beneath or below?

[TdC]

As you know, I'm half dutch, the other half being kilted barbarian. Now, a coworker has asked me a question regarding "proper" use of certain english words, and in this case I don't know because imo it's more of a context thing defining what the word means rather than a fixed meaning.

Anyway, what do you regard as "proper" and what do you think it means:

the number of directories below this one

or

the number of directories beneath this one

do tell!

 

[Will]

I'd say underneath. I'm Scots though.

 

[caLLous]

In that context I would use 'under'.

Using beneath in that example is clearly not right, I just haven't really woken up yet to work out why.

 

[TdC]

under or underneath are also allowed! I'm not wanting street language, I want the Queen's English

 

[xane]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/albanian/specials/1455_questions/page9.shtml

 

[caLLous]

"Or, 'officials said there was nothing under President Bush's jacket'. "

Heh, nice example.

 

[babs]

I'd go with 'The number of child directories' or something along those lines.

 

[throdgrain]

Below, I reckon.

 

[Earl]

Turn it upside down and use above.

 

[Whipped]

Neither of those terms are right as having any number of directories below or beneath another would be an example of a heirechy(sp?).

As you work for a business, you should know that all heirechies in business are replaced in favour of the, "Stick every file I've ever worked on, on my Desktop" method, thus rendering your question inert and silly

Hope this helps.

 

[xane]

Actually I agree with Whipped, a better and more technical term would be something like "the number of sub-directories contained in this one".

 

[TdC]

hehe you're both quite right

luckilly my servers actually have directories some of them are actually on different filesystems! ooh!

 

[Tom]

Below is the correct word to use - beneath is more for use when discussing rank or hierarchy.

I wouldn't use under as it could imply behind - ie 3 dimensions.

 

[Chameleon]

Beneath

 

[Frizz]

Lower down. :>

 

[TdC]

hehe we've settled on "under" cheers for your efforts!

 

[Paradroid]

What was the context anyway, computer directories? Wouldn't "within" be better?

 

[TdC]

yes, we were discussing a unixey directory path like

/foo/bar/free/beer

and how to describe something like

/foo/bar/free/beer/*/example