English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:54 AM

@tchrist My wife wanted to watch H2: Desolation of Smaug tonight, so I gave in. What the hell, how bad can it be, right? What a fucking travesty. Literally. When it wasn't tearing Tolkien to shreds it was absolutely boring me to tears.

tchrist

I understand.

@Cerberus Thanks.

> ˌchthononoˈsology [n.]

I feel like I’m stuttering.

Robusto

Did you see it?

tchrist

Yes.

Robusto

I thought it was even worse than the first.

At least in the first they had the excuse that they were just getting under way.

tchrist

Some things were ok.

Others were execrable.

Robusto

12:59 AM

The whole Smaug sequence made me want to throw my shoes at the TV.

Also Orlando Bloom.

tchrist

When anyone but Bilbo was involved, certainly.

Thranduil seemed ok.

Bit over the top in places, but ok.

Dumb auburn chick hurt to watch.

Robusto

Way over the top, IMO.

tchrist

I can’t even remember her character’s name.

Robusto

@tchrist Yes. She was recently seen on Lost, btw.

@tchrist Tauriel?

tchrist

Never seen it.

Yes, that’s right: forest-chick.

Robusto

1:01 AM

Yeah, my wife got hooked on Lost and I watched some of it with her. Including The Worst Ending of a TV Series Ever.

tchrist

The Vala who is the Lord of the Hunt is Oromë in Q, Tauros in S.

Beleriand had Taur-nu-Fuin and Taur-im-Duinath, amongst others.

I wonder what the Sindarin was for the Greenwood in which Thranduil had his halls. Probably a Taur-something.

Robusto

I thought her name described an amalgam of Ariel from The Tempest and the Minotaur.

tchrist

No.

Robusto

joke

tchrist

> Mirkwood was a great forest in Middle-earth in the eastern region of ... It was also known as Greenwood the Great or Taur-e-Ndaedelos, and was later re-named ...

> It was only known by these names in the latter part of the Third Age, having previously been called Greenwood the Great (S: Eryn Galen) and ...

Hm, Daedalus.

Robusto

1:06 AM

@tchrist If you had, it would have ruined everything associated with it for you, forever.

tchrist

@Robusto It’s terrible to develop an addiction for something whose bottom drops out.

Robusto

Aye.

I was never addicted, but I did watch the last season with her. Goddamn, what a horror show.

And not even a good horror show.

tchrist

I understand it angered many people.

Robusto

It was a gigantic middle finger given to people who spent six years watching that shit.

A friend of mine who was totally into it saw the last episode and said he wanted those six years back.

tchrist

I’ll bet.

Like the dream-year of Dallas.

Was it an hour-long program?

Robusto

1:11 AM

Anyway, back to H2:TDOS. It's been a few years, but last time I read The Hobbit I don't recall any cameo by Legolas. Especially as a martial arts elf who perfunctorily butchers an army corps of orcs.

tchrist

Tolkien never finished the rewrite that would have placed Legolas where he belonged.

To not have him at all would not have made any sense. He is the King’s son.

But the rest, well, that’s for the children.

Robusto

But what a lot of joyless, pointless butchery.

tchrist

What terrible things men do “for the children”, you know?

Robusto

I do know.

tchrist

No magic, just an amusement park ride.

Robusto

1:13 AM

They are trying so hard to dress this up as TLotR II.

tchrist

Billions and billions of dollars.

Robusto

There is never a moment to actually think about anything. And Bilbo's epiphany about Smaug's armor is reduced to the tiniest of motes, which you could literally miss if you did blink.

tchrist

Radix malorum cupiditas est.

Including this one.

Robusto

Part of the fun of reading Tolkien is having the leisure to enjoy the nuances of his invention.

@tchrist Well, it's certainly that.

You can just feel them all thinking, "I'm dancing as hard as I can, and grinning as wide as I can. Dancing and grinning. Dancing and grinning."

tchrist

Feel whom?

Robusto

1:18 AM

Everyone involved with the project.

All this huffa-puffa nonsense.

tchrist

I’m sure they worked hard.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, not in the effort.

Robusto

That's my point.

It shouldn't seem like they're putting a whole lot of effort in.

It shouldn't seem so . . . desperate.

tchrist

Did you see last Sunday night’s Game of Thones episode?

Robusto

BTW, BBC America is starting a four part series on science fiction in film.

tchrist

The Mad Kinglet got his comeuppance, and Martin did the screenplay, so we got some extra stuff.

Robusto

1:21 AM

@tchrist Yes. We talked about that, I thought.

tchrist

Kinda.

You said you’d been holding it in for years.

Robusto

Yes.

tchrist

Martin did not write the Dragonstone scenes, though.

Plus you never know what they’re going to do with a script.

Robusto

I forget the dragon queen's name now.

Khaleesi.

tchrist

Dany.

Robusto

1:22 AM

Danerys, yeah.

tchrist

Daenerys Targaryen.

Robusto

She has little enough to do in the books, but in the TV series she seems like an airliner that's been put in a holding pattern until the air traffic controllers can figure out how to bring her in.

Right, Daenerys.

tchrist

The second season being the worst at that.

But she’s doing that in the books, too.

Robusto

Yes. But it's just made more obvious on the screen.

tchrist

Pretty sure they’re on a seven-season arc.

Robusto

1:24 AM

Because you don't get any of the little intrigues. She has 90 seconds to deal with half a book's worth of motivation and plot development.

tchrist

Which means I expect them to catch up with the books midway through next season.

Bran meets Bloodraven in the last episode. I have no earthly idea what they will do with him next season.

Robusto

I'm losing the chronology. Doesn't Tyrion kill his dad in the most recent book?

tchrist

No, end of Storm.

That will be in episode 10 this season.

That was the last book that had an ending.

Robusto

Ah. I tend to telescope everything together in my memory. The books run together anyway.

tchrist

They run concurrently, yes.

Robusto

1:27 AM

In a featureless kind of way.

Martin seems determined to flatten every arc he sees.

tchrist

Hopefully the showrunners will telescope the last two books for next season.

He meanders mercilessly.

Blue balls.

Robusto

Yup.

So what is he doing writing screenplays? He should be in his cubby putting paid to this whole mess.

tchrist

I know, right?

He writes one per season.

Cerberus

@tchrist The science of earthly diseases?

Robusto

We all know it is going to end in a final battle between Daenerys (with Tyrion) and Jon Snow.

And somehow Daenerys and Jon will kinda hit it off.

The End.

tchrist

1:30 AM

ˌchthononoˈsology.

Etymology: f. as prec. + nosology.

‘The geography of diseases’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1881)

@Robusto I doubt they both will survive; Tyrion may, however.

Cerberus

Strange.

What does geography even mean? It can only be a metaphor, as in an overview / description of diseases.

tchrist

Right.

Robusto

@tchrist I would put money on both of them surviving.

Cerberus

@tchrist I say is both bad Greek and bad English.

You cannot use chthôn like that.

And the meaning is already complete in nosology, which basically means an overview or classification of diseases.

tchrist

It is odd.

Robusto

1:33 AM

@Cerberus I like a good Djinn and chthonic now and again.

Cerberus

Hah.

Mixing metaphors is one thing.

But mixing pantheons?

Robusto

I don't mix metaphors. I scramble them.

Cerberus

(Or should that be pantatheon...)

Robusto

Never mix, never worry!

Cerberus

Hrmpf.

Robusto

1:34 AM

@Cerberus Pentatheon?

tchrist

Notice how I held off from mixing pauci- with -nym.

Cerberus

Panta is the plural of pan. Pan theon means "all of the gods".

Robusto

I know that.

Cerberus

@tchrist You mean with -onym.

tchrist

Or Pas in the nom. sg., apparently.

Cerberus

1:35 AM

The o is part of the word.

tchrist

Ok.

Cerberus

@tchrist That's masculine. Pasa feminine.

tchrist

But it still doesn’t go there.

Cerberus

@Robusto I am not surprised.

@tchrist What doesn't go where?

tchrist

Pauci- isn’t Greek.

Cerberus

1:36 AM

Indeed not.

Robusto

I was rolling the joke into the area of pentathlon.

tchrist

We were disgusting bad mixing.

Cerberus

Disgusting.

The stem of that word is pauc- btw., but the Romans often used -i- as a connecting vowel, it is true.

Although they tended not to create long words the way the Greeks did.

Robusto

How dare they?

Cerberus

Hey, it's their language!

tchrist

1:37 AM

paucal [adj.]
pauˈcality ← paucal
† paucht [v.]
× pauchty → paughty
pauci- [pref.]
pauciarthritis ← pauci- [comb. form]
pauciarticular ← pauci- [comb. form]
pauciarˈticulate ← pauci-
paucibacillary ← pauci- [comb. form]
pauciˈdentate ← pauci-
pauciˈflorous ← pauci-
pauciˈfoliate ← pauci-
† ˈpaucify [v.]
pauciˈlithionite ← pauci-
pauciˈlocular ← pauci-
pauciloquent [adj.]
pauˈciloquently [adv.] ← pauciloquent
pauˈciloquy [n.]
pauciˈnervate ← pauci-
pauciˈpinnate ← pauci-
pauciˈradiate ← pauci-
pauciˈspiral ← pauci-

Robusto

Somewhere in Indo-China (or maybe Indonesia) there must be a Pau City.

Cerberus

Pow! Pow!

Robusto

Pau! Pau!

Cerberus

Pao! Pao!

The Languages of Pao.

tchrist

Oh.

Yes.

Cerberus

1:39 AM

amazon.com/The-Languages-Pao-Jack-Vance-ebook/dp/B00846FW82/…

tchrist

By the way, can you explain to me why paulatinamente came to mean “gradually” in Spanish and Portuguese?

I can’t see it.

Cerberus

Paulatim means gradually.

tchrist

It does?

Well, that would do it.

Cerberus

> paulātim (paull-), adv. [paulum], by little and little, by degrees, gradually (syn. sensim).

From paulum, which I think is from paucus.

tchrist

Ahah!

I was thinking there was a connection, but didn’t know it.

Cerberus

1:41 AM

Or perhaps only indirectly:

> paulus (paull-), a, um, adj. [for paurulus; Gr. root παῦρος; cf. misellus for miserulus].

tchrist

Lorin @7.5 months is now ~7 pounds and Randy @8.5 months is ~10 pounds.

Cerberus

I think there is a Proto-Indo-European root like *pau- meaning "little" that both words were derived from, but I don't know the exact routes.

Robusto

Cerberus

@tchrist Cute.

tchrist

Well, you have nice eyes.

Cerberus

1:43 AM

You've aged quite a bit since last time.

Robusto

That's Rutger Hauer. My eyes are green, not blue.

Cerberus

Rutger is a good name.

Robusto

For a Kraut, sure.

tchrist

Roger that.

Cerberus

It's actually Dutch.

Is it related to Roger?

Robusto

1:44 AM

I was going to say, "Or a Dutchman."

tchrist

Ni idea.

Robusto

Roger is related to Ogier.

Cerberus

Perhaps Rutger is also German, but I know they have Rüdiger.

Robusto

Ogier the Dane

Ogier the Dane (French: Ogier le Danois or archaically Ogier de Danemarche, Danish: Holger Danske) is a legendary character who first appears in an Old French chanson de geste, in the cycle of poems Geste de Doon de Mayence. Historical references The 12th-century Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus was not familiar with the character, and Ogier has not been connected to any historic event in Denmark. A chronicle from St Martin's monastery in Cologne claims that the monastery had been pillaged by the Saxons in 778, but that it was rebuilt by "Olgerus, dux Daniæ" ("Olger, War-Leader of the...

tchrist

Ruddigore.

Cerberus

1:46 AM

Famous-spear.

@Robusto Didn't know that guy.

tchrist

(brb)

Robusto

Spear is gar in OE. Now it occurs to me that gore must be a cognate of that in both its verb and noun meanings.

Cerberus

Could be?

Robusto

> c.1400, from Scottish gorren "to pierce, stab," origin unknown, perhaps related to Old English gar "spear" (see gar, also gore (n.2) "triangular piece of ground"). Related: Gored; goring.

Cerberus

I guess the verb would make sense.

Robusto

1:47 AM

Etymonline

Cerberus

Cf. however Dutch goor "dirty" (informal).

Robusto

Hmm, actually Roger is more closely related to Hrothgar.

Both mean the same thing.

Cerberus

Ah OK.

Good to know.

I like knowing which words are related.

Makes my world look neat and simple.

n11

1:19 PM

Hmm laptops in classroom has another drawback: some people's keyboards make a lot of noise

►

Stack Exchange

2:32 PM

Limerick Machine: A couple were down on the farm Having some fun in the barn They went and made hay Till the end of...

posted on April 20, 2014 by sgdi

A couple were down on the farm Having some fun in the barn They went and made hay Till the end of the day And then spun some thread into yarn

Noah

2:51 PM

hi

HI

HI
HI

I am a bot.

H

Robusto

3:08 PM

Ain't no bot nohow.

Noah

Well, I am.

I forgot something very important. I had something very important in mind and wanted to ask it here, but it slipped my mind. Don't know what it was. I really feel frustrated now. Feel like I have lost something.

What do you call this state?

Johan Larsson

30+

Noah

When you intend to talk about something and it slips your mind. You try to remember it but you simply cannot.

Johan Larsson

26 secs ago, by Johan Larsson

30+

Noah

well, I am 20-

Johan Larsson

3:14 PM

:)

Noah

what's up there in Sweden?

Anything new in general?

Johan Larsson

nothing I know but that does not mean much

if there was something huge Cerb would have told me though

Matt Эллен

lol

Noah

Watching The IT Crowd

RegDwigнt

4:09 PM

0

Q: What lexical relationship lies between the days of the week?

I'm confused, What is the lexical relationship between "Monday" and "Tuesday"? I mean is the relationship hyponymy, prototypes, polysemy, homophones, metonymy etc?

I can't decide what's more strange, the question itself, or the comment by Aaron...

Robusto

6:00 PM

@RegDwigнt That hurts my head to think about.

Ice Girl

Hi all

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Also, does "Twosday" come before "Threesday" in Chinese? In Japanese the day names are 日曜日 "Sun Day", 月曜日"Moon Day", 火曜日 "Fire Day", 水曜日 "Water Day", 木曜日"Wood (Tree) Day", 金曜日 "Gold (or Silver) Day", and 土曜日 "Earth (Soil) Day".

Ice Girl

:)

n11

@Noah componentowl.com/blog/zen-coder-vs-distraction-junkie

starting to list days at sunday or monday is like 0 or 1-based array indexing

Guys, is the number of possible chess configurations finite or infinite?

by configuration I mean a whole game, and 2 games are the same if all their moves are the same

andyrantsandraves.blogspot.fr/2009/10/…

tchrist

6:45 PM

@Robusto In some languages, it does. Portuguese has segunda-feira, terça-feira, quarta-feira, quinta-feira, sexta-feira, sábado, domingo, with Sunday last.

However, one normally skips the -feira in casual conversation.

Jez

Well I'll be. and the new thing i've learnt today is that "speak with a forked tongue" comes from the native Americans, not from the Biblical Genesis story!

tchrist

Segunda-feira

A segunda-feira é considerada o segundo dia da semana, seguindo o domingo e precedendo a terça-feira. {| border=1 width="80%" |- | 1° dia || 2° dia || 3° dia || 4° dia || 5° dia || 6° dia || último dia |- | Domingo || Segunda-feira || Terça-feira || Quarta-feira || Quinta-feira || Sexta-feira || Sábado |} Por ordenação de trabalho, lazer e pela normal ISO, a segunda-feira é considerada o primeiro dia da semana, sendo assim na maioria dos calendários em todo o mundo. {| border=1 width="80%" |- | 1° dia || 2° dia || 3° dia || 4° dia || 5° dia || 6° dia || último dia |- | Segunda-feira || ...

Jez

just a coincidence that Eve was tempted by a snake

tchrist

Forked tongue, two-faced speaker.

Dias da semana

Os dias da semana têm seus nomes na língua portuguesa devido à liturgia católica por iniciativa de Martinho de Dume, que denominava os dias da semana da Páscoa com dias santos em que não se deveria trabalhar, originando os nomes litúrgicos: {| class="wikitable" |- ! Latim I !! Latim II !! Significado !! Latim litúrgico I !! Latim litúrgico II |- | dies solis || solis dies || dia do Sol || prima feria || feria prima |- | dies lunae || lunae dies || dia da Lua || secunda feria || feria secunda |- | dies martis || martis dies || dia de Marte || tertia feria || feria tertia |- | dies mercuri...

Johan Larsson

7:23 PM

I wan't to live where it is < one hour drive to this

Jez

"wan't"?

Johan Larsson

:) ty ty

that was a strange dumb

Jez

i've seen it before though

it's no't an uncommon mistake

Johan Larsson