English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:00 AM

@Will One thing that Georgia has going for it is that it was designed to be used by very primitive technology. For example, it does not require kerning pairs or tables.

But one thing it has going against it is how much it looks like Times Roman.

tchrist

12:29 AM

@RegDwighт But for the leading, I like this one much better:

tchrist

12:40 AM

There, that one is less vertically challenged.

That’s Alfios, the one you said you liked.

I used a different approach to kerning this time, and I think it looks better.

Robusto

2:28 AM

@tchrist American women have Wonder Bras.

@tchrist American women have Wonderbras.

Cerberus

4:10 AM

user19161

8:41 AM

Wow, my comments about Cerberus have gotten me 1+1=2 stars!

user19161

8:51 AM

@rachel You seem to never leave this room.

Matt Эллен

9:54 AM

Stack Exchange English Language & Usage Blog: Looking Up a Gun: Common English Words with Nordic Origins

Luke on November 05, 2012

Old Norse words in the English language are much more numerous than many would suspect. Many common words such as gun, craze, and equip are of Nordic origin. Because the two languages were so similar, they have many loanwords. Often, they were mutually intelligible to quite a degree. In this post, I’m going to analyze the origins of these three common English words rooted in the Old Norse language.

There were a two main ways that Old Norse words made their way into the English language. First, between 865 and 954 (the Danelaw), the Vikings colonized eastern and northern England. During t …

user19161

10:07 AM

@MattЭллен Boo!

Matt Эллен

Morning @Jasper :)

user19161

@MattЭллен You used the wrong pingword.

Matt Эллен

I know :D

user19161

@MattЭллен Oh I did not know the blog is so happening these days.

Matt Эллен

very happening - it's the place to be!

user19161

10:17 AM

Do you use "happening" as an adjective as well? I was afraid you might not understand what I said.

Matt Эллен

happening is old as an adjective. it was popular in 1960s youth culture

as in "That's a really happening scene"

user19161

Oh man, I thought it is just the people here who use it.

user19161

How's the site these days? I haven't done much on ELU for the last few weeks.

user19161

I am eager to see what will happen when ELL opens as well.

Matt Эллен

Well, I haven't been to EL&U for a few days (I'm doing NaNoWriMo) but I guess it's the same as it has been

@WillHunting I thought I saw you answering NS questions last week. I must be misremembering

user19161

10:22 AM

@MattЭллен Yes, just a few, hence not much. Essentially logging in when I see low hanging fruit aka easy questions for rep whoring.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting I see. I've been editing things into shape and voting to close. Not much answering from me. Not much of the other two, either, but still more than answering :D

user19161

@MattЭллен You should run for moderator position again next year. I am mostly on math these days, both the site and chat there.

RegDwighт

@RegDwight Your failure to understand the nuances of the (incomplete) quotation you selected from my question suggests, to me, that your English was not learnt in the UK. For as long as the site is public, you'll have to tolerate the occasional unwelcome question. While speech is free, you might even have to tolerate some criticism. — Pete 28 mins ago

Noah

@Jasper- I will run.

user19161

@RegDwighт Geezis.

RegDwighт

10:26 AM

I find that hilarious on so many levels.

user19161

@Noah You used the wrong pingword.

Noah

@WillHunting Freedom!

user19161

@RegDwighт Sometimes politicians here make equally hilarious comments.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting ELL isn't even half way committed to, we've still got a long way to go

RegDwighт

@WillHunting I told him to relocate. Couldn't resist.

user19161

10:30 AM

@MattЭллен Ah, see what one JA can do, turn the tide.

RegDwighт

I don't think he so much as noticed that his question got migrated.

user19161

I once read a ridiculous book written by an evangelist who compared Buddhism to Christianity. He said that C provides the answer to why there is suffering and quoted some bible verses, but B does not and then quoted some Buddha words. HAHAHA.

RegDwighт

Looks like he still thinks it's on the main site, and he "won".

But I might be wrong; my English was not learned in the UK.

Learnt, sorry.

user19161

He similarly denounced all the other religions with his ridiculous arguments in the book, but once I saw that paragraph I knew the book is crap.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт it's difficult to tell if he's realised. maybe he's colour blind

Noah

10:42 AM

@WillHunting Jasper, if I get elected, I'll give you freedom and the elixir of life.

Matt Эллен

oh. apparently he gets it now.

user19161

@Noah Well, you just need to give me a pill to solve all the serious problems I have now...

Noah

@WillHunting Go to your local Wallgreens store and ask them for cocaine.

user19161

@Noah HAHAHAHA. Just give me a place on your ark dude.

Matt Эллен

0

Q: Bring the house down

What is a group or person callled who Brings the house down or Can Bring the house down

GR

Noah

10:44 AM

@WillHunting It's not free. Don't you see it's recession time.

user19161

@Noah I just found out the flood in NY killed many people. I am sorry to hear that.

Noah

@WillHunting Thank you. Yeah, it was very unfortunate.

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен Tom Jones and The Cardigans.

user19161

The flood here did not kill anyone though. But it did lead to huge losses.

Noah

@WillHunting during the flood you could have swum in the subway.

user19161

10:48 AM

@Noah HAHAHA, I can't really swim so I would drown.

RegDwighт

Blast Corps

Blast Corps is a video game for the Nintendo 64 developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. It was released in North America on February 28, 1997, and in the PAL regions on September 1, 1997. The object of the game is to destroy a series of buildings using a variety of unique demolition vehicles, in order to mainly clear a path for a truck carrying a pair of defective nuclear missiles. Some stages require other tasks to be completed in a time attack, most of them being time attacks (e.g., racing, destroying objects, etc.). Gameplay The game starts on a world map with only one acces...

These bring down all houses. Other facilities, too.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт Yes! I have that stuck in my head now.

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен sorry for that. I'll fix that. Think of Talking Heads instead.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт oh, it wasn't your fault. The question started it off. Talking Heads might solve it!

whoever keeps giving me typos, stop it!

@RegDwighт ah, happy memories of simpler times.

RegDwighт

So is this a meaning or a single-word-request?

user19161

10:53 AM

I think I'm a gonna watch Golden Eye on TV now...

RegDwighт

I'm tagging with both for the time being.

Matt Эллен

2

Q: Why is the comma inside quotation marks when people are quoted?

From a AMS blog post: Some organizations have temporarily suspended their polling, and with the news media tabbing Sandy as the new “it girl,” the presidential candidates were sent to the fourth estate’s back burner, at least for a few days, as notedby media reporter Howard Kurtz Why is the...

grammar punctuation

is it dupe?

RegDwighт

Half of it is dupe, half of it is gen-ref, and the remaining half might or might not be on-topic.

My comment was meant to disentangle it a bit. Perhaps I failed.

And I have no idea why Bill posted his comment as an answer.

Matt Эллен

Ah, sorry, I didn't see your comment.

RegDwighт

It irritates me myself. The leading "1." makes it look as though it's been upvoted.

And I can't type today.

Matt Эллен

11:07 AM

now it's doubly confusing ;)

RegDwighт

Flag it for confusiness.

RegDwighт

11:39 AM

0

A: What does "Ms." stand for?

i stil,thing woman that use MS are the one who are not confident in they merital status. i still belive that if a woman is meried must used MRS AND IF HE IS UNMERRIED MUST USED MISS.

Matt Эллен

I feel educated. TO THE MAX.

RegDwighт

Oh you're so serious today.

I went with a less serious remark.

Matt Эллен

I know. Work is very serious at the moment. It's rubbing off on me.

@RegDwighт lol

RegDwighт

Work? On a Monday? Dude, you have issues.

Matt Эллен

I'd prefer to be hibernating, but there you go, I've got taxes to pay.

RegDwighт

11:48 AM

What nonsense. You don't have to pay taxes if you don't work.

Unless, of course, you're hibernating on a bandwagon loaded with salt travelling through Medieval Germany.

Then you'll have to pay taxes every couple miles.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт ah, but I would have to pay council tax if I didn't work, also National Insurance, which is essentially a tax. Granted I haven't looked into what unemployment discounts I would get.

@RegDwighт good to know. I had a tripped planned, but now...

RegDwighт

Sweden Solar System

The Sweden Solar System is the world's largest permanent scale model of the Solar System. The sun is represented by the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, the largest hemispherical building in the world. The inner planets can also be found in Stockholm but the outer planets are situated northward in other cities along the Baltic Sea. It was started by Nils Brenning and Gösta Gahm. It is in the scale of 1:20 million. The system The bodies represented in this model include the Sun, the planets (and some of their satellites), dwarf planets and many types of small bodies (comets, asteroids, transne...

user19161

12:15 PM

@RegDwighт Wow, SSS!

RegDwighт

Yes, Nazis in Space.

user19161

I remember reading Secret Seven and Famous Five stories when young.

user19161

Also, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys.

Matt Эллен

Not the Salacious Six or Tantalising Two?

user19161

Hmm, those are what I write.

tchrist

12:19 PM

Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys ride again.

user19161

Nancy Drew rode on the Hardy Boys.

tchrist

There's No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama

"There's No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama" is a humorous folk song written in 2008 by the Irish band Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys (later known as The Corrigan Brothers), and set to a tune derived from a traditional air. The song celebrates the Irish ancestry of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Production and themes Obama's roots have been traced back to Moneygall in County Offaly, Ireland in the 19th century. Moneygall has a population of 298 people. Obama had previously remarked, "There's a little village in Ireland where my great-great-great grandfather came from and...

Matt Эллен

The Onanic One

tchrist

►

bice, dun, grege, taupe

Those are the more typical colors used by those who can’t tell the difference between grey and beige.

RegDwighт

Moi, I use chamois.

tchrist

12:30 PM

I can’t believe you know that chamois is pronounced shammy. I quite honestly can’t believe it. You are a Canadian mole. See taupe.

Cerberus

Uhm everybody knows that.

RegDwighт

I don't wear a taupee.

Cerberus

And aren't there even two ways to pronounce it, like chamay?

tchrist

chamois /ˈʃæmɔɪ/, /ˈʃæmɪ/, / ǁ ʃamwa/, sb.

Cerberus

Right.

Two and a half.

RegDwighт

12:32 PM

I know exactly one. /ʃa.mwa/

Cerberus

That one is selbstverständlich.

tchrist

misdelieves

RegDwighт

Everything else is abomination before God.

Cerberus

The English are just mad, that's all.

But they do sometimes pronounce /ʃaraba~/.

tchrist

bice: Brownish grey, dark grey. dark or dull blue.
dun: Of a dull or dingy brown color; now esp. dull greyish brown, like the hair of the ass and mouse.
grege: a color between beige and grey.
kasha: A beige color resembling that of buckwheat groats.
smoke, smokey: Of the color of smoke; dark, dusky; spec. of a brownish or bluish shade of grey.
taupe: A brownish shade of grey resembling the color of moleskin.

RegDwighт

12:34 PM

British have invaded nine out of ten countries — so look out Luxembourg

user19161

@Cerberus What word is that?

Cerberus

Can you guess?

tchrist

Somebody dun a mouse’s ass .

user19161

Never heard of.

Cerberus

Often pronounced /ʃærəbæŋ/.

Or something like that.

user19161

12:35 PM

Don't know the word. I only know 18k words.

tchrist

Accepted only 24k words, freshly minted.

Cerberus

Char-à-banc.

Basically a car(t) with benches.

RegDwighт

You only just invented that.

Cerberus

Yay!

Who invented what?

RegDwighт

You invented that. The spelling.

There are exactly zero Google hits for it.

tchrist

12:37 PM

ǁ char-à-banc /ˈʃærəbæŋ/, /ʃarabɑ̃/. Also charabanc, char-à-bancs. Pl. charabancs, char-à-bancs, (rarely) chars-à-banc(s).

Cerberus

Charabanc

A charabanc or "char-à-banc" () is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It was especially popular for sight-seeing or "works outings" to the country or the seaside, organised by businesses once a year. The name derives from the French char à bancs ("carriage with wooden benches"), the vehicle having originated in France in the early 19th century. Although the vehicle has not been common on the roads since the 1920s, a few signs survive from the era; a notable example at Wookey Hole in Somers...

tchrist

Etymology: a. Fr. char-à-bancs lit. ‘benched carriage’.
A kind of long and light vehicle with transverse seats looking forward. Also, a motor-coach. The word charabanc, now rarely heard, has been replaced by (motor-)coach.
Hence charabancer /ˈʃærəbæŋkər/, an excursionist who travels by char-à-banc.

Bankers are seldom for sharing.

RegDwighт

google.com/…

1 result.

Cerberus

But if you have shares, you technically share a bank.

RegDwighт

google.com/…

168k results.

I rest my case.

user19161

12:40 PM

I rest my feet.

Cerberus

That's Google's misbehaving.

@RegDwighт Notice how it doesn't give the Wiki result above, which clearly contains the word.

Google sucks.

There, I've said it.

RegDwighт

yesterday, by RegDwighт

Fuck Google.

As always, you're too little too late.

KitFox

Interesting factoid about Google...

Cerberus

Hello.

KitFox

Well, that was college, back when Google was cool.

user19161

12:42 PM

Next thing you say is you had sexual relations with google.

RegDwighт

Interesting android about Google.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт Now you're conflating two wildly different things.

@WillHunting Exactly!

KitFox

@WillHunting That is rather what I am implying.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus that's a horrible misspelling of always.

user19161

I only had such relations with myself.

Cerberus

12:43 PM

Now you're conflating two wildly different always?

RegDwighт

See. Much better now.

Cerberus

Much.

RegDwighт

It's clear that your English is not learnt in the UK.

Cerberus

Clear as a sewer.

user19161

My Chinese is not learnt in China.

RegDwighт

12:44 PM

Your English is clear as a sewer, but not in the UK.

The Brits have never invaded Sweden? I find that hard to believe. It's not exactly India, for crying out loud.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт What do you mean, good Sir?

Besides, we say England here.

RegDwighт

2 hours ago, by RegDwighт

@RegDwight Your failure to understand the nuances of the (incomplete) quotation you selected from my question suggests, to me, that your English was not learnt in the UK. For as long as the site is public, you'll have to tolerate the occasional unwelcome question. While speech is free, you might even have to tolerate some criticism. — Pete 28 mins ago

KitFox

Oh, goodness.

RegDwighт

It's okay, he promised to move away from Twycross.

Cerberus

Wow.

@RegDwight :) Thanks Reg, and touché. I apologised above for not knowing this site existed. And we didn't have 'gray' in Twycross. Well, not in my lifetime, anyway; all those Webster spellings are a distant memory in the home of the language. — Pete 2 hours ago

I did not expect him to be such a sport, after his first comment.

tchrist

12:50 PM

I think gray must look as wrong to them as apologise looks to us.

Whereas we tolerate both gray and grey. Or at least, most of us do.

Cerberus

But then every other town in England uses apologize, like Oxford...

tchrist

There is that.

Cerberus

One commonly switches placards upon crossing city borders.

user19161

I think that they should standardise all spellings.

user19161

Let all varieties have the same!

Cerberus

12:52 PM

If one's char-à-banc permits.

Or is it permit?

I think it is a subjunctive?

RegDwighт

It's Kermit.

tchrist

He must be one of those Cantabrigians.

No, it is not subjunctive. permit would be subjunctive.

And we don’t use that with if in the present tense any more anywhere outside of some courts.

And hopefully those will go away soon too.

RegDwighт

Yeah, all courts should move back to Wimbledon to die.

tchrist

It survives only in frozen phases, if truth be told.

I used to live in Wimbledon.

Rachel

@WillHunting I didn't realize simply exiting the window doesn't make me leave automatically :) I haven't been actually in this room for a few days now, even though it says I'm still here

user19161

12:59 PM

@Rachel It happens to everyone actually. =)

Matt Эллен

Once you enter, you're not allowed to leave

See. Now Hugo's trapped too

tchrist

You know that silly paired hand-gesture people make when they try to put scare-quotes around a spoken word?

Rachel

And then of course, I get random messages aimed at me so I have to come back and check them out - I think that's part of why I haven't "left" yet :)

RegDwighт

Jun 21 '11 at 11:23, by RegDwight

Anything that takes your fancy, you can have for free —
Wine, women and dancing, but you’ve got to sell your soul to me.
’Cause once you are in, you’ll never get out from Duplicate City!

tchrist

Everyone please make that silly gesture around a word of your choice right now wherever you are. I shall then pose you a question.

waits

Cerberus

1:02 PM

Hmm so it should be an indicative.

Then I got it right the first time.

leaves satisfied

tchrist

Of course it should.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@tchrist my air-quoted word was "question"

Cerberus

Bye!

Matt Эллен

CU

tchrist

Good, now, how many fingers did you each hold up?

Matt Эллен

1:04 PM

4

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

two on each hand, because I use double-quotes

tchrist

Interesting.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

single quotes for for nesting inside double-quotes. Or for Javascript strings.

tchrist

I have an example of a Brit using only one finger per paw. I thought it interesting.

►

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

at what time in the video?

RegDwighт

1:05 PM

I'm not watching 44 minutes of pseudo-Big-Bang-Theory-titles.

tchrist

It’s odd, but I bet if we were to order the native English-English speakers according to “class”, we would all agree on that ordering. Isn’t that odd? You can’t do that in North America, I don’t believe.

Oh, let me find the fingers.

RegDwighт

Oh it's that programme.

Well, still. Crappy titles.

tchrist

I think the order is Jo < Alan < Stephen < John.

Dara doesn’t count; he’s Irish.

RegDwighт

Who of these is John?

tchrist

Grey hair.

RegDwighт

1:09 PM

> John Sessions is just insufferable in this episode. At least he used to make jokes at some point, now he's treating it like fucking jeopardy!

Matt Эллен

I would say Jo is higher class than Alan

tchrist

I was trying to figure that.

Matt Эллен

but maybe that's just how Alan is presented on the show

tchrist

Ass-jockeys. Oh my.

Dara is the only one who says arse.

I always forget that the Irish are rhotic speakers.

Luke

Who likes my new avatar?

tchrist

1:11 PM

Rather large for a clarion.

Luke

Its a cornet.

KitFox

Very brassy.

tchrist

Oh here it comes.

It’s at 5:36 – 5:38, Stephen to Dara.

Not enough fingers.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

He's using the Tolkien style of quoting

Matt Эллен

interesting

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 indeed!

tchrist

1:13 PM

You have to get past the Mapplethorpe ass-jockeying.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

also his air-font must have really tiny quote marks

barely moved those fingers at all

KitFox

I don't think those were air quotes.

I think they were brackets.

Matt Эллен

it's like he draws them out with his finger tips

tchrist

Perhaps that’s meant to show a firm hand instead of a limp wrist.

Brackets?

Matt Эллен

()

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:14 PM

Some coworkers and I once tried to determine what good air-parentheses would look like. But the problem is that you need to hold them up too long.

KitFox

I would make that gesture for parenthesis.

tchrist

I doubt it was (encouragement) rather than ‘encouragement’. I was just surprised that he signed it with single quotes.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Or else do an open paren, say your aside, then a close-paren.

RegDwighт

Parentheses don't make sense there.

tchrist

Air parens look like you’re describing a woman’s shapely figure.

KitFox

1:15 PM

No, he was using brackets to delimit the extent, not scare quotes.

tchrist

I don’t see how that makes sense.

KitFox

Which is why you think single quotes is weird.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox No, I think it was scare quotes. He even scare-quotes the speech: "to use the word you said: 'encouragement'"

Matt Эллен

@simchona hey how are you? do you the answer ? — user1796528 9 mins ago

RegDwighт

He explicitly goes on to label the word as a euphemism.

tchrist

1:15 PM

Oh wait, those are squirrelly brackets that look like a woman’s figure.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@tchrist depends on the woman, probably

tchrist

Perhaps Jo uses parens.

Check out how he signs his second “encouraged”.

I love how leprechaunishly Dara says “little people” talking about robo-jockeys at 7:53. Doesn’t he sound like one?

KitFox

@tchrist You've got an odd idea of how women ought to be shaped, I think.

tchrist

@KitFox You prefer brackets to braces?

Matt Эллен

arms pointing out from your waists! it's the new black

tchrist

1:22 PM

@MattЭллен The thing with Jo is that she doesn’t sound at all pompous, whereas John nearly always does. He has that snooty prep-school accent. She doesn’t.

I don’t know that Alan went to prep school, although Stephen did. They all went to uni, Dara in Dublin, others elsewhere.

Of course Alan’s puppy-dog accent isn’t pompous either, but he can affect many a funny accent at his whim.

KitFox

@tchrist I am not much attracted to barrel-shaped women.

Matt Эллен

@tchrist true. I find Alan to always be a bit childish (on the show) but that could be an act. Jo is definitely a more reasonable type.

tchrist

♬ Roll out the barrel! ♬

@MattЭллен He’s supposed to be Stephen’s foil, so stands at the other pole.

Matt Эллен

exactly

tchrist

@KitFox I’m sure they’ll be devastated.

KitFox

1:26 PM

They will get over it. Maybe it will motivate them to get in shape.

Matt Эллен

searching Google images for barrel shaped women brings back a lot of watches

tchrist

Oh weird. So Alan went to private school, too. His degree though is in drama from Kent.

KitFox

@MattЭллен How bizarre

Matt Эллен

that's more of an hourglass figure

tchrist

John went to Bangor in Wales.

KitFox

1:28 PM

weightlossresources.co.uk/slimming/slimming_tips/…

tchrist

@MattЭллен That looks like really, really bad porn.

Matt Эллен

@tchrist luckily it's the mouth of a hippo, or we'd both be in trouble

tchrist

How many teeth?

KitFox

> there’s nothing like an ill-fitting bra to ruin an outfit

Matt Эллен

I don't know. it looks like 6

tchrist

1:32 PM

Can you imagine being a hippo dentist?

Matt Эллен

Scary job, if you ask me. I wouldn't want to be trapped in one of those

tchrist

Wow, the OED has 71 entries that begin with hippo.

Oh my, there is such a thing as a hippocaust.

hippocaust /ˈhɪpəʊkɔːst/.
Etymology: f. Gr. ἵππο-ς horse: after holocaust; rendering Skr. açwamedha.
The burning of a horse in sacrifice.

Whence follows hippogastronomy, no doubt.

Hippodramatic actually just means circus-like.

Matt Эллен

So... not related to Horse Hitler

I just made that up, it's not an internet meme

tchrist

Hippanthropy: a madness characterized by thinking oneself a horse.

Which is not hippomania.

Then there’s boanthropy.

Which is thinking oneself a . . . .

Python?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hipposter: Someone who only thinks of themselves as a horse in an ironic way

Matt Эллен

1:38 PM

lol

tchrist

A person who thinks of themselves as anything definitely has other problems.

Or have other problems, in this case.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

That's a singular "themselves"

tchrist

Why yes, there is: it’s themself.

Has you yourselves never used it?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I dunno if it's part of my language.

I wrote what came naturally.

tchrist

I can’t use selves for one person.

It weirds me out.

Matt Эллен

1:42 PM

tchrist

I am surprised it doesn’t weird you out yourselves.

Matt Эллен

hmmm, it doesn't have reflexive

tchrist

If yourself can exist, so can themself.

Matt Эллен

I think, therefore myself exists

We think, therefore myselves exist

tchrist

The Monarch remarked, “We are quite certain of this Ourself, for it is Our English, you know.”

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:43 PM

@tchrist that makes sense. But it isn't what came to mind when I wrote.

And I don't know that themself is necessary. If "they/them" is both singular and plural, then themselves can be too.

tchrist

I bet themself is more common than ourself. There aren’t so many monarchs in the world.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Hah, just noticed that my spellchecker rejects "themself".

tchrist

Themselves cannot be singular if yourselves cannot be singular.

Pick your poison.

Matt Эллен

yes it can

tchrist

Why does yourself exist?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:45 PM

@tchrist Logically, that would make sense. Pragmatically, language is not logical.

tchrist

It’s how it works for me.

I don’t analyse it.

I just say it.

And that’s how it comes out.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Me too

Matt Эллен

@tchrist I often wonder

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I just say it: and "themself" isn't the thing that comes out when I say it.

KitFox

I like "hisself."

Matt Эллен

1:46 PM

but then I have to go to work, so I stop worring and start cycling.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

And "yourself" exists for whatever reason, but continues to exist because it's widespread.

Matt Эллен

sheselves seashells

tchrist

Oh how weird.

KitFox

No, "herself"

Hisself and herself.

Like towels.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox yeah, why is it "himself"?

Matt Эллен

1:48 PM

oneself

tchrist

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 And themselves? There is a question for that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

my->myself, your->yourself, her->herself, ??him??->himself?

@KitFox well, him/them-sel[f|ves] go together, obviously... but why are they different. It should be hisself and theirselves.

KitFox

5

Q: Why "themselves" and "himself"

In the earliest grades of elementary schools, students learn that "hisself" and "theirselves" are not words. I do not understand why this is. If you wanted to refer to 'his' sock, you would say "his sock," not "him sock." Similarly, you would say "their socks," not "them socks." Why do you not c...

grammatical-number pronouns possessive

tchrist

I belief that elda is more common for hisself.

Matt Эллен

1:51 PM

hiself proably sounded too much like "his elf"

tchrist

The eldar are the high elves.

Oh. It’s usself. Curious.

> The original construction was nom. we selfe, acc. ús selfe, dat. ús selfum; whence ME. us selven. In 14th c. this was superseded in north. dial. by ur selven, midl. our(e selven (whence perh., through oure selve, our(e selfe, the form ourself). Before 1500, our(e selfs, our selves, appeared and became the standard form: cf. yourselves, themselves, and see self.

> A parallel formation to ourselves, with self instead of selves, appearing first in 14th c. It may have arisen out of our selven, through our selve, our selfe, finally with e mute, as in the infinitive of vbs. (e.g. holden, holde, hold); but, on the other hand, it may have been a distinct formation, with the uninflected self (cf. myself, ourself, with my own, our own).

us selfe, ur selven.

And a nominative we selfe.

KitFox

I thought it was an interesting question with an equally interesting answer.

Or as I said then:

I had never made this connection. You totally blew my mind today, thanks. — KitFox Jun 28 '11 at 23:11

tchrist

I heard frolicking in the wood again. Bet themselves are at it again.

Forms: see them and self.

Etymology: The original construction was nom., acc. hí, héo selfe, dat. heom selfum, whence ME. hemselve(n, etc. In 14th c. this was superseded in north. dial. by þaim self(e, þaim selven, and in Standard Eng. themself was the normal form to c 1540, but disappeared c 1570. Themselfs, themselves appears c 1500, and became the standard form c 1540. For theirself, theirselves, see III.

That is not dead which can forever lie.

Matt Эллен

do people say "theyself"?

tchrist

I think they say theirself.

I wouldn’t.

Any moreso than I would say hisself.

Matt Эллен

1:58 PM

I might be completely off the ball, but I think some African American dialects substitute they for their

tchrist

Pidginny?