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: “Foodp?
          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]