, e.g., in de.wikipedia.org) of using
> > an asterisk for birth and a dagger for death.
>
> Are you sure that's a dagger, or just a Christian cross? After all,
> those are the two symbols associated with the birth and death of Christ.

And crosses are often used to mark Christian graves.

> ("From star to stardust".)

...

Hm.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Jerry Friedman]

Or z"l (zikhrono/zikhrona li-vrakhah, [may] his/her memory [be[ for a
blessing), which I've seen more often.

But "memento mori" means something else--it's a reminder that you
will die.

> for those who insist on being absolutely non-religious there is the 💀
> (SKULL) codepoint.

Learn something every day.

--
Jerry Friedman
Mirez-vous-y.

[Adam Funk]

I don't think I've ever seen "gammé(e)" except in that term --- does
it mean (as I suspect) "fitted with (Greek) gammas"?


--
In general, I find that calligraphers are just about the nicest people
I've ever met. ---Donald Knuth

[Jerry Friedman]

Also according to Wikipedia, it's a cross cramponned, cramponnée,
or cramponny in heraldic English. And the article reminded me of
"fylfot".

--
Jerry Friedman

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Adam Funk wrote:

> I don't think I've ever seen "gammé(e)" except in that term --- does
> it mean (as I suspect) "fitted with (Greek) gammas"?

Wikipedia on "swastika":
as equivalent to the French term croix gammée – a cross with arms
shaped like the Greek letter gamma (Γ)

--
Bertel, Denmark

[lar3ryca]

They're decomposing composers.
There's nothing much anyone can do.
You can still hear Beethoven,
But Beethoven cannot hear you.
~ Monty Python


--
Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam

[lar3ryca]

If they were to loved ones, they would be to dear.

--
I threw a boomerang a couple of years ago, and it didn't come back.
Now I live in constant fear.

[Sam Plusnet]

I assume a US version would use "Passed".

--
Sam Plusnet

[TonyCooper]

You will see and hear "Passed" used by Americans, but you will not see
it used in the context of this discussion. Family trees and other
lists where the departed are listed, the most common are "Born 19xx
Died 19xx with the month and day sometimes included or the "b" and "d"
as others have shown.

The newspapers publish death notices and obituaries. At one time, it
was common for the funeral home to provide an obit and the newspaper
to publish it at no charge. Now, the newspapers generally charge to
publish it and the text is written by the family.

When the former was the practice, there would be a page or more once a
week filled with obits. My local newspaper had a column of death
notices that included all reported local deaths. Now, there may be
two to five obits submitted by the families and no death notice
column.

Exceptions, of course, by city and by newspaper.

In the family-written obits, the terms vary from "died" to flowery
descriptions of going to meet Jesus or joining (his/her)
(wife/husband) in Heaven or other variations.

In conversations, "passed" is common. What always get me, though, is
when someone says "I lost my wife last year" or summat like that. I've
had that happen, but at a Mall where I couldn't find her (she's short
and often unspottable in situ), but we were eventually reunited.

--

Tony Cooper - Orlando,Florida

[J. J. Lodder]

Again, English is a bit exceptional (I think)
in having nothing but 'swastika' for 'das Hakenkreuz'.
Most languages have both.
Some tend to use 'swastika' for the original wider meaning,
and their 'hakenkreuz' equivalent for the Nazi thing,

Jan

[Phil]

I've seen "crooked cross" from time to time.


--
Phil B

[Paul Wolff]

On Fri, 12 Jan 2024, at 23:20:21, J. J. Lodder posted:
>Athel Cornish-Bowden <m...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> A cross and a dagger at that size look much the same, but I think it's
>> what's known as a dagger in typographic terminology. † If I increase it
>> to 1200% it is clearly a dagger -- again, as understood in typography.
>> If you had an object that shape you could probably stab someone.
>> However, if you carried one in a parade on a saint's day everyone would
>> take it to be a cross. To you (I suppose) and me, a swastika is
>> different from a cross, but in French it is a croix gammée.
>
>Again, English is a bit exceptional (I think)
>in having nothing but 'swastika' for 'das Hakenkreuz'.
>Most languages have both.
>Some tend to use 'swastika' for the original wider meaning,
>and their 'hakenkreuz' equivalent for the Nazi thing,
>

English has fylfot (origin uncertain) as Jerry has already mentioned. So
that gives us two, too.
--
Paul W

[Peter Moylan]

Or possibly "Failed".

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

[Peter Moylan]

That's the one that was running around my head, too.

[Peter Moylan]

But there are two kinds of swastika. (They spin in different directions
when the wind blows on them.) Is there a name for the one made with
backwards gamma?

[Peter Moylan]

On 13/01/24 10:11, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 13/01/24 04:37, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:
>> Adam Funk wrote:
>>
>>> I don't think I've ever seen "gammé(e)" except in that term ---
>>> does it mean (as I suspect) "fitted with (Greek) gammas"?
>>
>> Wikipedia on "swastika": as equivalent to the French term croix
>> gammée – a cross with arms shaped like the Greek letter gamma (Γ)
>
> But there are two kinds of swastika. (They spin in different
> directions when the wind blows on them.) Is there a name for the one
> made with backwards gamma?

Sorry, that should have been gammata. I should have listened to my
instincts rather than let Google Translate misle me.

[Sam Plusnet]

There's a lesson in there - whenever possible, marry a taller woman[1].
(My spouse is a fraction taller than me.)

[1] Or persuade her to wear a tall hat in such circumstances.

--
Sam Plusnet

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Sam Plusnet wrote:

>> In conversations, "passed" is common. What always get me, though, is
>> when someone says "I lost my wife last year" or summat like that. I've
>> had that happen, but at a Mall where I couldn't find her (she's short
>> and often unspottable in situ), but we were eventually reunited.
>
> There's a lesson in there - whenever possible, marry a taller woman[1].
> (My spouse is a fraction taller than me.)
>
> [1] Or persuade her to wear a tall hat in such circumstances.

or to use stilts when in a public place.

--
Bertel, Denmark

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Paul Wolff wrote:

> English has fylfot (origin uncertain) as Jerry has already mentioned. So
> that gives us two, too.

Wikipedia says about the fylfot:

the fylfot differs somewhat from the archetypal form of the swastika:
always upright and typically with truncated limbs, as shown in the
figure at right.

--
Bertel, Denmark

[J. J. Lodder]

Just give her an iPhone,

Jan

[J. J. Lodder]

Not quite the same, and have you ever seen it used?
(in a about nazi context)

Jan

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2024-01-13 09:35:35 +0000, J. J. Lodder said:

> Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com> wrote:
>
>>> On Fri, 12 Jan 2024 19:57:31 +0000, Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com> wrote:

[ … ]

>>>
>>>
>>> In conversations, "passed" is common. What always get me, though, is
>>> when someone says "I lost my wife last year" or summat like that. I've
>>> had that happen, but at a Mall where I couldn't find her (she's short
>>> and often unspottable in situ), but we were eventually reunited.
>>
>> There's a lesson in there - whenever possible, marry a taller woman[1].
>> (My spouse is a fraction taller than me.)
>>
>> [1] Or persuade her to wear a tall hat in such circumstances.
>
> Just give her an iPhone,

My first wife was almost my height and was considered tall, whereas I
am not. My present wife is clearly shorter than I am.

[Hibou]

A stick or brolly are a possibility, to be held up when needed.

Perhaps better not attach a little flag to it, though. Tourists might
tag on to her, thinking she's a guide.


What snags my attention is the French 'le disparu', the disappeared,
used to mean dead. To my mind, it conjures up aliens kidnapping people -
or something.

<https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/disparu/25928>

[Paul Wolff]

On Sat, 13 Jan 2024, at 10:35:35, J. J. Lodder posted:

I don't know whether I've seen a fylfot used, or not.

I'm sure that there are variations in the proportions of each, and I'd
be surprised if anyone but a specialist symbol historian (Wasn't one of
those a protagonist in The Da Vinci Code, a popular novel of its day?)
could show a fixed boundary between the forms of fylfots and swastikas.
--
Paul W

[Sam Plusnet]

If you can't spot the woman, you're hardly likely to see what type of
phone she is carrying.

--
Sam Plusnet

[J. J. Lodder]

Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com> wrote:

> On 13-Jan-24 9:35, J. J. Lodder wrote:
> > Sam Plusnet <n...@home.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On 12-Jan-24 20:42, TonyCooper wrote:

[-]

> >>> In conversations, "passed" is common. What always get me, though, is
> >>> when someone says "I lost my wife last year" or summat like that. I've
> >>> had that happen, but at a Mall where I couldn't find her (she's short
> >>> and often unspottable in situ), but we were eventually reunited.
> >>
> >> There's a lesson in there - whenever possible, marry a taller woman[1].
> >> (My spouse is a fraction taller than me.)
> >>
> >> [1] Or persuade her to wear a tall hat in such circumstances.
> >
> > Just give her an iPhone,
>
> If you can't spot the woman, you're hardly likely to see what type of
> phone she is carrying.

But your iPhone can,

Jan

[Sam Plusnet]

So now it's _two_ iPhones?

Do they have to be iPhones? Why?

--
Sam Plusnet

[lar3ryca]

Yes.
Because if it was a euPhone, it would be way too much trouble for her to
carry around.

--
Hukt on fonix werkt fer me!

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Sam Plusnet wrote:

>>> If you can't spot the woman, you're hardly likely to see what type of
>>> phone she is carrying.
>>
>> But your iPhone can,
>
> So now it's _two_ iPhones?
>
> Do they have to be iPhones?

No. Androids also can have "Find my phone" apps.

--
Bertel, Denmark

[Sam Plusnet]

A most euphonious comment.

--
Sam Plusnet

[J. J. Lodder]

You don't have one?

> Do they have to be iPhones? Why?

Why would I want to know?

Jan

[Adam Funk]

On 2024-01-12, Jerry Friedman wrote:

> On Friday, January 12, 2024 at 12:16:45 AM UTC-7, Madhu wrote:
>> * Hibou <unqn8q$3cf4h$1...@dont-email.me> :
>> Wrote on Fri, 12 Jan 2024 06:46:49 +0000:
>>
>> > Le 11/01/2024 ? 19:37, Jan K. a ?crit :
>> >>
>> >> It's my turn to prepare the family printable calendar which has birthdays
>> >> and anniversaries for everyone going back a generation or two where the
>> >> newest are confused as they don't even know some of the family members who
>> >> died before they were born.
>> >> What abbreviation is respectful for the deceased?
>> >> I was thinking "RIP" but maybe there's a better word than "deceased"
>> >> (which sounds too nasty).
>> >> Is there an abbreviation that doesn't sound so bad?
>> >
>> > I'd go with "Name (b. 1950, d. 2015)" - and perhaps distinguish
>> > no-longer-extant members typographically - in italics, or grey not
>> > black, or black not a colour....
>> > If your family is Christian, you could use a cross.
>>
>> Unicode has bunch of crosses ✝ (latin cross) there isn't any
>> typographical representation of "memento mori" as there is for the
>> hebrew or yiddish (A""H) (olav hashalom,alevasholem).
>
> Or z"l (zikhrono/zikhrona li-vrakhah, [may] his/her memory [be[ for a
> blessing), which I've seen more often.

I was going to ask why the "double apostrophe" but I googled z"l and I
see that it looks like what I assume is the Hebrew abbreviation
symbol.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorifics_for_the_dead_in_Judaism>



> But "memento mori" means something else--it's a reminder that you
> will die.
>
>> for those who insist on being absolutely non-religious there is the 💀
>> (SKULL) codepoint.
>
> Learn something every day.

I recently discovered 🤘 (metal horns, U+1F918).


--
Men, there is no sacrifice greater than someone else's.
---Skipper

[Adam Funk]

On 2024-01-12, Peter Moylan wrote:

> On 13/01/24 10:11, Peter Moylan wrote:
>> On 13/01/24 04:37, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:
>>> Adam Funk wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't think I've ever seen "gammé(e)" except in that term ---
>>>> does it mean (as I suspect) "fitted with (Greek) gammas"?
>>>
>>> Wikipedia on "swastika": as equivalent to the French term croix
>>> gammée – a cross with arms shaped like the Greek letter gamma (Γ)
>>
>> But there are two kinds of swastika. (They spin in different
>> directions when the wind blows on them.) Is there a name for the one
>> made with backwards gamma?

Wikipedia sez:

The concept of a "reversed" swastika was probably first made among
European scholars by Eugène Burnouf in 1852, and taken up by
Schliemann in Ilios (1880), based on a letter from Max Müller that
quotes Burnouf. The term sauwastika is used in the sense of
'backwards swastika' by Eugène Goblet d'Alviella (1894): "In India
it [the gammadion] bears the name of swastika, when its arms are
bent towards the right, and sauwastika when they are turned in the
other direction."[48]

but I strongly suspect that the quotation is a translation from
French.

> Sorry, that should have been gammata. I should have listened to my
> instincts rather than let Google Translate misle me.

I don't think you need to feel any stigmata about it.


--
Consistently separating words by spaces became a general custom about
the tenth century A. D., and lasted until about 1957, when FORTRAN
abandoned the practice. ---Sun FORTRAN Reference Manual

[Madhu]

* Adam Funk <c8dn7kx5bu.ln2 @news.ducksburg.com> :
Wrote on Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:05:16 +0000:

> On 2024-01-12, Jerry Friedman wrote:

jftr this article
<1b622f6f-afc3-449f-8c69-24e8673151f9n @googlegroups.com>

is missing in e-s.org.