Talk:Ox (disambiguation)

Slang -- for many many years I have known boxcutters referred to as an "ox". I think a mention of this should be added to the disambiguation page.

Ox wiki article (Narrow sense of the word), Ox (disambiguation) (Loose sense of the word)

The ox article doesn't explain that an ox is any bovine, it uses the word ox only in narrow sense a castrated domesticated bovine used as a working animal.

If you actually "hate" that I listed ox to mean any bovine mammal on this disambiguation page, then you might be pedantic or you might be inclined to view a certain word only in one narrow meaning even if that word has other meanings.

So if man (disambiguation) has listed "man, another term for a human" which it is, does that mean that I should delete that definition because it offends politically correct keyboard warriors? Does that mean I should delete "man" on man (disambiguation) because somebody is offended by that and finds that its sexist that man is another term for human. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gyrkin (talk • contribs) 09:18, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Since bovine mentions "ox" only once, and that about the etymology, it doesn't belong here. Any discussion about which animals can be called an ox belongs in the main article, not here. Also, references are not allowed on disambiguation pages. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:37, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Looking around some more, it seems to me that an ox is a bovine used as a draft animal, hence a subset of the latter and therefore not synonymous with it. So it shouldn't be listed here. At best, it could go in the bovine article, possibly in the See also section. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:06, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Hello @Gyrkin: You messaged me on my talk page but I see that Clarityfiend has already responded to you here. They have already said more or less what I would have said. I see that you're trying to capture as broad a sense of the name as possible. That's good, but bear in mind that common names of animals don't always overlap neatly with zoological taxa, so there will often be some disagreement about whether that's appropriate. In this specific case, the disambiguation page was probably the wrong place to put such a clarification on the meaning of the word, vs in the article Ox, e.g. as a hatnote. I looked into the history of the Ox article and as it turns out, it was split off from the article Cattle back in 2007, after a discussion on whether a separate article would be appropriate.

Also, please don't assume that other editors "hate" or are being pedantic, or claim that they haven't bothered to read the article in question, as you did in one of your edit summaries. I know that it can be frustrating to have your edits reverted, but that's a normal part of the WP:BRD cycle, and it's good that you've taken this to the talk page so that we can discuss it properly. Please also remember to sign your talk page posts with four tildes: ~~~~, which will automatically substitute your signature. Thanks, Kbseah (talk) 21:03, 16 October 2017 (UTC)