The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Wikipedia is not a dictionary. The definition of country mile already exists on Wiktionary. Speculation on the etymology is unsourced, but I will gladly make this content available to anyone who would like to transwiki it. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 15:21, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Country mile[edit]

Country mile (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)

Delete: WP is not a dictionary. There's nothing particularly notable about the term "country mile", and there's nothing particularly notable about the concept the word refers to. The article currently waffles on about unverifiable possible original research about the term's origin and is not becoming of an encyclopedia. —Felix the Cassowary 21:47, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete, neologism. Urbandictionary is over there.... — FIRE!^{in a crowded theatre...} 01:49, 6 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment neologism does not refer to words that are included in dictionaries. --Dhartung | Talk 06:21, 6 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Sorry about that...! I searched Collins and didn't find anything, and since I've never heard the term, decided it was something made up. Maybe it's more common in the US than on this side of the pond? Anyway, it's still just a dictionary definition, so my delete vote stands. — FIRE!^{in a crowded theatre...} 10:39, 6 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete. This is already in Wiktionary.[1] Although a fairly common informal phrase, it's not particularly notable. --Dhartung | Talk 06:21, 6 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Since this article is about the etymology of the phrase, the information it contains should be in wiktionary. Waqqasd (talk) 13:56, 6 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Concur with Waqqasd. Risker (talk) 00:59, 10 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment Note that the confirmable aspects of this article (i.e. the definition of it being a long way) is already in Wiktionary. Before you copy the etymologies or the claim that it's "greater than a mile", you should actually check to make sure the definitions are anything more than an editor bullshitting along to make the article longer than half a sentence. As it stands I doubt anything in the Wikipedia article not in the Wiktionary article is worth any more than the photons it's displayed with. —Felix the Cassowary 03:58, 11 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep Does no harm, and is one of the obscure, but interesting pages that ALoan was famous for. It will come in useful one day. Giano (talk) 16:13, 11 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"waffles on about unverifiable possible original research"? "not becoming"? "bullshitting"? Sp this is what passes for civilised debate on Wikipedia, hmm?

Some entirely unoriginal research at Google provides evidence for most of this:

• Now You Know Almost Everything (2005), p.74

"A country mile is an exaggeration of [a statute mile]. Rural roads in Britain twist and turn through the countryside...the real distance travelled on a winding road will be considerably greater than "as the crow flies"..."

• Picturesque Expressions: A Thematic Dictionary (1985), p.281

"Country mile has come to mean a greater distance than a regular mile, because distances seem greater when one is out in the open spaces of the country..."

plus this website:

"I assume walking a mile on country terrain takes longer than in urban terrain...."

"I can imagine another possible origin: the supposed habit of country people of giving optimistically imprecise directions. "

Whether this is notable or not, or should be "transwiki"ed, is another matter. Is there anything notable about the New York minute, or Internet time? -- Testing times (talk) 23:48, 11 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I said "you should check to make sure" it's anything more than what it looks like to me. It is not my fault if someone writes an unnecessary article that looks bad. I will tell you why it looks bad and why it's unnecessary, and I won't apologise for it. I'm not criticising whoever wrote it (I don't even know who did!).

In any case, I advise you to continue looking; the sources you provide do not look particularly good. Notice how the first source you provide leads with the expression "to miss by a country mile"—certainly in my experience, no-one misses anything by more than a mile when this expression is used; instead, they might've thrown something into a bin in the corner of a room, and it landed in the middle of the wall, or they might not even have come close to getting a behind in football, let alone a goal. The definitions included in respectable dictionaries—which do not provide etymologies—are consistently that it is simply a long distance, without anything more, clearly indicating that "long" is to be interpreted by context.

But before you do, notice that sources for definitions of words are in fact not books defining them, but examples of their use. You would need to show me that either no other usages of the word existed, or that any other uses were widely regarded as mistakes. Look at any respectable dictionary; they provide examples of words, not references to popular texts.

—Felix the Cassowary 06:10, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete per WP:DICT. Also there are no references or sources cited. Snthdiueoa (talk) 13:19, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.