Men's Shirts Button on the Right. Why Do Women's Button on the Left?
smithsonianmag.com
smithsonianmag.com
"Eats shoots and leaves", haha.
FWIW, as an American living in Europe, I do agree that the US is far more homogenous.
Same how for us America is mostly New York, Los Angeles, Texas, etc
My own experience with Americans is that Europe could be any number of definitions. I'd be wary of assuming your own is generally accepted.
> think a more colloquial/informal/layperson definition would include them.
With respect, I think the opposite is true. I think you might just have discovered a personal blindspot.
Or maybe he's reading that article and you aren't? The only definitions in that article that don't include Spain and Portugal in Western Europe are the ones in which Eastern Europe and Western Europe fail to cover all of Europe.
And those tend to include Turkey in Europe, which is bizarre.
Which is all of them in common use?
I'm honestly not sure if you read the article.
Do you have the impression that the terms Western and Eastern Europe cover the entire continent? That is a concept divorced from reality.
Edit: Just read your other comment here. Yes, your idea of Eastern and Western Europe is completely divorced from common usage.
Well, no, none of those are in common use.
In common usage, Western Europe might be countries that are culturally Western (and in Europe), or countries that are clients of the United States (and in Europe), but neither of those would exclude Spain or Portugal. There's not much difference between the two ideas either.
> There’s also a risk that grain yields will be curbed even more across western Europe, particularly in France, Spain and Portugal, according to Paris-based analyst Agritel.
( https://time.com/6187780/summer-heat-wave-europe-2022/ )
Or even more explicitly:
> Meanwhile, xenophobia in Spain is comparatively low compared to the rest of western Europe.
( https://time.com/4904858/jihadism-in-spain-history/ )
Here's the Washington Post:
> A historic and deadly heat wave has been scorching western Europe, killing hundreds in Spain and Portugal.
( https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/1... )
This isn't exactly an obscure question. I'm not sure where you got the idea that Spain might not be part of Western Europe, but it wasn't by contact with reality.
> This isn't exactly an obscure question. I'm not sure where you got the idea that Spain might not be part of Western Europe, but it wasn't by contact with reality.
I take it you did ask your social circle and didn't get the response you wanted, as you're right that this isn't an obscure question.
> What would you say is included in "Western Europe"?
> Germany
> Anything else?
> Spain, why?
You really don't seem to have any idea how people use this term, what might be evidence of common usage, or how newspapers work. Documenting that major media outlets refer to Spain as part of Western Europe is already proof that common usage considers Spain part of Western Europe, unless you have specific reasons to discount those outlets (such as "that's The New Yorker"). Article authors can't just use whatever terminology pops into their head; this is why style guides exist. One example from the Washington Post means hundreds of examples from the Washington Post.
Here's what Spain thinks of itself: ( https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Occidental )
> en verde en general según el concepto tradicional usado en geopolítica [in [non-dark] green generally following the traditional concept used in geopolitics]
It shouldn't be a vertical line at all; I assume the typical division between Eastern and Western Europe would be Catholicism vs Eastern Orthodoxy.
They're Eastern Europe and Western Europe because Eastern Europe lies to the east of Western Europe, not because every part of Eastern Europe lies to the east of every part of Western Europe.
Continental is British English, and in typical standard, it’s ambiguous [1].
I’m arguing that when Americans say European in a cultural context (note: not geographic, geopolitical or historical), we more often than not borrow that British sense. (Consider, for example, the “continental” breakfast [2].)
[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/conti... especially, but not exclusively, Western Europe
[2] https://www.thekitchn.com/what-is-a-continental-breakfast-an...
Quoting their comment: "(the tab is on the right, the receptacle for the tab is on the left)" [in the US].
"Tab" (or "pull tab") is definitely the bit that goes up and down, and it's typically on the right in UK/Europe, but on the left in the US.
See for example https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a5/da/f8/a5daf8ec0566dac1826b...
I'd be curious to know what made you assume receptacle would be the moving part if you don't mind saying? Even though it's not a term I've heard used for zippers before, the second I read it I thought "that's a good clear term that's obviously for the bit that receives the moving tab".
The zippers that I'm familiar with don't have bottom stops or retainer boxes. I'm looking at a YKK zipper on my jacket right now; there are two pull tabs, one above the other. This allows you to have the top zipped while the bottom is unzipped.
(I should note that my all-American L. L. Bean jacket has the tabs on the right, and I'm inclined to say that this is true generally of American zippers. But I only have the one zipper on hand. This is another reason why indicating that having the receptacle on the left is backwards from normal might tend to indicate that the receptacle is the moving part.)
Because it's obvious that the "receptacle" must necessarily refer to the moving part of the zipper (as described above), I assumed that "tab" referred to the bottom of the other side of the zipper, basically just the part of the zipper where the teeth end and the whole thing comes to a stop. I guess in your image this is the "insertion pin". I still feel justified in assuming that the "receptacle" is the part that receives the "insertion pin".