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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
From the Oxford Dictionary: Which one? 
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 38
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 38 |
Hi! It's good to be back.
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 279
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 279 |
Unbelievable!
I suppose unstable denotes the unlikelyhood of getten a sainthood.
GT
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
That makes sense, of course. A dirigible is a steerable (directable) airship as opposed to a blimp or "balloon" which is at the whim and mercy of the prevailing air currents. And a dirigible is, of course, a second conjugation balloon, isn't it? 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Vegetable. There's one whose original meaning has changed. Originally, "To quicken, or grow;" now, if we are vegetables, we are without movement. There, chew on that for while! Why do I see the cartoonist John Callahan doing a cartoon showing a quadraplegic missionary being served to a cannibal's child with the words, "Now, Junior, eat your vegetables?" (Very sick joke-E)
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
A dirigible is a steerable (directable) airship as opposed to a blimp or "balloon"Interesting. We USns use "blimp" to mean a [steerable] dirigible, rather than a [non-steerable] balloon. Under bartleby, http://www.bartleby.com/61/33/B0323300.html, as I read it, a "blimp" can be either steerable or non-steerable.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Well, perhaps, although the blimps you're talking about are in actual fact dirigibles. Because they are steerable. Blimps, in theory aren't. I guess "the Goodyear Blimp" sounds better than "the Goodyear Dirigible".  I suppose it would even be possible to steer a hot-air balloon if you put the appropriate-sized motive power on it, sorting things out by main force rather than common sense. I mean, the McDonnell-Douglas F4 Phantom was once described as an example of how, if you put big enough engines on it, you can get a housebrick to fly ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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