Author Topic: You keep on using that word (Read 35147 times)

Jonathon · « **Reply #175 on:** January 10, 2018, 05:13:16 PM »

So close, and yet so far.

rivka · « **Reply #176 on:** January 10, 2018, 05:18:57 PM »

I was flabbergasted when another Registrar said they calculated GPAs to the 100th decimal place . . . . and then this one used the same phrase, but with the example.

Jonathon · « **Reply #177 on:** January 11, 2018, 08:15:21 AM »

*facepalm*

Ela · « **Reply #178 on:** January 15, 2018, 08:43:44 AM »

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I'm not sure "enervating" is the word she wants here. I'm trying to parse what she's trying to convey:

Quote

I drive through this neighborhood all the time. One of the things I enjoy about Miami is that it still has some grit. Once gentrification starts, it seems to be inevitable and enervating .

Here's the article that she was posting about:
https://thenewtropic.com/allapattah-miamis-next-wynwood/?

Jonathon · « **Reply #179 on:** January 15, 2018, 03:33:55 PM »

Is she saying that gentrification drains the life out of a place? Because I think that makes sense, though it's kind of an odd choice of word.

Ela · « **Reply #180 on:** January 15, 2018, 09:45:00 PM »

Yeah, that might be what she means, and yeah that does make sense.

But I did think it was an odd choice of word.

spacepook · « **Reply #181 on:** February 08, 2018, 04:55:12 PM »

Today's "you keep using that word": quantum.

From my quick googling, "quantum" as a word basically amounts to "a specific amount, usually small". But people use it colloquially because of its correlation to "quantum physics". Which... hmm.

Thoughts?

rivka · « **Reply #182 on:** February 08, 2018, 05:46:15 PM »

Quote from: spacepook on February 08, 2018, 04:55:12 PM

But people use it colloquially

As a synonym for what? I've never heard this.

Jonathon · « **Reply #183 on:** February 09, 2018, 06:52:26 PM »

Yeah, I think you need to specify which meaning you mean. I can think of less-scientific uses like "quantum leap", but phrases like that have been around since the 1920s.

spacepook · « **Reply #184 on:** February 10, 2018, 11:00:02 PM »

It's "quantum leap" specifically that seems to be making me prickle a bit. Probably because one of the documentaries I watched about Darwin really liked to use "quantum leap" to describe everything about evolutionary biology.

rivka · « **Reply #185 on:** February 11, 2018, 12:03:41 AM »

While "quantum leap" has a specific scientific meaning, that only sort of means something small. It means changing energy levels. For electrons, that takes a very specific -- and small, as everything on that scale is small -- amount of energy.

But metaphorically, it doesn't have to mean something small at all. It doesn't in the eponymous TV series. And it has been used since 1970 in that metaphorical sense. Before that, it was "quantum jump", whose metaphorical usage dates to the 1950s.

Now, overusing the phrase over and over in a single paper, story, documentary, etc. may be annoying. But it's not really incorrect any more than most metaphorical usages of originally-scientific words are.

Noemon · « **Reply #186 on:** March 05, 2018, 03:42:20 PM »

"We are in a time crunch, so if you could expiate the work it would be helpful."

Jonathon · « **Reply #187 on:** March 05, 2018, 05:08:46 PM »

I hope you told them that only Jesus could do that.

Noemon · « **Reply #188 on:** March 05, 2018, 05:45:10 PM »

Unfortunately, I was just CC:ed on the email.

Dobie · « **Reply #189 on:** March 06, 2018, 10:21:00 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT5hoymUjio

rivka · « **Reply #190 on:** August 30, 2018, 09:24:46 PM »

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pier recognition

rivka · « **Reply #191 on:** September 13, 2018, 05:42:04 PM »

Quote

walking closet

Jonathon · « **Reply #192 on:** September 21, 2018, 05:31:58 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #193 on:** February 14, 2019, 09:48:51 AM »

One of my coworkers keeps using "itinerary" to mean "agenda". She wrote up a meeting itinerary with a bunch of points to discuss, but I keep thinking, "So where are we going?"

rivka · « **Reply #194 on:** February 14, 2019, 12:54:36 PM »

Yes! I have occasionally heard webinar hosts use the word the same way and had a similar reaction.

Ela · « **Reply #195 on:** February 19, 2019, 07:09:05 PM »

Quote from: Jonathon on February 14, 2019, 09:48:51 AM

One of my coworkers keeps using "itinerary" to mean "agenda". She wrote up a meeting itinerary with a bunch of points to discuss, but I keep thinking, "So where are we going?"

This made me laugh out loud.

rivka · « **Reply #196 on:** February 03, 2022, 12:41:24 PM »

I do not know what is in the water lately, but I have heard/read at least 10 different people -- both in webinars and in (unrelated) articles/emails -- in the last week use "tenant" when they mean "tenet". As in, "One of our primary tenants has long been". Sources included webinars for both of my jobs, as well as random blog posts I happened to read.

NO NO NO NO NO. **tears out hair**

Not unless you are speaking of someone who rents space from you.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #197 on:** February 03, 2022, 02:36:55 PM »

A colleague nurse keeps documenting about fowl odor.

When I go back home for Thanksgiving, as soon as I walk into my mother's house, I am struck by the pervasive fowl odor.

rivka · « **Reply #198 on:** February 03, 2022, 10:59:49 PM »

And unlike many fowl odors, it's probably quite pleasant.

Jonathon · « **Reply #199 on:** February 04, 2022, 09:17:21 AM »

We got back from vacation once and found that we'd left some raw chicken in the microwave. It was a very foul fowl odor.