second one sounds better to me
― one sexual away from HOOOOOOOOOOMO (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 7 December 2013 14:10 (ten years ago) link
or eliminate both -- it's a cliche.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 7 December 2013 14:12 (ten years ago) link
Alfred OTM. So go for No. 2 if you have no choice, that's the way it's said.
― pplains, Saturday, 7 December 2013 14:17 (ten years ago) link
I mean, a field is level or it's not. Saying some fields are leveler than other fields or that they are more level when the speaker really means they've been leveled better or that they are flatter -- it's not a pleasant situation to be in as a copywriter.
― pplains, Saturday, 7 December 2013 14:21 (ten years ago) link
i think you're talking about scalar/absolute adjectives? empty, bald, pregnant. level.
― sweat pea (La Lechera), Saturday, 7 December 2013 16:02 (ten years ago) link
yeah you're right. level. thanks guys.
― ʎɐpunsunɾɐɔ (cajunsunday), Saturday, 7 December 2013 16:18 (ten years ago) link
I can easily assign a meaning to "more level", and I can't think of a better way to express that meaning (I'm ignoring the "playing field" part of the idiom here). I'm sure I say things like "more linear" all the time, even if some people would consider that infelicitous.
― freemen (on the) space (seandalai), Sunday, 8 December 2013 03:11 (ten years ago) link
ok "flatter" conveys a similar meaning but pplains would presumably argue that a field is either flat or not flat and we're back where we started
― freemen (on the) space (seandalai), Sunday, 8 December 2013 03:12 (ten years ago) link
http://www.hum.uu.nl/medewerkers/a.toledo/papers/Absolute_Relative_Variance.pdf
― bamcquern, Sunday, 8 December 2013 04:36 (ten years ago) link
"Flat" doesn't necessarily mean "horizontal," does it?
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Sunday, 8 December 2013 05:06 (ten years ago) link
second option, and no there's nothing wrong with the concept of a more level playing field
― mind totally brown (darraghmac), Sunday, 8 December 2013 09:33 (ten years ago) link
Late to this party. I would encourage the construction "more nearly level", because level is a state more than a quality. To my mind, either something is 'level' or it is 'not level'.
― Aimless, Sunday, 8 December 2013 19:35 (ten years ago) link
People who say they seek "a more level playing field" are actually requesting "a playing field that has been leveled more than others" or "leveled better than it has in the past."
There's no "leveler" field. Maybe "level" isn't an absolute description of something, but tell that to my wife after I've tried to instal a shelf on the wall.
― pplains, Sunday, 8 December 2013 20:17 (ten years ago) link
In past use, "leveler" was a noun, referring to a person who wanted to eliminate inequalities of rank in society.
― Aimless, Sunday, 8 December 2013 20:20 (ten years ago) link
They were this weird breed of green bubble-headed people who couldn't keep their balance.
― pplains, Sunday, 8 December 2013 20:37 (ten years ago) link
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/396653/Levellers.jpg
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Sunday, 8 December 2013 20:46 (ten years ago) link
Dont understand the prob with degrees of level.
― mind totally brown (darraghmac), Sunday, 8 December 2013 20:48 (ten years ago) link
You'd agree that the cliffs of Dover might be more level than the cliffs of Moher?
― Aimless, Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:08 (ten years ago) link
in this case - and i want to put the grammatical element to one side - let us imagine two football pitches. Pitch A has an incline running west to east of 2 degrees. Pitch B has an incline running east to west of 9 degrees. Pitch A is clearly "more level" than Pitch B, even tho neither of them are absolutely level.
― fashionably coughed (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:12 (ten years ago) link
Pitch A is also "more level" in the advantage it offers to the team playing from the higher end, altho most team sports try to minimize that advantage by changing ends at some point.
― fashionably coughed (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
imagine two carpenters' apprentices having their work judged by their master
― j., Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
'closer to level' > 'more level'
― mookieproof, Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:15 (ten years ago) link
And home team might water according to preferred style of play obv
Ok i think thats that cleared up now
― mind totally brown (darraghmac), Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:16 (ten years ago) link
This merry bandiment around what is better than 'more level' seems to me to be ignoring that 'more level' appears as part of a whole that simply is not to be fucked with in the ways suggested
― mind totally brown (darraghmac), Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:17 (ten years ago) link
mookie i can see how that construction might be logically preferable, sort of, but it's clumsier-sounding than "more level" imo
― fashionably coughed (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:17 (ten years ago) link
Pitch A definitely closer to being level than Pitch B, that's for sure.
xp before mookie's
― pplains, Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:17 (ten years ago) link
"...levels the playing field somewhat"
― Pre-Madonna (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Sunday, 8 December 2013 21:48 (ten years ago) link
I don't know if this is exactly the right thread, but I am confused by the use of "vintage" to seemingly mean "classic" (as in "this US Open performance has been vintage Nadal" or "this essay is vintage Didion") Is this a slangy usage that became mainstream or does the word "vintage" have a shade of meaning I'm missing? I know the word originally comes from wine ("vin" as in "vinyard"), so the "vintage" was the harvest, which in turn came to mean the year. Then I guess from this it somehow got bastardized to just mean "old."
― Burt Stuntin (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 12 February 2014 16:16 (ten years ago) link
get a dictionary homie
― j., Wednesday, 12 February 2014 16:19 (ten years ago) link
I don't know where else to put this:
http://www.elezea.com/2014/02/lorem-ipsum-gone-wrong/
― ∞, Monday, 24 February 2014 17:50 (ten years ago) link
here here herey herey herey
♥
― eeeLuvium (Leee), Monday, 24 February 2014 18:08 (ten years ago) link
blah blah blah blah blah blahbalbvh alvhbahv albvha blah,says Lungani Zama
― Ewan Huzami (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Monday, 24 February 2014 21:48 (ten years ago) link
i would have layvsi would have lain
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:11 (ten years ago) link
"to lie" being the infinitive
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:12 (ten years ago) link
THIRD CONDITIONAL LAIN
― conrad, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:19 (ten years ago) link
lain
― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:20 (ten years ago) link
lain--lay is a transitive verb
― waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:21 (ten years ago) link
c1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 286 Þei han so longe leyen in so gret cursinge.
― μ thant (seandalai), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:23 (ten years ago) link
Apparently "have lay" is attested up to the 17th century or so.
― μ thant (seandalai), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:24 (ten years ago) link
yes, third conditional, thanks
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:25 (ten years ago) link
Larger Q is why you would use a verb w/so many frikken rules
― waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 14:33 (ten years ago) link
look
i understand that this isnt going to stop now.
but 'speak to' is horrific. it's fucking horrific.
― treeship's assailing (darraghmac), Saturday, 22 March 2014 22:55 (ten years ago) link
prepositions often get warped when describing abstract relationships. nature of the beast.
― Aimless, Saturday, 22 March 2014 22:58 (ten years ago) link
A Utah language-school employee was reported to have been fired for blogging about homophones.
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 20:11 (nine years ago) link
is there a recognized supplement to the apa manual on questions of style? i am way more used to chicago and i keep finding that every time i have a question i can expect chicago to answer, the apa manual is a useless piece of garbage
― j., Sunday, 23 November 2014 23:37 (nine years ago) link
what's a good word for "approachability" -- i.e. referring to someone who is accomplished but not intimidating
― k3vin k., Thursday, 26 February 2015 19:38 (nine years ago) link
In what sort of a sentence would this good word be employed?
― Aimless, Thursday, 26 February 2015 19:41 (nine years ago) link
Would modest or humble work in the context?
― Tomás Piñon (Ryan), Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
i went with "affable". "modest" seemed insufficiently...reverent for someone so accomplished
― k3vin k., Thursday, 26 February 2015 20:08 (nine years ago) link
approachable
― local eire man (darraghmac), Thursday, 26 February 2015 21:14 (nine years ago) link