Thomas Alexander wrote:
[snip]
> In Esperanto, I use the same word for "bracket" as for
> "staple". A few years ago, I was involved in a three-
> way discussion by e-mail about the preparation of song
> booklets. Each person was using a different word for
> staple. I recall checking the words in PIV and in
> various national languages and coming to the
> conclusion that there was no one clear "winner" in
> this case and that the best thing I could do was to
> learn to recognize all three. It doesn't surprise me
> that you're finding something similar for "square
> bracket."
>
> I wonder, however, whether the regula de tres is even
> applicable here. Doesn't the rule apply to individual
> words and not to whole expressions? The only single-
> word expression in your list is "crochet" (small hook,
> right?), which does exist in several languages, but
> not with this as a common meaning. (Hey look, it's
> even in the IED with the meaning of using a hook to
> make blankets and doilies.) I see no reason not to
> simply invent a descriptive expression based on words
> already in the IED such as parentheses, quadrate,
> recte, and angular. Each of your expressions strike
> me as suficiently clear, and equally correct. One
> could argue that "angular" has more prime vista power
> than "quadrate" or "recte", but when writing for
> people who actually *understand* Interlingua well
> enough to care, I suspect that this difference is
> tiny.
>
[snip]
In some programming languages there are four types of parentheses/brackets:
(...) parentheses/round brackets
[...] brackets/square brackets
{...} braces/curly brackets
<...> angle brackets
In such cases, I'd call <...> "parentheses angular".
