|
Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2010 18:12:08 GMT
Even when the word was taught in school, they told us that " reiterate" was a stupid word since " iterate" already means " to repeat". But what if you repeat it twice? It's still just a repetition.
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on Oct 29, 2010 20:03:17 GMT
So like "It's déjà vu all over again" - Yogi Berra?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2010 21:04:04 GMT
It's really true that some of the verb forms have no logic.
To worm = to get rid of the worms
To fish = to catch fish
To shrimp = to catch shrimp
To flounder = to thrash around helplessly (unless you are fishing for flounders)
|
|
|
Post by cristina on Oct 30, 2010 3:22:20 GMT
Far be it for me to offer myself up as an expert on the English language but I'd just like to point something out as regards 'debone'. You are objecting to the word as it should just be 'bone', yes? And the words therefore have the same meaning. But they don't quite. To bone something doesn't always mean to remove the bones. It can also mean to put bones in - as with boned corsets, and is applicable to anything that is a flexible structure but has 'stays' or sections put in to make it more rigid. Also to put bone meal into feed or fertilizer. Hence, to differentiate between that and the removal of bones, then to debone is perfectly acceptable to me. Disagree. The corset may indeed be of the boned variety - but it has become so by having bones inserted, not by being boned. Similarly the fertilizer may have had bone added but it has not been boned. Without having read this entire thread, I will remark on this, at the least because I sew garments and am familiar with the terminology (even if I have never, nor do I intend to, make a corset.) In corset terms, the "bone" is actually called boning. So to "bone a corset" is a reasonable term. Moving on...since I am fresh from my weekly French class... "Clocher" has me confused. It means to be wrong, or to limp, or to ring a bell. How do I find the relationship between those verbs? More importantly, how do I accurately express that kerouac is wrong, instead of telling him that he is limping, or worse...ringing a bell? As for kerouac's example of fish, shrimp and worm, I don't think it is uncommon in many languages to have a noun in a verb form. Even if some nouns should not be allowed as verbs. (Where do you "office?" comes to mind.)
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on Oct 30, 2010 7:17:12 GMT
I now have a theory that if you removed from the internet any and all references to the English language, like spelling and grammar and word usage, it'd reduce by half the storage space being used.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Oct 30, 2010 12:11:10 GMT
Cristina, clocher does not mean to ring a bell. "Sonner les cloches" would be used for ringing church bells.
clocher does mean to limp or to be lame. "Sauter à cloche-pied" means to hop.
clocher doesn't mean to be really wrong, just that there is something not quite right. "Il y a quelque chose qui cloche" means "there is something odd about it".
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2010 12:22:27 GMT
And then there are clochards... they rarely have an occasion to se taper la cloche (to have a good meal).
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Nov 2, 2010 6:20:30 GMT
Oh but you can. Except that it doesn't mean the opposite of 'defenestrate', it means to put windows into a building. I recently saw a commercial van advertising its owners' "Progressive fenestration solutions".
Logically, I suppose, we ought not to say "defenestrate" but "exfenestrate"....
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on Nov 2, 2010 9:58:47 GMT
Isn't English amazing. You learn something new every day.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2011 9:55:21 GMT
Last year in France there was a big flood along the coast that killed about 40 people, most of them in a seaside town that had ignored the safety rules when granting building permits. The houses were built below sea level behind a dike -- not too hard to figure out what happened. Anyway, a bunch of zones in the area have been designated 'unconstructable' and the gutted houses have to be demolished. However, the media refuse to talk about demolition and instead just repeat the political formula that was invented for the occasion. They say that the houses are being deconstructed.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Apr 15, 2011 15:15:46 GMT
Seems a lot of this type of word are euphemisms, doesn't it?
|
|