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Last post Author Topic: Don't call it "the tray"!  (Read 29204 times)

Cpilot

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #25 on: April 23, 2007, 09:12 AM »
Pedantic or not in the long run I doubt it'll make a difference.
Common terminology is arrived at by consensus.

Case in point, in the 80's Xerox made some noise about using it's name as a verb.
As in xeroxing to mean making a copy. It never got anywhere because it became a common term for using a copy machine.

lanux128

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #26 on: April 23, 2007, 08:57 PM »
Common terminology is arrived at by consensus.

exactly, words evolve as people use them.. any linguistic expert or dictionary compiler would vouch for this, even though he may not agree with the words.. btw, google is not tearing its hair off everything someone googles on the web.. :)

f0dder

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #27 on: April 24, 2007, 03:30 AM »
I thought google was against it's name being used as a verb...

http://arstechnica.c...st/20030620-162.html
http://news.bbc.co.u.../1/hi/uk/3006486.stm
- carpe noctem

lanux128

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #28 on: April 24, 2007, 09:23 PM »
I thought google was against it's name being used as a verb...
hehe.. google has proved that it is a corporate business after all.. so much for "do no evil".. :) thanks for clarifying, f0dder.. :up:

Cavalcader

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #29 on: April 24, 2007, 09:56 PM »
hehe.. google has proved that it is a corporate business after all.. so much for "do no evil".. :)
I'm starting to wonder if it's even possible to run a huge business and still put out a good product over the long haul. Still, ya gotta admit, protecting their investment in the company name is one of those necessary evils. Imagine how long it took some creative people to come up with the name Kleenex, and now it's about as generic as can be...

Whoops, wandering way offtopic. How about a Kleenex dispenser in the Notification Area?  :P
My Linguistic Profile:
  40% General American English
  30% Yankee
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What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Darwin

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #30 on: April 24, 2007, 11:05 PM »
How about hoovering up a xerox of a kleenex that someone has written all over with a biro?

OK, so two of my two examples are common in British English... I don't care!

CleverCat

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #31 on: April 25, 2007, 06:57 AM »
Curt - just goes to show how smart you have to be to have a good command of the English Language! :Thmbsup:

I am teaching my neighbour's 9 year old (Afrikaans) Son, as his Father wants him to speak 'real' English and not the local variety!

I am British BTW...

 ;)
« Last Edit: April 25, 2007, 06:58 AM by CleverCat »

Renegade

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #32 on: April 25, 2007, 05:11 PM »
When I was a little boy, my sister was a "slut". "Slut" originally meant "little girl" and had no sexual connotations. The word changed.

! How old are you, Renegade? On the west coast of Canada at no point in the last 50 years (that I am aware of) has calling a guy's little sister a slut been anything other than derogatory, inflammatory, and loaded with sexual connotations!

The examples there are more than just a few years old. A couple hundred or so. Never-the-less, the meaning of the word changed. Not in our lifetime, but still, it illustrates the point that the meanings of words (and what things are called) changes over time.

Another example would be "tissue" being called "kleenex" or "cola" being called "coke".

As yet another example, the origin of the word "f**k" comes from a word meaning "to thrust", as in to thrust with a sword. (Old Anglo-Saxon)

The above example with "slut" was meant for dramatic effect. I thought that was obvious in the context.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

f0dder

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #33 on: April 25, 2007, 05:13 PM »
As yet another example, the origin of the word "f**k" comes from a word meaning "to thrust", as in to thrust with a sword. (Old Anglo-Saxon)
-Renegade
You've heard that mp3 too? :)
- carpe noctem

Renegade

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #34 on: April 25, 2007, 05:17 PM »
As yet another example, the origin of the word "f**k" comes from a word meaning "to thrust", as in to thrust with a sword. (Old Anglo-Saxon)
-Renegade
You've heard that mp3 too? :)


Actually, I got that from a university class in Old Anglo-Saxon well before the George Carlin comedy routine. :)

 
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

f0dder

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #35 on: April 25, 2007, 05:20 PM »
That's the guy who made that 60-minutes-ish monologue on "the meaning of the word f***"? I've been trying to track it down on and off :)
- carpe noctem

Renegade

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #36 on: April 25, 2007, 05:28 PM »
It's not that long. I forget exactly how long it is - around 5~10 minutes I think. The guy is really smart though. Some of the most intelligent comedy out there.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Darwin

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #37 on: April 25, 2007, 05:35 PM »
The above example with "slut" was meant for dramatic effect. I thought that was obvious in the context.

Yup - it was obviously meant for dramatic effect, I just read it as having changed over the course of your life, that's all.

Thanks for the clarification - I wasn't aware of that!

f0dder

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #38 on: April 25, 2007, 05:40 PM »
60 minutes as in http://www.cbsnews.c...nutes/main3415.shtml - there's always this old guy at the end who's doing a funny monologue :)
- carpe noctem

Darwin

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #39 on: April 26, 2007, 09:06 AM »
60 minutes as in http://www.cbsnews.c...nutes/main3415.shtml - there's always this old guy at the end who's doing a funny monologue :)


Aah...! Andy Rooney.

f0dder

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #40 on: April 26, 2007, 09:07 AM »
Ah yeah, that's his name! - dunno if it's he who did the sketch I remember, but the voice reminded me of him.
- carpe noctem

superboyac

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #41 on: April 26, 2007, 11:34 AM »
I actually appreciated learning this little nugget of info.  I'm pretty particular myself, so I like this sort of thing.  For example, I just learned that DVD originally stood for "Digital Versatile Disc" not "Digital Video Disc". 

Renegade

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #42 on: April 26, 2007, 04:57 PM »
The above example with "slut" was meant for dramatic effect. I thought that was obvious in the context.

Yup - it was obviously meant for dramatic effect, I just read it as having changed over the course of your life, that's all.

Thanks for the clarification - I wasn't aware of that!

Sorry - I misread what you meant. It never occurred to me that you were asking if I was 397 years old! :)
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Edvard

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #43 on: April 26, 2007, 06:36 PM »
As yet another example, the origin of the word "f**k" comes from a word meaning "to thrust", as in to thrust with a sword. (Old Anglo-Saxon)

I remember in Junior High School looking up dirty words in the oldest dictionaries I could find in the library. One of them said the word in question was a verb that meant "to hit".

Gives new insight to the phrase "I'd hit that..."

:duck: :run:

lanux128

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #44 on: April 26, 2007, 09:05 PM »
As yet another example, the origin of the word "f**k" comes from a word meaning "to thrust", as in to thrust with a sword. (Old Anglo-Saxon)
here is another source that traces the origin via a Scandinavian derivation of "focka" meaning to copulate.. :)


Curt

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #45 on: April 27, 2007, 05:38 PM »
Curt - just goes to show how smart you have to be to have a good command of the English Language! :Thmbsup:

In fact the two most difficult languages in the world are said to be Danish and Japaneese.
- Did you know that the English language has some 500 words from Danish...?   ;)

A Nordic example (Danish, Dutch, German, English, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic):
Nordic.png
« Last Edit: April 27, 2007, 05:54 PM by Curt »

Renegade

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #46 on: April 27, 2007, 08:02 PM »
As yet another example, the origin of the word "f**k" comes from a word meaning "to thrust", as in to thrust with a sword. (Old Anglo-Saxon)
here is another source that traces the origin via a Scandinavian derivation of "focka" meaning to copulate.. :)



One of the most common probably derives from the same root as the Norwegian word fukka and the Swedish focka (to copulate), and was first recorded in the early 16th century.

That helps put things in perspective historically and it's easier to see how the original "to thrust / to stab" evolved into "focka/fukka" with that meaning, and then to our modern sense of it now.

And who said linguistics or history was boring? :)
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

lanux128

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #47 on: May 02, 2007, 10:06 PM »
And who said linguistics or history was boring?

yes, it doesn't have to be.. just check here..


Maggy160

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Re: Don't call it "the tray"!
« Reply #48 on: May 04, 2007, 03:39 AM »
Webster online dictionary:
http://www.m-w.com/c...ctionary&va=fuck
Etymology: akin to Dutch fokken to breed (cattle), Swedish dialect fokka to copulate
The Dutch verb is much older than the Swedish one and has no relation with the old English word for to thrust as far as I can find.
Some other words "borrowed" from Dutch:
apartheid easel cookie dapper dock landscape sketch still life filibuster loafer slim scrabble Santa Claus scone snoopy yacht yankee
and some things the English think about us...
Dutch courage: courage from a bottle
Dutch uncle: suger daddy
Dutch wife: pillow
Dutch gold: fools gold
Double Dutch : you know...
Dutch treat, Dutch party, Dutch auction....