President-elect Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Friday to complain that the American flag will be flown at half-staff for his inauguration due to the period of mourning for the recently deceased former President Jimmy Carter.

  • gramie@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    And “half-mast” is a term only used on ships (that is, things that have masts). On land, where we have flagstaffs (a.k.a. flagpoles), the correct term is “half-staff”.

    • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      In America.

      Edit: it looks like it’s time to school some Americans on English, a particularly easy task.

      Let’s start with the definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, descendant of arguably the definitive American dictionary, certainly one of the first, created by Noah Webster.

      1. A slender vertical or nearly vertical structure (such as an upright post in various cranes).

      Now, from the American Heritage dictionary.

      1. A vertical pole.

      Going farther field, from the Cambridge dictionary.

      A pole that holds a flag.

      Note that both the Merriam-Webster and Cambridge dictionaries list half-mast as related phrases.

      • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        Using a dictionary to prove two words are similar is not relevant here. The American terminology is half-staff not half-mast.

        If you had done even some basic research on American flag ceremony and the terminology we use, you wouldn’t be so confidently incorrect on the subject.