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02-10-2002, 08:23 PM | #31 |
is stuck on altair-4
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: santa cruz, california
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yes. the guy is "half-jewish", i will say. his father is jewish.
i know what "squander" means. |
02-10-2002, 08:37 PM | #32 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
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Quote:
"Queer" simply meaning "odd" is so unusual now as to almost constitute an archaic usage in everyday speech. If it hadn't been used as a derogatory term for homosexuals, it might still be in use with it's former meaning. Now it's so loaded with connotations in modern daily speech that the old meaning is no longer available, unless you're clearly speaking an archaic voice: "Zounds, what a queer thing is this!" "NIce" used to mean foolish, simple, silly, effeminate, trivial, overscrupulous, delicate, refined or dainty. In other usage it meant "apprehending slight differences or delicate distinctions". But if you say it today, it means pleasing, agreeable, satisfying or delightful. If you say somone is "nice", they'll take it as a compliment. If you use the phrase "that's a nice distinction", you're hinting that a former meaning is intended. What if somone you'd callled "nice" bristled that you'd impugned his masculinity? After all, by your lights above, that's "how the word is meant to be used".
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02-10-2002, 08:40 PM | #33 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
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Quote:
(I"m desparately trying to avoid a pun about "The Squandering Jew" at this point.)
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"Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..." |
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02-10-2002, 08:56 PM | #34 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
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Quote:
Don't think of it as hijacking, think of it as "functional overloading". :-)
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"Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..." |
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02-10-2002, 09:00 PM | #35 | |
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Quote:
I'm not going to answer the second part, because you used the word in the same way I did. |
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02-10-2002, 09:08 PM | #36 |
Professor
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Hey, dham', you just made post 5000 in IotD.
A milestone, surely. Congrat's... - NBN |
02-10-2002, 09:34 PM | #37 | |
is stuck on altair-4
Join Date: Dec 2001
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Quote:
maggie: yes, i am positive that she meant it in such a way as to suggest that he was squandering his money. |
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02-10-2002, 09:38 PM | #38 | |
is stuck on altair-4
Join Date: Dec 2001
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Quote:
i don't expect it to be misunderstood when i say "queer" around homosexuals. i just think it's stupid that it has been. i don't expect them to assume that it is wrong of me to use such a word in a normal sentence. i don't give a shit if it insults them, because "queer" does not mean "homosexual." and like i have said, if they make a big deal about it i won't apologize for speaking properly. i will blame the listeners for the resulting confusion, because they should know that "queer" originally means "odd" before they use it in any other context. it's really not that hard to pick up a dictionary and look the damned word up. i understand that not all words are used how the dictionary states they are to be used. we use the word "cool" to describe things that we think are agreeable. that's slang, and that's fine. i think, though, that it is silly for a group of people to get riled up about the use of a certain word that EVERYONE is free to use. the word queer has been adapted. it's not as though i am using it to insult them. my point was that if i want to use a word to describe a situation, someone else should not think that it can only be used to describe a person. that's basically it. i don't mind if people use the word "queer" to describe their sexual preference, really. i couldn't care less. when they tell me that i cannot use it the way it's written out in the dictionary, though, is when it bothers me. Last edited by jeni; 02-10-2002 at 09:45 PM. |
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02-10-2002, 10:34 PM | #39 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
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Quote:
Certainly "You're such a jew, spending your money so freely." sounds to me like it came from some other planet . But I will acknowlege hearing friends from more southern latitudes (Richmond? Raleigh?) use "queer" to mean "odd" more often. It *will* get you a "queer" look the first time you use it around a Yankee. But being squarely in the middle of the Bos-Wash axis, up here it's a dead usage...and confusing things further, amongst younger folks up here we sometimes hear "Oh, that just so *gay*!" intended to mean "That is oddly stupid.", which just about brings the whole excursion full-circle.....making current usage of "gay" almost match what you mean when you say "queer".
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02-10-2002, 10:55 PM | #40 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
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Quote:
The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
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02-10-2002, 11:33 PM | #41 |
is stuck on altair-4
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to me, maggie. i don't use those words as slang. and i'm from carroll county, maryland. born in DC.
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02-11-2002, 08:45 AM | #42 |
Coronation Incarnate
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how about the verb "gyp" - ever hear that one? bad racial usage.
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02-11-2002, 09:24 AM | #43 |
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My favorite is "niggardly". Remember a few years ago... when some poor (white) guy on the DC city council used the word and hilarity ensued?
<beavis> Heh heh... he said niggardly... heh </beavis>
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"Never understimate the power of stupid people in large groups." Last edited by Hubris Boy; 02-11-2002 at 09:30 AM. |
02-11-2002, 10:08 AM | #44 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
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Lexicographers tell us that their work is descriptive rather than prescriptive. I pointed you to a dictionary entry that explains how the word is used by many people today; and you're free to ignore that, of course. But you're not entitled to (in your own words) "bitch" about it if confusion or misunderstanding ensues. Orwell wrote volumes on the political power of language. I get the feeling that your position is one of politics rather than semantics or diction.
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02-11-2002, 10:13 AM | #45 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
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Quote:
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