WTF english and false synonyms

[Kara Spengler]

Hmm maybe that's an American thing? I think religious is applied to any religion in the UK and not just Christianity. Not sure it extends to Wiccan, but Hinduism and Jainism, and any organized religion. I'd expect someone meaning Christian to say Christian tradition or specific Christian sect here, because multicultural communities in the UK mean a lot of different religions.

It makes me grind my teeth when people say religion when they mean spirituality, because I see a vast gulf between a religion which imposes certain beliefs and rituals upon its adherents and spirituality which allows the individual an awareness of things beyond the material and to choose what to believe and how to apply those beliefs.

I can think of dozens of misused words which are wrongly applied. Ambiguous and ambivalent. Disinterested and uninterested. Alternate and alternative. Less and fewer (growl, growl). Amoral and immoral. And so on.

The question is whether common usage should be the guide (as in the acceptance of literally meaning the opposite) or whether we should resist the dumbing down of our vocabulary by the ignorant or careless. Diphtheria is frequently spelled incorrectly because the accepted pronunciation ignores the first "h".

As I worked as an editor for 10 years, I used to be very pedantic about everything, but then I realized that Shakespeare didn't even spell his name the same way every time, and he used creative and often random spelling for other words too. It was only the introduction of the dictionary which made people anal about spelling, and given the number of words which Shakespeare coined, maybe the language is richer when it evolves and changes quickly. Perhaps the casting in print of English wasn't such a great idea, and a vibrant language needs change and variation to move with the times.

Yes, it is common over here. People conflate religion, spirituality, and christianity all the bleedin time. I use religion as the external components (what rituals and stuff) and spirituality as the internal (beliefs/nonbeliefs). It strikes me as ruling the internal from the external is pretty shallow, the external coming out of what you hold as internal is another story though. Unfortunately the two groups mix so it can be pretty hard to tell people apart. Hopefully that made some sort of sense?

Mixing the two just seem natural to me, although some mixtures are just odd. For example, where one half specifically excludes the other half, like christian wiccans .... wiccans would be 'whatever floats your boat' but usually christians are not so easy going.

 

[Caliandris]

Why wouldn't the Satanic temple be accepted?

Because reasons. And you know what they are! Parents are generally completely fine about celebrating Diwali or Hannukah, but I think they might be up in arms if the schools attempted to introduce a group using Satanic imagery or a discussion about the separation of church and state (that's prolly treason anyway in the UK where Church and state are firmly welded together in the body of our head of state).

 

[Kara Spengler]

The Unitarian church I sometimes attend has spent Sunday mornings talking about that difference. If someone is an adherent to a religion it will be hard to speak with them about spirituality often or usually, I'd say.

Yes, two spiritual people of different religions can have a calm discussion about philosophical topics. Even appreciate hearing things from another point of view. For example, there are some christian ministers I would love to have a chat with about philosophical topics. If two people of different religions that do not care much about their spiritual component try that it will quickly turn into a situation where cops will be called.

 

[Ellie]

Not sure if this fits here, but socialization does not mean dissemination of information. That will be all.

 

[Lucifer]

"Y'all" is a contraction of you all. "All y'all" is incorrect.

Really, the ones you listed are all slang.

See, I grew up speaking both English, and Scots, and mixed the two while I spoke, still do, but I'll code switch along a sliding scale dependent on my audience. Of course, Scots wasn't considered a language when I was a kid, and was discouraged at school as bad English, sloppy English, and slang. Anyway, in Scots, it's perfectly acceptable to use "youse" (or "yous" as Scots has no strict codified spelling). So as an example of an acceptable sentence i give you "Will youse cunts shut the fuck up, ahve got (pronounced goat) a wean sleepin here

R is a consonant.

Unless you're Polish

So... an young and a young person are both technically correct although only a young person sounds correct.

No, Y isn't a vowel in English, which is likely part of why the English are terrified by street signs in Welsh.

 

[Tigar]

I remember this one time I was doing a coffee run while working for a newspaper that wanted to run a story about a guy who was trying to run for office but had gotten into a run of bad luck that started when he was out running one day and managed to run across a woman who couldn't get her car to run; he mentioned that the street they were on runs all the way downtown where there's an auto repair shop (I used to know the guy who runs the place) and since the bus doesn't run on Sundays they decided to walk. So they both headed off and were halfway there when some idiot in a car decided to run a red light, which of course led a cross-traffic truck with the right-of-way to run into him. Spilled fluids from the wreck started to run down the road and they caused the poor woman to slip and get a run in her stocking. She wasn't badly hurt, but just to be safe they called an ambulance to run her down to the hospital where they could run some tests. The ER was running a little slow because it was a busy weekend, with patients running the gamut from some kid with a runny nose to a guy who slipped and broke a rib while trying to run a bath; and while chatting with the nurse she discovered to her delight that he used to play baseball in high school and had a pretty decent run of it (in fact his record for most runs in a season still stands today). She was enjoying the conversation but eventually ran out of time when the doctor returned to give her a run down of the test results and discharged her. Stopping by the financial clerk on the way out, he handed her the hospital bill, telling her "that'll run you about three grand", causing her blood to run cold at the exorbitant cost. Sadly in order to pay she was forced to sell a limited-run Babe Ruth baseball card she'd inherited her father after he died of a certain kind of cancer that runs in her family; but on the bright side I've used the word "run" or some derivation of it 27 times in this post and it had a different definition every single time - and I don't think I even covered all the possible definitions either. The end.

I just gotta say... “What?”

 

[Tigar]

I need a *nice* word that means buttfucked.

Anal receptivity?

#notabottom

 

[Kara Spengler]

Unless you're Polish

Also not a w sound if from New Hampshire (New Hampshaw). Or Boston (I Pahked my Cah in Hahvahd Yahd). Or Johnathon Ross (@Wossy). Soft consonants change their sound pretty quickly.

 

[Tigar]

religious freedom in schools - Google Search

I need a *nice* word that means buttfucked.

Mrs. Tigar suggests, “Banging the balloon knot”
Starfishing
pilfering the puckerbox

You should make a poll.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

No, Y isn't a vowel in English, which is likely part of why the English are terrified by street signs in Welsh.

When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.

Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".

So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.

"When they're proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh," said journalist Dylan Iorwerth.

BBC News - E-mail error ends up on road sign

 

[Essence Lumin]

No, Y isn't a vowel in English, which is likely part of why the English are terrified by street signs in Welsh.

Maybe the definition is different where you are. When I was in grade school they taught us that vowels are A E I O U and sometimes Y. Oxford dictionary says

The letter Y can be regarded as both a vowel and a consonant. ... (This consonant sound, like that of the letter W, is sometimes called a 'semivowel' because it is made in a similar way to a vowel, but functions in contrast to vowels when used in words.)

 

[WolfEyes]

See, I grew up speaking both English, and Scots, and mixed the two while I spoke, still do, but I'll code switch along a sliding scale dependent on my audience. Of course, Scots wasn't considered a language when I was a kid, and was discouraged at school as bad English, sloppy English, and slang. Anyway, in Scots, it's perfectly acceptable to use "youse" (or "yous" as Scots has no strict codified spelling). So as an example of an acceptable sentence i give you "Will youse cunts shut the fuck up, ahve got (pronounced goat) a wean sleepin here



Unless you're Polish


No, Y isn't a vowel in English, which is likely part of why the English are terrified by street signs in Welsh.

Scots or Gaelic?

Sounds like Scots would be perfectly at home in certain areas of New York.

I was referring to American English. We haven't spoken UK English in a couple of hundred years. Or longer.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

BBC News - E-mail error ends up on road sign

When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.

Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".

So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.

"When they're proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh," said journalist Dylan Iorwerth.

Ummm....it seems to me they TRIED to do exactly that...and it didn't turn out to well.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Ummm....it seems to me they TRIED to do exactly that...and it didn't turn out to well.

No. Someone should have checked the translation both for spelling and typos, and also for meaning. As it is, it rather looks as if they just cut and pasted the email response into a work order.

 

[Kara Spengler]

religious freedom in schools - Google Search

Mrs. Tigar suggests, “Banging the balloon knot”
Starfishing
pilfering the puckerbox

You should make a poll.

Assuming you use the default SLU way of setting up polls this could give a whole new meaning to having a pie option.

 

[WolfEyes]

I need a *nice* word that means buttfucked.

Brown Round

 

[Free]

You should make a poll.

It's not like I'm writing a Buzzfeed article on new euphemisms for the term.

 

[Lucifer]

Scots or Gaelic?

Sounds like Scots would be perfectly at home in certain areas of New York.

I was referring to American English. We haven't spoken UK English in a couple of hundred years. Or longer.

Scots as a language, started as the Northumbrian dialect of Middle English It began to diverge in the 11th century, a process which accelerated in the 12th and 13th centuries, due to Norse influence, due to incursions, and Gaelic, due to proximity. further there were dutch and low German influences, due to strong trade ties., Around this time also, the Norman and Norman influenced nobility were abandoning French for Scots, making it more prestigious. I n the 18th century, however there was a decline in written forms of Scots, as English supplanted it as the main written language, while Scots remained the leid o the common man.

 

[Kara Spengler]

American English

Null term.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

No, Y isn't a vowel in English, which is likely part of why the English are terrified by street signs in Welsh.

lol!

I disagree. Y is not a proper vowel, true, but it is often used as one. I submit my name as an example.