Talk:Mawworm

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Mawworm

the proper entry is mawworm (w/out the UC M). --Jerome Potts 04:21, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, delete or (second best) rfv. Most common nouns can be attested with an initial capital because it was pretty standard to do so at one point. If there is eventually no consensus to delete, it should be rfv'd to show that the capitalization is justified. Mglovesfun (talk) 10:02, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Strange - the OED lists it as capitalized, and most of the citations given are also capitalized (some with hyphens). SemperBlotto 10:06, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Keep. The proper name Mawworm is a character in the play The Hypocrite by Isaac Bickerstaff (aka Jonathon Swift) and is presumably the reason for the capitalisation for the meaning "hypocrite". The intestinal parasite mawworm is more usually spelled maw worm or at least maw-worm so imho mawworm should be listed as an alternative spelling of maw worm (and of Mawworm as meaning #2), not the other way around. SpinningSpark 14:40, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

So how does that justify a keep? There are lots of fictional characters we don't have entries for. Mglovesfun (talk) 11:21, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't know - I don't really understand the rules of Wiktionary. It does however justify the capitalisation, so if kept, should be capitalised (for the hypocrite meaning). SpinningSpark 19:34, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Although this article from Punch attests the word in that use (and mawwormism too). SpinningSpark 19:47, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

It does justify it (in the sense of "hypocrite"), exactly the same as with Don Juan, Casanova or other characters-turned-nouns. Ƿidsiþ 13:06, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

kept, no consensus -- Liliana • 12:45, 11 October 2011 (UTC)