What's the word for?
Dec. 4th, 2006 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI remember when I was about 10, sometimes demanding to know "The word for". I thought a thesaurus was a great invention, I just was disappointed that there there weren't hundreds of entries for common words (eg. "yes", I wanted to say "Yes" a different way each day when the class register was called) and disappointed that many supposed synonyms weren't actually identical.
Later on, I really quite liked the idea that each word was unique, and using exactly the right combination conveyed a meaning best. I am very fond of defining words precisely[1], more for the fun in doing it than anything else[2].
Now I regularly see people posting on message boards saying "What is the word for concept X?" They invariably mean "I think concept X should have a word, let's make one", or "I seek validation for X being a useful concept, demonstrate its pre-existence" or "I want to make an assertion that X, but post it an ostensibly question-answering forum," or "I want to be a language geek." So embrace those ideas whole-heartedly, rather than linguifying! :)
[1] I remember being annoyed in class because everyone else could answer requests to define words quicker than I could -- because they gave an example rather than a definition, and I didn't see how an example was a definition because it obviously left out everything but the first order meaning. In retrospect, I was basically right about that, but the lesson I wasn't getting was to hear that what was really being asked was to show we understood a word so we could move on, rather than interpreting the question literally. I've got better at this :)
[2] Eg. "Filk" -- I think this is best described as "Originally songs made by fantasy/scifi fans, about scifi/fantasy, based on well-known tunes, but now anything related to this genre or subgroup." I think this is a good definition because it tends to include things that are called Filk, and not things that aren't, and am satisfied because it was hard to establish. Other people have simpler definitions, though to me seem inadequate because it's hard to tell from the definition what's Filk and what isn't.
Later on, I really quite liked the idea that each word was unique, and using exactly the right combination conveyed a meaning best. I am very fond of defining words precisely[1], more for the fun in doing it than anything else[2].
Now I regularly see people posting on message boards saying "What is the word for concept X?" They invariably mean "I think concept X should have a word, let's make one", or "I seek validation for X being a useful concept, demonstrate its pre-existence" or "I want to make an assertion that X, but post it an ostensibly question-answering forum," or "I want to be a language geek." So embrace those ideas whole-heartedly, rather than linguifying! :)
[1] I remember being annoyed in class because everyone else could answer requests to define words quicker than I could -- because they gave an example rather than a definition, and I didn't see how an example was a definition because it obviously left out everything but the first order meaning. In retrospect, I was basically right about that, but the lesson I wasn't getting was to hear that what was really being asked was to show we understood a word so we could move on, rather than interpreting the question literally. I've got better at this :)
[2] Eg. "Filk" -- I think this is best described as "Originally songs made by fantasy/scifi fans, about scifi/fantasy, based on well-known tunes, but now anything related to this genre or subgroup." I think this is a good definition because it tends to include things that are called Filk, and not things that aren't, and am satisfied because it was hard to establish. Other people have simpler definitions, though to me seem inadequate because it's hard to tell from the definition what's Filk and what isn't.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 06:41 pm (UTC)I always slur the Germans on this. "'Ah, I observe that it is Tuesday. It must be time to officiously oppress an arbitrary minority with an 'e' in the name,' -- of course the Germans have a word for that" :)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 06:48 pm (UTC)Seriously though, Germans don't tend to make up new words for things, they tend to have massive compounds - so the word for what you describe would be something like 'dayonwhichitisappropriatetooppressofficiouslyanarbitraryminoritywithaneinthename' :)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 07:31 pm (UTC)