Talk:Abseiling

Abseiling was nominated as a Sports and recreation good article, but it did not meet the good article criteria at the time (April 22, 2018). There are suggestions on the review page for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated.

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On 29 July 2025, it was proposed that this article be moved to Rappelling. The result of the discussion was not moved.

Requested move 29 July 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 22:41, 10 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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Abseiling → RappellingRappelling – Ngram viewer shows that Rappel is more commonplace than "abseil" (as well as rappel down vs abseil down). The page itself says this. Helloisgone (talk) 02:42, 29 July 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 06:34, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• See the prior discussions at Talk:Abseiling/Archive 1#Move, Talk:Abseiling/Archive 1#Move II and Talk:Abseiling/Archive 1#Rapelling vs Abseiling. There is a WP:ENGVAR aspect to this. See also the paragraph in the article that says "In the United States, the term "rappelling" is used. In the United Kingdom, both terms are understood, but "abseiling" is more common. In Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the two terms are used interchangeably. Globally, the term "rappelling" appears in books written in English more often than "abseiling". Several of those statements cite Google Ngrams as a source. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 03:41, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Support, WP:COMMONNAME, ngrams here gives rappelling over a 20x lead Kowal2701 (talk) 11:57, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's a typo in that Ngram search – it has a capital 'A' in "Abseiling" (but lowercase 'r' in "rappelling") and is a case-sensitive search. The difference is not that extreme. See here. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 15:45, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And the preference is flipped in the British corpus. See here. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 00:05, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose, per the past discussions on this topic at Talk:Abseiling/Archive 1#Move, Talk:Abseiling/Archive 1#Move II and Talk:Abseiling/Archive 1#Rapelling vs Abseiling, and BarrelProof's points above. Rapelling is really an American term. Aszx5000 (talk) 17:16, 29 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose. This name is not globally known compared to the current title. desmay (talk) 18:05, 1 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose per MOS:RETAIN given the history, abseiling is more common outside the US, and it's not totally unknown in the US. Skynxnex (talk) 19:20, 3 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Note: WikiProject Climbing, WikiProject Mountains, and WikiProject Caves have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 06:33, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose: Well, one is French, the other is German. Both are used. There probably is a "real English" term, "roped down" or similar, which might well be used in a non-specialist context, but really is not satisfactory. The problem with the proposed change is that it invites the next obvious proposed change, back again, for which the argument would be almost identical. So better to be conservative (with a small 'c'). Imaginatorium (talk) 06:51, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose per MOS:RETAIN. Both words seem to have first appeared in English print in Alpine Club Journals in the 1900s, so there is not much difference there, and both words are understood by the two main varieties of English speakers. Langcliffe (talk) 07:16, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose per MOS:RETAIN and MOS:ENGVAR. This is en Wikipedia, not us-en Wikipedia. YorkshireExpat (talk) 08:19, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose. Abseiling is certainly its common name in the UK, so WP:RETAIN. -- Necrothesp (talk) 10:37, 7 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.