English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

KitFox

00:00

thx

cornbread ninja

@KitFox noooooooo :(

KitFox

so...did you all notice my new avatar?

tchrist

@KitFox Pay it no heed, he’s nonseqqing you again.

simchona

You're not a fox any more!

KitFox

@Robusto Oh wait! I got it! ha

ha ha

ha

sneezes

Robusto

00:05

See? Feeling better already. Humor is the best medicine. Or the beast medicine. I misremember which.

KitFox

The breast medicine.

Robusto

It is as mother's milk.

Shog9

Humorism

Humorism, or humoralism, is a now discredited (as objective medicine, but note, not tout court) theory of the makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers, positing that an excess or deficiency of any of four distinct bodily fluids in a person directly influences their temperament and health. From Hippocrates onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and Islamic physicians, and became the most commonly held view of the human body among European physicians until the advent of modern medical research in the nineteenth century. T...

mmm...

Robusto

You have no sense of humorism.

tchrist

0

A: How do we describe someone who has special athletic skills?

I suggest kinesthetically gifted

simchona

00:08

@tchrist I just edited that.

tchrist

Good, thanks.

Robusto

@tchrist Define "special" ... define "athletic" ... define "skill" ...

But "kinesthetically gifted" just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

KitFox

I love it.

Hang on, I've got to change my clothes again.

tchrist

@Robusto Well, this surely counts:

14 mins ago, by KitFox

Buggery is not something done to feet.

Robusto

I would say that person is very athletic.

I'm not sure I would want someone saying I have "special" athletic skills.

I have 14 apps waiting to update on my Verizon Droid Razr, none of which I can remove. Yet it always sends me messages, telling me I need to update my Facebook for Droid app which I have never used and will never use.

tchrist

00:11

hates this effing video game

9 hours ago, by tchrist

@Robusto Everybody rides the short bus now and then.

Robusto

Really? There is an "effing" video game? I guess it involves playing with your joystick.

@tchrist Now I am sure. I don't want someone saying I have "special" athletic skills.

tchrist

@Robusto You have a great paralympic future.

Robusto

Careful, or I'll go all ASCII on your ASS. CII?

tchrist

@Robusto ᙭

Q: Is there a word for the day after a due day?
A: gravidissima

cornbread ninja

@tchrist hemidemisemiquaver

Robusto

00:22

@tchrist That is the most meaningful adjective I have ever seen.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja 𝆹𝅥𝅱

cornbread ninja

@tchrist your head is hollow!

tchrist

@Robusto Possibly because I get to incorporate superlativeness and femininity into an otherwise pedestrian adjective, all without resorting to the spacebar.

@cornbreadninja say "\N{MUSICAL SYMBOL SEMIBREVIS WHITE}\N{MUSICAL SYMBOL COMBINING STEM}\N{MUSICAL SYMBOL COMBINING FLAG-4}";

cornbread ninja

\N{MUSICAL SYMBOL SEMIBREVIS WHITE}\N{MUSICAL SYMBOL COMBINING STEM}\N{MUSICAL SYMBOL COMBINING FLAG-4}

tchrist

@cornbreadninja say "\x{1D1B9}\x{1D165}\x{1D171}";

Robusto

00:27

.. but really i asombrate with your

tchrist

@cornbreadninja 𝆹𝅥𝅱

@Robusto Who knows what evil . . .

cornbread ninja

you never finish your

tchrist

doffs his cap

KitFox

congratulation for have a elite members

tchrist

@cornbreadninja Rob is being polysemic. I can’t tell whether he’s reaching for shadows or hats.

cornbread ninja

00:29

@tchrist I got some this morning. Oh, nevermind.

tchrist

@KitFox looks down

KitFox

Good night, folks.

tchrist

Hope you have one too, with good rest and long.

𝄺

Robusto

@KitFox Schlaf gut!

cornbread ninja

@tchrist that ain't no hat rest.

tchrist

00:38

@cornbreadninja MUSICAL SYMBOL MULTI REST

@cornbreadninja Take care less you summon the Blue One.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist narrows eyes so they melded a half rest with a whole rest?

what's... that never happens (AFAIK)

tchrist

 𝄩  1D129       MUSICAL SYMBOL MULTIPLE MEASURE REST
        * used to represent rests of arbitrary lengths, extending across multiple measures
        x (musical symbol multi rest - 1D13A)
 𝄺  1D13A       MUSICAL SYMBOL MULTI REST
        = double whole-rest, breve rest
        x (musical symbol multiple measure rest - 1D129)
 𝄻  1D13B       MUSICAL SYMBOL WHOLE REST
        = semibreve rest
 𝄼  1D13C       MUSICAL SYMBOL HALF REST
        = minim rest
 𝄽  1D13D       MUSICAL SYMBOL QUARTER REST

Not counting the Byzantines.

cornbread ninja

I hate that I still have to paste your boxen into Word and then also highlight and change to Symbola.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja is not responsible for the evils which $Bill has bequeathed to the world

cornbread ninja

@tchrist I wouldn't hold you accountable.

@tchrist she would like it if you rubbed her belly.

tchrist

00:52

@cornbreadninja Victory!

simchona

KITTY

cornbread ninja

@tchrist pretty much.

►

apropos of nothing.

Those things seemed so much bigger in 1987.

user19161

@KitFox I see new avatar for new mod!

cornbread ninja

oh, @tchrist, you ever try drawing with double pencils? Literally, two pencils taped together? You can make nice letters from various angles if you just think of them like a broad-edged pen. Unsmearable.

user19161

@cornbreadninja You ever tried drawing with rolling rulers?

cornbread ninja

00:59

@JasperLoy 0_0

tchrist

It’s the pens that smear more than the pencils.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist granted, but with double pencils, you get a letter you can fill in.

user19161

I really wish the whiteboard was not invented. Blackboards are so much better.

user19161

They seem to be making things worse all the time.

Shog9

@JasperLoy Define "better"

Blackboards are messy as hell

A good blackboard is also quite expensive

chalk is cheap; that's the biggest advantage I can think of

Not knocking blackboards here, I have many fond memories of them - particularly the old slates - but whiteboards are really quite nice.

tchrist

01:07

@Shog9 Dry-erase markers are messier than one might wish.

Robusto

I'm out. Later.

Shog9

@tchrist Eh; a few ink flakes don't really compare to a room full of chalk dust.

tchrist

At least nobody ever tries to write on a blackboard using indelible markers.

Shog9

@tchrist Never seen someone paint on a chalkboard with whiteout? ;-P

tchrist

When I was a kid during the Blitz, we used blackout on our blackboards.

Andrew Grimm

02:28

Is "huge" slightly slangy?

tchrist

@AndrewGrimm Neither slangy, nor new: A. 1275 Prov. Ælfred 709 in O.E. Misc. 138 ― Þuru þis lore and genteleri he amendit huge companie.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@AndrewGrimm Depends on how you use it.

tchrist

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Isn’t that true for anything?

@AndrewGrimm What are you thinking? Do you have a slangy example?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@tchrist Anything that has slangy interpretations.

brb, must put a vacuum away.

tchrist

@AndrewGrimm Maybe the humungous / ginormous thing?

Andrew Grimm

02:33

@tchrist "First, some people insist that Japan doesn’t need to adopt austerity policy because it has a huge amount of assets at home and abroad."

Is what I'm reviewing.

tchrist

You’re right. It feels like there should be some better way to say that.

Andrew Grimm

@tchrist I'd be tempted to say "very large amount".

tchrist

I see the problem. Maybe. It’s because of huge amount.

Right.

Huge is supposed to be physical size, not high in number.

Well, in the last few centuries, at least.

† 2. Very great in number, very numerous. rare.

1570 Satir. Poems Reform. xix. 89 ― Hudge is ȝour fais within this fals Regioun.

Andrew Grimm

But isn't assets regarded as a size, not a number?

Sorry, mean "Doesn't assets have a size, not a number?"

tchrist

I agree with you that it feels slightly slangy, but I cannot quite pin down why.

Andrew Grimm

02:36

Ok, maybe I'll ask on the main web site.

tchrist

I might say great number of assets.

It *can* be used for immaterial things:

1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 143 ― [He] took a huge fancy to the wench.
1877 Dowden Shaks. Prim. vi. 135 ― His affliction serves as a measure of the huger affliction of the King.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I would consider "huge amount" to be slightly informal.

I can't quite say why though.

Well, good night all.

tchrist

04:10

@ΜετάEd PING

Mahnax

Good evening.

tchrist

Hiya.

Mahnax

I'm going on a road trip tomorrow.

tchrist

Cool. Where to?

Mahnax

British Columbia.

tchrist

04:16

How long is the drive?

Mahnax

I'm trying to find music for the trip at the moment.

14 hours.

tchrist

That is very hard.

Mahnax

You think so?

tchrist

I think so.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist gnip

tchrist

04:17

I don’t like driving more than 8–10 hours per day.

Mahnax

Why do you think so?

Oh, I see.

tchrist

It seems like everywhere I want to go at a distance is a thousand miles and sixteen hours away.

Mahnax

Well, we're doing all of the driving in one day.

tchrist

@ΜετάEd Why can’t it complete your name?

@Mahnax Well, at least there are more than one of you.

Mahnax

@tchrist My family numbers seven. There being more than one person is not an issue.

tchrist

04:19

@ΜετάEd Do you really think a “style guide” would help? No one would read it, and we’d still have to edit everything to conform to it anyway.

Mahnax

My four siblings tend to get restless, hence my search for new music.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist It?

tchrist

@ΜετάEd If I type @M it does not offer up your name for completion.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist Right. I don't have any illusions that most questions will follow a style guide.

Mahnax

That is because his name starts with the Greek M.

tchrist

04:20

@Mahnax Seven people in one vehicle? Your parents must be angels.

ΜετάEd

Mahnax got it.

tchrist

Bastard.

Mahnax

@tchrist Or crazy.

tchrist

No, just angels. If they were crazy, they must be gods. Or vice versa. Or something like that.

(old movie)

What are you doing in BC?

Mahnax

We're going to be relaxing on the beach and visiting family.

It'll be a nice break from everything.

tchrist

04:22

Down by Vancouver or Victoria, out to the island by ferry?

Mahnax

No, not out to the island.

We'll be staying near Penticton.

…which is somewhat close to Kelowna.

tchrist

When you said beach, I thought sea.

Silly me.

That would be even further.

Mahnax

Ah, no. We'll be staying in a house that backs onto a lake.

tchrist

It looks like a pretty drive.

Mahnax

Also, Penticton has a nice beach.

@tchrist The mountains are fantastic.

ΜετάEd

04:25

@tchrist I think a style guide would be useful to editors.

Mahnax

Alberta is pretty boring to drive through, until you hit the mountains. Then it's beautiful.

ΜετάEd

Ultimately because a clear style would be useful to readers.

tchrist

Oh how weird, I see you have your own Glacier National Park, and it isn’t even coterminous with ours!

@ΜετάEd Oh. I see. Yes, that makes better sense.

@Mahnax There is nothing like the Rockies in summer. I know: I live there.

Mahnax

@tchrist I love the Rockies.

tchrist

Oh you will get a new timezone, too.

Mahnax

04:28

Yeah, I'll be back an hour!

tchrist

When I make a drive for that long, it’s always west, and so I “gain” an hour.

Well, usually. Arizona is . . . weird.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist When I was little I wanted to travel around and around the world, accumulating extra days as I went.

tchrist

But Nevada is in Pacific Time. I was recently to Idaho, very close to the border, and it was still Mountain Time but shoudn’t’ve been, so had a strange sun.

Arizona is in Mountain Standard Time, always, so when you go there from Mountain Daylight Time, it feels like you are in Pacific Daylight Time, but you are not.

Unless you are in the Navajo Nation within Arizona (or the rest of the Four Corners where it sits), in which case you are in Mountain Daylight Time, unlike the rest of Arizona, which is Mountain Standard Time.

Unless you are in the Hopi enclave within the Navajo Nation within Arizona, in which case you are in still in Mountain Standard Time, just the rest of Arizona, and unlike the surrounding Navajo Nation, which is Mountain Daylight Time.

I told you it was weird.

It is a donut-shaped timezone!!

You can’t rely on your cell phone to tell you the correct time.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist Now I desperately want hora torus to rhyme.

Mahnax

@tchrist Perhaps you mean biconcave disk-shaped time zone.

tchrist

04:41

@ΜετάEd Well, hora Hopi “rhymes” in Spanish, providing you mean head-rhyme like the Anglo-Saxons used in their alliterative poetry. You’d think it would be hora Jopi, but it doesn’t seem to be.

Anyway, it would be hora tori, for the torus’s hour.

Sorry, I have to make torus a noun and give it possessive case, not an adjective in the feminine. Forgot.

Spanish rhyme is assonant, so neither alliterative nor consonant.

Meaning only the vowels of the stressed syllables count.

ΜετάEd

@tchrist Kind of sucks to be unstressed.

tchrist

Really? I find stress sucks.

Lorca rhymed Córdoba with alforja, roja, and valerosa.

So it is more than just the stressed ones. It starts with that and keeps with the vowels. So A-o, for that rhyme-set.

It doesn’t seem exact. Hm.

He rhymes pura with luna, which makes more sense.

Here’s a bunch of shorties from his Romancero Gitano.

It’s odd that one language’s notion of rhyme should be different from another’s notion of rhyme.

Or maybe not.

Mahnax

Well, I'm off for awhile. Good night to you all, I might be back later.

On an unrelated note, I've just passed 20k posts here.

dances

OK. Goodbye.

ΜετάEd

04:56

@tchrist There are so many forms of rhyme that one really needs to use an adjective each time just to be clear.

tchrist

@Mahnax Congratuations, and farewell. Enjoy your vacation.

ΜετάEd

That being said, Tom Lehrer is one of my favorite rhymers, and when he says rhyme he means something very particular by it.

tchrist

20k posts? How can he have 20k posts?

He must be counting something other than I am thinking he is.

Mahnax

05:23

@tchrist I'm counting posts in chat.

Not posts on EL&U, or even fenceposts.

tchrist

Hm, where does that pop up?

Mahnax

Click on a user's Gravatar in the thingy that contains all of the people in the room, and hover over a room's name.

MetaEd has 3793 posts here.

@tchrist Wow, you have amassed over 5k posts rather quickly.

tchrist

Oh, I see.

Thanks.

Yes, I talk too much.

Mahnax

0

Q: Why use plural for fractions?

1 kilogram 2 kilograms .7 kilograms 0 kilograms Why do we use the plural for fractions and zero?

tchrist

A quip is hardly a post.

Mahnax

05:28

13

Q: Should we use plural or singular for a fraction of a mile?

I have seen people say both 0.25 mile and 0.25 miles. Should we use plural or singular for a fraction of a mile?

grammatical-number numbers

Closey-close!

tchrist

k

Mahnax

Well, they aren't exactly the same. But it's close enough.

Huh. What an interesting phenomenon.

meta.english.stackexchange.com/…

Visible there.

tchrist

Holy cow!

Mahnax

He's suspended, so all his rep went away for a bit.

tchrist

I’ve never seen negative rep before.

Yes, but it should be locked at 1, no?

Mahnax

05:35

It is locked at 1, but for some reason this is being displayed. Cool.

tchrist

He unfreezes tomorrow.

Mahnax

…unfortunately.

tchrist

I wish he would keep to his word and just go away, but he hasn’t the integrity to keep to his word, even though he said it more than once.

Mahnax

Thankfully, it seems that Nortonn is either gone or properly suppressed.

tchrist

Daily, sometimes.

Mahnax

05:43

Hmm, perhaps I will change my font colour to a nice ġeolurēad.

tchrist

In Carlo’s honor?

Mahnax

Goodness, no.

I do nothing in Carlo's honour.

tchrist

I should hope not.

Mahnax

Once he told me that I was too young to understand his question, and that maybe I need to study more.

That made me rather angry.

tchrist

I doubt he phrased it in a way free of error.

Mahnax

05:48

He didn't.

tchrist

I seldom delivers grammatical sentences in English.

Even his Italian can be . . . bizarre.

He called poeta feminine, which of course it is not. Paula got on his case.

Mahnax

Haha. Good one, Carlo!

tchrist

Ageism is usually a cover for something else.

Not always, but often.

Mahnax

He might have just been displeased with my comment on his question. Knowing his questions, it probably wasn't a good one.

tchrist

He takes everything very, very seriously.

Mahnax

05:52

Hey, do you want to learn Finnish?

29

Finnish Language & Usage

Proposed Q&A site for students, teachers and linguists looking to discuss the finer points of the Finnish language.

Currently in definition.

tchrist

Was he the one who was ragging on you for your close-vote proportion?

Mahnax

Erm, I think it was my downvote count.

tchrist

Finnish is interesting, but I would need some reinforcement.

Yes, that was it.

Mahnax

I freely admit that I downvote frequently.

ΜετάEd

@Mahnax Finland, Finland, Finland.

Mahnax

05:55

@ΜετάEd I do love me a good Finland.

Speaking of which, I might be going there next summer.

ΜετάEd

Lots of miles from Việt Nam.

tchrist

I seem to have only one in five downvotes. Hm.

I feel more negative than that.

Mahnax

Wow.

I feel like a nasty old crone now.

Get off my lawn, pineapples!

tchrist

Thinking of you as an old crone is like trying to see reddish-green.

Mahnax

Haha.

Ow.

tchrist

05:59

 🍍  1F34D       PINEAPPLE
 🎍  1F38D       PINE DECORATION
        * Japanese new year's door decoration

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…