Irritation With The Word "oversize"

[MarcShiman]

Why are senior size pens so frequently referred to as "Oversized"? I can't stand that phrase. I understand that one of Parker's Pens were named "oversize" (vacumatics?) but why do we need to call every pen over 5.25" long oversized?

 

A Wahl Deco Band is not "oversized". Its not even senior. Its just - a Deco Band.

 

What does "oversized" mean, anyway?

 

Rant over

 

Marc

Edited December 31, 2011 by MarcShiman

[Edgar Allan Bo]

Standard fountain pens back then were much thinner and smaller than modern standard fountain pens.

 

Maybe "oversize" was the word that described it the best for the customers.

 

Parker had the (Duofold) Senior, but the (Duofold) Maxima was even bigger.

 

While I consider M800 and the 146 to be in the "standard" size range, the M1000 and the 149 are "oversize" pens... or "senior", "maxima", "jumbo", "deluxe"... etc.

 

It's just the way how poeple describe BIG pens.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Edgar Allan Bo

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pens come in tiny, small, medium small, standard, medium large, large and oversized or Huge, gigantic.

 

Up through the 60's-70s one saw mostly standard and medium large pens. There being few large and over sized pens like the 149.

 

They didn't sell being ungainly and heavy. IMO back in the day of the silver dime all one saw was standard pens like an Esterbrook DJ or medium large pens like a P-51 or the then medium large sized 400NN and MB 146.

 

The Sheaffer Pen For Men...PFM was a Large pen....and Oversized was the 149 and a few other relatively scarce pens from back in the 20's-30's.

 

After guts were no longer needed in a fountain pen...slowly at first big, large, heavy flash pens became something to show off C/C pens with....attracted ignorant noobies too. Big is better....some thing one could use in place of a jack handle...

The 80's came the MB 146 grew from a medium large pen into a Large pen. The Large Pelikan 800 came into being, the Large Cross Townsend, a heavy metal pen was now on the scene; one of many.

Large heavy pens were 'in', with the noobies....who are often oldies now.

 

An over sized pen is called over sized because it is Over sized. I have no problem calling a pen larger than Large ... a giant pen, or a Huge Pen. A real big pen...over sized.

 

Senior sized that is the first time I've read that....is that a Gel pen size????

 

Edgar is young....forgive him for thinking a large pen is standard. It's not. Standard is standard...then, now, and later.

It may be that there were fewer standard pens around now than back in my day. There defiantly are many more Large, Over Sized and Giant pens from India than when I was spending silver money.

Just because some one buys a modern Lincoln don't mean it's a large car. The modern ones are not.(Glad they are making them again)

Neither are Large pens standard even if you can't hardly find any standard out side the Pelikan 200/400.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[mbradley]

Edgar is young....forgive him for thinking a large pen is standard. It's not. Standard is standard...then, now, and later.

It may be that there were fewer standard pens around now than back in my day. There defiantly are many more Large, Over Sized and Giant pens from India than when I was spending silver money.

Just because some one buys a modern Lincoln don't mean it's a large car. The modern ones are not.(Glad they are making them again)

Neither are Large pens standard even if you can't hardly find any standard out side the Pelikan 200/400.

 

Classic Bo Bo !!! Definitely one of my favorite posters on this forum.

Michael

[Namo]

I think that "oversize" means bigger than the usual pen of the same model - amd aybe it is not properly used nowadays. By instance, there is a stadard Vac. model, and a bigger one, named Oversize (or Maxima, later on); same think for the Waterman Hundred Years: there was a first model, and then an oversize model (not sure t was included in the name). For contemporary pens, I think that the Delta Docle Vita line is an excellent example: there is the regular (medum) one, and then a Slim model, a Stout model, and of course the (really) Oversize model.

 

But, well, all this is kind of semantics and does not really affect the pen...

 

Hope it answer your frustation.

[raging.dragon]

Pens come in tiny, small, medium small, standard, medium large, large and oversized or Huge, gigantic.

 

I think your scale is accurate for vintage pens. However, today's standard fountain pens would be either medium large (Pelikan M600, Visconti Van Gogh) or large (Pelikan M800, MB146) when compared to vintage pens, and extra large pens (Pelikan M1000 and MB149) are now common; whereas, back in the day large pens were uncommon and extra large pens were rare. Giants like the modern Indian pens were almost nonexistant a few decades ago. The once common smaller sizes have declined in popularity, and combined are probably (at best) as popular today as extra large. I think the following scale better describes modern fountain pens:

 

Small: Pelikan M200/M400, Delta Dolce Vita Mini & Undersize

Medium: Pelikan M600, MB144, Delta Dolce Vita Slim

Large: Pelikan M800, MB146, Delta Dolce Vita Medium

Extra-large: Pelikan M1000, MB149, Delta Dolce Vita Oversize

 

Senior sized that is the first time I've read that....is that a Gel pen size????

 

At one time (probably in the 1930's?) the Parker Duofold line consisted of: Duofold, Duofold Senior, Duofold Maxima

 

Just because some one buys a modern Lincoln don't mean it's a large car. The modern ones are not.(Glad they are making them again)

 

A part of me longs for a 1975/76 Cadillac Fleetwood. Now that's a large car!

Edited December 31, 2011 by raging.dragon

[andybiotic]

There has to be a threshold somewhere for "standard size", anything over that size is... well over, size! :roflmho:

 

Having said that, the standard size is constantly changing with time, take computer screens for example, my 23" screen is now standard (or even below standard ) where as it was oversize when I bought it ages ago when many are still using 19".

 

Pens on the other hand a less variable and the standard remains much longer, I will say that the standard is a bit larger now than the ye olde times, that is why many vintage oversize pens just seem... normal now!

Edited December 31, 2011 by andybiotic

[jar]

Starched underwear irritates me.

 

Lite beer irritates me.

 

Reality TV irritates me.

 

Oversize pens?

 

Nah, it seems appropriate.

[andybiotic]

Reality TV irritates me.

 

Agree completely.

Reality TV actually EXTREMELY annoys me. :roflmho:

 

My 666th post! I am going to keep it like this for a little while! Don't MAKE me post anything! :roflmho:

Edited December 31, 2011 by andybiotic

[FrankB]

I think we all agree the terms we are discussing are a matter of semantics - medium, large, extra-large, senior, maxima, oversized, ad absurdium. The terms themselves do not bother me. It is a lack of standardation in their application that irritates me. Since large pens are currently fairly popular, advertizers will invariably find a way to apply, or MISapply, a term to get consumer interest. Still, some terms have to exist to describe pens' sizes. I think many (most?) of us cope with the lack of standardization by asking for a comparison of an unknown pen to a pen of known size. - Which is yet another justification for a site like FPN where consumers can make such comparisons.

[RMN]

Reality TV irritates me.

 

Agree completely.

Reality TV actually EXTREMELY annoys me. :roflmho:

 

My 666th post! I am going to keep it like this for a little while! Don't MAKE me post anything! :roflmho:

Congrats :hmm1:

 

 

666, the number of the beast

 

 

Happy 2012, may it be an oversized year, penwise, that is.

 

 

D.ick

[Brian K]

Size matters? Who knew? :roflmho:

 

Seriously, while I do understand the intent of the term "over-sized" as it is applied to modern fountain pens, I tend to think of those pens as sensibly or comfortably sized. When we buy a child his or her first set of crayons we usually go with the very large (relative to the typical size) ones. we do this because it actually easier for them to grip and to manipulate them. I have medium to small hands for a man and my go to pen for the last 25 years has been a MB 149. It is hands down the most comfortable pen I have ever used. It may be the only truly fine writing instrument I ever buy new because I bought it when I had a job which, adjusted for inflation, paid quite a bit more than what I make now.

 

It turns out to have been a frugal purchase as well as I probably would have lost enough disposable pens to have paid for a few 149s, as well as the ink to feed them, in the intervening quarter century. I like the size so much I would buy a Pelikan M1000 if I won the lottery. I have other (much less expensive...OK...cheap) pens and while I like them they are not as comfortable to use as my 149!

 

Brian

[Redbarchettayyz]

Reality TV irritates me.

 

Agree completely.

Reality TV actually EXTREMELY annoys me. :roflmho:

 

My 666th post! I am going to keep it like this for a little while! Don't MAKE me post anything! :roflmho:

 

Awesome, we need an emoticon flashing the horns to commemorate occasions like this. Dio will have to do.

 

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/reviewpics/ronniediophoto.jpg

[lsmith42]

Oversized rants (I mean RATS) annoy me...

 

And my favorite poster... Had a girl in a red swimsuit on it...

[kernando]

I was hoping this thread would be about people being sloppy and not using the D to make it the past participle. Then I hoped it would be about too many people of the last few decades being too much into big pens.

 

But yes, people throw the term around too much. If there's only one size, even if it's big, it's silly to call it oversized if it isn't sized over anything else, unless perhaps it's really big, such that it's bigger than everybody else's pens.

 

Nobody ever talks about undersized pens.

[RMN]

I was hoping this thread would be about people being sloppy and not using the D to make it the past participle. Then I hoped it would be about too many people of the last few decades being too much into big pens.

 

But yes, people throw the term around too much. If there's only one size, even if it's big, it's silly to call it oversized if it isn't sized over anything else, unless perhaps it's really big, such that it's bigger than everybody else's pens.

 

Nobody ever talks about undersized pens.

Oversized pens (adjective) fall in the category oversize. (Noun?)

 

 

D.ick

[eric47]

What does "oversized" mean, anyway?

 

Like most terms for size (like tall and short), it's a relative term. So an oversized pen is bigger than say a standard size pen. That said, how you carve up the pen universe into the various size categories is not absolute. For example, as already mentioned categories for even a standard or medium size pen have changed over time, which thereby affects what's considered an oversized pen, particularly today where big pens are considered the norm. Racing.dragon considers the Pelikan M400 a small pen, when for decades a pen like that was considered a standard size pen.

 

I think today an oversized pen is freaking humungous pen that I won't ever buy or use.

Edited January 1, 2012 by eric47

[mikkolopez]

I think oversize means BIG which is a term to say they are the biggest fountain pen around. I like BIG pens, easier to get a grip on them.

[DrPJM1]

The Sheaffers OS Balance is the largest sized pen of that model.

Now, do you know what really bothers me?

The irritating Starbucks' coffee size nomenclature.

And the fact that when you order as small, medium or large, they feel the need to correct you.

I really hate to use tall, grande, venti, vini, vidi, vinci...

[79spitfire]

You mean like Foamy the Squirrel?

 

I'd link to the vid, but he cusses like a drunk sailor! Just do a search for Starshmucks on youtube...

 

Anyway, I have an undersized pen, a Peter Pan lever filler. I bought it because my wife collects Peter Pan paraphernalia!

 

Perhaps it's because the term 'simply large pen' doesn't market well...

 

BTW, Chevy Suburbans and Hummers are 'Oversize' as far as I'm concerned, although, I have a different term for them, not repeatable here...