English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

11:56 AM

That's because they are not drinking enough electrolytes.

Q: Should swearing be allowed in titles?

12:26 PM

I hate the sound barrier.

I see there are eight flags on Mr I-don't-give-a-shit.

-1

I can't find a hard policy on this issue. Here are a couple of relevant questions: Is swearing allowed in questions? Referencing the existence of words that may be offensive Some quotes from the accepted answers: 1. Not only do I think that a person should be able to discuss an offensive ...

4

Q: Verb meaning “giving people shit”

I'm looking for a specific verb that mean 'giving people shit' (as in teasing them, keeping them honest). It needs to capture that the teasing is warranted, and that the criticism is correct.

single-word-requests verbs offensive-language

Do I really have to edit the damned thing again?

Or should I rabble rouse six offensive flags? :)

I would, but I don't really give a shit. Let the meta discussion play out.

> What does “I thought that I loved ” means?

Sweet mother of Abraham.

Ah! A mod, Reg can edit it!

@tchrist apparently, the OP does give a shit and has edited the title accordingly.

12:43 PM

I have a policy to edit things only once.

If someone reverses my edit, I never "try again".

Same here.

Of course I am against petty censorship, so I say just leave it as it is.

@Cerberus Yeah, but I understand censoring the titles. Since some people are apparently quite easily offended, there's no need to antagonize them by including profanity in the titles. Censoring out of the actual posts is silly of course.

The issue is that SE can get network-banned by nannywear for stupid things like profanity in titles.

Yup

12:59 PM

I posted two walls of text explaining the policy. That should be enough for everyone.

And a video.

Am I not lovely.

Shitty video.

It looks like you are trying to write "cunting retarded video". Do you need any help with that?

My language has of late become much more laden with expletives. I blame slings and arrows.

And idiots.

Oh yeah. Idiots are horrible. Only people are worse.

Today's project is somehow merging multiple localization lexicons sanely in the face of possible collisions. I rather think I'm simply going to throw up my hands and toss a profane exception if there are duplicate msgid strings that map to different msgstr translations across related lexicons in the same LANG.

1:10 PM

I can recommend drinking.

Scratch that. I will recommend drinking.

That does seem a sensible solution to nonsense.

It is the solution to all of the world's problems. As none other than Homer proclaimed.

Oct 23 '14 at 11:41, by RegDwigнt

►

@RegDwigнt I claim prior art, for lo these two decades past I long ago found the answer to all man’s problems.

Man there's a lot of chop today.

Hard to type on a plane that thinks it’s a yoyo.

1:36 PM

Now look at them yoyos, that's the way you do it. Let me tell you, them guys ain't dumb.

1:56 PM

@terdon I disagree, but people wanted it this way 4 years ago (censor titles but not messages), so I acquiesced. But shit is really not an "offensive" word (God, I hate the word "offensive"; it smacks of intolerance without balance).

2:15 PM

@Cerberus offensive is in the eye of the beholder. All I'm saying is that not everyone shares your (and my) tolerant view on profanity and censoring the titles seems like a good compromise. A better one would be to have them uncensored on the ELU site but censored in the Hot Questions list and other places where it would appear or, even better, having them censored in the URL (to avoid nanny software) but not in the title we see.

That, however, seems like way too much trouble to be worthwhile.

2:29 PM

Or we could stop pandering to broken nannyweb software.

nannyweb software?

@Cerberus Now you're being defensive.

@Cerberus p.s. Is it really four years later? Geezis.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 This. In order to sabotage the stupid nannies, we should allow "shit" on SE. That way, companies that censor "shit" will lose access to SE and eventually be weeded out in the survival of the fittest. @terdon

@Robusto I think so: I think it was when Kosmo floruit.

(I presume you know the expression.)

Yeah. Damn, that seems like just last year.

I know!

grammaticality sentence-patterns

2:44 PM

@Cerberus I can guess, but I can't say I know it.

0

Q: Which is the best?

To be used in an informal context : 1.I think of them as 'suggestions' more than 'corrections'. 2.I don't think they are corrections as such, but more like suggestions. If you can think of any other way to say this, please mention it. Furthermore , if there are any mistakes in the above sentenc...

When you refer to a writer, you often mention when he lived.

Another "Which is best" question.

@Cerberus Ah, OK.

> Cerberus (2400–2300 BC).

Heh. That's when you flowered?

However, often times this is not very relevant, so you want to mention when he "flowered", yes, so what his most productive or important period was.

2:46 PM

Normal people go into their dotage in old age. Writers go into their anecdotage.

Heh, many do!

> Cerberus (fl. 2370–2330 B.C.).

TIL that tomatoes are officially vegetables by decision of the US Supreme Court. You call it a fruit, you're breaking the law, biologist motherfucker.

Unless, of course, you live in a free country, like I dunno, Russia or Zimbabwe.

@RegDwigнt You call it a fruit, for tax/trade purposes, you're breaking the law, tax-evading motherfucker.

FTFY

I know, it's less humorous when you know the context.

@RegDwigнt You're safe if you're not importing tomatoes and calling them fruit.

jinx

Mar 11 '11 at 17:06, by RegDwight

That's the slowest jinx in history.

2:55 PM

Jesus Christ stop pretending that I can't read and that you don't know what a joke is.

What is this "joke" that you speak of?

I see no jokes on this page.

@RegDwigнt The joke is only funny for people who can't read

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny? I'm confused . . .

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 No, the joke is only funny for people who don't follow the link. Which, on the internet, comprises EVERYONE.

See, @Reg is always complaining about us taking his jokes literally, but when people can detect no humor in a given statement, that's what they do.

2:57 PM

@Robusto there is a Supreme Court decision that they do not have to be.

Whatever the right side of the decision was, I am fairly certain Clarence Thomas was on the other side.

@Robusto when people can't detect humor, they are no people but vegetables. And no Supreme Court will overrule me on that.

I don't think that gentleman has ever been on the right side of anything.

How about the political spectrum?

If the U.S. wanted to bring back slavery and the issue went to the Supremes, I am fairly certain Thomas would even be on the wrong side of that.

2:59 PM

Oh.

So... he'd be extremely right, for once.

@RegDwigнt Well, maybe. He is off in his own dimension or something.

Worst. Supreme. Ever.

LOL, you've not seen the Supremes that'll come after him. You're so in for a surprise, biologist motherfucker.

In Scalia's case, you can't imagine that at 80 he's got that many more years left. But Thomas could be the doorstop of the SC cloakroom for decades to come.

Biology will have to be spelled God. And He will see that it is good.

@RegDwigнt Stop trying to depress me. Apple already tried that today by insisting on having their own fucking namespace for CSS animations. And they failed, my friend. By god, they failed.

3:02 PM

640k namespace should be enough for everyone.

> The passages cited from the dictionaries define the word "fruit" as the seed of plaints [sic], or that part of plaints [sic] which contains the seed, and especially the juicy, pulpy products of certain plants covering and containing the seed.

Hmm, what is a plaint? Is it what a plaintiff eats?

Whoever a plaint is, I want to be his complaint.

We will hang out together at plaint.com.

Maybe they main "a plain t" . . .

What does that have to do with the price of planes in China?

¿Cuál es el precio de los aviones en China?

3:06 PM

Sopra nuevo milenios.

¿De dónde sacaste ese número?

Del plafono del esto cuarto donde estoy sentado.

No es posible, no es sencilla.

Shit, my Pseudoiberian used to be better. These days too many correct things slip through. I'm getting lazy.

Estoy gettando lazindo.

No voy a escribir nada.

3:11 PM

Yo tengo much dinero para mutar los comunistas, por eso voy a mutar los comunistas pronto.

Como se dice "CU" en castellano?

"Vamos a versu?"

Adíos.

A dios le pido.

A dios el piso.

You're letting your German roots slip through. Only Germans place the stress in "adios" on the I.

But Italians do so too, don't they?

3:14 PM

The tyranny of languages is too much with us.

Which is why everyone in Germany thinks that Juanes sings "Bye-bye, Lepido".

Addío, or how do you spell that?

Ciao.

No, not that.

Your Pig Latin spelling is very, very bad.

Cerberae item domue.

3:15 PM

> Por que en italiano a veces dicen "addío" y otras "arrivederci" para despedirse??...?
- Stella M
Mejor respuesta: Porque el addio se utiliza como aquí el que "te garue finito" e implica el deseo no volver a ver a esa persona.
Arrivederci significa, hasta que nos volvamos a ver, es la forma cortés de saludar y desear un pronto reencuentro.

sm
Stella M · hace 8 años

@RegDwigнt You are confusing my language ability with my typing ability. I put the accent on the wrong vowel because I knew there was an accent coming and I jumped the gun. It happens.

@Robusto OMG here comes an ac'sent!

The process of making diacriticals is so unnatural that of course I fuck it up much of the time.

Try making do instead. Or dough. Or d'oh.

Normally when I'm typing Spanish I'm using the international Spanish keyboard on my PC. But here I am on a Mac, and I have to do it laboriously with extra keystrokes.

3:17 PM

So, as you see, they have addío in Italian.

Meanwhile, as I was saying, voy a mutar muchas comunistas inmediatamente.

Lators gators mutators.

CU

@Robusto I will practice praeterition and fail to mention how easily Autohotkey could help you.

@RegDwigнt Addío!

@Cerberus Hmm. Praety funny.

I will not thank you for such a friendly comment.

3:21 PM

You show remarkable forbearance.

I will repeat my previous comment and hereby perform the opposite act.

I remain unruffled.

That what is that jumble on your wings?

Oh, wait, you must be a Balrog.

I said unruffled, not unwaffled.

Now I'm sleepy.

Entertain me so I won't fall asleep. You do know some tricks, don't you?

So you want waffling?

3:29 PM

Whatever it takes. Coffee has ceased to work.

I care nothing for what happens to garbage once it leaves my residence. — Robusto 2 mins ago

@Cerberus Mmmm, waffles.

Does English have a verb like swaffle or zwaffle?

Not that I'm aware of.

Dutch does.

3:31 PM

Dutch has a lot of words unavailable in English.

Tourists get arrested for it sometimes when doing it to, say, the Taj Mahal.

What does it mean?

You can guess...

Not when I'm sleepy.

It is something I could not explain without mentioning unmentionables.

Girls cannot do it.

3:33 PM

Since when do you balk at mentioning unmentionables?

@Cerberus They can do it, though not as readily.

swaffelen tegen het monument van de dam ( Leon @ Queensday)

Mmm nope, it requires a certain movement!

►

Some bloke swaffling the National Monument on Dam Square.

(It is hideous anyway.)

OIC.

Queensday/Kingsday brings out the best in people.

*beast

Exactly.

3:42 PM

It's raining quite a lot. Reminds me of summer

Could be because it is summer?

oh! right, right. summer reminds me of autumn

but slightly warmer

Did you forget you were in England for a moment?

yeah. It was really sunny, yesterday

Huh, I guess we traded, we had rainstorms yesterday, sun today

3:47 PM

interesting trade...

I bet California's jealous

Hehe.

@Cerberus what's swaffelen? I could watch the video, but...

I have sent e-mails to Marine le Pen, and to Alexander, count of Lambsdorff.

@MattE.Эллен You will know when you watch the 15-second video...

Why would someone want to do that?

@Cerberus uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgh

3:53 PM

swaffle, I mean.

Because one is stupid!

@MattE.Эллен Hehe.

I thought that might be it

So there is no non-compound verb for this in English, as I suspected?

But surely Englishmen do this to monuments too?

well, "cock slapping" but that's usually to faces,

I do not recall this as a UK pasttime

Yeah. Not enough "wood" in the UK, wot?

3:57 PM

I guess we don't find stone arousing

Hmm odd. It would suit British predilections no less than Dutch ones, one should think.

@Robusto It's not supposed to be woody, methinks.

I can't think of a situation where "I'm going to rub my cock on Nelson's Column" would be met with anything approaching encouragement :D

@MattE.Эллен Not even the Elgin marbles?

@MattE.Эллен Not even by one's drunken maties?

@Robusto No. We don't like them, we just like prevent people from having them.

3:59 PM

Haha.

Surely you do like them!

I suppose rubbing one's cock on them would be a good way to mark them as ours...

That's probably the idea.

@Cerberus maybe, I suppose. Students are a strange bunch, so I can just about see that

@Cerberus Have you checked urbandictionary?

@MattE.Эллен Students, or just any random bunch of drunkards...

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I have not.

I was just making conversation with Rob based on his mentioning waffles, because he was bored.

4:03 PM

urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=swaffle

> the act of cock-slapping a girl or any other object, original word originated from Dutch culture

There you go. It's part of Dutch culture.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 TIL

Well, well.

At least its presence in the Urban Dictionary is...ample.

@MattE.Эллен me too. TIWTTF.

@Cerberus wink

Heh.

4:12 PM

Houdou!

You do!

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Hey! Are you from the south of the Netherlands?

I think it's usually spelled houdoe.

But it means howdy.

@Cerberus I knew I was getting it wrong.

Close enough!

You're so southern!

Melk!

4:16 PM

Yay!

I reckon!

I'm drinking thee with melk as we speak.

Nein zucker?

Kein Zucker, geen suiker.

4:18 PM

kein Zucker heute Abend in meinem Kaffee / kein Zucker heute Abend in meinem Tee

een lepeltje suiker helpt de geneeskunde naar beneden gaan

@Rob ^

tweened!

>_<

Such is life.

I had plenty of time.

4:39 PM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Rate Mal Wer, ja?

@Robusto Ja.

Wie geht's?

Fick Arbeit.

Eine kleine Nachtmusik

giggles

Jasper!

Jasper Loy

4:43 PM

Hi!

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Wenn du es richtig machst, es ist nicht Arbeit.

*ist es

I thought it might be, but I was too lazy to change it.

Heh.

Takin' a page out of your book, yeah?

4:48 PM

Does it feel good?

I'm still too sleepy. I just walked a couple miles with a colleague and I thought that would jazz me up, but instead I'm just tired.

I'll go home and ride my bike, see if that helps.

Surely that will help!

I haven't heard you talk about your knee for a long while.

And all the biking: so it is 100% OK now?

@Cerberus Call it 97% OK.

Still feels like not a 100% real knee, but much better than a damaged one.

When I think I'd been living in that pain for like 15 years . . . today I feel blessed by comparison.

@JasperLoy How are things?

Yay!

4:51 PM

He left.

D'oh!

So how do you mean "not real"?

Didn't you see the cornflower blue square nosedive a couple of minutes ago?

They only removed bits of cartilage, I seem to remember?

@Robusto was getting coffee. And there's no right way around here.

4:52 PM

If you can bike fast for extended periods of time, I call that healed!

@Cerberus It has weird clicks and pops (not painful) and occasional stresses and strains. But overall much, much, much better.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 No right way to get coffee? Or did you mean "right of way"?

I see.

@Cerberus Sometimes I can feel a few aches when the weather changes. But those are minor.

Hmm.

I wonder how that works.

No idea.

4:55 PM

How does humidity or pressure affect stuff that's inside a sack of leather and liquid?

*sac

I don't know.

People often complain about their joints / arthritis undr certain meteorological conditions...

crl

Où est mon sac?

@Robusto Pourquoi sac?

@Cerberus Yeah, and I'm not 100% sure that's the reason. The weather changes so often around here that it's easy to attribute the difference to the most recent change in weather.

4:56 PM

I wasn't talking about some specific medical thing, if that's what it is...

@Cerberus Anatomical term?

@Robusto Right, it may all be placebo/nocebo...

@Robusto Is that what it is?

I just meant your skin and the blood and other stuff that's under it, but between the weather and your joints.