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the word you're looking for is militate

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 03:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Dan, I meant it was ambiguous because the reader might have to think for a second about whether it means (a) keeping an event from happening or (b) making the consequences less bad if and when the event does happen. So as for this:

the practical semantic difference between "trying to make a possible event impossible" and "trying to reduce the chances of the event"

... that's more just a random thought on top. Because yeah, I think there's a slight difference between how we talk about things being "possible" and the way we talk about them being "likely."

For instance, if a nuclear technician says "the possibility of a meltdown is unacceptable," then the solution might be to shut down the reactor entirely (because a meltdown is either possible or not).

Whereas if he says "the likelihood of a meltdown is unacceptable," then the solution is just to take steps to reduce the chances of a meltdown.

So I just mean there's a difference between possibility and probability -- one's more absolute, the other's more scaled -- and the connotations of "possibility" versus "likelihood" match up with that.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 04:43 (seventeen years ago) link

"23% of 13&endash;15-year-olds"

that's how it is; i don't like the way it looks. what would you do?

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:03 (seventeen years ago) link

har hmm

"23% of 13–15-year-olds"

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

13- to 15-year-olds

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:08 (seventeen years ago) link

23% of the 13-to-15 year-old age group

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:09 (seventeen years ago) link

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I'd go with Bernard Snow's suggestion.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:19 (seventeen years ago) link

y'all can't see me but rest assured that I just spiked my mouse onto the floor in celebration

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:20 (seventeen years ago) link

He played the better game on the day, I guess.

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

now i'm curious. is there anything we should know about 23% of 13- to 15-year-olds?

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link

23% of 13- to 15-year-olds know how to spell "23% of 13- to 15-year-olds"

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

"are emos"

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I am still getting used to "emo" as a noun.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 25 August 2006 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link

love you bernard snow

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link

how come all the grammar threads?

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:05 (seventeen years ago) link

the next part of the sentence is "have tried tobacco in lower- and middle-income countries" ... dangling hyphens ahoy

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:05 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost: Their extremely interesting for some've us, Mr. Totalwizard.

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

how come all the grammar threads have tried tobacco in lower- and middle-income countries?

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

how come all the grammar threads?

September is just around the corner; grammar is in the air!

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

have tried tobacco in lower- and middle-income countries

So the rich ones took buses into poorer neighborhoods just so they could try tobacco?

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:19 (seventeen years ago) link

(Also is that really "countries," and not "counties?")

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

nabs i swapped that around for exactly that reason!! sentence now runs "23% of 13- to 15-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries have tried tobacco"

and yes it is countries.. the phrase appears so often that i wonder if it would be ok to say "(LMICs)" after the first ref and then just use that

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I shook my head this week at "blood-urea-nitrogen levels." No wonder I can't remember any of these 'rules.'

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:28 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

"big-upped" or "bigged up"?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 20:49 (seventeen years ago) link

What?? Bigged up. Totally. Mothers-in-law, etc.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 20:51 (seventeen years ago) link

The latter makes more sense grammatically, and Google prefers it by about 10 times as many hits. But the former sounds more colloquial to me, and since the expression is basically slang, it seems like that should be taken into consideration.

But what do I know: apparently, the second Google hit for "big upped" is something I wrote on ILM two years ago!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha -- I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're distinct usages:

Big-upped = "Big up to my man Ray-Ray"
Bigged-up = "I just want to big up my girl Trina back home"

... in which "big up," the earlier usage, is a noun (something given to someone, like a shout-out), whereas the later usage is a transitive verb.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, that's right, I went there.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I am in awe of you. For Realz.

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:05 (seventeen years ago) link

But I would match the modern gerund (which is "bigging up," not "big-upping") and go with "bigged up," which is mostly how people do it now. ("Big-upped" could be marked archaic/90s and reserved for such uses.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh no you di'int. (XP)

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:07 (seventeen years ago) link

http://daphne.palomar.edu/hgerhardt/images/Golf%20We%20are%20not%20worthy.JPG

l-r: ILE, ILM, nabisco

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:08 (seventeen years ago) link

(xxp) Huh, well, I buy that "big up" can function as a noun or a verb, but if you're putting it in the past tense, then it seems like it's only referring to the usage as verb. How does "big-upped" correspond to a noun usage?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:08 (seventeen years ago) link

"Big up to my man Ray-Ray"

I'd also propose that you hear "big ups" (plural) just as often as the singular, when it's used in this way.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Hm. For a slightly different approach to the same distinction, to have "big-upped" someone requires that you actually used the words "big up [to]" in the original situation, whereas "bigged up" could be any kind of inflated praise or strong recommendation.

Oh bother, you've basically all said it already.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Okay I'm actually mostly joking here, but I think there's been a shift in the words. At first people would say, you know, "big up to so and so," in which "big up" sounded interchangeable with "much respect" or similar. But then as soon as people started talking about this habit, it had to become a verb, and so the "big" part became the verb, maybe -- in part because it makes intuitive sense as an equivalent to talking a person up.

xpost -- I meant "big-upped" refered to a noun in the way that e.g. "toilet-papered" can be a verb that's been made out of a noun. Also, yes, spot on with "big ups!" Which are kinda offered TO people, right?

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Wait, no, that actually makes sense, Laurel.

So: "I big-upped Nabisco" = "I said, 'Big up to Nabisco.'"
Whereas: "I bigged-up Nabisco" = "I was talking about how great Nabisco is."

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:13 (seventeen years ago) link

No hyphen in the second one!

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:17 (seventeen years ago) link

So, Nabisco, would these usages transpose to the British variant, shout-out?

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:19 (seventeen years ago) link

No hyphen in the second one!

You're hardly one to talk, but you're right in this case.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:20 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think "shout-out" is uniquely British...?

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:21 (seventeen years ago) link

No. Neither does Webster's, which usually has a little chiefly Brit. caveat:

shout-out n (1990) : a brief expression of greeting or praise given esp. on a broadcast or audio recording

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Of course he's right, I didn't use a hyphen for a reason. ; )

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I didn't use a hyphen in my initial post, either! The second time was a typo, I swear!

I think my problem with "bigged up" is that it's difficult to accept "big" as a verb with multiple tenses ("bigs," "bigged," etc.). "Up," on the other hand, already functions in this way in expressions like "upped the ante."

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

"Embiggens"

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 21:35 (seventeen years ago) link

This discussion has been very embiggening.

― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 23:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Moving on...

How do you shot something like, "Joey Jojo Junior Shabadoo, the Székesfehérvár, Hungary, based lovemachine, etc."? Do I need to shots a hyphen before "based" even though I have to specify what country Székesfehérvár resides in? Don't tell me I have to nix the comma after Hungary!

― c('°c) (Leee), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 15:46 (seventeen years ago) link

the asnwer to 90% of such things is rewrite. Joey shabadoo, the lovemachine from Sz?keshfeh?rv?r, Hungary,

― stet (stet), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

or based in, natch

― stet (stet), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

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