251–260 of 286 posts
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> I can confirm that "boiling water" definitively is "water that's boiling" and that two words Which are the two words? ["water that's", "boiling"] ["water", "that's boiling"] ["water that", "s boiling"] Something else?
I think the two words are ["stop being", "pedantic"]
I'm currently reading Cormack McCarthy's Suttree (my first of his novels) — just an exceptional polymath capable of painting complicated scenery with words dozenly scattered throughout paragraphs [0]. My favorite adjective he's coördinated is "burntwing", used to describe moths spiraling downwards after passing through candleflames . If I had crafted such a descriptive contraction, my former styling would've been "bu…
Isn't this the difference between a dictionary and an encyclopedia?
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I’m so glad I’m not going insane. I don’t see any examples on that site that I agree are ‘one word’. Sure they’re singular concepts but so what? Are we going to have singular words to describe all adjective noun pairs now?
Really? none are one word? How about "of course"?
Of course is like an abbreviation of something like ‘in the natural course of things’. Which has become more like just ‘yes’ over time. In the usage of ‘yes’ it’s easier to argue it could be one word.
I'm currently reading Cormack McCarthy's Suttree (my first of his novels) — just an exceptional polymath capable of painting complicated scenery with words dozenly scattered throughout paragraphs [0]. My favorite adjective he's coördinated is "burntwing", used to describe moths spiraling downwards after passing through candleflames . If I had crafted such a descriptive contraction, my former styling would've been "bu…
Thank you for sharing this. It makes me question the extent that a dictionary is meant to make a person more literate.
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As blacksheep of an intellectual family (lawyers, politicians, engineers), I've spent the majority of my employment around fellow bluecollars.
Despite my education (left medschool, decades ago) it scares my family when I speak in the colloquial jargon of my electrician co-workers. If I don't codeswitch back into the grammatically correct language of our upbringing, my brothers value what I have to say less ("what you said sounds dumb even though I understood you better").
Isn't the whole purpose of language to communicate the realities of World? As their brother, I think they mostly write to obfuscate intentions... I prefer the honesty of pure dumb.
It appears to me that the author is trying too hard to make a point: "merry-go-round" is a single compound word that several dictionaries contain; "canned goods" is not commonly used[1] (more of a bureaucratic jargon), and people would just say "cans"(US) or "preserves" (UK); "household chores" is simply "chores", as the word is no longer commonly used outside the house context; "coffee break ritual" is not a concept…
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Thank you for sharing this. It makes me question the extent that a dictionary is meant to make a person more literate.
"You must learn the rules so you can properly break them." —paraphrasing Picasso ---- As blacksheep of an intellectual family (lawyers, politicians, engineers), I've spent the majority of my employment around fellow bluecollars. Despite my education (left medschool, decades ago) it scares my family when I speak in the colloquial jargon of my electrician co-workers. If I don't codeswitch back into the grammatically co…
Paraphrasing a similar remark, I think I pulled from "sed & awk” [1]: A reference can teach you the rules, but they don’t show you how to really use them. There's the difference between reading the rules of a sport and actually playing the game.
Tangent: I’m beginning to question how broad the line is between a “rule breaker” and an acute student of tradition at odds a sort of institutionalized inertia. Maybe this “Words with Spaces” guy is on to something.
> Isn't the whole purpose of language to communicate the realities of World? As their brother, I think they mostly write to obfuscate intentions... I prefer the honesty of pure dumb.
This may speak to the significance of the court jesters of the past. And perhaps the rise of virtue signaling today?
[1]: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/sed-awk/1565922255/
Examples of "obscure" compound words include "list uids", "beg pos", "sync binlog", "gfp mask", "av fetch", "str idx", "seq ptr", "ai family", "fmt vuln", "ai socktype", "curr tok", "nbits set", "ini get", "s1 s2", "in addr", "num get", "res init", "sess ref", and "ai addrlen". Well I can't even.
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Really? none are one word? How about "of course"?
I do see your point on that one, but phrases have an origin. Of course is like an abbreviation of something like ‘in the natural course of things’. Which has become more like just ‘yes’ over time. In the usage of ‘yes’ it’s easier to argue it could be one word.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"You must learn the rules so you can properly break them." —paraphrasing Picasso ---- As blacksheep of an intellectual family (lawyers, politicians, engineers), I've spent the majority of my employment around fellow bluecollars. Despite my education (left medschool, decades ago) it scares my family when I speak in the colloquial jargon of my electrician co-workers. If I don't codeswitch back into the grammatically co…
> "You must learn the rules so you can properly break them.” Paraphrasing a similar remark, I think I pulled from "sed & awk” [1]: A reference can teach you the rules, but they don’t show you how to really use them. There's the difference between reading the rules of a sport and actually playing the game. Tangent: I’m beginning to question how broad the line is between a “rule breaker” and an acute student of traditi…
Copspeak for technically you're correct, but we're still going to fuck with you.
[0] A cop actually said this to me (I asked him whether he was violating a 3rd-party's Fourth Amendment by questioning); handcuffed, he tucked a Miranda Card into my buttondown's shirtpocket, tapping condescendingly about my questioning his authority. And what a ride it was.