Discussion
e-honda said:
We don't have enough room in the dictionary for our own word for Schadenfreude or déjà vu but a word for throwing someone out the window?
Bet they didn't use it once in game of thrones.
English does not have many of its own words. Most of our words came from somewhere else. Like deja vu we incorporated them from other languages. Bet they didn't use it once in game of thrones.
Defenestration comes from Latin. De = removed from and Ferestrata = window. Conjugate that for English and it's defenestration. Of course it was named after the events in Prague.
My favourite saying about the English language is "English is a mongrel language, it doesn't just borrow words from other languages, it follows them into alleys, beats them down and rifles through its pockets for new vocabulary".
captain_cynic said:
My favourite saying about the English language is "English is a mongrel language, it doesn't just borrow words from other languages, it follows them into alleys, beats them down and rifles through its pockets for new vocabulary".
Indeed. I almost quoted that myself. 
Clockwork Cupcake said:
captain_cynic said:
My favourite saying about the English language is "English is a mongrel language, it doesn't just borrow words from other languages, it follows them into alleys, beats them down and rifles through its pockets for new vocabulary".
Indeed. I almost quoted that myself. kowalski655 said:
Is that a Pratchett quote?
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse w
e. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James Nicoll
lazy_b said:
kowalski655 said:
Is that a Pratchett quote?
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse we. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James Nicoll*I thought I'd made that word up but the PH spellchecker seems to recognise it. Or is it just because I've made it a proper noun by 1st letter captalisation?
jet_noise said:
I too thought it sounded very Pratchettian*.
*I thought I'd made that word up but the PH spellchecker seems to recognise it. Or is it just because I've made it a proper noun by 1st letter captalisation?
It's not a Pratchett quote, but it is definitely a thing he might have written so the misconception is entirely forgivable. *I thought I'd made that word up but the PH spellchecker seems to recognise it. Or is it just because I've made it a proper noun by 1st letter captalisation?
It actually pre-dates him but, as I said, very much of him for sure.
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Skyedriver said:
When I did GCE O level Maths (1969), it was very different to what my Son now gets in Scottish Nat 5.
Yeah but you got taught error bars, surely?ajprice said:
I did GCSE in '92 and I don't remember doing error bars. The picture is from the Lighter Side of Science Facebook group, I had an idea what it was about but the comments there explained it so that's what I put in the spoiler.
Kids today, eh? I did O-Level maths in 1986 and we definitely did stats and error bars. Or was it my A-level Maths and Physics? Anyway, you'd have to be pretty ignorant not to know about error bars, which was my point. Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff