How big is life?
A loyal reader of this blog (and who would have imagined that such people existed, or would admit to it?) saw in an article about a chess match a reference to “life-size” chess pieces: “I believe the reporter intended to convey that the pieces are as large as humans, but I’m not sure. I’ve seen ‘life-size’ used to describe other inanimate objects, and it always strikes me as odd.”
The term life-size can refer to inanimate objects as well as living beings, even if that does seem a little odd. But in the context here, it’s wrong.
Life-size describes a representation of a being or an object that is the same size as what it represents. A life-size sculpture of Abraham Lincoln would be six and a half feet tall. A life-size sculpture of Alexander Pope would be four and a half feet tall.
A life-size chess piece would typically be about two or three inches tall. The writer was referring to oversize chess pieces or human-size chess pieces.
Comments
It seems weird, though to have a life-size sculpture of a car.
Or a life-size replica of a rock.
At least a life-size sculpture of Prez. Abe is a sculpture of something that HAD a life.
I'd vote for "full-size" replica of a rock, or status of a car.
And of course, a full-size replica of a cheese piece would be about 2 to 3 inches tall.
Posted by: Talley Sue Hohlfeld | May 23, 2008 11:26 AM
As a kind of irrelevant aside, what's the rule of thumb for deciding between "life-size" and "life-sized"? They both seem sorta right.
Posted by: mike | May 23, 2008 1:28 PM
Would that be Lincoln-sized chess pieces or Pope-sized chess pieces?
Posted by: Jon | May 23, 2008 6:48 PM
And while we're examining odd wording, from Friday's Sun web headlines: Propane explosion causes fire at Queen Anne's home. I never knew HM the Queen had a house in Maryland.
Posted by: Robert (the Single One)from D@L | May 23, 2008 7:09 PM
I think the confusion arises because in the word "life-size," the life being referred to is not the life of the object, but our (the writer's and the readers') shared life. That is to say, a life-size sculpture of a car is the same size a car is "in life" (in our experience of life), as opposed to "in a picture," for example. Does this help?
Posted by: Rawley Grau | May 24, 2008 8:02 AM
Is that intended to be a life-size piece, or a life-size version of what the piece depicts (for example, a queen might be a 5'6" woman)?
Posted by: Donnie Berkholz | May 26, 2008 5:45 PM
and if the queen piece is a life-size woman, how big is the rook piece?
Posted by: Talley Sue Hohlfeld | May 28, 2008 1:52 PM
When I worked for the San Jose Mercury News, I got a photo proof of a plastic dragon that kids climb on at Children's Fairyland in Oakland. The photo did not show any children or anything else to indicate scale, so the photographer helpfully wrote "Dragon (slightly smaller than life size)."
Posted by: Brian Throckmorton | July 3, 2008 6:51 PM