Man on internet tries to correct things outside his control, news at 11.
Today, a random person on the internet took it upon themselves to let the rest of the internet know that someone was doing something they did not like. Themselves, in all things being perfect, decided it was high time to correct the pedantic use of a word in a way that differs from their personal use. In other news, the internet yawned, and went about its day.
I'm just trying to share that the vast majority of people involved in towers would call them guy wires and not guide wires. Feel free to use whatever word you want to describe them, call them party lines or whippy clips or pedant wires or whatever you wish to call them. The people involved in actually running them will still call them guy wires in the end.
I mean, just do a quick Google image search. Search "guide wire" and then "guy wire". Which one returns images of towers?
I'm sorry you took offense to me sharing information with you. I definitely didn't intend to make you upset by letting you know those cables are almost universally called a different term.
Linguistically it’s easy to see why people would blur the line from cables that did guide something.
People use cables or ropes to guide long poles or similar structures into position and then tie them down for stability. Cranes of are of course easier, but not always available such as when replacing a sailing ships mast at sea.
Guy wires are often used similarly if for example wind loads are an issue during construction their tension need to be adjusted appropriately.
> Enough people say it wrong it eventually becomes right. There's nothing definitive about language except for usage...
This is a view that is common among English speakers. Among many German native speakers it is instead common to love to analyze words and tell why some word is wrong even if it is actually in common use sometimes for decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_wire
•Alternate spelling to guy-wire