Author Topic: You keep using that word ...  (Read 2636 times)

Hawkmoon

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You keep using that word ...
« on: February 08, 2018, 04:41:36 PM »
... I do not think it means what you think it means.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/08/bermuda-repeal-same-sex-marriage

Bermuda repeals same-sex marriage, enacts civil unions instead. This is the first jurisdiction that has ever done this. LGBT activists call it "unprecedented." Well, duh ... anything that hasn't ever been done before is "unprecedented," because it doesn't have a precedent.

Next case ...
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Fly320s

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2018, 04:59:39 PM »
That is a perfectly cromulent use of unprecedented.
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230RN

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2018, 05:04:20 PM »
You have embiggened my understanding.

Hawkmoon

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2018, 07:55:21 PM »
That is a perfectly cromulent use of unprecedented.

It is, in fact, a textbook use of "unprecedented" -- in its strict sense. But I have no doubt that the author of the piece didn't just mean "unprecedented" in its tame, ordinary technical sense. I'm quite certain that the meaning the writer wanted to convey is "ZOMG! TEOTHAWKI is upon us!"
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230RN

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2018, 08:00:30 PM »
It is, in fact, a textbook use of "unprecedented" -- in its strict sense. But I have no doubt that the author of the piece didn't just mean "unprecedented" in its tame, ordinary technical sense. I'm quite certain that the meaning the writer wanted to convey is "ZOMG! TEOTHAWKI is upon us!"

Waddayou, one a them curators of the lingo or something?  Sheesh !  Go back to your museum.  Let's just let any word mean any other word and let it go awreddy, hah?

An interesting side discussion on the matter of "You keep using that word..."  Optional reading, of course:

http://definitionsinsemantics.blogspot.com/2012/03/humpty-dumpty-principle-in-definitions.html

« Last Edit: February 08, 2018, 08:13:55 PM by 230RN »

Hawkmoon

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2018, 09:14:54 PM »
Waddayou, one a them curators of the lingo or something?


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mtnbkr

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2018, 07:15:09 AM »
It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

Move to France, they love pedantic language curators.

Chris

Hawkmoon

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2018, 09:03:17 AM »
Move to France, they love pedantic language curators.


There's one small problem -- they need them to speak French.
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HeroHog

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2018, 05:23:58 PM »
Hey, I know some French!
Kass Twa
Kawin
Piké twa
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fit-putain

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Devonai

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2018, 08:18:10 PM »
Quote
fit-putain

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HeroHog

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2018, 08:57:14 PM »
Dat's French-Canadian, Dis is French-Arcadian!
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just Warren

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2018, 12:55:56 AM »
Quote
Quote
fit-putain

That's where they put gravy and cheese curds on fries, isn't it?


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HeroHog

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2018, 03:52:06 AM »
Let's just say that, down here in Louisiana, it relates to the acronym "SOB."
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Hawkmoon

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2018, 10:52:50 AM »
Creole French - another of the world's incomprehensible languages.

My grandparents were in Maine and we always spent my father's summer vacation visiting them. My grandparents both spoke French (albeit that my grandmother always complained that Grandpa spoke French with a German accent). They had a friend whose wife was from Quebec province in Canada. Grandmother was always aghast at the way Mrs. Snowman pronounced French words. I guess Quebeçois bears only a passing resemblance to actual French.

What passes for French on Nova Scotia (is that Acadian -- or Arcadian -- French?) is also virtually a separate language unto itself.
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HeroHog

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2018, 02:55:27 PM »
Good catch, Acadian, Arcadia is a city/town. True Cajun French has no official written form! It is strictly a word of mouth language and isn't in the same sector as Parisian French or Canadian French.
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MOLON LABE!

230RN

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #15 on: February 10, 2018, 10:37:34 PM »
Move to France, they love pedantic language curators.

Chris

That's amusing.  Some of us get all bonkers about the misuse of a word like "bullet" or "clip" or "automatic" and so forth, but get all resentful when someone points out misuse of an ordinary English word.

Gee, inconsistent much?  Pedantic much?  :rofl:

Terry

mtnbkr

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #16 on: February 10, 2018, 10:49:08 PM »
That's amusing.  Some of us get all bonkers about the misuse of a word like "bullet" or "clip" or "automatic" and so forth, but get all resentful when someone points out misuse of an ordinary English word.

Gee, inconsistent much?  Pedantic much?  :rofl:

Terry

Point out where I get bonkers about bullet, clip, or automatic.  Go on, take your time, I'll wait.

Oh, you're back.  With nothing to report.

I think you'll notice I do not get wound around the axle about words because English is an ever evolving and imprecise language on the best of days and people make mistakes, use the wrong word, or type one word when another one is flowing in their inner monologue (your vs. you're for example).

Terry, I don't know why you suddenly have decided you need to point out my foibles, imagined or otherwise, but I'd appreciate it if you'd bugger the fsck off.

Chris


Hawkmoon

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #17 on: February 10, 2018, 10:57:32 PM »

Gee, inconsistent much?  Pedantic much?  :rofl:


True pedants are born, not made ...
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RoadKingLarry

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #18 on: February 10, 2018, 11:43:17 PM »
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

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230RN

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #19 on: February 11, 2018, 07:10:35 AM »
^ That was funny.

Mountain Biker, I wasn't referring to you specifically.  Don't be so sensitive.  I believe I have noticed several times where you have referred to  your own editing experience, however.  (Wasn't that you?)

Not, you understand, that I am immune from mistakes.  I make enough myself.  And I believe I'm the one who pointed out the evolving nature of the language myself, but did decry the changing of definitions, largely due to misuse being propagated through the net until, as I put it, any word can mean any other word.

I think you should remove your remark about buggering off and take a deep breath to let your blood pressure drop a little.  Tsk-tsk-tsk.

Terry

Scout26

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Re: You keep using that word ...
« Reply #20 on: February 11, 2018, 01:55:17 PM »
Polite - Argue the idea, not the person.


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