Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2019 12:03:20 -0300
From: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com>
To: brian.williams@mayalane.com, pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: The word "virgin" used incorrectly and probably better off
 replaced
Message-ID: <20191107150320.GA8132@alvherre.pgsql>
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On 2019-Nov-07, PG Doc comments form wrote:

> Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/12/manage-ag-templatedbs.html
> Description:
> 
> The use of the word virgin as an adjective is incorrect here and also an
> anachronism. It is better off replaced with the word pristine - quotes
> unnecessary. Note the word virgin appears in another page of the
> documentation (a search will find it).

Just because a word has sexual connotations does not imply that it
doesn't have non-sexual meanings.

Merriam-Webster lists https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/virgin

2: FRESH, UNSPOILED
specifically : not altered by human activity

6: free of impurity or stain : UNSULLIED

which seems to apply well to all cases at hand.  Also:
  First Known Use of virgin
  Noun: 13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2a
  Adjective: 14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 6

  History and Etymology for virgin
  Noun: Middle English, from Anglo-French virgine, from Latin virgin-, virgo young woman, virgin


That said, in two of the three phrases where the word appears, the quoted
adjective adds no value.  We could remove the quoted word entirely in
all three places and nothing would be lost.  But if we do that, then the
third occurrence of the word would become inintelligible:

  "This is particularly handy when restoring a pg_dump dump: the dump
  script should be restored in a virgin database to ensure that one
  recreates the correct contents of the dumped database, without
  conflicting with objects that might have been added to template1 later
  on."

because we have not explained what a "virgin database" is.  We could say
"empty", which seems better suited than both "virgin" and "pristine"
anyway.

-- 
Álvaro Herrera                https://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services