Sunday, April 19, 2015
Language update for -ft
Professor Polistra does a poor imitation of Comrade Bacall as she brings us a thought about grammatical living fossils, plus a few newly noted word-turds.
= = = = = Newly noted = = = = =
Background in incarceration:
Fresh PC euphemism from Satan's best mediabitch KXLY.
"She has a background in incarceration and other challenges."
Or in non-satanese: "She is a troublemaker with a criminal record."
= = = = =
TurnOfTheCenturyByWhichIMean2000Not1900:
This is like MeenMarTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsBurma. The phrase turn
of the century means 1900. Permanent mapping. Hard-wired. Can't be changed. When you try to use it for 2000, you generate unneeded confusion which always requires an explicit explanation. Easy solution: If you mean the year 2000 but don't want to say two thousand for some stupid reason, say the millenium. That phrase has been remapped, because the first millenium happened before most written history and literature.
Odd inconsistency: While we feel the need to misuse hundred-year-old terms for one particular year, we've abandoned the hundred-year-old decade names. The '00 decade never found a proper name, which apparently broke the habit. Now we're halfway through a decade that has an unambiguous name from the previous century (the Teens) but we never say it.
Later addon: Another pair of 'marooned in time' words is prewar/postwar. On paper these should apply to every war, but in fact they apply exclusively to WW2. In this case there's more involved than the semi-regular operation of language. All of USA STRONG's wars since 1945 have been subsections of one continuous and eternal war. You can find a start for each unprovoked invasion, but the starts are so close together and so frequent that pre- is meaningless. It's like marking off a pre-breath and during-breath for each breath you take. And you can't find an end at all because each of these sub-wars is specifically designed to go on forever.
= = = = =
Survey:
Doesn't mean a survey. When it's done by Climate Murderers, survey means "completely faked computer model formatted to look like a survey". Just like their definitions of science, logic, and data.
= = = = =
Free-range kids:
Retronym. Used to be kids. Now we need a special word to denote kids who are raised humanely and sanely, just as we need a special word for chickens who are raised humanely and sanely.
= = = = = Living fossil = = = = =
Thrift:
Prof P was observing an attempted 'urban farmstead' in her neighborhood. The 'urban farmers' are hard-working but they don't have a green thumb. They planted about 25 fruit trees in their front yard several years ago, and the trees aren't doing well. Half are dead, and the others simply haven't ... throven? Haven't thruv? Thrave? Thraften? Thrift?
Aha!
Thrift is the result-noun of thrive. Thrift is what happens when you're thriving, and thrift is what enables you to keep thriving in bad times. Nature understands this connection, and natural economics is purely based on this connection!
English is full of result-nouns that fit this pattern. [Noun] is what happens when you're [Verb]ing. Result-nouns were formerly a living part of the grammatical system. Now the formative impulse is gone, but the nouns remain. Lots of them end in -ft.
Some are still solidly connected to their verbs, as in theft from thieving or draft from draw or gift from give.
Some of the verbs have obsolesced, like reeve/rift; some of the nouns have obsolesced, like weave/weft.
Thrift and drift and heft came a-drift from thrive and drive and heave. Noun and verb are both current, but we don't feel the connection. In the case of thrift, this is unfortunate.
Professor Polistra does a poor imitation of Comrade Bacall as she brings us a thought about grammatical living fossils, plus a few newly noted word-turds.
= = = = = Newly noted = = = = =
Background in incarceration:
Fresh PC euphemism from Satan's best mediabitch KXLY.
"She has a background in incarceration and other challenges."
Or in non-satanese: "She is a troublemaker with a criminal record."
= = = = =
TurnOfTheCenturyByWhichIMean2000Not1900:
This is like MeenMarTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsBurma. The phrase turn
of the century means 1900. Permanent mapping. Hard-wired. Can't be changed. When you try to use it for 2000, you generate unneeded confusion which always requires an explicit explanation. Easy solution: If you mean the year 2000 but don't want to say two thousand for some stupid reason, say the millenium. That phrase has been remapped, because the first millenium happened before most written history and literature.
Odd inconsistency: While we feel the need to misuse hundred-year-old terms for one particular year, we've abandoned the hundred-year-old decade names. The '00 decade never found a proper name, which apparently broke the habit. Now we're halfway through a decade that has an unambiguous name from the previous century (the Teens) but we never say it.
Later addon: Another pair of 'marooned in time' words is prewar/postwar. On paper these should apply to every war, but in fact they apply exclusively to WW2. In this case there's more involved than the semi-regular operation of language. All of USA STRONG's wars since 1945 have been subsections of one continuous and eternal war. You can find a start for each unprovoked invasion, but the starts are so close together and so frequent that pre- is meaningless. It's like marking off a pre-breath and during-breath for each breath you take. And you can't find an end at all because each of these sub-wars is specifically designed to go on forever.
= = = = =
Survey:
Doesn't mean a survey. When it's done by Climate Murderers, survey means "completely faked computer model formatted to look like a survey". Just like their definitions of science, logic, and data.
= = = = =
Free-range kids:
Retronym. Used to be kids. Now we need a special word to denote kids who are raised humanely and sanely, just as we need a special word for chickens who are raised humanely and sanely.
= = = = = Living fossil = = = = =
Thrift:
Prof P was observing an attempted 'urban farmstead' in her neighborhood. The 'urban farmers' are hard-working but they don't have a green thumb. They planted about 25 fruit trees in their front yard several years ago, and the trees aren't doing well. Half are dead, and the others simply haven't ... throven? Haven't thruv? Thrave? Thraften? Thrift?
Aha!
Thrift is the result-noun of thrive. Thrift is what happens when you're thriving, and thrift is what enables you to keep thriving in bad times. Nature understands this connection, and natural economics is purely based on this connection!
English is full of result-nouns that fit this pattern. [Noun] is what happens when you're [Verb]ing. Result-nouns were formerly a living part of the grammatical system. Now the formative impulse is gone, but the nouns remain. Lots of them end in -ft.
Some are still solidly connected to their verbs, as in theft from thieving or draft from draw or gift from give.
Some of the verbs have obsolesced, like reeve/rift; some of the nouns have obsolesced, like weave/weft.
Thrift and drift and heft came a-drift from thrive and drive and heave. Noun and verb are both current, but we don't feel the connection. In the case of thrift, this is unfortunate.
Labels: Language update, Natural law = Sharia law
¶ 1:33 AM
