The -P Convention

Turning a word into a question by appending the syllable “P”; from the LISP convention of appending the letter “P” to denote a predicate (a boolean-valued function). The question should expect a yes/no answer, though it needn’t. (See T and NIL.)

At dinnertime:

Q: “Food‐P?”
A: “Yeah, I'm pretty hungry.” or “T!”

At any time:

 Q: “State-of-the-world-P?”
A: (Straight) “I’m about to go home.”
A: (Humorous) “Yes, the world has a state.”

On the phone to Florida:

 Q: “State-P Florida?”
A: “Been reading JARGON.TXT again, eh?”

[Once, when we were at a Chinese restaurant, Bill Gosper wanted to know whether someone would like to share with him a two-person-sized bowl of soup. His inquiry was: “Split-P soup?” – GLS]


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