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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 22 |
These days I believe mouse would need a few words around it to distinguish between one or the other. Twenty years ago (or so), the choice would have been clear, and running for the hole.
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old hand
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old hand
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Posts: 956 |
A Caddy takes a Drive in his bus to the port to make a Raid on the Cookie Factory.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Can anyone think of a word that has changed its use in culture so dramatically in such a short period of time
Bad: came to mean good, in probably less than the '70's decade.
Olly: Caddy? Raid?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
CD caddy and RAID (redundent array of inexpensive/independent disks).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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Re Icons - it occurs that in days of yore religion was far more ubiquitous/omnipresent than today. It seems to me that - generally- words have turned to their most basic definitions. Icon is any image rather than a hold image.
Re Gay : In my salad days -the 1930s and '40s- mmeant merry, happy without a care in the world. I recall hearing or reading the word homosexual when I was in early teens and could not find it in any dictionary in my Dad's extensive library!
Observation : The union of two females as life partners was called a "Boston Marriage" Male partners or never-married men past age 40 were "confirmed bachelors." The males were always sought out to "fill the numbers" at dinner parties etc. Ye gods how times change in a half century!!!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773 |
Quote:
....Twenty years ago (or so), the choice would have been clear...
Indeed so. However, at risk of repetition I maintain that "mouse" is ok because the device looks like one, whereas, as a former prescriptivist, I would have questioned "drive"
dalehileman
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
However, at risk of repetition, I maintain that "drive" is OK because its internal mechanism (i.e., fixed platters, floppy disc, drum, flash memory, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.), matters not, just that it is a peripheral device which stores data even after the computer has been turned off.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773 |
zm, thank you and so noted
dalehileman
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 293
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 293 |
Quote:
However, at risk of repetition, I maintain that "drive" is OK because its internal mechanism (i.e., fixed platters, floppy disc, drum, flash memory, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.), matters not, just that it is a peripheral device which stores data even after the computer has been turned off.
Likewise (perhaps), the magical thing under the hood of your automobile is often called a "motor". Afterall, it provides the motive force. However, it is actually an Internal Combustion Engine. There are sublte differences between motor and engine (the former most often referencing an electric device)
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Joined: Jul 2005
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
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Park, indeed. When I was a kid my engineering franternity was horrified by hearing "motor" used for "engine"
dalehileman
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