Active Users:353 Time:03/05/2024 01:20:41 AM
So you're saying NY Times writers *aren't* la feccia del popolazzo??? Tom Send a noteboard - 12/04/2024 06:36:09 PM

The issue isn't, strictly speaking, that it's a portmanteau word using two different languages. Television is such a word (though funnily enough, when I pointed out on FB years ago that, when you look at telephone and telegraph, which use solely Greek words, it should be "teleorasis" or some such, a Greek friend immediately said "That's what we DO call it in Greek!" though of course it was teleorasi because Modern Greek is the Ebonics of Classical Greek). There are plenty of words that have been coined that are portmanteau words.

The issue here is that the NY Times has fallen greatly in its reporting standards and its reporters are now little better than bonobos ranting at the world most of the time, and so rather than simply pick up a dictionary to find out the word, someone out there, within the last 10 years certainly, re-invented the word.

This is precisely the sloppy and stupid sort of writing that we can expect from journalists these days. Instead of simply saying, "analyze", they say "engage in an analysis of" because they think it makes them sound smart. Instead of "pay", they "make a payment". Someone out there didn't like saying "lovers of eclipses" and decided to be cute, but in the most ignorant way possible.

This doesn't mean you can't say "cronut", though didn't those things disappear as quickly as they appeared? That brings me to the other point, which is that being too permissive in language leads to sad results. I can almost picture the WaPo article where the writer says, "The Donald Trump rally was oddly crunk." A word that was perhaps popular for the lifespan of a mayfly in a limited geographic region shouldn't be accepted. Likewise, words that mean anything (and consequently mean nothing), like the Philadelphia slang term "jawn", shouldn't be accepted in standard English.

Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
This message last edited by Tom on 12/04/2024 at 06:36:21 PM
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A gift for any umbraphiles among us - 06/04/2024 02:21:05 PM 232 Views
Umbraphile isn't a word - 08/04/2024 05:12:05 AM 48 Views
It is a word. It exists. - 08/04/2024 02:31:49 PM 37 Views
No it doesn't. Any retard can pretend a word exists but that doesn't make it so. *NM* - 08/04/2024 05:26:30 PM 17 Views
It does if enough people use it. That's how new words get created and enter a language. - 08/04/2024 05:32:46 PM 35 Views
Not exactly - 09/04/2024 01:30:30 AM 35 Views
Honey, the speakers of our language don't care about the "rules". - 09/04/2024 07:28:30 AM 44 Views
Bah - 09/04/2024 09:29:40 PM 46 Views
No, you're still wrong - 12/04/2024 12:56:49 AM 36 Views
I can see your recalcitrance won't be alleviated by logic or history. - 12/04/2024 11:49:44 AM 41 Views
You're the one ignoring logic and history - have some standards, man! - 12/04/2024 02:13:19 PM 36 Views
Can I have it both ways? - 12/04/2024 06:04:23 PM 37 Views
So you're saying NY Times writers *aren't* la feccia del popolazzo??? - 12/04/2024 06:36:09 PM 35 Views
I've long been confused by the 'literally' debate. - 12/04/2024 09:32:29 PM 36 Views
I think perhaps it comes down to intent and knowledge. - 12/04/2024 10:42:09 PM 35 Views
I'm afraid I have to agree with Joe. - 12/04/2024 11:28:44 PM 29 Views
See my reply to Joe above, but regarding your specific example... - 13/04/2024 12:55:11 PM 29 Views
Yes you can have it both ways - 12/04/2024 11:16:55 PM 24 Views
One thing I won’t miss around here are the holier-than-thou pseudo-intellectuals. - 09/04/2024 08:11:57 PM 52 Views
You did *NM* - 10/04/2024 01:56:14 AM 17 Views

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