"adjective" in the gismu list

["Dylan P. Thurston" <dpt@math.harvard.edu>]

I think we should all perhaps start thinking of the list more along
the lines of a newsgroup: not something we necessarily have to follow
every thread in.  There are a lot of mailings, most of which take a
good deal of thought, and it's just not reasonable for anyone
(especially not lojbab) to follow all of them.  (Well, depending how
much time; for instance, procrastinating studying for finals gave me
an awful lot of spare time :-).

So some of my responses will be delayed soon (especially since I'm
leaving to go canoeing in Canada tomorrow and need to pack).  But this
caught my eye:

mi cusku di'e
 > > > <x1 is the Earth/the home planet of race x2; (adjective:)  x1 is
 > > > <terrestrial/earthbound
....
 > >I don't understand the "adjective" uses here (and in other places).
 > >What's wrong with saying {pele terdi} for "terrestial"?  Why overload
 > >{terdi}?

la lojbab cusku di'e
 > Because this is a Lojban-English dictionary listing.  What does "terdi
 > bolci" mean?  "terrestrial sphere".  To translate the Lojban, you need
 > the adjectival English meaning.  Then in turn, the English order entry
 > for terresrial will also list "terdi".  Sure "pe le terdi" might also
 > work, but no one will look up "pe le terdi" in a dictionary - they will
 > look up terdi by itself.

But would you accept {le remna poi ke'a terdi} for "the terrestial
(i.e., earthbound) human"?  That's what would bother me.  I'd rather
see the note changed from (adjective) to (as used in tanru), or some
such, if this usage isn't allowed.

 > lojbab

--Dylan