At 2018-12-11T15:20:45+0100, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> > I only mention this because it's an error that has crept into our
> > documentation before (and which I've fixed).
> >
> > "Cf." means "compare" (Latin: "confere"). People seem to use it as if
> > it were a synonym of "q.v." ("quod vide" -> *"which see"), but it is
> > not.
>
> Ah, this is a Germanism then – I indeed meant `compare'
> (`vergleiche')! We also have `siehe' (q.v.), which can be used
> synonymously in this case, but obviously not in English.To be even more precise, I should note that (in English), "cf." seems to be deployed only when a comparison is undertaken with the reader's attention directed in particular to _differences_ between the present context and the work thus cited. As a somewhat unwelcome example to the U.S. right wing: "Slavery was a “side issue to the Civil War,” said Pat Hardy, a Republican board member, when the board adopted the standards in 2010. “There would be those who would say the reason for the Civil War was over slavery. No. It was over states’ rights.”" (cf. "A declaration of the causes which impel the State of Texas to secede from the Federal Union.", February 2, 1861). [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/150-years-later-schools-are-still-a-battlefield-for-interpreting-civil-war/2015/07/05/e8fbd57e-2001-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html [2] https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/secession/2feb1861.html -- Regards, Branden
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