I was on the phone with my bank this afternoon* to set up online access to my kids' accounts. When it came to checking and savings for my son, Martin C. Fredricks V, the guy asks, "What do you want the user name for this one to be?"
“M-C-F and the numeral 5," I say.
Silence on the other end of the line….
Then – "Umm... We can't do that."
"Do what?"
"User names can only be letters and numbers," he says. Dead serious.
"Yeah," I say, doing my best not to snark out all over him. "Number 5, numeral 5...."
Again, silence….
"Same thing?" I say, hopefully.
Another pause. This one a bit longer. Then, "Oh yeah, right… Right!"
And I'm thinking, college graduate?
To be fair, it is sometimes difficult to hear/comprehend people on the other end of a phone call. And I do tend to mumble at times. Plus, it's entirely possible the moon's alignment wasn't optimal for comprehension.
And to stretch the fairness even a little further, technically speaking, "number" and "numeral" are not synonyms. According to Grammarly:
"A number is an arithmetical value, an idea that quantifies, counts, ranks or calculates an arithmetical value... A numeral is a symbol that is used to indicate a number."
Which differs somewhat from the definition provided by Proofed:
"Numbers are a concept. They’re how we quantify things... Numerals are the words and symbols used to represent numbers in writing."
Words and symbols? Characters? Digits? Units?
I refrained from regaling my guy with any of these confusing and at times conflicting definitions.
I can only imagine what would've happened if I’d said – as I typically would have – “M-C-F and the Roman numeral five.”
5? V? Vee?
If his head hadn’t exploded, mine most definitely would have.
Sort of like the FDIC –
I guarantee it.
* This actually happened in August of 2017. I posted it on Facebook at the time, and this week it popped up as a memory. Too funny (at least to me) to not share, and in a place where I’ll be able to find it again.