"Wins" and "victories"

Just to play devil's advocate, what about "Secreteriat ran record splits in the win."? It sounds the same to me, but those who have told me that win is not a noun have also often said that the exception is in horse racing.

 

... and because of common usage. Whom is becoming less common, and that seem more important in terms of being accurate in a grammatical sense. And really, what is hurt other than tradition by using win as a noun. Language is living and not written in stone.

 

"Language is living and not written in stone."

A perfect summation. Well played, Gold.

 

The most important thing is clarity. No one's going to be confused by the use of Win as a noun. It's not a V-L record, so you might as well use Win.

 

I've worked with an SE who would edit out "win over", as it sounded like a romantic ploy. I.E.: I won over my wife.

Wait a tick ... that is MY rule!

rb

 

I worked for one who edited out "come from behind" because it sounded like a romantic ploy.

 

I edit that one out now.
If a phrase sends Beavis or Butthead into my brain, I take it out ...
He said "come from behind." hewhewwhewsnickersnicker

 

U R right but IMHO we have to keep fighting battles to protect the language otherwise U might start to see this kind of writing as OK and OMG that would suck

 

good one. I get crazy when I see principal and principle used incorrectly... that is a case of protecting the language. Another one is when people use possessives incorrectly - it should be Harris's automobile. But using win as a noun is used by almost everybody who isn't an old-line editor.

 

I always use victory, unless I'm quoting a guy who uses win or wins.

But I've had victory changed to win several times, presumably when my editors are trying to trim widows to make a story fit. I cringe for a moment, and then I just feel thankful that they were taking the trouble to make the story fit instead of just hacking it willy-nilly.

Sheesh, I just used up my 2,000th post on this. I guess that would pretty much sum up my tenure on this board. Couldn't quite bring myself to start a thread about post No. 2,000 because, well, who cares?

 

i don't see anything wrong with keeping the tradition going, but i've given up trying to foist it upon others. i believe win is a verb and victory is a noun. i believe host is a noun, not a verb. i believe impact is a noun, not a verb. i believe you say "before", not "prior to".

kenn, i hope you're not reading this, but i've even given up on changing win to victory. the others, i still do. i think win-victory is a lost cause. It was Oswalt's 13th win of the season. He was able to victorize by allowing three hits and no walks.