it's definitely a lost cause but it makes me think twice about whether whoever's using it is a good writer
(I don't think people think it's fancy, I think they just think that's what it is).
― kinder, Tuesday, 8 June 2021 09:27 (two years ago) link
This is slightly outside where this thread normally goes, but the terms "Brother-in-law" and "Sister-in-Law" have always annoyed me because they are used both to mean your spouse's sibling and your sibling's spouse. And then there's also no word for your spouse's sibling's spouse, so you just have to say "my wife's brother's wife" which is very awkward.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 10 June 2021 13:44 (two years ago) link
oppor-chance-ity
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 10 June 2021 13:46 (two years ago) link
you would say "my brother-in-law's wife", no?
― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Thursday, 10 June 2021 13:47 (two years ago) link
xpost
You mean people other than couthy Glaswegian pensioners say this?
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Thursday, 10 June 2021 13:49 (two years ago) link
And then there's also no word for your spouse's sibling's spouse, so you just have to say "my wife's brother's wife" which is very awkward.
We need a word that means that, which also means your sibling's spouse's sibling.
― Alba, Thursday, 10 June 2021 14:26 (two years ago) link
I hear it misused all the time and it never fails to jar even though I rationally agree with Moodles.
It was being misused from the moment it was translated into English, so there's no real basis for approving of the "correct" usage and disapproving of the more recent "incorrect" one. At best, they're equally wrong. Using "begging" as the English translation for the Latin "petitio" is like translating the English phrase "running the show" into another language as "flowing the show". And then hundreds of years later people try and justify the bad translation by saying something like "water is so powerful that its flow sweeps away everything, so it is in control".
You should just use "assuming the conclusion". It's an accurate translation of the original Greek phrase.
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Thursday, 10 June 2021 14:57 (two years ago) link
I won’t be doing that. But thank you for the explanation. I think I’ll still get annoyed by it being used instead of “raise the question” though. The phrase must just die.
― Alba, Thursday, 10 June 2021 15:06 (two years ago) link
let’s just bugger it instead
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Thursday, 10 June 2021 16:28 (two years ago) link
I assume your pardon?
― Alba, Thursday, 10 June 2021 16:37 (two years ago) link
Usages that annoy the shit out of a mathematician acquaintance of mine: people describing things (usually coronavirus infections) as growing 'exponentially' when they're merely increasing at an uneven rate. Basically if it's not the formula in the first paragraph here (that I can't figure out how to paste in): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_growth, then it's not exponential. Apparently.
― I gave it my all and my all wasn't enough (Matt #2), Thursday, 10 June 2021 19:10 (two years ago) link
I'd noticed that and let it slide cos it seemed to be a byproduct of the same reason some people think "penultimate" means "really really ultimate"
― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:05 (two years ago) link
people should stop using words
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:41 (two years ago) link
and start making sense
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Thursday, 10 June 2021 20:43 (two years ago) link
"OMG that's so random!"
But they don't mean 'random' at all, they mean lame or bogus.
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 10 June 2021 21:01 (two years ago) link
Do they? I think it’s usually more like “weird”.
― Alba, Thursday, 10 June 2021 21:11 (two years ago) link
People use the words "random" and "surreal" in ways that make me want to punch them in the throat.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 10 June 2021 21:15 (two years ago) link
I guess it can be interpreted as weird or odd as well, but never in a good way...
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 10 June 2021 21:19 (two years ago) link
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, June 10, 2021 2:15 PM (sixteen minutes ago)
do you have a normal reaction to anything
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Thursday, 10 June 2021 21:33 (two years ago) link
random originally meant fast
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Friday, 11 June 2021 03:14 (two years ago) link
your mom was so random last night
― cancel culture club (Neanderthal), Friday, 11 June 2021 03:17 (two years ago) link
they don't mean 'random' at all, they mean lame or bogus
yeah, and what about when people say 'bad' but they really mean 'good'? or when they write 'phat' instead of using a word that really exists? it's kee-ray-zee!
― What's It All About, Althea? (Aimless), Friday, 11 June 2021 03:19 (two years ago) link
> the terms "Brother-in-law" and "Sister-in-Law" have always annoyed me because they are used both to mean your spouse's sibling and your sibling's spouse.
the rules for second cousin once removed etc are similarly confusing but because they are, if I'm reading them correctly, asymetric.
― koogs, Friday, 11 June 2021 05:41 (two years ago) link
The thing I get with highly imprecise or hyperbolic use of words is that while I'm perfectly aware of what's likely to have been meant, my brain will also provide a literal reading.
It can be both annoying and amusing. Amusing is better obviously but then I have to hold back from sharing too many bad jokes as it often isn't appreciated ;-(
― Noel Emits, Friday, 11 June 2021 12:59 (two years ago) link
I just introduce my family as "friends, friends of friends, and some of my gift service clients"
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Friday, 11 June 2021 13:55 (two years ago) link
I’ve referred to my wife’s sibling as my brother-in-law and to his spouse as my sister-in-law but never really considered the implied incestuousness until now
― joygoat, Friday, 11 June 2021 22:02 (two years ago) link
I’ve never been able to keep track of the conversation when ppl constantly refer to their relatives by their relation. Siblings I get but “my sister in law’s husband” is so much more confusing than “Jeff, my sister in law’s husband” who is then Jeff going forward. How important could it possibly be for conversation participants to know the full relation??
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 11 June 2021 22:36 (two years ago) link
They should all just be referred to as “my relative” be they wife, son or second cousin once removed.
― Alba, Friday, 11 June 2021 22:48 (two years ago) link
just call them all "er indoors"
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Friday, 11 June 2021 22:59 (two years ago) link
or "Cathy's Joe"
better than "Cathy's Clown"
― What's It All About, Althea? (Aimless), Saturday, 12 June 2021 00:30 (two years ago) link
"Insta" is bad enough but I'm getting increasing numbers of promo emails calling their wares "insta-worthy" I can't stand it
― kinder, Tuesday, 15 June 2021 20:29 (two years ago) link
I prefer “pizza-worthy”
― ten man poland chasing this means hamsik feasts (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 15 June 2021 20:46 (two years ago) link
I suspect languages other than English have more precise terms for family/relations.
― mahb, Wednesday, 16 June 2021 08:40 (two years ago) link
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, June 10, 2021 9:01 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink
I specifically remember the first time I heard other kids my age saying "random." It was 1991 and I was randomly (!!) paired up at a youth conference with a roommate who used it in every sentence. I switched roommates.
― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 12:19 (two years ago) link
these are my kin
over there? my otherkin!
― mark s, Wednesday, 16 June 2021 13:51 (two years ago) link
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/im_so_random.png
― Champagne Heathernova (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 16 June 2021 13:57 (two years ago) link
stadia
― Sam Weller, Thursday, 17 June 2021 16:50 (two years ago) link
“I’m not saying ____ but I’m not not saying it either.”
― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 23:48 (two years ago) link
any variant of the "fixer-upper" sort of insufferable suffixes. particularly when it's something like "i'm the best cleaner-upper i know!" or some shit like that. aaaaaaaaa
― maelin, Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:05 (two years ago) link
I had a huge argument in my college syntax and semantics class with the professor because she insisted "fixer-upper" could only refer to the person fixing up the house, not the house itself. Whereas I had only ever used it referring to the house being fixed up.
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:19 (two years ago) link
You're right that that's how it's used, but it's always seemed syntactically odd to me. 'Fix-upper' would maybe make more sense; something to be fixed up, not something to be fixered up.
― Alba, Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:26 (two years ago) link
It is odd and linguists like to talk about it! Generally in English the -er suffix applied to a verb indicates an agent... a fixer is someone who fixes things. But some English -er words the suffix indicates a patient, an thing being acted on, such as the chickens you can buy called broilers or fryers, or a house that's a fixer-upper.
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:35 (two years ago) link
(that extra -er in fixer-upper I can't explain)
― mark e. smith-moon (f. hazel), Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:36 (two years ago) link
i always use it to refer to a house, as well, but i just thought saying "fixer-upper" was short for "fixer-upper house"
― Punster McPunisher, Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:58 (two years ago) link
I wonder if the "er" in some speakers' minds is an echo of 'er as in "her"
Fix 'er up.
Git'r'done.
― Ludacristine McVie (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 24 June 2021 18:24 (two years ago) link
my theory is that this and similar doubled-'er' locutions are poetic additions to terms that sound too awkward with just a single -er. The resolution, by doubling the -er, is a bit twee, but twee seems more acceptable than clunky.
― What's It All About, Althea? (Aimless), Thursday, 24 June 2021 18:26 (two years ago) link
What's the 'up' even doing in the phrase 'fix up' anyway? US English especially is full of these added(-on!) prepositions that seem mainly there for poetic cadence. There's also:
Head up, close out, change up (I know this meanS something specific in baseball), beat out, swap out, build out
― Alba, Thursday, 24 June 2021 18:42 (two years ago) link
cf. HAAAAAATE "sorry not sorry"
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, 24 June 2021 18:45 (two years ago) link