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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 6 |
Many legal agonistes like “attorney general,” “surgeon general,” and “court martial” (pl. courts martial) come from Law French, the language of the English courts after the Norman Conquest. Normans, being Frenchmen after all, used both Old French and Old English (and sometimes Latin) in the common law courts that developed after 1066. Hence we have such nonsense legalistic redundancies as “rest, residue and remainder,” “free and clear,” and even “last will and testament.” Agonstes include my favorite: the “negative pregnant.” It’s a negative (usually a denial) that is pregnant with meaning. Example: Plaintiff alleges Defendant "misused more than a hundred thousand dollars entrusted to him.” The Defendant denies this. Thus, the defendant did not deny the misuse, just the amount. A contemporary example might be “I did not have sex with that woman.” 
Stuart Showalter
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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I hate to pick at nits but did anyone else notice the discrepancy in today's definition?
agonistes (ag-uh-NIS-teez) adjective
One who is engaged in a struggle.
(And a hearty welcome and Merry Christmas to sshowalter)
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Dec 2006
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Yes. It bugged me enough to make me come and register for these forums for the first time (after having come close several times over the years). Why a noun definition for an adjective?
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 293
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 293 |
Have you not heard the latest?
The NounJective is sweeping the linguistic world!
"I am certain there is too much certainty in the world" -Michael Crichton
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Quote:
The NounJective is sweeping the linguistic world!
Nothing new there. It was common enough in Classical Latin.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
It was common enough in Classical Latin.
Indeed, Latin grammar distinguished between two kinds of nomina 'names; nouns': nomina substantiva (what we call nouns) 'nouns substantive' and nomina adjectiva 'nouns adjective' (what we call adjectives). This was based on the similar morphology of both those grammatical classes. Besides that, two nouns in apposition seems a lot like a nominal compound to me.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
Happy to find one of this week's nounjectives coming from Irish origin.
Galore is what I experienced there. In scenery, ambiance and icing on the Christmas cake.
Akimbo sound Finnish to me . Or should I say Fins? That language is so exotic and often I mistake words and names I come across for Japanese. Any one knows more about this language?
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
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Finnish (Suomi) is a Finno-Ugric language. It is most directly related to Sami (lappish), Estonian, and, more distantly, to Magyar (Hungarian). Finnish has 15 cases for its nouns.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Ymmärrättekö suomea? No, but I looked it up. MAN I'm glad you're still here! Anna--how wonderful, to get access to those old posts again! One oddness, though: if I hit Previous, I got the Error message; Next, however, let me keep going in 2002. But jumping categories, either at the top or the bottom of the page, took me back to the present. 
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