Talk:Dyke

message: I've remade the 'Dyke' and 'Dike' pages back into a single page (instead of two disambig pages with bad links) is that the intention of disambig pages is to point people to the correct page. Part of this, and especially in this case, is that where there are multiple options on spelling for the same word then it is best practice to bring them together rather than requiring users to click between "see also" links or duplicating the links on each page which will, over time, separate. In this case there were even cases of the same target page having different links from each page rather than the same one! --Vamp:Willow 08:40, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Consolidation

message: I stumbled on the anon vandalism that showed up today (after VampWillow's merge work), and used it as an opportunity to expand the entry for dyke (lesbian) a bit. I have only a weak basis for the very last assertion (Polish origin possbility), but since it refers to a real group of women soldiers from WWII, and is a nearly identical word, it's worth a footnote, I feel. The Celtic origin is widely refered to, so it deserves to go first, possibly with stronger language than I've used to imply that it's more widely regarded. -Harmil 15:23, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Interesting stuff there about a possible Polish connection! --Vamp:Willow 18:56, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah, Wanda Gertz is one interesting lady! I'd love to see a movie based on her efforts during WWII.... -Harmil 19:26, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Today's vandalism 

message: Dike is a usage generally found in the USA. In the UK and the Netherlands the spelling 'Dyke' is almost universal, though Fowler suggest's Dike is preferable I've never encountered outside the USA
::If you are talking about the excavation here, in my experience, the Dutch spelling is dijk (Cassel's Compact Dutch Dictionary). The modern English spelling in England, is dike. An older English spelling, which seems to have developed in the Middle English period and which is retained in several names, is dyke. The earliest example of the use of dyke, noted by OED, comes from 1340. Occasionally, the dyke spelling is used by modern writers. Going back further, the Old English was díc (Pollington, Wordcraft) from which the southern, soft pronunciation of the c gives the modern ditch and the norhtern, hard pronunciation, the dike. For modern use, the OED gives dike with the alternative of dyke. (RJP 20:40, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If it counts for anything, in the area of Lincolnshire I'm familiar with, we'd use 'dyke'.  And we'd mean a ditch, which I'm about to add to the disambiguation categories. --Froggienation (talk) 16:15, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dike 

message: I added a link to the dry stone article. A dry-stane dyke is a wall built of stone without mortar, generally as a field boundary. This is different to the other uses so I figured it could do with a link. JJJJS (talk) 10:14, 22 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dry stone wall 

message: There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Levee which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you.  —RMCD bot 12:59, 3 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Move discussion in progress

message: I put Dyke (slang) as the first entry under "General use" as it is the most common of the five "general uses". This was reverted by Martin of Sheffield with the edit summary "Just not true". I would like to point out that although Dyke (slang) is at the bottom of the "general uses" list, it receives on average 6 times more daily page views than the next most popular article, Dike (geology). Kaldari (talk) 23:46, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: IME the term is virtually never used these days, it is totally unacceptable in conversation or print.  This may be regional, in the UK we have plenty of dykes – both the ditch and the wall – as well as plenty of placenames ending in -dike and -dyke. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 08:26, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text:  I'm afraid that is a provincial point of view. Here in the U.S. almost every major city has an annual dyke march, bars have "dyke nights", there are "dyke zines", "dyke picnics", dykes on bikes, there's a long-running TV show called "Dyke Central", and butch lesbians generally have no qualms about calling themselves dykes. Unlike "faggot", "dyke" has largely lost its pejorative connotations in the United States and is a widely used term in the LGBT community. Regardless, you have not shown that any of the other four "general uses" of dyke are more common. The ditch and wall uses you mention are under the "Structures" section, not the "General use" section. Kaldari (talk) 13:17, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Interesting comment that "provincial"!  Clearly it is regional then, I would expect the same reaction here as if I started calling black people "n***" or gays "q***", namely a smack in the gob.  As for "faggot", that refers to a bundle of sticks or a particularly nice regional variety of sausage best served with peas and onion gravy. :-)  Anyhow I've self reverted, I'm afraid I only looked at the flags across the top of your page, I now see that you're an admin.  Apologies for doubting you.  Martin of Sheffield (talk) 15:41, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text:  I think "regional" would have been a better word than "provincial". I didn't realize "provincial" had such negative connotations until I looked it up. My apologies. Language is hard! Kaldari (talk) 16:19, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Order of general use terms