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Don’t call students ‘genius’ because word is associated with men, Cambridge lecturers told
Camilla Turner, education editor
12 JUNE 2017 • 7:21PMCambridge University examiners are told to avoid using words like “flair”, “brilliance” and “genius” when assessing students’ work because they are associated with men, an academic has revealed.
Lucy Delap, a lecturer in British history at Cambridge University, said that History tutors are discouraged from using these terms because they “carry assumptions of gender inequality”.
“Some of those words, in particular genius, have a very long intellectual history where it has long been associated with qualities culturally assumed to be male”, she said. “Some women are fine with that, but others might find it hard to see themselves in those categories”.
I don’t know if vocabulary choices have changed over the years, but when I was last in England in 1994 on a business trip, every single thing I did was called “brilliant” by my forbearing hosts. The very polite English lady who was my host at Nielsen in Oxford asked if I had any trouble getting there from Heathrow Airport.
“Well, it took me awhile to find the Hertz counter, but I stopped a bunch of people and asked and I finally found one I could understand because he had a full set of teeth.”
“And then, when I got the car, I almost got into two or three head-on collisions before I noticed something: you guys drive on the wrong side of the road!”
“And the speedometer was broken. No way was I going 200 miles per hour.”
“Oh, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.”
“And then I wanted to get a bag of potato chips from a vending machine, but all they had were crisps. So, I stuck a bunch of those funny Susan B. Anthony dollar coins in the slot, but the bag got stuck. So, I gave the machine a hard shove and I got not only the crisps, which, by the way, are a lot like potato chips, plus a free packet of biscuits, whatever those are.”
I thought ‘genius’ and ‘brilliant’ were terms mostly applied to black mediocrities these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gScuUkPewE
http://www.unz.com/isteve/brilliant/#comment-1908964
I’m in the UK at this moment. They still say “brilliant”. No one’s called me “genius” yet.
Amazeballs: so totes yesterday.
Is this really the country of Brunel, Maxwell and Babbage?
Now I mistrust my Oxford University Press books.
What I don’t like now is how people here in America have started using the word genius as an adjective, when what they mean is ingenious.
“That inventor is genius!” “That’s a genius invention!”
It sounds ghetto-child-stupid, and it’s all over the place, including among actual adults in media who should know better.
Languages evolve. I can tell this is on the verge of becoming acceptable, dictionary-approved usage. That pisses me off, because it comes from ignorance.
If you don't see what I mean, read a 100 year old book and tell me English hasn't deteriorated.
You are right to dislike that usage of the term if you don't like how it's used, but my father did not interlocute very much with ghetto people and I doubt that he got it from them when so I doubt that he picked it up from them. Then again, I don't recall offhand hearing that expression from other people, so maybe he made it up.
I personally use the word "cool" because its entry into the language happened long before I was born and also because I admire and agree with many of the attitudes and words that describe them that are common in the ghetto community. Those are often very different words than the ones that African Studies professors would have us believe are genuine ghetto words. I would imagine that being woke to transphobic bigotry is not something that arose in the deep black community, unlike something like "go easy" that they say or epitaph to someone who got killed young. That might be not the best example but I think it conveys the feeling that I appreciate and admire.
Fist bumping however I never do. When someone puts out their fist I put out my hand to shake their hand or pat them on the shoulder saying, "Nah, I'm not black".
Perhaps less popular'i in these quarters would be that when I speak to someone above the age of 40 with a German accent I asked where they are from. If they are from Germany, I either say "I don't speak to Germans" or, preferably, just walk away. [Yes, 40 year olds weren't there but they're mommy and daddy were and they should not exist. Younger Germans still disgust me but less so and my enjoyment in speaking with people from foreign cultures as well as loving/bonding with strangers usually overcomes my extreme distaste at the fact that they exist. In fact, when chatting up a cute bird - unless she's evidently kind such as by working with people in a hospice, or evidently 3rd generations from the enslavement and murder of my kin - if she turns out to be German I cease any masculine interest just as much as if I found out she had herpes. An irrelevant aside but perhaps of interest to people curious about other cultures.]
OT
A programming conference was postponed. All the talks were to be given by men, despite a meritocratic selection process diluted with what they must have hoped would be enough social justice to avoid sexist outcomes: blind-reviewed by a panel “from a range of departments and backgrounds”, only using speakers’ information to break ties “and bring a balance”.
But it wasn’t enough social justice: a twitteress complained about the all-male line-up. The “VP, Social Impact”, a “OG tech diversifier” and Berkeley business school lecturer on “Diversity in the Workplace” replied: “Youre right. This was a major mistake. Weve decided to postpone the conf until we can get our speaker line-up right.”
So MIT isn’t the only place with a lot of gushing gays in authority.
Spot on.
There may be a reason that words like genius are associated with men. As Steve has often said, political correctness is, above all, a war on noticing.
How about “fabulousness?”
OMG! you were about to be murdered! the case would then have to be solved by a quirky amateur detective ,and then made into a delightful one hour tv episode……cheers mate, pure genius that is.
O/T but we have a serious outbreak of ‘frontlash’ in London. It is alleged that the government at all levels (except the Lord Mayoral) has taken more than 8 minutes to describe the incident as a ‘terrorist attack’.
Everyone is on board now though, and the investigators will report back soon.
Modern limey lingo is hopeless. Everything is cracking. “We got some cracking avocado on toast for brekkie, t’was smashing”. “Oh I had a cracking poo this morning. Pass the crumpets pater”.
The word genius is used by the left and sometimes the right to describe someone they agree with.
I’m sure a Brit will weigh in but “brilliant” is till used as a general positive retort. “Brilliance,” I sense, is distinct.
"Brilliant" as a general positive retort - you are correct. At one time shortened to "brill", but I've not heard that in a while. Often associated with middle/upper class speakers.
About 15 years ago was when I first realized that the British said “brilliant” all the time just to mean “good” or “OK”, as Americans did, and sometimes still say, “awesome” all the time in the same way.
I was on a call in a computer software help-desk type of position with a lady in a facility in England. I was able to solve the problem, as I recall, and the lady said “brilliant” twice. I remember thinking, “man, they must not know much over there, as this is just a simple thing … she thinks that was a brilliant idea?” It gave me a swell head for a while, until I figured out after another call with some Englishmen that they say “brilliant” all the time over there.
*'Amazing!' seems to be taking over from 'Awesome!' these days.
Historically, the English don't throw much away, whereas Americans have continually updated their word usage, vocabulary, slang, etc. for like, forever. Even extends into refurbishing houses, as opposed to completely tearing it down from the foundation and building a new one.
Maybe that's because we have such vibrant diversity and for the longest time the UK did not. Now that they are catching up in immigration levels, perhaps words from diverse cultures will directly affect their slang, causing it to change more rapidly.
After all, it's 2017, not 1817.
Language evolves, and often into something uglier than it used to be.
If you don’t see what I mean, read a 100 year old book and tell me English hasn’t deteriorated.
I recall a survey of origins of new English words not too long ago--which I can't find now--, which said more or less that for the most of English's history, new word coinages had trickled down from the upper, more educated classes (e.g. King James Bible, Shakespeare), but that sometime in the last century (1960s?) the process had inverted and since then new coinages came mostly from the lower (and nowadays welfarist rap lyricing) classes.
So, all in all, it's just another brick in the theme-wall of give-up-your-confident-cultural-ascendance-in-the-name-of-equality-and-lose-everything.
However this is in part a general phenomenon when costs are lowered and the customer base expands from wealthy to middle class to poor. In the case you describe you talk about books. See also:
Music (Classical on down)
Air travel
Internet
“qualities culturally assumed to be male”
Like virtue?
The adjective varies as you go up the social scale.
Tory Home Secretary Sir William Whitelaw visiting a prison:
Whitelaw: And what are you in for?
Prisoner: Murder.
Whitelaw: Splendid.
Newsman: "The gentleman you see leaving the subway station in this surveillance video is suspected of pushing the elderly victim to her death."
"Sir" is slightly less ominous. Homer Simpson: "For once maybe someone will call me 'sir' without adding 'you're making a scene.'"
Everyone is on board now though, and the investigators will report back soon.
Speaking to reporters, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said it was just part and parcel of living in a big city, and implored the vulnerable community of White Van Men to report any incidents of hate crime to the Met.
“White Van Man is the man who literally keeps London moving,” he said, “without him, hospitals would close for want of medical supplies, all infrastructure projects would halt, plumbers and electricians would have nowhere to store their tools. White Van Man is London, and London is White Van Man, alongside whom we proudly stand.”
I was on a call in a computer software help-desk type of position with a lady in a facility in England. I was able to solve the problem, as I recall, and the lady said "brilliant" twice. I remember thinking, "man, they must not know much over there, as this is just a simple thing ... she thinks that was a brilliant idea?" It gave me a swell head for a while, until I figured out after another call with some Englishmen that they say "brilliant" all the time over there.
Yes, Americans’ ‘Awesome!’* = Brits’ ‘Brilliant!’
*’Amazing!’ seems to be taking over from ‘Awesome!’ these days.
God, I hate that word - even more than "awesome".
They still say “brilliant”
Amazeballs: so totes yesterday.
You may depend upon it, sir, that when I had the honour of being a Cambridge examiner, not once did “flair”, “brilliance” or “genius” escape from my pen, but often did “baloney!”
Some of my Irish colleagues use the word grand just as frequently as we Britbongs use the word brilliant.
The Irish have got the gift of the gab, of course, so now I find myself using the word grand all the time, too.
However, a lot of young Britbongs use the word awesome as it it were a comma. Thanks, America!
Anonymous, The New England Patriots announced today that they are still going with an all male line up.
The point is to keep us on our toes. They will constantly shift the goalposts until we stop appologizing and tell them to f off.
I use the word Oriental. It is a far more descriptive, as well as colorful, term than Asian.
When using it with a group of Oriental people the first 30 seconds seem as though they are considering smashing me in the head, but once they see that I am genuinely a friendly and nice guy who means no harm but who uses terms as he wishes, we hit it off quite well.
Paul, watch a Claymation video of the genius inventor Wallace and his near human dog Gromit…everything is “cracking,” but it is comedy genius.
The Brits use miles per hour.
Not gay, just British.
“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party.”
–George Orwell
I figured after the last two years of Buzzfeed style headlines migrating to CNN with “Watch as Trevor Noah TOTALLY OWNS RACIST RETHUGLICAN” we would notice language was in decline.
What have we done to upset Steve, I thought he loved the English
That’s Nadsat isn’t it?
Brits enjoy calling people, animals and inanimate objects this word: TWAT.
I had never heard or seen it before used to the extent that Brits use the word before spending some time on the #UKIP hashtag on Twitter. Everything to the average Brit is a twat. Nigel Farage is a twat; somebody’s dog is a twat; a bus that is late is a twat; twats everywhere to the average Brit.
I wonder if the Queen has ever called her husband a twat.
A person who forgot to bring ale to a function is no doubt spoken of as the brilliant twat who forgot the ale.
Nigel Farage Is The Most Patriotic Twat In England, And He’s a Huguenot.
#UKIP Twat example:
Genius T. Coates
Whatever happened to “smashing” and “splendid?”
You guys hear about the Russian airplane debacle
Looks like Trump is going to lead us into war with Russia!
Thanks all you morons who voted him in
https://genius.com/
I can’t believe this liquefaction of practically anything a university stands for.
Is this really the country of Brunel, Maxwell and Babbage?
Now I mistrust my Oxford University Press books.
“Brilliant”=”Bless your heart”.
*'Amazing!' seems to be taking over from 'Awesome!' these days.
Yes, “amazing” and “incredible” are taking over everywhere nowadays, particularly in science-y venues, where they are especially absurd as those venues are supposed to be to make things as plausible and credible as possible, so in a sense the words’ use there is an implicit admission of failure.
When I’m answering a secretary’s questions to fill out a form, I notice they say “Perfect!” after each of my answers. As in, “Address?”
“143 Brook Street.”
“Perfect!”
It makes me feel as if I’ve been adjudged mentally retarded and in need of much praise and encouragement.
As far as “genius,” that term is applied to nearly every successful black singer-songwriter. It’s automatically bestowed upon him if he’s blind.
Tory Home Secretary Sir William Whitelaw visiting a prison:
Whitelaw: And what are you in for?
Prisoner: Murder.
Whitelaw: Splendid.
Yes, and I’m sure Sir William Whitelaw later referred to the “gentleman” he met. The term “gentleman” has acquired a new implication as it is so frequently applied to criminal suspects.
Newsman: “The gentleman you see leaving the subway station in this surveillance video is suspected of pushing the elderly victim to her death.”
“Sir” is slightly less ominous. Homer Simpson: “For once maybe someone will call me ‘sir’ without adding ‘you’re making a scene.’”
I have thought the same thing (not in the military world): If someone calls me Sir, I usually figure I must be doing something wrong. "Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to ... [whatever]!"
BTW, to Autochthon, the comedian in your video didn't use one version of "dude" that I also hear and use the most. (can't make the sound here, of course, but it means "what the hell is wrong with you?!")
To judge from what little exposure to british popular culture I have, “Brilliant” is still in common usage.
I find modern british speech to be mostly awful. Same for their writing-style. The langauge seems to have become infantalized. And since british television abandoned RP, it all sounds low-brow and prole, or silly and twee. Not that modern american speech is much better, mind you.
I have heard “brilliant” spoken by some young american women in the same way it is used in Britain.
If you don't see what I mean, read a 100 year old book and tell me English hasn't deteriorated.
Agree. I don’t know that it was always thus, though.
I recall a survey of origins of new English words not too long ago–which I can’t find now–, which said more or less that for the most of English’s history, new word coinages had trickled down from the upper, more educated classes (e.g. King James Bible, Shakespeare), but that sometime in the last century (1960s?) the process had inverted and since then new coinages came mostly from the lower (and nowadays welfarist rap lyricing) classes.
So, all in all, it’s just another brick in the theme-wall of give-up-your-confident-cultural-ascendance-in-the-name-of-equality-and-lose-everything.
If you remember the name or have a cite for that survey or study please respond to my comment here. Thanks.
*'Amazing!' seems to be taking over from 'Awesome!' these days.
It mostly seems to be used by young women, for whom – it would seem – everything is “Amazing!”.
God, I hate that word – even more than “awesome”.
I was on a call in a computer software help-desk type of position with a lady in a facility in England. I was able to solve the problem, as I recall, and the lady said "brilliant" twice. I remember thinking, "man, they must not know much over there, as this is just a simple thing ... she thinks that was a brilliant idea?" It gave me a swell head for a while, until I figured out after another call with some Englishmen that they say "brilliant" all the time over there.
You know the words that they stopped saying? “Bleigh me!” When did Brits stop saying that one?Couldn’t turn on BBC classic sit coms or historical dramas and “Bleigh me!” was nearly always used, across eras as well.
Historically, the English don’t throw much away, whereas Americans have continually updated their word usage, vocabulary, slang, etc. for like, forever. Even extends into refurbishing houses, as opposed to completely tearing it down from the foundation and building a new one.
Maybe that’s because we have such vibrant diversity and for the longest time the UK did not. Now that they are catching up in immigration levels, perhaps words from diverse cultures will directly affect their slang, causing it to change more rapidly.
After all, it’s 2017, not 1817.
BTW, is Yojimbo or Zatoichi your family name? Or, is it one of those hyphenated names like those of kids whose parents both work at National Public Radio? Is up-slash the new hyphen?
;-}
It's amusing when you hear immigration enthusiasts talk of how much diversity can enhance and revitalise a country's culture. Language doesn't lie, and it shows that most innovations have their origin in the indigenous white population.
Steve, would I be correct to think the part where you steal a packet of cookies from a vending machine is the most criminal thing you’ve done in your life?
Brilliant article!
I was on a call in a computer software help-desk type of position with a lady in a facility in England. I was able to solve the problem, as I recall, and the lady said "brilliant" twice. I remember thinking, "man, they must not know much over there, as this is just a simple thing ... she thinks that was a brilliant idea?" It gave me a swell head for a while, until I figured out after another call with some Englishmen that they say "brilliant" all the time over there.
It’s a versatile word with nuance based upon context and inflection for the British. (We Americans famously use dude similarly.) My immediate supervisor for three years was a charming British expatriate to America. She might use brilliant to express exasperation, anger, joy, unremarkable approval or acknowledgement (as in “okay” or “I heard and I understand”)…it really is a wonderful word.
Good enough.
Brady was cut? He had so much flair!
*'Amazing!' seems to be taking over from 'Awesome!' these days.
In the military outstanding fulfills a similar rôle, meaning everything from spectacularly good to spectacularly bad. These uses are appropropriate, though: the connotation that, for example, outstanding should conventionally be positive and that using it negatively is somehow sarcastic is itself a misconstruction of the word’s denotative, neutral meaning: out of the ordinary; something which stands out (for good or ill…).
Another British usage which I actually prefer is “clever,” particularly for a child. Instead of cooing “Aren’t you smart” at your toddler, you approvingly note he’s a “clever boy.” As with all similar British usages, this can also be used to take the piss, and I seem to recall a song from the early ’80s there that was called “Clever Trevor.”
A lot of gushing word inflation going on. Terms like ‘genius’ or ‘brilliant’ shouldn’t be tossed around like so much confetti unless warranted. And rarely if ever is it anywhere near accurate. Must be an outgrowth of the self-esteem movement where everyone is simply fabulous.
Newsman: "The gentleman you see leaving the subway station in this surveillance video is suspected of pushing the elderly victim to her death."
"Sir" is slightly less ominous. Homer Simpson: "For once maybe someone will call me 'sir' without adding 'you're making a scene.'"
When I had to deal with an asshole marine or sailor who outranked me, I always made a point of calling him by his rank rather than as “sir” (e.g., “yes, lieutenant” or “yes, commander”). This was my way of acknowledging that, yes, the person was in fact a lieutenant in the navy, but I did not respect him and therefore would not call him “sir” (a term of respect rather than a mere descriptive or hierarchical title).
I still called the vast majority of officers, being decent enough folks, “sir” (or “ma’am”). I idly wondered from time to time whether the assholes noticed the phenomenon, and, if they did, whether they put two and two together about my motivation and therefore hated me the more for it….
Yes, the descriptive adjectives are in short supply these days. Please, someone create a nice list of good adjectives to use and do not include amazing, awesome, or perfect.
*'Amazing!' seems to be taking over from 'Awesome!' these days.
Especially young women describing all their “amazing” friends.
Can they use these words if they’re being sarcastic?
OT
America’s addiction epidemic — She was the town’s leading heroin dealer. She was 19 years old
An investigation found drug companies were delivering 780m painkillers into a state of just 1.8m over a five year period.
Anything for a buck.
I have a niece who likes those Disney Channel sitcoms.
Anything for a buck indeed. Because what's a dead pile of Americans to Rajagupta and Trang Fan....
That's a disgrace. :(
You can use “doubleplusgood.”
I know what you are doing wrong. It used to be that no one would call me a genius either. Then I began to socialize with some really stupid people. Problem solved.
Again, again, and again again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w
If you don't see what I mean, read a 100 year old book and tell me English hasn't deteriorated.
They used too many words then, obscuring meaning.
Brit weighing here. . .
“Brilliant” as a general positive retort – you are correct. At one time shortened to “brill”, but I’ve not heard that in a while. Often associated with middle/upper class speakers.
We always said "brill" growing up but now that you mention it I haven't heard it in donkey's.
Often heard thus: “She’s a cracking bird!” = “I say, what an attractive young lady!”
I was on a call in a computer software help-desk type of position with a lady in a facility in England. I was able to solve the problem, as I recall, and the lady said "brilliant" twice. I remember thinking, "man, they must not know much over there, as this is just a simple thing ... she thinks that was a brilliant idea?" It gave me a swell head for a while, until I figured out after another call with some Englishmen that they say "brilliant" all the time over there.
Yeah, the equivalent in upstate New York, for young people anyway, is “Perfect!” You hand the young lady cashier in a store the exact change for your purchase: “Perfect!” You hand a witness the document she has been testifying about and ask her if that is it: “Yes, perfect!”
The British tourist in the South: “This is some crackin’ cracklin’!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B12WBTFLK0Q
Of course, at the Average Joe level, genius is sometimes used sarcastically as a form of derision. As in:
Mr. Swiply: “Wow! The cost of an Ivy League education is tremendous!”
Average Joe Grabowski (who’s much more intelligent and in tune with the zeitgeist than Mr. Swiply will ever know): “No shit. Thanks for the tip, genius.”
Mr. Swiply furrows brow condescendingly at Average Joe Grabowski in response to his impertinence; Average Joe Grabowski stares back coolly while one corner of his mouth curls up in a wry smile of derision back at Mr. Swiply.
Indeed, and here’s your poster child:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gScuUkPewE
Here’s where I stop smiling and nodding. Don’t modern British speedometers display km/h? Is your amiable Yankee goofball confessing to driving 125 miles an hour somewhere between Heathrow and London?
I am gobsmacked.
Funny story, though ... the first time I took my continental rh steering car across, I didn't catch the standard speed limit explanation sign you see rolling off the boat, so I wasn't sure if limits were kph or mph ... so I was chugging along at a snail's pace for a while before I accepted that nearly all UK drivers weren't scofflaws, given the sizeable presence of speed cameras.
('e' intentionally omitted)
Related - 'gobsmacked' is slowly creeping into the lexicon of the most insufferably pretentious North American hipsters.
Along, perhaps, with the prefacing of litrally every single utterance with 'So,...', it's becoming a most reliable indicator that everything that follows is likely to be utter shite.
It's a vulgar locution, but I hear it from middle and upper-middle class Brits.
It’s a paradox. As the bell tolls, men comprise a disproportionately greater number at both ends of the curve, but nobodies feelings are hurt by males dominating the moron class. Not even men, the insensitive bastards.
Historically, the English don't throw much away, whereas Americans have continually updated their word usage, vocabulary, slang, etc. for like, forever. Even extends into refurbishing houses, as opposed to completely tearing it down from the foundation and building a new one.
Maybe that's because we have such vibrant diversity and for the longest time the UK did not. Now that they are catching up in immigration levels, perhaps words from diverse cultures will directly affect their slang, causing it to change more rapidly.
After all, it's 2017, not 1817.
It was “Blimey!” or “Gor Blimey!”, which was actually a contraction of “God blind me” which sounds pretty medieval.
Yeah, that word “outstanding” always reminds me of Robert Duval of the Air Cavalry unit in Apocalypse Now. When I read that, that was the first thing that came to mind.
America's addiction epidemic -- She was the town’s leading heroin dealer. She was 19 years old
An investigation found drug companies were delivering 780m painkillers into a state of just 1.8m over a five year period.
Anything for a buck.
So what blonde starlet will dye her hair to play her in the movie? I’m guessing, the chick from “Liv & Maddie.”
I have a niece who likes those Disney Channel sitcoms.
Considering with whom Brady is sleeping every night, I would be loathe to question his masculinity.
Huh? That's one concrete reason to question his sexuality, which goes along with masculinity. If Brady had blown out his knee in college and instead of living in the limelight with its bizarre standards of beauty he was a high school football coach, maybe he'd be married to someone resembling the female of the species. But since he isn't, questions inevitably pop up.
Unless the reason you'd be loathe is because you fear Gisele coming after you to pick a fight. In which case I sympathize.
I don’t think that is so new. Growing up 30 years ago in Queens, my father would often refer to something that he was very enthusiastic about as “a piece of genius!”
You are right to dislike that usage of the term if you don’t like how it’s used, but my father did not interlocute very much with ghetto people and I doubt that he got it from them when so I doubt that he picked it up from them. Then again, I don’t recall offhand hearing that expression from other people, so maybe he made it up.
I personally use the word “cool” because its entry into the language happened long before I was born and also because I admire and agree with many of the attitudes and words that describe them that are common in the ghetto community. Those are often very different words than the ones that African Studies professors would have us believe are genuine ghetto words. I would imagine that being woke to transphobic bigotry is not something that arose in the deep black community, unlike something like “go easy” that they say or epitaph to someone who got killed young. That might be not the best example but I think it conveys the feeling that I appreciate and admire.
Fist bumping however I never do. When someone puts out their fist I put out my hand to shake their hand or pat them on the shoulder saying, “Nah, I’m not black”.
Perhaps less popular’i in these quarters would be that when I speak to someone above the age of 40 with a German accent I asked where they are from. If they are from Germany, I either say “I don’t speak to Germans” or, preferably, just walk away. [Yes, 40 year olds weren't there but they're mommy and daddy were and they should not exist. Younger Germans still disgust me but less so and my enjoyment in speaking with people from foreign cultures as well as loving/bonding with strangers usually overcomes my extreme distaste at the fact that they exist. In fact, when chatting up a cute bird - unless she's evidently kind such as by working with people in a hospice, or evidently 3rd generations from the enslavement and murder of my kin - if she turns out to be German I cease any masculine interest just as much as if I found out she had herpes. An irrelevant aside but perhaps of interest to people curious about other cultures.]
Historically, the English don't throw much away, whereas Americans have continually updated their word usage, vocabulary, slang, etc. for like, forever. Even extends into refurbishing houses, as opposed to completely tearing it down from the foundation and building a new one.
Maybe that's because we have such vibrant diversity and for the longest time the UK did not. Now that they are catching up in immigration levels, perhaps words from diverse cultures will directly affect their slang, causing it to change more rapidly.
After all, it's 2017, not 1817.
Yojimbo, I had always thought that was “Blimey, mate!” It’s been spelled wrong in my head for a long time then.
BTW, is Yojimbo or Zatoichi your family name? Or, is it one of those hyphenated names like those of kids whose parents both work at National Public Radio? Is up-slash the new hyphen?
;-}
Uh, yes. Another example of American know how in grammar usage, slang, vocabulary, etc.
After all, we spell "today" like it sounds, and not "to-day", as in "Gawn, is it REALLY this day, and all?"
Yes, yes it is. It's today. Not yester-day, but today.
Also don't need a hyphen for no-one, either. It's no one. Two separate words that convey the thought just fine.
Now making nouns out of verbs? At this rate, check 'round 2117 for the Brits to try that one.
Blimey!
Forgive my ignorance, but were you personally at Cambridge Examiner? And what are the things that someone in that position does?
As you might infer, we didn't have the system of the lecturer setting his own exam papers, or scripts being marked by people who knew which candidate's work they were reading. You'll also see that the examinations were treated as public examinations in the sense that results were not confidential. I must say I strongly approved of these habits. So I take it that they are doomed.
N.B. This was the system a couple of decades ago ago; perhaps it's changed since then.
Yes.
I use the word Oriental. It is a far more descriptive, as well as colorful, term than Asian.
When using it with a group of Oriental people the first 30 seconds seem as though they are considering smashing me in the head, but once they see that I am genuinely a friendly and nice guy who means no harm but who uses terms as he wishes, we hit it off quite well.
Newsman: "The gentleman you see leaving the subway station in this surveillance video is suspected of pushing the elderly victim to her death."
"Sir" is slightly less ominous. Homer Simpson: "For once maybe someone will call me 'sir' without adding 'you're making a scene.'"
Haha, that Homer Simpson line is funny cause it’s true! (as Homer himself is wont to say).
I have thought the same thing (not in the military world): If someone calls me Sir, I usually figure I must be doing something wrong. “Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to … [whatever]!”
BTW, to Autochthon, the comedian in your video didn’t use one version of “dude” that I also hear and use the most. (can’t make the sound here, of course, but it means “what the hell is wrong with you?!”)
Very funny!
Brilliant!
America's addiction epidemic -- She was the town’s leading heroin dealer. She was 19 years old
An investigation found drug companies were delivering 780m painkillers into a state of just 1.8m over a five year period.
Anything for a buck.
An autopsy revealed that Carrie Fisher had 8 drugs in her system at the time of her very sad death – 4 prescription drugs, although she didn’t have a prescription for the OxyContin/Oxycodone, and 4 non-prescription (and non-OTC) drugs.
I can confirm that “brilliant” was the approving word of choice for at least some parts of the British population (for instance, LSE staff) in 2015. I found it rather irritating.
dearime, great you use the American spelling , not bologna.
(Sorry, lame university joke.)
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a true genius. Those NFL wife beaters are brilliant.
I don’t know about brilliant but I have been called Einstein numerous times.
Doesn’t make sense either, if memory serves, it was usually when I wasn’t at my best.
The Irish have got the gift of the gab, of course, so now I find myself using the word grand all the time, too.
However, a lot of young Britbongs use the word awesome as it it were a comma. Thanks, America! :-D
Charlie, Don’t want to bring the level of comments down, but in construction we used to use the word fuck as an adjective, as in “Great, just fucking great.” Or is that an adverb? I get so fucking confused.
If you don't see what I mean, read a 100 year old book and tell me English hasn't deteriorated.
I hate how things have evolved too.
However this is in part a general phenomenon when costs are lowered and the customer base expands from wealthy to middle class to poor. In the case you describe you talk about books. See also:
Music (Classical on down)
Air travel
Internet
anonymous, as a closet Patriots fan in WNY, I wished Tom played for the Bills.
Thea, unlike the N-word, you can feel free to spell the word fuck out. Try it, you’ll feel better.
I had never heard or seen it before used to the extent that Brits use the word before spending some time on the #UKIP hashtag on Twitter. Everything to the average Brit is a twat. Nigel Farage is a twat; somebody's dog is a twat; a bus that is late is a twat; twats everywhere to the average Brit.
I wonder if the Queen has ever called her husband a twat.
A person who forgot to bring ale to a function is no doubt spoken of as the brilliant twat who forgot the ale.
Nigel Farage Is The Most Patriotic Twat In England, And He's a Huguenot.
#UKIP Twat example:
https://twitter.com/Tara_Hewitt/status/873079468369231874
Charles, I thought twat was, you know, a woman’s “naughty bits.” Oh how I love that term, learned it here on Steve’s.
Ah, the hell, here it is.https://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/06/23/a-distressing-blunder/
Looks like Trump is going to lead us into war with Russia!
Thanks all you morons who voted him in
Tiny, plenty of time for you to flee the country. Maybe try Mexico or Canada.
Is this really the country of Brunel, Maxwell and Babbage?
Now I mistrust my Oxford University Press books.
El, I thought the British used the term “take away”, not take home.
I am a Software Engineer and whenever my dumb Christian neighbours ask me to sort out a PC mess I am rewarded with “Oh, you are so clever”. Also my keyboard needs cleaning.
I would think that most people of your intelligence would become officers rather than enlisted. You’re not a former nuke are you?
(Suffice it to say that military recruiters are someplace just below corporate managers and the editorial board of The New York Times but just above serial rapists in any hierarchy of predatory psychopaths bent on cheating young persons out of their potential.)
I enjoy antique slang irrespective of its origins, Joe. I dislike British people using current American slang and using it (probably) incorrectly and (certainly) as a way of showing off.
“take away” in England, “carry out” in Scotland.
I am gobsmacked.
Yeah, must be broken, because the current motor vehicle standard requires speedometers to read accurately in mph. Even in km/h, you would not be doing 200 without appearing on one of the local police car chase shows.
Funny story, though … the first time I took my continental rh steering car across, I didn’t catch the standard speed limit explanation sign you see rolling off the boat, so I wasn’t sure if limits were kph or mph … so I was chugging along at a snail’s pace for a while before I accepted that nearly all UK drivers weren’t scofflaws, given the sizeable presence of speed cameras.
Formerly, well I came up with an amazingly awesome list. Try using good and great.
Mr. Swiply: "Wow! The cost of an Ivy League education is tremendous!"
Average Joe Grabowski (who's much more intelligent and in tune with the zeitgeist than Mr. Swiply will ever know): "No shit. Thanks for the tip, genius."
Mr. Swiply furrows brow condescendingly at Average Joe Grabowski in response to his impertinence; Average Joe Grabowski stares back coolly while one corner of his mouth curls up in a wry smile of derision back at Mr. Swiply.
Captain, and I use that word with distain, find another first name to disparage….you Dick.
deari, as much as I dislike white people using black idioms such as …”stay woke.”
“Ingenious” suffers from sounding like it means the inverse of what it does. Same goes for “inflammable.”
BTW, is Yojimbo or Zatoichi your family name? Or, is it one of those hyphenated names like those of kids whose parents both work at National Public Radio? Is up-slash the new hyphen?
;-}
“Is up-slash the new hyphen?”
Uh, yes. Another example of American know how in grammar usage, slang, vocabulary, etc.
After all, we spell “today” like it sounds, and not “to-day”, as in “Gawn, is it REALLY this day, and all?”
Yes, yes it is. It’s today. Not yester-day, but today.
Also don’t need a hyphen for no-one, either. It’s no one. Two separate words that convey the thought just fine.
Now making nouns out of verbs? At this rate, check ’round 2117 for the Brits to try that one.
Blimey!
Hey, are sure it's not Crimeny? Which is more emotive: "Crimeny!" or just "Blimey, mite!" ?
I think you'll find Shakespeare did it.
I have thought the same thing (not in the military world): If someone calls me Sir, I usually figure I must be doing something wrong. "Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to ... [whatever]!"
BTW, to Autochthon, the comedian in your video didn't use one version of "dude" that I also hear and use the most. (can't make the sound here, of course, but it means "what the hell is wrong with you?!")
Be careful though. Being addressed as “Sir” is also the Millennials way of saying, “You’re too old to be called dude anymore. You’re way past it, ha, ha, and ha!” In their usage, Sir = old and old ain’t cool, hip, with it anymore. Put off being called “Sir” for as long as you can.
I always like uninflammable.
Embrace how age has liberated you from any obligation to be cool.
Age is soon overtaken by Father Time and Mother Nature.
If in Ron Howard's Coocoon we could all age without the consequences, then sure. Who wouldn't take that? That may be one thing that science will never be able to solve, namely, the ability to age without the consequences (e.g. decline; atrophy; regressing; etc) In other words, a ninety yr old will feel, move around, and perform cognitive functions as if he were still about twenty-six. For this individual ninety yr old, age is just a number. He is the ideal ninety yr old. But, alas, that's about 1% of all ninety yr olds. Perhaps one day that percentage can be expanded and more people could be included, but how?
Aging without the physical and cognitive consequences of what that word tends to mean? Science may never solve that one.
"Why would you want to buy an old car when you can buy a new one cheaper? It will run better and last longer."--Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief Such an apt Americanism from mid. century, when the US believed it truly could do most things, and that the future was for the eternally young in spirit.
Considering with whom? You seem to have some flair yourself.
Flair? Husband of one woman for forty-three years, three children, and five grandkids so far. Spent most of my career in construction and oil & gas. I don't think that using proper English is a marker for being light in the loafers.
Yes, but you’d think the fact that most geniuses (or recognized geniuses; can’t forget all the potential Newtons languishing in motherhood) are male would motivate them to mandate equal genius-naming. Say teachers must either call everyone a genius, or the numbers of those called geniuses by teachers must be equal by sex.
Forbidding the use of the term altogether is conceding ground. Are progs losing their oomph? What happened to turning perception upside-down, instead of merely running away from male intellectual superiority?
Didn’t some world famous British author write a book warning us about the destruction of the English language?
Sides, some of those British writers use a lot of fancy long words and shit. I don't even think there were any pictures in that one. They say he was brilliant though.... I dunno.
Dr. Nick Riviera: “‘Inflammable’ means flammable? Ugh, what a country!”
Historically, the English don't throw much away, whereas Americans have continually updated their word usage, vocabulary, slang, etc. for like, forever. Even extends into refurbishing houses, as opposed to completely tearing it down from the foundation and building a new one.
Maybe that's because we have such vibrant diversity and for the longest time the UK did not. Now that they are catching up in immigration levels, perhaps words from diverse cultures will directly affect their slang, causing it to change more rapidly.
After all, it's 2017, not 1817.
I don’t think diversity affects the language much. With the exception of words for new foods and dishes, immigration has hardly changed the British vocabulary at all and doesn’t seem likely to do so in the foreseeable future. Most words borrowed from languages of the sub-continent were introduced by white colonists who lived there in the days of the empire.
It’s amusing when you hear immigration enthusiasts talk of how much diversity can enhance and revitalise a country’s culture. Language doesn’t lie, and it shows that most innovations have their origin in the indigenous white population.
It is. Brits refer to their mates, when annoyed by them, by several terms for women’s genitalia quite frequently.
Joe, it’s worth googling for the story of the poet Robert Browning and “twat”. You’ll enjoy it.
Ah, the hell, here it is.
https://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/06/23/a-distressing-blunder/
That story reminded me of the first time I heard the phrase "camel toe," and I asked what it meant only to get smirks and eye-rolls.
Finally, when someone realized I truly did not know what it meant and defined it, I insisted the explanation didn't make sense because camels don't have toes, they have hooves, provoking exasperated looks.
I kind of get it now, but not really.
https://i.imgur.com/original/0/Q/3/c/0Q3c1gM
The job involves detailed analysis of all things Cambridge.
“Considering with whom Brady is sleeping every night, I would be loathe to question his masculinity”
Huh? That’s one concrete reason to question his sexuality, which goes along with masculinity. If Brady had blown out his knee in college and instead of living in the limelight with its bizarre standards of beauty he was a high school football coach, maybe he’d be married to someone resembling the female of the species. But since he isn’t, questions inevitably pop up.
Unless the reason you’d be loathe is because you fear Gisele coming after you to pick a fight. In which case I sympathize.
I agree that Gisele is fairly masculine, but she displays standard female beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc. In Brady's world of large, stinky, hairy football players, she probably seems very feminine.
Hint: she plays an ADA on Blue Bloods.
You’ll always be cool, Steve.
Brilliant!
I think you mean an essay.
I agree with your comments on the word ‘genius’, and see plainly that it’s just the tip of the iceburg. Another that bothers me is ‘epic’, as in, ‘That festival was epic’.
You set examination papers and mark the scripts. You then agree recommended degree classifications with your fellow examiners, including the External Examiner: for example you might collectively agree that the performance of candidate AP1048 is worthy of third class honours. Once the whole “class list” is agreed then you decrypt the anonymity of the candidates – so that AP1048 might turn out to be, let us say, Joseph Biden of Downing College – and you pass your de-anonymised recommendations to the Board of Examiners. If they are happy that the examiners have done their job properly then the degree list is posted on notice-boards for the candidates, and anyone strolling by, to inspect. Once upon a time the upmarket national newspapers would carry the results; I don’t know whether any still do.
As you might infer, we didn’t have the system of the lecturer setting his own exam papers, or scripts being marked by people who knew which candidate’s work they were reading. You’ll also see that the examinations were treated as public examinations in the sense that results were not confidential. I must say I strongly approved of these habits. So I take it that they are doomed.
N.B. This was the system a couple of decades ago ago; perhaps it’s changed since then.
Anonymous, I have enjoyed a number of British gangsta movies, especially “Snatch” direct by Guy Richie, but they use the “C” word way more often than I like.
I had never heard or seen it before used to the extent that Brits use the word before spending some time on the #UKIP hashtag on Twitter. Everything to the average Brit is a twat. Nigel Farage is a twat; somebody's dog is a twat; a bus that is late is a twat; twats everywhere to the average Brit.
I wonder if the Queen has ever called her husband a twat.
A person who forgot to bring ale to a function is no doubt spoken of as the brilliant twat who forgot the ale.
Nigel Farage Is The Most Patriotic Twat In England, And He's a Huguenot.
#UKIP Twat example:
https://twitter.com/Tara_Hewitt/status/873079468369231874
I once asked a Brit why they use such a disgusting word so casually and frequently. She didn’t know its actually significance (at least in American English). It was just a word to her. Similar perhaps to ‘conyo’ (cono with tilde) in Spanish, which is used by old ladies and everyone else, though twat certainly isn’t used in polite company in England (something which hardly exists anymore).
So the Brits are rather used to using eschatological words, certainly much more than in the US (at least up to recent decades). They've been shoveling it and up to their...for like forever.
Yo, blacks used to call you ‘Mister” not sir or better still, Mister Man.
Ah, the hell, here it is.https://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/06/23/a-distressing-blunder/
deari, thank you and of course a little used item of a nun’s attire indeed.
I am sick of the word iconic, especially when used by people who do not kn0w what it means. It’s as retarded as diva was a few years ago.
Huh? That's one concrete reason to question his sexuality, which goes along with masculinity. If Brady had blown out his knee in college and instead of living in the limelight with its bizarre standards of beauty he was a high school football coach, maybe he'd be married to someone resembling the female of the species. But since he isn't, questions inevitably pop up.
Unless the reason you'd be loathe is because you fear Gisele coming after you to pick a fight. In which case I sympathize.
Shorter Guest: Real men, like me, are only attracted to a few % of all women; I’m not attracted to Mrs. Brady, therefore Tom Brady isn’t a real man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B12WBTFLK0Q
The great Paul Whitehouse!
I am gobsmacked.
You’re not gobsmacked until you’re litrally gobsmacked.
(‘e’ intentionally omitted)
Related – ‘gobsmacked’ is slowly creeping into the lexicon of the most insufferably pretentious North American hipsters.
Along, perhaps, with the prefacing of litrally every single utterance with ‘So,…’, it’s becoming a most reliable indicator that everything that follows is likely to be utter shite.
The share of women who don’t resemble male-to-female transsexuals isn’t very small. Most heterosexual males are not attracted to women who look like men. That’s not some idiomatic trait possessed by me alone. Brady, who can have his pick of all kinds of women, nevertheless chose one who looks like a man.
Doesn’t mean he’s not a “real man.” My presumption is that as with a lot of rich, famous, handsome, powerful types he chose on the basis of status. But his wife raises questions instead of answering them. That’s the main point.
Idiosyncratic.
Having everybody say “Brilliant!” 20 times in the beginning of every Harry Potter movie was really strange.
('e' intentionally omitted)
Related - 'gobsmacked' is slowly creeping into the lexicon of the most insufferably pretentious North American hipsters.
Along, perhaps, with the prefacing of litrally every single utterance with 'So,...', it's becoming a most reliable indicator that everything that follows is likely to be utter shite.
The “so” phenomenon struck me lately, too. Aside from introducing questions, it should be used to continue some line of thought. Either to refer back to something that’s been said, to compare what follows with what has been said, to say what follows is the logical result of what came before (as in “therefore”), or to introduce a next step. But in common usage these days there’s no necessary connection to something that’s already been said. It’s more like a rhetorical tic.
My guess is it’s supposed to imply, consciously or unconsciously, a running thread of reason. If you say “so” every once in a while, it may sound like each part of what you said follows from what was said before. Too often, though, what was said could have been jumbled up and repeated in random order without changing its meaning.
Also, what's with the comma splices, dear transatlantic comrades? This grammatical blunder now seems to be accepted usage in British newspapers, and it's even showing up in academic writing.
Yeah, but who’s got time for that now, what with college ball coming up, catching up on “Naked and Afraid” episodes, and the Monster Truck rallies. When my electronics are all on the chargers, I get a lot of my content from “People” and “USA Today”.
Sides, some of those British writers use a lot of fancy long words and shit. I don’t even think there were any pictures in that one. They say he was brilliant though…. I dunno.
America's addiction epidemic -- She was the town’s leading heroin dealer. She was 19 years old
An investigation found drug companies were delivering 780m painkillers into a state of just 1.8m over a five year period.
Anything for a buck.
I’m hate-noticing more and more it’s always some shady quack from Asia shilling death in these cases, just as those scum are disproportionatley prescribing marihuana in places like Mexifornia.
Anything for a buck indeed. Because what’s a dead pile of Americans to Rajagupta and Trang Fan….
Looks like Trump is going to lead us into war with Russia!
Thanks all you morons who voted him in
- Leonard Pitts
Huh? That's one concrete reason to question his sexuality, which goes along with masculinity. If Brady had blown out his knee in college and instead of living in the limelight with its bizarre standards of beauty he was a high school football coach, maybe he'd be married to someone resembling the female of the species. But since he isn't, questions inevitably pop up.
Unless the reason you'd be loathe is because you fear Gisele coming after you to pick a fight. In which case I sympathize.
You’re assuming that a woman’s masculine appearance is an indicator of latent homosexual tendencies in her partner. Could be, but I don’t know. Have you got any evidence of that? I googled “husband was gay” and “husband came out” and the few images of real women were not very masculine looking. If anything, I’d say gayish men are attracted to dumpy, non-threatening looking women.
I agree that Gisele is fairly masculine, but she displays standard female beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc. In Brady’s world of large, stinky, hairy football players, she probably seems very feminine.
"feminine beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc."
That's an odd list. The hair, surely, but that can be faked. Maybe Gisele has naturally great hair. That's one. Make-up is neither here nor there, as drag queens can have well-applied make-up as well. And presumably he'd see her without make-up much of the time.
I don't even know what lots of skin means.
She would appear feminine compared to Belichik and the Gronk. But that's hardly the test. Brady isn't stranded on a desert island with the Patriots and Gisele. He's out in the world after he exits the stadium, a world full of the vast swathe of womanhood.
The real problem is not with any particular word but the general style of communication. Young people’s lack of expressive and descriptive power is tied to other trends like Jon Stewart-style politi-comedy via the use of communication for signaling and confirming status. There is an underlying lack of thought.
Uh, yes. Another example of American know how in grammar usage, slang, vocabulary, etc.
After all, we spell "today" like it sounds, and not "to-day", as in "Gawn, is it REALLY this day, and all?"
Yes, yes it is. It's today. Not yester-day, but today.
Also don't need a hyphen for no-one, either. It's no one. Two separate words that convey the thought just fine.
Now making nouns out of verbs? At this rate, check 'round 2117 for the Brits to try that one.
Blimey!
Yes –> we are tops in punctuation over here; you might say punctuation is one of our CORE! STRENGTHS! The USA is a Punctuation Center of Excellence!
Hey, are sure it’s not Crimeny? Which is more emotive: “Crimeny!” or just “Blimey, mite!” ?
Sides, some of those British writers use a lot of fancy long words and shit. I don't even think there were any pictures in that one. They say he was brilliant though.... I dunno.
It would be worth separating the regional least-common-denominator constraints of mass communication from the cultural. (Perhaps you already did: monster truck rallies?)
guest wouldn’t have gone down that path if he thought she was too short or too plump or too soft-featured. Is it really surprising that women who’ve passed through countless sieves of gay fashion-industry men look mannish?
I’m just trying to use proper grammar. I was taught to place prepositions before their objects, with only rare exceptions.
Flair? Husband of one woman for forty-three years, three children, and five grandkids so far. Spent most of my career in construction and oil & gas. I don’t think that using proper English is a marker for being light in the loafers.
Huh? That's one concrete reason to question his sexuality, which goes along with masculinity. If Brady had blown out his knee in college and instead of living in the limelight with its bizarre standards of beauty he was a high school football coach, maybe he'd be married to someone resembling the female of the species. But since he isn't, questions inevitably pop up.
Unless the reason you'd be loathe is because you fear Gisele coming after you to pick a fight. In which case I sympathize.
How about his baby mama? Is she feminine enough for you?
Hint: she plays an ADA on Blue Bloods.
Brits also refer to their pals as mates, presumably akin to shipmates or playmates, but a bit confusing. Also they use ‘invariably’ to mean ‘usually, but not always’. Also ‘sanction’ meaning either to permit or to disallow depending on context.
Everyone is on board now though, and the investigators will report back soon.
Where are the blatherings about how this white male doesn’t represent all white males? Where is the fear of backlash against innocent white males?
I am gobsmacked.
I find the frequency with which ‘gobsmacked’ is used *amazing*.
It’s a vulgar locution, but I hear it from middle and upper-middle class Brits.
I was recently working on an academic document produced by a well-known British university. It was very long, but I swear there was nary an instance in which ‘and’ or ‘so’ was used as a conjunction on its own. Every single time they were combined as ‘. . . and so . . .’. What gives?
Also, what’s with the comma splices, dear transatlantic comrades? This grammatical blunder now seems to be accepted usage in British newspapers, and it’s even showing up in academic writing.
Infamous
I agree that Gisele is fairly masculine, but she displays standard female beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc. In Brady's world of large, stinky, hairy football players, she probably seems very feminine.
I heard that, regardless of who they fantasize about, most men marry women who resemble their mothers.
Hmm. About 20 years ago in Belfast I made the mistake of confusing an English relative’s suggestion that we get a “carry out” with a “take away”. He had to explain to me that a “carry out” meant booze brought home from an off-licence, not something from a chippy or KFC. Could be a regional thing – either Ulster/Ireland or his native Lancashire – but in the years I lived there I’m pretty sure “carry out” always meant alcohol.
"Brilliant" as a general positive retort - you are correct. At one time shortened to "brill", but I've not heard that in a while. Often associated with middle/upper class speakers.
“Brilliant” as a general positive retort – you are correct. At one time shortened to “brill”, but I’ve not heard that in a while
We always said “brill” growing up but now that you mention it I haven’t heard it in donkey’s.
I recall a survey of origins of new English words not too long ago--which I can't find now--, which said more or less that for the most of English's history, new word coinages had trickled down from the upper, more educated classes (e.g. King James Bible, Shakespeare), but that sometime in the last century (1960s?) the process had inverted and since then new coinages came mostly from the lower (and nowadays welfarist rap lyricing) classes.
So, all in all, it's just another brick in the theme-wall of give-up-your-confident-cultural-ascendance-in-the-name-of-equality-and-lose-everything.
Hi Missouri,
If you remember the name or have a cite for that survey or study please respond to my comment here. Thanks.
Aren’t Cambridge/Oxford grads mostly women now? So what’s the point? Make more men feel unwelcome? What they must really be worried about is that if they don’t keep people focused on pointless details others might notice the meaningless tripe that is their research.
Dearieme perhaps secretly refers to the balogna process as the baloney process.
(Sorry, lame university joke.)
Cool is merely the lesser mind’s observations to attempt to maintain, to stay current, relevant. For men it helps preserve their minds, keeping them up to date, and not permitting any letting up for fear of being overtaken by those just behind them.
Age is soon overtaken by Father Time and Mother Nature.
If in Ron Howard’s Coocoon we could all age without the consequences, then sure. Who wouldn’t take that? That may be one thing that science will never be able to solve, namely, the ability to age without the consequences (e.g. decline; atrophy; regressing; etc) In other words, a ninety yr old will feel, move around, and perform cognitive functions as if he were still about twenty-six. For this individual ninety yr old, age is just a number. He is the ideal ninety yr old. But, alas, that’s about 1% of all ninety yr olds. Perhaps one day that percentage can be expanded and more people could be included, but how?
Aging without the physical and cognitive consequences of what that word tends to mean? Science may never solve that one.
“Why would you want to buy an old car when you can buy a new one cheaper? It will run better and last longer.”–Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief Such an apt Americanism from mid. century, when the US believed it truly could do most things, and that the future was for the eternally young in spirit.
Do bear in mind that the Brits were rather late to getting indoor plumbing, and even then it was second rate, specially compared to the French and Germans. Germany was always a much cleaner nation compared to England.
So the Brits are rather used to using eschatological words, certainly much more than in the US (at least up to recent decades). They’ve been shoveling it and up to their…for like forever.
Hint: she plays an ADA on Blue Bloods.
You mean Bridget Moynihan? I haven’t studied her too closely. She is a model-type, and actually was a model, I think. Not necessarily a high fashion model, though.
She is not as offensively unfeminine as Mrs. Brady.
I agree that Gisele is fairly masculine, but she displays standard female beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc. In Brady's world of large, stinky, hairy football players, she probably seems very feminine.
I draw from no studies. And it doesn’t have to be full-on gayness. Could be some flavor of bisexuality, or even past homosexual experience that didn’t take. My common sense tells me that men with and admixture of same-sex attractions, whatever the proportions, are more attracted to masculine females.
“feminine beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc.”
That’s an odd list. The hair, surely, but that can be faked. Maybe Gisele has naturally great hair. That’s one. Make-up is neither here nor there, as drag queens can have well-applied make-up as well. And presumably he’d see her without make-up much of the time.
I don’t even know what lots of skin means.
She would appear feminine compared to Belichik and the Gronk. But that’s hardly the test. Brady isn’t stranded on a desert island with the Patriots and Gisele. He’s out in the world after he exits the stadium, a world full of the vast swathe of womanhood.
There was a Seinfeld episode where there was a woman who would alternate between being attractive and scary. I think Gisele is like this. One photo looks pretty, another virtually butchy. It depends some on fat--she's one of those people who looks better at very low body fat. A little weight gain and she looks like a jowly German farmer. She could never be pleasantly plump and voluptuous.
Ah, the hell, here it is.https://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/06/23/a-distressing-blunder/
I feel some sympathy for Browning. (^_^)
That story reminded me of the first time I heard the phrase “camel toe,” and I asked what it meant only to get smirks and eye-rolls.
Finally, when someone realized I truly did not know what it meant and defined it, I insisted the explanation didn’t make sense because camels don’t have toes, they have hooves, provoking exasperated looks.
I kind of get it now, but not really.
https://i.imgur.com/original/0/Q/3/c/0Q3c1gM
I agree that Gisele is fairly masculine, but she displays standard female beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc. In Brady's world of large, stinky, hairy football players, she probably seems very feminine.
About your Google results, there are a couple of confounding factors. First of all, whatever else she is, Gisele is a high-value female, at least in Current Year culture. She’s going to be able to attract high-value males. I presume most women who can have their pick won’t be going for closet cases. Despite the cultural cachet of gays, and despite women’s dubious claims that “all the good ones are gay,” they’re not as likely to be alpha males and therefore can’t have their pick.
Secondly, Brady can have his pick, whether or not he’s gay or gay-ish. So he can take down model-types, who have high status in our culture right now, even though they look like men. (Because they look like men, actually.)
This confounding factor is also my basis for guessing that Brady married Gisele for status rather than because he’s a closet case. That’s just another explanation.
America's addiction epidemic -- She was the town’s leading heroin dealer. She was 19 years old
An investigation found drug companies were delivering 780m painkillers into a state of just 1.8m over a five year period.
Anything for a buck.
“drug companies were delivering 780m painkillers into a state of just 1.8m over a five year period.”
That’s a disgrace.
Uh, yes. Another example of American know how in grammar usage, slang, vocabulary, etc.
After all, we spell "today" like it sounds, and not "to-day", as in "Gawn, is it REALLY this day, and all?"
Yes, yes it is. It's today. Not yester-day, but today.
Also don't need a hyphen for no-one, either. It's no one. Two separate words that convey the thought just fine.
Now making nouns out of verbs? At this rate, check 'round 2117 for the Brits to try that one.
Blimey!
“Now making nouns out of verbs? At this rate, check ’round 2117 for the Brits to try that one.”
I think you’ll find Shakespeare did it.
Not in Scotland when I lived there.
"feminine beauty traits like long, luxurious hair, make-up, lots of skin, etc."
That's an odd list. The hair, surely, but that can be faked. Maybe Gisele has naturally great hair. That's one. Make-up is neither here nor there, as drag queens can have well-applied make-up as well. And presumably he'd see her without make-up much of the time.
I don't even know what lots of skin means.
She would appear feminine compared to Belichik and the Gronk. But that's hardly the test. Brady isn't stranded on a desert island with the Patriots and Gisele. He's out in the world after he exits the stadium, a world full of the vast swathe of womanhood.
Re odd list, I mean that, while her face is rather masculine, she displays other feminine traits (showing off legs, plunging cleavage (such as there is), etc), so it’s not like Brady is with a girl who looks and acts like a frat boy.
There was a Seinfeld episode where there was a woman who would alternate between being attractive and scary. I think Gisele is like this. One photo looks pretty, another virtually butchy. It depends some on fat–she’s one of those people who looks better at very low body fat. A little weight gain and she looks like a jowly German farmer. She could never be pleasantly plump and voluptuous.
That story reminded me of the first time I heard the phrase "camel toe," and I asked what it meant only to get smirks and eye-rolls.
Finally, when someone realized I truly did not know what it meant and defined it, I insisted the explanation didn't make sense because camels don't have toes, they have hooves, provoking exasperated looks.
I kind of get it now, but not really.
https://i.imgur.com/original/0/Q/3/c/0Q3c1gM
Camels actually do have toes, not hooves. They are soft, rather like the delightful and eponymous anatomy.
The share of women who don’t resemble male-to-female transsexuals isn’t very small. Most heterosexual males are not attracted to women who look like men. That’s not some idiomatic trait possessed by me alone.
Idiosyncratic.
Thank you, and no (I declined the offer because of the six-year contract).
(Suffice it to say that military recruiters are someplace just below corporate managers and the editorial board of The New York Times but just above serial rapists in any hierarchy of predatory psychopaths bent on cheating young persons out of their potential.)
I figured as much. While obviously the military attempts to channel the most intelligent recruits into the officer career path, there are certainly exceptions. I didn't realize that these exceptions existed until I met a former nuke who was of the view that his training for that was harder and more intense than university level engineering coursework (which he was completing). It's interesting to take a look at the wikipedia article on it. The enlisted program has a very high attrition rate. No wonder, when you take a look at the coursework.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_School
When conversing with Australian Gregory R. Copley for 4 minutes in 2013 he said “brilliant” ~3-4 times when I spoke about U.S. immigration policy and the likely future result, secession movements. I felt pretty good about this seeing as some people consider Copley the greatest strategic thinker in Western civilization. Copley’s use of “brilliant” was both an Australian thing and a Sailer/Brimelow thing, seeing as they fine-tuned my thoughts on immigration issues.
So today I asked some young “dude” why someone twice his age and probably twice his weight was going twice as fast and suggested he get his face out of his phone or GTF out of the way. Yeah, I embrace my age.
Again, the libertarians are right.
The real far-Leftist motivation isn’t helping the suffering b BUT hatred of intelligence (self-hatred).
Genius.
I detest familiarity except from the closest of friends and family. When newly married aged 21, I filled out a card for a salesman to call regarding new windows. I wrote my name as Mrs. Joe Schmoe using my husband’s first and last name with Mrs. indicating I was the wife. So, the salesman called and indeed asked for Mrs. Joe Schmoe. I said, I was, and he said that since the card said Mrs. Joe Schmoe, he thought I must be a much older person. Rather than giggle or some such and tell him to call me by first name or something, I just remained silent for a long time until he changed the subject back to the business at hand. I did not choose to buy any windows from him! Perhaps he learned not to assume too much, or not. This was in the 1990′s. To me it is the result of the sexual revolution that men learned they could be overly familiar with young women, even married women!
I did not know that. I stand — or sit with legs crossed — corrected. Considering the subject, I shall say, as I believe the Japanese do, hairy gato! （＾▽＾）
Idiosyncratic.
Yes, I think I was autocorrected there.
I’ve just returned to Blighty after 9 months in the arse end of Africa and it’s more bollocks than brilliant.
Mind you, the weather’s brilliant; we’re having a heatwave. However my fellow Brits bitch like only us Pommies can when it gets much over 26°, and today was 33° (double it, take off 10% and add 32…so that’s 92°f in old money), you’d think the effing Luftwaffe had returned.
I’ll have plenty of time to be cool (roughly 68 degrees) when I’m dead.
(Suffice it to say that military recruiters are someplace just below corporate managers and the editorial board of The New York Times but just above serial rapists in any hierarchy of predatory psychopaths bent on cheating young persons out of their potential.)
Thank you, and no (I declined the offer because of the six-year contract).
I figured as much. While obviously the military attempts to channel the most intelligent recruits into the officer career path, there are certainly exceptions. I didn’t realize that these exceptions existed until I met a former nuke who was of the view that his training for that was harder and more intense than university level engineering coursework (which he was completing). It’s interesting to take a look at the wikipedia article on it. The enlisted program has a very high attrition rate. No wonder, when you take a look at the coursework.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_School
Hairy gato? Those must foreign loan words. English and… Portuguese? Oh my!
Yeah. rob is automatically pedantic.