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I remember you, lusy, and am glad you're back!!  (Don't bother with the signature... they get real old after a while...  )
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2002 was it? Welcome back to the mad house, Lusy.
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Is it? I thought it was more like embellishment. Could have gone with 'blatherholic' but the hypocrisy would outweigh the ridicule.
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What is ambiguous about PIN? As if it could be a code to pop balloons with? Whatever bank invented that should have foreseen the babble-fest it prompted and opted instead for PID. 
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stands for Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
TEd
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Quote:
What is ambiguous about PIN? As if it could be a code to pop balloons with? Whatever bank invented that should have foreseen the babble-fest it prompted and opted instead for PID.
Depends on the context. At the gas pump if I use my debit card it asks me to enter my PIN. If I loan the card to the lovely AnnaS and she asks me for my PIN number I don't have to ask her if she means an ink pin or a safety pin.
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Depends on the context. At the gas pump if I use my debit card it asks me to enter my PIN. If I loan the card to the lovely AnnaS and she asks me for my PIN number I don't have to ask her if she means an ink pin or a safety pin.
Is that suggesting that babbling "Personal Identification Number number" is needed to distinguish an acronym from a real item it sounds like? Do some dolts say "Surface to Air Missile missile" so no listeners think they are talking about a guy named Sam? I really think the context should be enough to understand the distinctions [and for credibility, last time I checked, 'loan' was a noun].
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If you want to be a loan shark, you’d better check your dentures! It’s commonly a noun but is also a well-established intransitive verb: USAGE NOTE: The verb loan is well established in American usage and cannot be considered incorrect. The frequent objections to the form by American grammarians may have originated from a provincial deference to British critics, who long ago labeled the usage a typical Americanism. Loan is, however, used to describe only physical transactions, as of money or goods; for figurative transactions, lend is correct: Distance lends enchantment. The allusions lend the work a classical tone. C. American Heritage
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just a polite question, Mr. 11:
do you enjoy language?
formerly known as etaoin...
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"another knee-jerk term invented without logic" (04/24/06 07:46 AM)
"buffoon" (04/27/06 09:19 AM)
"fatuous" (04/28/06 06:32 AM)
"enamored of their own voices" (04/28/06 06:32 AM)
"acronym babblers" (04/28/06 06:32 AM)
"cynical misanthropic diatribe" (04/28/06 06:54 AM)
"hypocrisy would outweigh the ridicule" (05/02/06 06:15 AM)
"dolts" (05/03/06 08:09 AM)
Perhaps the medications don't kick-in until after noon.
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Pooh-Bah
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And why do they call it "Georgia," anyway? Don't we all *know* who is king? Why "the great State of Maryland?" We all *know* that. Why "Mary," even though it makes a tad more sense than "land," Mary)? What is "octopus" about it, as Ian Flemming or his knock off son implied? It's all arms! And why "knock off?" He's a son, isn't he? I sometimes think that English is a language designed by a loser, spoken by a maniac, objected to by
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I think the state names were supposed to be bestowed as enduring honors. It would not seem intuitive to say "[We already know who the present king is] ia". I don't see the babbling angle in 'octopus'; a scientific derivation that makes sense. The point is English used to be more rational but is decomposing along with modern civilization. 
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of course english is decomposing! i can't read old or middle english, and i know less about german or latin. the language has so decomposed over the centuries that it bears no resemblance to what it once was!
and all along there has been confusion..
one of my favorites is the plant commonly known as columbine, --because some thought the flowers looked liked doves drinking water. the latin name, is (unspellable by me!-- aquaelgia?) from the latin name for an eagle-because other people thought the flowers looked like an eagles talons.. take about differing views!
so does an octopus have 8 feet (pod being latin for foot), or goes it have 8 arms..
well i guess its a matter of how you look at it.. for the most part, only primate have arms, (other animals have 4 legs, not arms and legs) to be consistant, an 8 armed creature is well, wrong, but an 8 footed creature is OK. i guess we'll have to launch an educational campaign to make sure no one refers to an octopus as having arms.
but hey, when or where were humans (in any language or any culture) consistant?
didn't someone say that "consistantcy is the hob-gobblin of small minds" --(and you want to make an arguement for consistancy in things that don't matter?.. isn't that a...(where is sprints wheel of adjectives? i could use an adjective right now) idea?)
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Sorry, forgot that 'loan' verb counted as colloquial usage (hillbilly). 
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All right then, now I understand the octopus gag. I suspect the 'pod' element is a generalization. Those may look like arms to a human, but to the octopus they function at least partly as feet.
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Quote:
just a polite question, Mr. 11:
do you enjoy language?
Concerned you might have missed this post, I'm repeating it: So, do you, Aramis?
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the latin name (kingdon? geneis? species? --one of those-- unless its one i left out) has octopus as belonging to the cephlapod family.. (cephla=head, pod=foot)
knowing as much as we now know about octopuses, i would think calling their appendages fingers would be almost as good a word to use as foot.. (a cephladigi or something of that sort. it's a thought.)
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Pooh-Bah
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Okay, Cinderella, let me try it a different way. Why say the PIN number? Because when PINs first came out of the closet, nobody who now wanted cash out of an ATM had ever heard of a personal identification number to acronyminate, so "PIN" came down on them like a sudden mystery with cash in her panties. People needed to use it and it didn't make any sense, so they stuck "number" after it. That caught on, the banks decided it was cheaper to use it than hire operators to field questions on what the hell a PIN was to begin with, and so they began to use it, too. That, anyway, is the explanation that seemed most likely at the time I was observing all this stuff going on. The same holds for ATMs, although why they needed both "teller" and "machine" in the longed-out version to begin with is beyond me. People probably just called them cash machines, because that's probably what most people used them for, to begin with. Preferring to use real live tellers for other transactions, because who the hell trusts these machines to record a deposit and, anyway, you might get lucky and it'll spew the works on you and you can take Brunhilde out for drinks and dinner and hoyotaho all night long. So that's about it, I would say. Language has this utility factor, see. People use it. And if something's needed but not particularly catchy out of the box, well, then people will jerry rig it, because it suits 'em better. And if it suits others better too, well, hey, there you go, another bastard,s born of our bastard tongue (See. "Spit Baby"). So the thing is, smell the roses: have fun with English. After all, she's only having fun with you.
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formerly known as etaoin...
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"Loan as a verb is entirely standard having been in use since the 16th century, at least; carried over to this continent in the language of early settlers, it has continued in use ever since Its use is predominately American and includes literature but not the more elevated kinds of discourse. If you use loan remember that its regular use is literal; for figurative expressions, you must use lend." [Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Eglish Usage, p.610]
"Lonyng and leying out of the same for gaines in purchasing landes." [1542-3. Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 2. sec. 1.] I've never really thought of Henry Tudor as a hillbilly, but ...
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
I've never really thought of Henry Tudor as a hillbilly, but ...
Well, he was Welsh …
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Why use something at all if it does not make sense? Obviously acronym letters are intended to represent words, so they should replace them in use, including speech. Repeating what is already said is simply babbling. It can only either insult the listener by implying ignorance on his part or make the speaker appear inept. Once a man working in an automotive shop had the gall to say “VIN number” to me and expected to sound competent! As if it was going to be confused with wine? We have to hope anyone of such limited capacity will never pick up a loaded firearm. In a magazine article, the writer actually bothered to define ABS in the introduction but then went on to put “ABS system” IN PRINT at least three times! This is no more competent than typing “SCUBA apparatus” in a diving magazine. What is so wrong with this is that in a world where so many cannot be bothered with what anything means, these things proliferate like a bacteria colony. This constant expansion of lunacy by the ‘monkey-hear, monkey say’ principle degrades the overall intelligence of entire populations. It is as if a movie entitled ‘Invasion of the Brain Snatchers’ was happening in real life. 
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Concerned you might have missed this post, I'm repeating it: So, do you, Aramis?
I did catch it but the answer must have been lost somehow. The answer is usually, with obvious exceptions. Have even found archaic works such as Dafoe and (original of) Chaucer to be interesting, as well as some foreign languages even to include Kiswaihili.
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language he enjoys; it's just latter-day English he can't abide. 
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babbling (05/05/06 11:51 AM)
had the gall to say (05/05/06 11:51 AM)
like a bacteria colony (05/05/06 11:51 AM)
expansion of lunacy (05/05/06 11:51 AM)
monkey-hear, monkey say principle (05/05/06 11:51 AM)
Yup, I'm stickin' with my morning theory.
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Quote:
then went on to put “ABS system” IN PRINT at least three times!
Why did you feel the need to use the plural form of the noun when the plural is adequately indicated by the fact that you have used the number three to modify it? Do you think we need it to understand that it was used more than one time?
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Pooh-Bah
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TEd
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Who is this Aramis from Gee Yaw Juh who's using a Kiwi as an avatar? Pick on your own state's bird - roadkill turkey, is it?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Quote:
Who is this Aramis from Gee Yaw Juh who's using a Kiwi as an avatar? Pick on your own state's bird - roadkill turkey, is it?
I had the same sort of reaction when I found someone else using Marvin. feh! (<--lingering anger)
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Quote:
Quote:
then went on to put “ABS system” IN PRINT at least three times!
Why did you feel the need to use the plural form of the noun when the plural is adequately indicated by the fact that you have used the number three to modify it? Do you think we need it to understand that it was used more than one time?
Redundancy can be our friend. But Faldage does have a point!
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Quote:
Quote:
Who is this Aramis from Gee Yaw Juh who's using a Kiwi as an avatar? Pick on your own state's bird - roadkill turkey, is it?
I had the same sort of reaction when I found someone else using Marvin. feh! (<--lingering anger)
Yep. I get angry enough, and I'll make Sherman's march to the sea look like a bank holiday walk along the mud in Skegness ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Skegness is a seaside resort town in Lincolnshire, England. The nature of the tides in this area is such that sediment (mud) deposits along the coast and creates a great muddy beach (at low tide) called The Wash.
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old hand
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Thank you, oh my Boswell ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Quote:
Thank you, oh my Boswell ...
apropos of very little, I rewatched the "Ink and Incapability" episode of Blackadder last night, in which our hero makes some contributions to the Dictionary, in which, unfortunately, Dr. Johnson had neglected to include: contrafibularatories; anaspeptoc; phrasmotic; compunctious; periconbobulations; interphrastically; pendigestatory interludicule; velocitious extramuralization. [spellings may differ]
great ep!
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It didn't matter anyway did it, since Baldrick used it to kindle the Prince's fire ...
Great episode, that one!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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I like phrasmotic.
good name for a band.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Quote:
I like phrasmotic.
good name for a band.
The Phrasmotics?
Speaking of band names, does it seem to anyone else that band names are becoming weirder and weirder these days, or is it just another symptom of my growing geezerhood? Sometimes I imagine that there is a Name Patrol out there that will come knocking on your door if you choose a band name that has already been used.
"I'm sorry. You're going to have to use a different name for your band. Freaky Frank and the Pistons was used by a band in Flagstaff, AZ during the '70s."
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Much cooler just to call it Phrasmotic. The use of "The" and "s" on the end of the name is so uncool these days ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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