New Post
Search
Help[Facts] Eleanor: an even worse Wikipedia error
I just posted the following three paragraphs to the "talk" page about the entry for the name Eleanor on Wikipedia:
I am removing the following paragraph:
In the language of the Yoruba peoples of West Africa, a similar name has existed for centuries, recently rising to prominence as a result of its similarity to the Western name Eleanor. Eyla-Nor, literally translated means “nosey” or “overly inquisitive”, typically used as a moniker for someone who is excessively concerned about the affairs of others. The domestic mouse, is known by the Yoruba as Eyla-Nor Rob, (Pronounced Eleanor Robb) literally meaning the inquisitive little rat, to differentiate this creature from its larger rodent cousin.
The above is highly unlikely. Eyla-Nor doesn't look like a Yoruba word to me. The online English-Yoruba dictionary I found (http://www.yorubadictionary.com/englishyoruba.htm) gives the Yoruba words for "mouse" as èkúté and eliri, and the Yoruba word for "rat" as èkútéöfonlárìnká . "Nosey" is given as ÿôwòti imú bö çjôçlêjô, and "inquistive" as ti ìwáàdí tìtôsë. It seems highly unlikely to me therefore that Eyla-Nor Rob could possibly mean "inquistive little rat" in Yoruba. This paragraph is almost certainly a cruel joke written to tweak some real person named Eleanor Robb, and I am amazed that it has been in this Wikipedai article for almost ten months without anyone else objecting to it.
I'm really not just "amazed" about this; I'm disgusted, and I think that Eleanor Robb, whoever she is, should sue! And this example points out how really dangerous Wikipedia can be, due to all of the sites which reprint their information for commercial purposes. That outrageous paragraph about Eleanor can be now found at sites called
"All Experts":
http://en.allexperts.com/e/e/el/eleanor.htm
"Search.com":
http://www.search.com/reference/Eleanor
"Reference.com":
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Eleanor
"Blinkbits.com":
http://www.blinkbits.com/en_wikifeeds/Eleanor
"Opentopia":
http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Eleanor
"Arikah.com":
http://www.arikah.com/encyclopedia/Eleanor
and even (who on earth knows why) "Fascism.com":
http://www.fascism.com/wiki/?title=Eleanor
Who knows how soon the search robots of the above sites will correct the misinformation. Any more examples like this and I'll start to regret the Internet had never been invented! :)
I am removing the following paragraph:
In the language of the Yoruba peoples of West Africa, a similar name has existed for centuries, recently rising to prominence as a result of its similarity to the Western name Eleanor. Eyla-Nor, literally translated means “nosey” or “overly inquisitive”, typically used as a moniker for someone who is excessively concerned about the affairs of others. The domestic mouse, is known by the Yoruba as Eyla-Nor Rob, (Pronounced Eleanor Robb) literally meaning the inquisitive little rat, to differentiate this creature from its larger rodent cousin.
The above is highly unlikely. Eyla-Nor doesn't look like a Yoruba word to me. The online English-Yoruba dictionary I found (http://www.yorubadictionary.com/englishyoruba.htm) gives the Yoruba words for "mouse" as èkúté and eliri, and the Yoruba word for "rat" as èkútéöfonlárìnká . "Nosey" is given as ÿôwòti imú bö çjôçlêjô, and "inquistive" as ti ìwáàdí tìtôsë. It seems highly unlikely to me therefore that Eyla-Nor Rob could possibly mean "inquistive little rat" in Yoruba. This paragraph is almost certainly a cruel joke written to tweak some real person named Eleanor Robb, and I am amazed that it has been in this Wikipedai article for almost ten months without anyone else objecting to it.
I'm really not just "amazed" about this; I'm disgusted, and I think that Eleanor Robb, whoever she is, should sue! And this example points out how really dangerous Wikipedia can be, due to all of the sites which reprint their information for commercial purposes. That outrageous paragraph about Eleanor can be now found at sites called
"All Experts":
http://en.allexperts.com/e/e/el/eleanor.htm
"Search.com":
http://www.search.com/reference/Eleanor
"Reference.com":
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Eleanor
"Blinkbits.com":
http://www.blinkbits.com/en_wikifeeds/Eleanor
"Opentopia":
http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Eleanor
"Arikah.com":
http://www.arikah.com/encyclopedia/Eleanor
and even (who on earth knows why) "Fascism.com":
http://www.fascism.com/wiki/?title=Eleanor
Who knows how soon the search robots of the above sites will correct the misinformation. Any more examples like this and I'll start to regret the Internet had never been invented! :)
This message was edited 2/5/2007, 12:29 PM
1