Detensioner - tensioner: Get over it

["Mike Nakamura" <mike_nakamura@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just for laughs, I looked up tensioner and detensioner in the Random House
Webster's College Dictionary ((C) 2000).

Neither is listed, so I checked Dictionary.com. No results there.

Just to be sure I'm offering good information, I looked up "word."

From Dictionary.com, referencing The American HeritageR Dictionary of the
English Language, Fourth Edition

Word
"n., A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or
printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a
single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes."

Therefore, the dictionary definition does not specify that "a sound or
combination of sounds... ...that symbolizes and communicates a meaning..."
needs to be in the dictionary for it to meet the definition of being a word.


Thus, if the combination of letters written as "detensioner" as applied to a
device for maintaining or adjusting belt tension on ALFA V-6 engines conveys
an understood meaning, it can be considered a word.

That does not mean it is an official American English word.

The ALFA oil fed device did indeed provide tension to the belt and it did
reduce tension in the belt as temperature increased.

I conclude by suggesting that "detensioner" and "tensioner" meet the
definition of a word, however neither are part of American English as it
stands today.

Mike Nakamura
Fall City WA USA
mike_nakamura@domain.elided
91 Spider Veloce
94 164LS
02 Dakota
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