The Language (and travel) Thread

[Carol the Dabbler]

[Van Buren Supernova]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Unless it's "loose" when it should be "lose." Then, as I may have mentioned before, I go berserk.  

Uhm... are you aware that..eh... you weaponized me?   

And I still have shoes and pun in my disposal, and it certainly doesn't go against my moral value to annoy you. 

 

 

[Arcadia]

Somehow that reminds me of this cartoon about Washington DC drivers.

Although in my case it would be this:

In fact, I think that's me in the upper right hand corner.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 7/10/2018 at 2:27 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

... you can use the partial-quote feature (when it's working).

Right now it's working fine on my phone (as evidenced by this post) but *not* working on my laptop. Phone is an Android running Chrome.  Laptop is running Windows and Firefox.  Same wifi for both.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Another 'quirk' in language.

I always stop for a while anytime I type conscience or other long words, to recall how to get it right (well auto suggest helps a lot but it actually makes me dumber since I rely on it when it's available). But sometimes back then, I find easier way to remember it. Con-science. And for a long while, I thought it is originated from two words; con and science. In a brief passing, it makes sense, sort of. Until I think about it further and wonder why. Is it because it's difficult to justify conscience scientifically? Is it the other end of science spectrum? But conscience is more to moral side instead of spiritual side, so that shouldn't be reason. Is it because of Sherlock? That he loves science but finds his conscience always judged (that's why he outsources it to John?)

BUT THEN... apparently, after entering another phase of curiosity and pseudoresearch, conscience is NOT coming from con and science. 

So you see how the language messes us up because we learn it word by word?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

That kinda thing can be a useful way to remember the proper spelling, though, even if it's not actually where the word came from.

When i was in grade school, one of our teachers said we could remember how to spell "friend" if we thought of our mothers frying ends of bacon.  I'm still not sure what "ends of bacon" are, but I think of that every time I write "friend."  I have absolutely no idea whether I'd have trouble spelling it otherwise!

[Van Buren Supernova]

The other thing I remember struggling with is double meaning of a word.

'Miss You Like Crazy' by Natalie Cole used to drive me nuts.

The only meaning I knew about miss is the way to address unmarried woman. English we learned at school barely scratched couple of very basic words, there was no one to ask, no internet to search, we didn't have dictionary, I'm not even sure we had decent bookshop that sell dictionary.

So I was wondering if Natalie was cursing a lady that she was behaving like crazy, Miss! You 'are' like crazy! but the tone didn't seem so, the sentence read funny and the missing 'are' drove me nuts too.

Eventually I found out..

but then I heard Carpenter's song 'I long to be close to you'... Wth?????? :p

Long is measurement and close it to shut something. Ah well... :p

[Carol the Dabbler]

... and then there's slang!

But is English really all that unusual, regarding double meanings?  I seem to recall that Spanish has some figurative meanings that I would never have figured out on my own (fortunately the textbooks had footnotes).  What about German?  Or whatever other languages some of you may know....

Added:  Though technically speaking, the title and the verb "miss" aren't really double meanings.  They're actually two separate words that just happen to be spelled and pronounced the same.  The title Miss is a short form of Mistress (and Mrs. is another abbreviation of the same word).  Don't know offhand where the verb came from, but it has a totally separate history.  I think some of your other examples are also accidental look-alikes.

Not that it makes any difference when you're trying to make sense of the language.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Miss as in to miss someone comes from the old English missan, French missa and is from sometime before 900ad. While Miss as in the shorten form of Mistress dates between 1600-1610 according to dictionary.com.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Isn't mistress itself has double meaning?

With one being not very desirable meaning.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

To quote Sherlock (popped p included): “yep”

[Carol the Dabbler]

In fact, that's just about the only meaning it has anymore.

[Arcadia]

Which one? 😀 

My dad always used to refer to me as my cat's mistress, meaning female master. So there's that meaning as well. The cat knew better.

 

[Caya]

Mildly nsfw (some of the slang terms are not meant for polite company):

 

[Arcadia]

Okay, "hard cheese" is definitely one I've never heard.

I think a "doofer" is what we call a "doohickey." Or a "doodad." Which makes me wonder what a "doo" is.

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 7/9/2018 at 8:48 PM, Arcadia said:

The one I do notice every time and causes me to froth at the mouth is using "loose" to mean "lose." Everyone is doing it now!!!!!! They're not even the same parts of speech! It's a plot to drive me crazy, I just know it! Aaaaaaaghh!

What about this? I'm sure it's correct way of using?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yup, that's correct.  (Seriously.)

It's presumably an ad for a kids' summer camp or something of that sort.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

The picture looks like a garden maze.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Ah.  They meant it literally then.

[Van Buren Supernova]

I know it's correct and for the maze. Just saying that even when it's used correctly, it could be annoying too since I'm pretty sure some parents are not amused.

Aiz, since you guys took me seriously, I think that doesn't have potential to annoy Arcadia.

But I haven't given up today. So.......

 

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Why do those feet shoes remind me of Benedict’s feet (the one or 2 times they are shown on Sherlock)?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Because he likewise has laces on his insteps?

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Maybe I should qualify it to say the shoe version of his feet. Of course laces in his insteps would be fun for a Sherlock AU, and when he unlaces his “feet” to take them off, what would be left would some mini version of actual feet or something of that sort.

[Arcadia]

9 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I know it's correct and for the maze. Just saying that even when it's used correctly, it could be annoying too since I'm pretty sure some parents are not amused.

Aiz, since you guys took me seriously, I think that doesn't have potential to annoy Arcadia.

But I haven't given up today. So.......

 

 

Jumpin' jeeholyhosaphat!!!!!!! That's not annoying, that's terrifying!!!!!! I almost lost my breakfast..... Why? Why?????? Whyeeeeeeeeeeeeee…….

[Van Buren Supernova]

Things happen for a reason you see.

And I like the idea of someone wearing this shoe than take it off to reveal identical mini version of it. Bahahahaha..