[PATCH 1/7] winemenubuilder: Change blacklist to a more neutral word

[Zebediah Figura]

On 6/16/20 5:38 PM, Jeff Smith wrote:
> TLDR: "denylist" as a noun seems fine, but verbed
> ("denylisted") is still a bit unusual.  Something like "denied"
> or "in_denylist" might work.
> 
> Apologies in advance for going language-geek on this...
> 
> Some of this comes down to how compound words are built.
> The original word was (adjective + noun) to make a compound
> noun.  Of course, it is also commonly used as a verb.
> 
> Compounding "x" with "list" where "x" is a _verb_ has the sense
> of "list of things to x".  I can't think of a clean rule to morph a
> verb from this.  You could just use the appropriate tense of the
> root verb or use multiple words.
> 
> Still not sure why "list" needs to be in it, since I don't think we
> actually care about the structure.  As for having the sense of a
> predetermined list, "ban" seems like a good choice (many libraries
> have a _banned_ book list).  "Deny" or "reject" may imply a more
> subtle or complex decision process (_denied_ credit, _rejection_
> letter from a job or a school).
> 
> I would love to hear others' thoughts.  I know a lot of my rambling
> is bound to be very subjective.

While English is relatively amenable to producing new endocentric
compounds, they need a space. (In other words, most people and even
linguists won't think of them as compounds, but as noun phrases.) In
more concrete terms, "denylist" just feels wrong; "deny list" is better.

I don't think English is very amenable to producing new verb-noun
compounds. Anything of that form is going to come off as awkward.

I don't think any substitute will be as idiomatic as
"blacklist"/"whitelist" regardless of construction.