yeah, there's nothing wrong with telling people to use words malaproperly
― the intentional phallusy (Noodle Vague), Monday, 13 November 2017 10:02 (six years ago) link
nb I reserve the right but it's not like I exercise it often
basically if you're having a normal conversation with someone & they think "enormity" means enormousness you are a dick if you butt in & correct them, but if you're being subjected to a a prolix op-ed by some windbag and they keep making that error there is some value in being that dick
― The Suite Life of Jack and Wendy (wins), Monday, 13 November 2017 10:10 (six years ago) link
otm
― Gary Synaesthesia (darraghmac), Monday, 13 November 2017 11:28 (six years ago) link
You little prolix
― Gary Synaesthesia (darraghmac), Monday, 13 November 2017 11:29 (six years ago) link
I am on record as prioritizing audience-awareness and context-awareness WAY above right/wrong. In any given writing/editing task, I follow the rules that I think the audience cares about. Or rather, I follow the style guidance that tends to produce text that the audience will read without being distracted either by real, or apparent, wrongness.
Also I agree with wins. You generally don't help matters by correcting casual conversation but it can be enjoyable to point and laugh at windbags.
The crankiness level of that BBC thing made me smile. I should say that the USian meaning of "power cut" is a totally different thing - it's a physical feature of the landscape (trees cut down to facilitate passage of power lines), not an electrical outage.
― piezoelectric landlord (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 13 November 2017 12:27 (six years ago) link
"power cut" sounds like an industry term for something like a Rush song from the mid-80s
― President Keyes, Monday, 13 November 2017 13:45 (six years ago) link
it's also a Wings song from 1973!
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 November 2017 13:59 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-ISSGbTJI
I have never heard of tree trimming around power lines as a "power cut" in my life. It's just tree trimming.
― mh, Monday, 13 November 2017 14:51 (six years ago) link
or a specific hairstyle imp
mh, no, not trimming around trees, I mean the total clearing of a swath over a mountain or through a forest or whatever. In my childhood I definitely heard this kind of thing referred to as a power cut:
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/CNX0DE/aerial-photograph-swath-through-forest-for-electrical-powerlines-alabama-CNX0DE.jpg
Maybe this is a rural or Midwestern usage? Or maybe I was just among idiots. Which is not out of the realm of possibility of course.
― piezoelectric landlord (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 13 November 2017 15:19 (six years ago) link
ahh that's fair, not used to it but I'm from a more urban area, even if in the midwest
― mh, Monday, 13 November 2017 15:28 (six years ago) link
Now I'm wondering what other people call those.
― piezoelectric landlord (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 13 November 2017 15:31 (six years ago) link
"where trees used be"
― Gary Synaesthesia (darraghmac), Monday, 13 November 2017 15:33 (six years ago) link
in (UK) forestry they're called firebreaks
― mark s, Monday, 13 November 2017 15:35 (six years ago) link
this is more for "use other words" I guess, but the cliché "much ink has been spilled" & the less-encountered but even worse variant "vast quantities of ink have been spilled"
― The Suite Life of Jack and Wendy (wins), Monday, 13 November 2017 15:38 (six years ago) link
No use crying
― Gary Synaesthesia (darraghmac), Monday, 13 November 2017 15:44 (six years ago) link
"it me"
― marcos, Monday, 13 November 2017 16:15 (six years ago) link
Oh Christ I just remembered an even fucking worse versionI wonder if as much digital ink would have been spilled on this whole ...news.ycombinator.com › itemI wonder if as much digital ink would have been spilled on this whole kerfluffle if the original article had not used the term 'bricked'. Bricking, at least in my mind, ...creative.inspiration on Instagram: “Much digital ink has been spilled ...https://www.instagram.com › ...12 Likes, 1 Comments - creative.inspiration (@the.creative.mind) on Instagram: “ Much digital ink has been spilled over why Tupac ended his relationship with ...How do you set metrics? – The Year of the Looking Glass – Mediumhttps://medium.com › the-year-of-the-loo...10 Aug 2017 · Much digital ink has been spilled on this topic, so I'll keep this brief: Unless a metric truly captures the ...Bingo Byte - Much digital ink has been spilled over the... | Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com › postsMuch digital ink has been spilled over the fledgling relationship brewing between Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, not to mention all those ramifications that ...Much digital ink has been spilled over... - Celebrities Report ...https://www.facebook.com › postsMuch digital ink has been spilled over Disney's decision to fire Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the Han Solo Anthology movie – and it's only Thursday....Much digital ink has been spilled lauding the 2014 Cadillac ELR's ...www.guideautoweb.com › galleries › 20...Much digital ink has been spilled lauding the 2014 Cadillac ELR's styling,, photo 4/13.Filip Babovic on Twitter: "Considering how much digital ...https://mobile.twitter.com › status27 Sep 2017 · Considering how much digital ink has been spilt on the trolley problem this really is the appropriate ...Endangered Languages: An Introductionhttps://books.google.co.uk › booksSarah G. Thomason · 2015 · Language Arts & Disciplines... many new funding opportunities have arisen to support this research all over the world, much digital ink has been ...Algorithmic Life: Calculative Devices in the Age of Big Datahttps://books.google.co.uk › booksLouise Amoore, Volha Piotukh · 2015 · Political Science... reasoning, knowledge, truth, ethics and creativity (Bynum and Moore, 1998: 1), and much (digital) ink has been ...
― treeship: a year in the life (wins), Monday, 13 November 2017 16:18 (six years ago) link
wins stop wasting yr breath on that
― i n f i n i t y (∞), Monday, 13 November 2017 17:22 (six years ago) link
By way of contrast and judging purely by ILX standards (which might deviate from the norms of the larger world), I much prolix.
― A is for (Aimless), Monday, 13 November 2017 19:16 (six years ago) link
wins stop wasting yr digital breath on that
― how's life, Monday, 13 November 2017 19:21 (six years ago) link
Much digital breath has been expelled on shit turns of phrase
― treeship: a year in the life (wins), Monday, 13 November 2017 19:24 (six years ago) link
rectal prolix
― i n f i n i t y (∞), Monday, 13 November 2017 19:50 (six years ago) link
inherited this from my actual architect friend who is irked at the hijacking of his field's terminology for software architecture, but the word "architected" still gets under my skin
you're designing or engineering architecture, you're not architecting, my god
― mh, Monday, 13 November 2017 20:37 (six years ago) link
I hear this all the time: "arguably" when "inarguably" is the applicable word. I'm not sure if this because of a complete lack of proportionality, if people get the words confused, or if they're being treated as interchangeable. Example: a news report I heard yesterday that said Da Vinci is "arguably one of the most famous painters ever." Well, no--he's inarguably one of the most famous painters ever; if you want to say he's arguably the most famous or the greatest, then sure, you can argue about that.
― clemenza, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:09 (six years ago) link
I'd prefer "allegedly one of the most famous painters ever"
― President Keyes, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:15 (six years ago) link
suspect the issue there is nervous doubling-up of qualifiers - - - "arguably" piles onto knee-jerk use of "one of the..." with neither one having really been thought through.
― gimme the beet poison, free my soul (Doctor Casino), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:17 (six years ago) link
They're the same word tbh
― fake pato is kind of racist, dude (darraghmac), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:18 (six years ago) link
the different word is "unarguably"
― mark s, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:20 (six years ago) link
I mean they're not the same word but it's the same sentence
tbh inarguably is a nonsense word in that you might claim that it inarguably means inarguably but it doesn't
― fake pato is kind of racist, dude (darraghmac), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:22 (six years ago) link
It's flammable and inflammable that are interchangeable, right? I can't see arguable and inarguable as anything but opposites. (Webster's treats "inarguably" and "unarguably" as variations of the same word.)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inarguable
― clemenza, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:23 (six years ago) link
Unarguably isn't a word and I mean fuck a Webster if he argues otherwise
― fake pato is kind of racist, dude (darraghmac), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:24 (six years ago) link
unarguably means it isn't possible to have an argument, inarguably means the thing is certain so no one will argue, arguably means we live on the internet and have discovered literally nothing is either unarguable or inarguable
― mark s, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:28 (six years ago) link
Yes it is
― fake pato is kind of racist, dude (darraghmac), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:30 (six years ago) link
i think you'll find
― mark s, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:31 (six years ago) link
well played deems
― loretta swit happens (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:45 (six years ago) link
arugably
― mh, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:46 (six years ago) link
unarguably means it isn't possible to have an argument, inarguably means the thing is certain so no one will argue
Having a little trouble getting my head around this. Isn't possible to have an argument because it's so obviously certain (therefore the two words are interchangeable), or isn't possible because...what would be an example of impossibility for some other reason?
― clemenza, Friday, 17 November 2017 15:47 (six years ago) link
Inarguably is a mere rhetorical pose, unarguably if it existed is a technical term
― fake pato is kind of racist, dude (darraghmac), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:49 (six years ago) link
arugulably
http://cdn.naturallifeenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/arugula-leaves.jpg
― loretta swit happens (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:51 (six years ago) link
you're being radicchulous
― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Friday, 17 November 2017 17:00 (six years ago) link
Speaking of words that annoy you, I'm sorry British people, but I just can't accept calling that stuff "rocket".
― Moodles, Friday, 17 November 2017 17:44 (six years ago) link
it'll soon take off
― kinder, Friday, 17 November 2017 19:50 (six years ago) link
Having a little trouble getting my head around this
Has a two-hour train journey to work this one out:
The spaceship hurtled into the star. "We're all dead," said the captain to the crew.
i) This was inarguable. There was no escape. ii) A short time later, it also became unarguable.
― mark s, Friday, 17 November 2017 19:51 (six years ago) link
― ur-oik (rip van wanko), Friday, November 17, 2017 11:00 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark
i loled
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:59 (six years ago) link
lol kinder
― gimme the beet poison, free my soul (Doctor Casino), Friday, 17 November 2017 21:45 (six years ago) link
world class, guys
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Friday, 17 November 2017 21:53 (six years ago) link
normalization
― Mordy, Monday, 27 November 2017 05:30 (six years ago) link
I'll say it again: weaponize
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 November 2017 11:47 (six years ago) link