Re: OT: coins and currency (was: [Theory] Types of numerals)

Quoting Tristan McLeay <conlang@...>:

> Mark J. Reed wrote:
> > On 1/7/06, Tim May <butsuri@...> wrote:
> >
> >>I'm not sure what distinction you're making between "rectangular" and
> >>"oblong"; the two words are effectively synonymous to me.
> >
> >
> > Rectangular objects have corners; oblong ones don't.   The
> > archetypical oblong shape is a circle cut in half and extended via
> > straight lines between the previously-connected endpoints of the
> > semicircles; the result is not an ellipse, but a different form of
> > "stretched circle".
>
> I would've called that an oval, even if it isn't proper.
>
> The "proper" definitions I learnt for rectangle vs oblong is that a
> rectangle is a four-sided shape with the angles being 90 degrees,
> whereas an oblong is a rectangle where two sides are of different
> lengths to two others. (A square is a rectangle with all sides equal.)
> No-one uses these definitions normally, when a rectangle is an oblong
> and no-one talks of oblongs.
The original meaning is apparently "comparatively long along one axis", which is
close enough to how I'd use it. The archetypical oblong shapes would be ovals
and whatever the 3D shape you get if you rotate an oval around its longest axis
is called.

                                             Andreas