Talk:biological clock

Deletion discussion

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biological clock

Second sense: "The progression from puberty to menopause during which a woman can bear children." I don't think so. The biological clock is most often mentioned in connection with woman's fertile age, but it does not mean that they would be the same thing. This is like saying that "alarm clock" has the sense "sleep". --Hekaheka (talk) 04:03, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

This is more of an RFV matter then, isn't it? --WikiTiki89 04:40, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

That there is some sense or subsense relating specifically to childbearing cannot be doubted. It is the definition that is inadequate. Try substituting it in the citation sentences: Take Linda, a thirty-nine-year-old newscaster who relished her career but began to hear the alarm ringing on her biological clock. It is not so long ago that this was a live metaphor. A possible definition might be "A figurative clock that indicates the decline in a female's ability to bear children." Some such definition should be readily citable, perhaps even under "widespread use". DCDuring TALK 17:06, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

My original thought was that this would be covered with sense #1, but as there is only one cycle involved in the childbearing as opposed to e.g. sleep or metabolism, this could probably be a sense of its own. On the other hand, the female-fertility point of view may be too narrow, as I've seen texts of men's biological clocks. Perhaps something along these lines: "The internal mechanisms regulating the development and ageing of the body of a living thing during its lifetime, used especially to refer to the limited duration of a woman's fertile age." --Hekaheka (talk) 18:43, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

I think references to men's biological clocks are also references to fertility, specifically to things like the quality of one's sperm degrading to the point that it is more likely that a child conceived of that sperm will have genetic problems. Perhaps it's "One's life cycle and tendency to age, seen as a clock that ticks particularly towards a time when one cannot bear healthy children."? (Nah, that's not a good wording.) - -sche (discuss) 19:38, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

I've hardly ever heard biological clock refer to men. Purplebackpack89 22:17, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

One of Funny About Love's taglines was "Everyone has a biological clock. Duffy Bergman's is about to go off." Nothing about the DVD cover implies that it was supposed to be shocking or unusual because of his gender.--Prosfilaes (talk) 01:21, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

• Keep, maybe reword: The wording might be a little off, but the concept is correct, different from other senses, and passes CFI. Purplebackpack89 22:17, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

I dislike the wording (women can bear children during a progression? Why the word progression?) but it's an RFV issue surely. I think we do need a second sense of this to cover non-scientific usage (for me it would be the first sense because more common) but this isn't it! Renard Migrant (talk) 10:55, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

google books:"man's|male biological clock" gets 135 hits. Purplebackpack89 when you say this passes CFI, are you confident it exists? I'm not. Renard Migrant (talk) 10:58, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

I'm not the guy who said male biological clock exists. Actually, quite the opposite, if you read my first comment on this RfD. My second comment, the one about CFI, is in regards to the sense up for deletion, which doesn't have anything to do with men. Purplebackpack89 13:46, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Kept. No consensus.--Jusjih (talk) 01:10, 20 October 2014 (UTC)