Oh fuck, what does it matter, anyway?

[bronzeage]

Define literally

I have always been grateful English is one of the languages where new words and usages are welcome. It's very convenient to swap nouns and verbs as needed. The only thing that really matters is the reader or listener understand the intended meaning. I guess.

It's difficult to say when it happened, but I think I was there.

The Battle of Decimation was a long hard fought action, but we were in retreat from the start. It did not matter we had the historical meaning and the Latin root words on our side, that bastard Common Usage and his minions inflated decimation from a 10% reduction to any number from 11 to 100. Literal was weak at the start and the end was inevitable, if inevitable still means unavoidable.

 

[Angeline]

I like Merriam-Webster. They agree but explain it better. You know like, virtually.

 

[todski28]

does it feel that as you get older you start to lose touch with the current trends in vocabulary? what was once "cool" to you is now seen as trite and not in the '"now"?

 

[Neonurotic]

This literally made today's news, albeit the Fox network news.

 

[Angeline]

does it feel that as you get older you start to lose touch with the current trends in vocabulary? what was once "cool" to you is now seen as trite and not in the '"now"?

Yes and I have a daughter who takes great pleasure in reminding me so.

(Neo, your day is coming...unless she's doing it already!)

 

[champagne1982]

Yes and I have a daughter who takes great pleasure in reminding me so.

(Neo, your day is coming...unless she's doing it already!)

I hear you on this one. Is it only girls? My son just smiles and shakes his head, my daughter on the other hand is "Oh gawd, Mom. You are so old!" -- I guess her Nana must be absolutely ancient.

 

[Angeline]

I hear you on this one. Is it only girls? My son just smiles and shakes his head, my daughter on the other hand is "Oh gawd, Mom. You are so old!" -- I guess her Nana must be absolutely ancient.

My son does it too but he's sneakier about it. And then he'll insist he meant nothing by it and give me a little smile lol. My daughter is a much more in your face kinda person. She totally mocks me about music but I am having the last laugh because her boyfriend loves jazz.

 

[Neonurotic]

(Neo, your day is coming...unless she's doing it already!)

She's a third grader so of course she is.

 

[bronzeage]

does it feel that as you get older you start to lose touch with the current trends in vocabulary? what was once "cool" to you is now seen as trite and not in the '"now"?

Most new usages appear in response to a new need. We "google" and "text" because a single word captured the process without ambiguity. "Sexting" fit in perfectly, while no one ever "phexed"(phone sex).

Every generation develops it's own small vocabulary of slang and that's jake with me.

In the case of 'literally", it was used as an intensifier and we love to pile intensifiers on our words, seriously. Decimation was a malapropism of devastation and is just an escaped goat, loose in the language, never to be repenned.

The real shame of it is not the substitution, but the loss of decimation and it's meaning. In the Roman Legions of the Empire, if the men of a company refused an order to attack, or retreated without orders, the survivors might be sentenced to decimation. In this process, one in ten men were chosen by lottery for execution.

 

[serpentwrap]

Some "new" words become a classic for eternity... Fucktard, for instance...

 

[champagne1982]

Thanks for reminding me of that particular plot bunny, Bronze. I remember reading it in one of Colleen McCullough's Ancient Rome series and you've brought the scene back to life for me.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Some "new" words become a classic for eternity... Fucktard, for instance...

awful word, a combination of fuck and retard. Unless of course if it's someone who goes around calling less able people retards which says a lot about them

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

"cunt" is being bandied aound in the geebee - I really dislike that word - in ANY context - and have the main users on ignore now.

 

[Angeline]

"cunt" is being bandied aound in the geebee - I really dislike that word - in ANY context - and have the main users on ignore now.

I agree as long as I can continue to use "schmuck."

I have a huge ignore list. It makes life so much easier. I've never had anyone here on ignore unless they were spammers or on the way to being banned for posting personal info and such. But, like you, I've spent some time on the GB and that place I cannot stomach without an ignore list!

 

[Angeline]

Foreign words for which there is no English equivalent, at least so the article says. I'd quibble a few of them, but overall a fascinating list.

 

[todski28]

Most new usages appear in response to a new need. We "google" and "text" because a single word captured the process without ambiguity. "Sexting" fit in perfectly, while no one ever "phexed"(phone sex).

Every generation develops it's own small vocabulary of slang and that's jake with me.

In the case of 'literally", it was used as an intensifier and we love to pile intensifiers on our words, seriously. Decimation was a malapropism of devastation and is just an escaped goat, loose in the language, never to be repenned.

The real shame of it is not the substitution, but the loss of decimation and it's meaning. In the Roman Legions of the Empire, if the men of a company refused an order to attack, or retreated without orders, the survivors might be sentenced to decimation. In this process, one in ten men were chosen by lottery for execution.

sorry to run the thread on a tangent.

If you want to explore common usage then as a hypothetical, if you were to teach five children the total opposite of what words are i.e. boys would be girls, yes would mean no etc, what would they believe? then release those children into a normal class room, how long do you think it would be before they adopted the more common usages of words next to what they were taught? failure to use the words that is most common would end in teasing, haranguing etc.

I understand the desire for absolutes because it is grounding, and words like the one posted should be a permanent due to the depth of meaning conveyed, literally should be exactly that. decimation should be a power word that instils dread, however we are at the mercy of the masses especially where common usage occurs. you can always snub your nose at what has happened but is there much that can be done to thwart the juggernaut of the masses?

just my thoughts.

 

[bronzeage]

sorry to run the thread on a tangent.

If you want to explore common usage then as a hypothetical, if you were to teach five children the total opposite of what words are i.e. boys would be girls, yes would mean no etc, what would they believe? then release those children into a normal class room, how long do you think it would be before they adopted the more common usages of words next to what they were taught? failure to use the words that is most common would end in teasing, haranguing etc.

I understand the desire for absolutes because it is grounding, and words like the one posted should be a permanent due to the depth of meaning conveyed, literally should be exactly that. decimation should be a power word that instils dread, however we are at the mercy of the masses especially where common usage occurs. you can always snub your nose at what has happened but is there much that can be done to thwart the juggernaut of the masses?

just my thoughts.

The Tower of Babel might not be the best working model for this project.

Words are born and words die. Sometimes they metamorphosize(or perhaps metabolize) into new words. The inevitability(or perhaps inerrancy) of this does not mean we should deny a proper mourning(or perhaps morning) period.

The definitive statement on this sort of thing was made many years ago by the scholar Humpbert Dumpster, "When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty [affectionate nickname given by his students] said, in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less."

 

[twelveoone]

Define literally

I have always been grateful English is one of the languages where new words and usages are welcome. It's very convenient to swap nouns and verbs as needed. The only thing that really matters is the reader or listener understand the intended meaning. I guess.

It's difficult to say when it happened, but I think I was there.

The Battle of Decimation was a long hard fought action, but we were in retreat from the start. It did not matter we had the historical meaning and the Latin root words on our side, that bastard Common Usage and his minions inflated decimation from a 10% reduction to any number from 11 to 100. Literal was weak at the start and the end was inevitable, if inevitable still means unavoidable.

it is inflation, I'll get back to you in December, or is that October, which confuses the hell out of me since they got January right.

 

[bronzeage]

it is inflation, I'll get back to you in December, or is that October, which confuses the hell out of me since they got January right.

The Roman calendar originally had 10 months of 30 days each. Who knows why they chose 30, but it caused immediate problems because the seasons got out of wack, right away. To correct this, the priests could add days through out the year. This was a political tool in the days of the Republic. If the priests liked the guy in charge, they could extend his term, or shorten the term of some who was not in favor. When the Empire was created, there were no more terms of office, so it wasn't such a big deal anymore. Two more 30 day months were added, July, named for Julius Caesar, and August, named for Augustus Caesar. A 360 day year was not perfect, but was better than before. No one bothered to correct the numeric names, because when someone said, "It's not carved in stone," it was pointed out, that in fact it was.

 

[ishtat]

"cunt" is being bandied aound in the geebee - I really dislike that word - in ANY context - and have the main users on ignore now.

I agree entirely. It's not just offensive, but aggressively, violently so.

But when Chaucer, used quente (quainte?) it didn't seem so bad, perhaps because the violent overtone was absent.

 

[butters]

inference is everything, and inference depends upon the familiarity of the individual with the person using the word: in this manner one determines its intent.

it is only a word, like any other. almost any word can be instilled with malice or teasing, pleasure or sorrow. like 'nice'.

 

[greenmountaineer]

inference is everything, and inference depends upon the familiarity of the individual with the person using the word: in this manner one determines its intent.

it is only a word, like any other. almost any word can be instilled with malice or teasing, pleasure or sorrow. like 'nice'.

Agreed, butters, but there's something about those 4 letters in combination with each other that for me is unlike any other word in the English language. I'll use four letter words in poems, but I can't bring myself to write it here, much less in a poem.

 

[butters]

Agreed, butters, but there's something about those 4 letters in combination with each other that for me is unlike any other word in the English language. I'll use four letter words in poems, but I can't bring myself to write it here, much less in a poem.

there were days when people felt as strongly about the word fuck. overuse has seen it lose a lot of its power to shock for shock's sake. the softer ending of that word, though, perhaps gives it more leeway over what most of us are conditioned to consider an insulting word - the worse for its harsher, more guttural 't' end. for those who've grown up knowing it as just about the worst insult you could sling at a person, it can be hard to view it as anything less.

 

[Angeline]

I agree entirely. It's not just offensive, but aggressively, violently so.

But when Chaucer, used quente (quainte?) it didn't seem so bad, perhaps because the violent overtone was absent.

I had a Professor Quaintence. He taught the history of satire in literature. I shall never think of him in quite the same way again!

I am of the opinion that any word can be the right word to use given the correct context. There are some words I would be less likely to use because the appropriate (to me) contexts are limited--in some cases, extremely so. But if I think a word is the "right" one, I just use it. I may agonize over whether I should use it, but when it's right, I know...

 

[UnderYourSpell]

May want to read THIS