English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

user227867

1:20 AM

Hello @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 how have you been? Your kids must be huge now, lol.

Mitch

1:51 AM

@WillHunting more like a comedy

Or a history?

user227867

2:50 AM

@Tonepoet I made a mistake in my citation and edited my answer. I also further edited it otherwise. I think you would be interested:

user227867

16

A: Is "youth" gender-neutral when countable?

Oxford Dictionary of English defines the countable noun youth as 'a young man'; Collins English Dictionary defines it as 'a young person, especially a young man or boy'; Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it as 'a young person, especially a young male between adolescence and maturity...

Tonepoet

5:28 AM

@tchrist You've gotta love those ~~conjunctions~~, ~~adverbs~~, postpositives(?) at the end of sentences. =P

user227867

6:17 AM

@Tonepoet What, no response to my ping? =P

Tonepoet

@WillHunting I was watching videos and you left by the time I finished. I'm not really sure what to think. Dictionary consensus is always interesting but I usually prefer to use more than that. I wonder if there's any considerable usage of youths in antiquity that refers to female or co-ed groups for instance.

Knowing the numbers would lend credibility to the notion that lexicographers observed one thing, and perhaps the implication that they misconceived what was meant to be communicated.

Tonepoet

6:56 AM

@WillHunting Oh, I have also learned recently that not all O.D.O. entries are sourced from the Oxford Dictionary of English. I found some in the Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words, or the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. It might be better to attribute O.D.O. in this case, since I can not verify that definition's presence in any Google Books preview of those books.

user227867

7:20 AM

@Tonepoet Well, I think it is actually all from ODE, because the online version is more updated than the printed book! At least, the word list is meant to be the same, more or less.

user227867

@Tonepoet Remember that the ODE has not been updated since 2010, and the online version is updated every three months... For example, in September, they just added the word 'longanimity' the day after we discussed it in this room! Probably we will see 'longanimity' in the next printed edition then.

Tonepoet

I'm not so sure it is meant to be the same word list, (or if it should matter until it's printed in the book). What if they don't print another O.D.E. (as with the Oxford-Paravia) or if they mean to put the definition in a different book?

user227867

Well, we can just call it Oxford Dictionaries or OD for short then. Anyway I don't care what the ELU folks call it. It's a big fuss over nothing.

user227867

@Tonepoet If Oxford refuses to print its dictionaries, there is always Collins for EGFIS.

Tonepoet

@WillHunting Hmm, it's not so much about the E.L.U. folks for me as it is the O.U.P. folks. Even citing the wrong edition of a book, like the Concise Oxford English Dictionary can make the difference between accrediting H.W. Fowler, Cathrine Soanes or Angus Stevenson as the primary lexicographer.

user227867

7:32 AM

@Tonepoet I don't think the OUP folks care as long as you are not destroying their source of income.

user227867

@Tonepoet Hey, can you solve a quadratic equation?

Tonepoet

@WillHunting Hmm, that's probably the case except I can't say for certain.

@WillHunting I do hate to disappoint you, but even long division is a mystery to me.

user227867

@Tonepoet Oh OK. Then your math education isn't that little after all. Well, I have never had the need to solve a quadratic equation in real life, you know.

user227867

@Tonepoet It's a mystery to me too. It's quite mysterious indeed!

Tonepoet

I was responding to a different message with the first line.

user227867

7:37 AM

@Tonepoet You know, I have no idea why they tell kids that math is so important when it really is not: you really don't need to solve a quadratic equation in real life!

user227867

@Tonepoet Oh... Hehe.

user227867

@Tonepoet So, is quadratic equations on your list of to-study things?

user227867

@Cerberus I don't think Christ will come again. In fact, maybe he never even came in the first place.

Andrew Leach

@WillHunting Defactor to generic form ax²+bx+c=0 and then use the Quadratic formula. Easy.

user227867

@AndrewLeach Hello. I miss your photo.

Andrew Leach

7:43 AM

Well, it was a bit out of date.

user227867

I am sure you still look sexy.

Tonepoet

@WillHunting Not really, unless I learn it through happenstance by being here. =P

user227867

@Tonepoet Hmm. This raises many questions about the nature of your education, but I shan't probe too much... As they say, curiosity kills the cat. Wait, did Alice in Wonderland own a cat? =P

Tonepoet

@WillHunting In the animated Disney movie there's Dinah. The only cat I recollect from the books though, is the Cheshire Cat, who was not Alice's pet.

Then again, I do not recollect much about the books so that does not preclude the possibility that Dinah appeared in them... And as a matter of fact apparently she does. So @WillHunting Yes, Alice has a cat. Do not kill it with your curiosity

Mitch

12:22 PM

@WillHunting Somebody needs to learn basic math, but for the most people it's not useful, even long division.

Matt E. Эллен

12:38 PM

but doing long division or multiplication in you head is very important for when hand calculators will be declared blasphemous by the Queen

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…