language

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

hybridzizi:

sinesalvatorem:

I find it really, really weird how many people I know on Tumblr who introduce asides with “FYI:”

In the linguistic environment I grew up in, the phrase “for your information” was incredibly rude. It indicated that you were talking down to your interlocutor, whom you considered stupid and contemptible. Imagine if I said to you “For your education…” or “To cure your ignorance…” or something like that. This is basically what “FYI” sounds like in my ears.

I’ve never said it, and made a habit of avoiding people who used it in arguments. Anyone who said “for your information” while angry was probably not going to be pleasant to speak to while calm, either. I have never once heard that phrase said out loud in a tone other than smug mockery; and usually the speaker’s assholeness was a persistent personality trait.

But, presumably, it means something else in America, or something? Because, like, sometimes I’ll be speaking to someone, and they’ll say something like “FYI: I’ll be going to see Star Wars this evening” and I’ll be So Confused. I mean, why would they be calling me stupid to tell me they’re going to watch a movie? What???

I’ve found that things make much more sense when I mentally substitute “FYI” with “BTW” everywhere I see it. This leads me to believe that there is some fundamental difference of meaning here, so I don’t hold a grudge against Tumblr people who say it to me. However, it still takes me a second to get my knee-jerk “I need to slap this asshole” reaction under control.

So, Tumblr: Does “for your information” mean the same thing as “by the way” for you? Also, while it’s by no means required, could people who speak to me please try to avoid saying “FYI” while doing so? Even though S2 knows what’s going on, I still end up feeling like I’m under attack, and that’s no fun.

“For your information” is often rude, but not always. “FYI” seems to translate more into “just so you know.”

Same here.

#i’ve never thought about this before  #but it is weird that the acronym has kind of a different meaning than the phrase it stands for

Yeah, “eff-why-eye” seems to be diverging from its origin and becoming its own word. I occasionally encounter people spelling out the acronym in speech.

Tags:

#language #reply via reblog #rumour has it something similar happened with ‘OK’ #so I suppose there’s precedent

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sinesalvatorem:

wizardshark:

copperbadge:

dukeofbookingham:

hanadoodles:

a song called ‘disco inferno’ just came up on my dash and i automatically registered it as “i learn by means of hell” before i realised the title was actually english and not latin

“I learn by means of hell,” forthcoming rap album from Doctor Faustus

When we figured out that’s what Disco Inferno meant (we translated it as “I learn through suffering”), it became the motto of our Latin class at college, and the unofficial motto of my undergrad. 

thats so fuckin awesome

GPOY

Tags:

#language

Anonymous asked: Radical Argotism

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

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justice-turtle:

brin-bellway:

sinesalvatorem:

Francis Emilio Hernandez Sebastian Lorenzo Santiago de Tungtwizta was the  first philosopher to promote the concept of Radical Argotism. At 24, he wrote his magnum opus ‘On The Art of Slang, Yo’. When it was published, it made the authorities of the day very suspicious. After all, what kind of pleb ends the title of their book with “I”?

After some investigation, the Inquisition determined that De Tungtwizta, like every other Spanish intellectual ever, was a dirty Jew. His evil plan of hiding by having the world’s most Spanish name had been find out. One day he was minding his own business; drinking coffee and scowling at life. All that changed when the Spanish Inquisition (unexpectedly) attacked. He was executed 2 years after his book’s publication, and Argotism went underground.

One hundred years passed and a new Argot was discovered, a slang-bender named Aangwizlemahnizzlefoshizzle. After he’d spent a few years getting rich from spitting dope rhymes, he realised that life was meaningless. He may or may not have been high on fifteen different drugs that he’d just snorted off an escort’s breasts at the time of this realisation – history fails to record it. On the heels of this dramatic revelation, he quit the music business and founded The Enlightened & Gentlemanly School For The Promotion of Rrrradical Argotism, Muh Nigguh.

They were eventually all arrested for selling counterfeit dictionaries.

Only one instance of this philosophy being practiced has been recorded:

Initially misread this as “Radical Ergotism”, but argot is good too.

Oh good, I’m not the only one who misread it as ergotism. :D

#wtf even is this

Fake Philosophy Ask Meme.

Tags:

#reply via reblog #think I’ll go back and tag the first reblog for that

Anonymous asked: Radical Argotism

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

sinesalvatorem:

Francis Emilio Hernandez Sebastian Lorenzo Santiago de Tungtwizta was the  first philosopher to promote the concept of Radical Argotism. At 24, he wrote his magnum opus ‘On The Art of Slang, Yo’. When it was published, it made the authorities of the day very suspicious. After all, what kind of pleb ends the title of their book with “I”?

After some investigation, the Inquisition determined that De Tungtwizta, like every other Spanish intellectual ever, was a dirty Jew. His evil plan of hiding by having the world’s most Spanish name had been find out. One day he was minding his own business; drinking coffee and scowling at life. All that changed when the Spanish Inquisition (unexpectedly) attacked. He was executed 2 years after his book’s publication, and Argotism went underground.

One hundred years passed and a new Argot was discovered, a slang-bender named Aangwizlemahnizzlefoshizzle. After he’d spent a few years getting rich from spitting dope rhymes, he realised that life was meaningless. He may or may not have been high on fifteen different drugs that he’d just snorted off an escort’s breasts at the time of this realisation – history fails to record it. On the heels of this dramatic revelation, he quit the music business and founded The Enlightened & Gentlemanly School For The Promotion of Rrrradical Argotism, Muh Nigguh.

They were eventually all arrested for selling counterfeit dictionaries.

Only one instance of this philosophy being practiced has been recorded:

Initially misread this as “Radical Ergotism”, but argot is good too.

Tags:

#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #fake philosophy meme

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things i want

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sinesalvatorem:

maddeningscientist:

tohoya:

maddeningscientist:

wirehead-wannabe:

maddeningscientist:

people arguing that appending “gate” to every controversial thing is stupid (gategate)

a bunch of people yelling in exasperation that the above argument is even a thing (gategategate)

When we finally decide to put a stop to this madness and lock everyone out of the Discourse.

(gategategategate)

we should put big fences around areas where Discourse is allowed, so we can have people enter The Gategategategate Gate

I’m excited that “-ghazi” appears to be taking off as a suffix for trumped up scandals

You should make a really inflammatory post about this so we can argue whether it should be ghazighazi or ghazigate.

Then we should discuss the effects of this on the US presidential election, and whether Hilary Clinton has responded adequately to Ghazigateghazi.

Tags:

#language #recursion #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

dcnnanoble:

if you’re american, you should totally do this dialect test

it’s super interesting

Two of my top three are Newark/Paterson and Boston, the closest cities to the childhood hometowns of my parents. The red blob in the Northeast roughly corresponds to the part of America I think of as “home territory”, though it extends a bit too far north and isn’t quite red enough in the western Massachusetts/Connecticut area. Nice job, quiz.

Tags:

#language #home of the brave

Quick: Off the top of your head, reblog with your favorite word

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

nospockdasgay:

petrichor

 

zenkitty714:

Kumquat.

 

ehonauta:

Ausgezeichnet

 

starrla89:

cataract (of water, not of the eye)

 

irollforinitiative:

Enjambment

 

saelokason:

Defenestrate

 

alphacanismaj0ris:

copacetic

 

lokaliska:

backpfeifengesicht

 

bibliophilicwitch:

either extraordinary or tintinnabulation

 

pixieorsomething:

thylacine and pangolin

 

moniquill:

armadillidiidae

 

sonneillonv:

Onomatopoeia

 

disease-danger-darkness-silence:

Pyroclastic.

 

rcmclachlan:

Dichotomy and aphelion. 

 

eliciaforever:

I like the word “bucket.”

 

cosmictuesdays:

Relinquish.

Meridian

Tags:

#meme #language

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

nltm:

Everyone has at least one piece of their vocabulary that they picked up from Homestar Runner that they just kept even years later

For me it’s calling my computers lappy or compy

 

zestyconcarne:

I still say Good jorb

 

quibley:

NO PROBALO!

 

andrastesgrace:

Mine is “Very yes.”

 

thedefenderoftheearth:

fhwdgads

 

bookishandi:

“A Cold One” and “There is two of them?” Those two pop up a lot.

 

pablo-neurotic:

“burninate” though

 

saygoodbyetothese:

Good jorb there, Homestar

 

amberguessa:

jorb, soooo good, wiggidy wack? no just regular kind

 

curliestofcrowns:

Scroll buttons and random never really scanned em! Oh Trevor I pine for you. Jeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrbbbbbbbbb

 

sunny1:

sooo goood

 

cherrispryte:

MY NAME IS NOT NORMAN BUT STILL I ROCKWELL. 

 

unforgettabledetritus:

I mean… I think… I’m a cool guy.

 

laughterkey:

EMAIL FROM THE FRONT TO DA BACK OF THA CHECK 

 

jonahryan:

Definitely “good jorb.”

 

pomegranate:

“Some people are squirrel handed. Gregor is a weird name.”

basically the entirety of that Children’s Book SBE

 

cosmictuesdays:

The skills of an artist!

Tags:

#language #I feel like I’m re-reading ‘Colorless Green Ideas’ #pretty sure none of you are from any planet I’ve ever been to #I was never quite in the same patches of spacetime as #Homestar Runner