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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Sorry Helen, but are you trying to say that some people only open their mouths to change feet? Just askin', like.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,547 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,547 Likes: 1 |
Isn't the equivalent phrase in English "getting out of bed on the wrong side" ? No handed-ness (or footedness) needed.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
There is also the related expression "to get off on the wrong foot", usually describing a situation where we might say, "look, we've misunderstood each other here, let's back up and start again".
There is also the well known, "I know you think you understood what I said, but what you don't understand is that what I said is not what I meant."
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 67
journeyman
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OP
journeyman
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 67 |
I wanted to know where this phrase "self-enforced mediocrity" has originally come from? I couldn't see any post/reply which contained it as its primary text...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
where this phrase "self-enforced mediocrity" has originally come from
He deleted it.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
He deleted it for whatever good reasons he may have had.
However, I quoted his statement in full in my response above if you're curious about what he originally wrote before his deletion.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
to anchita (and cross threaded welcome to Krzysztof,who found the volume of new words difficult)
Welcome, please don't get scared away.
On the original topic: why should operable and inoperable be opposites if flammable and inflammable mean the same.
A Spanish friend once described English as "messy". There ain't a rule we don't break, we have smooshed together two (or possibly more) grammatical systems and words can shift from noun to verb at the drop of a hat. And we make up new words whenever necessary,convenient or just when we get bored with the ones we have.
Oh well if English was neat and rule-abiding it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.
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Posts: 555
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
why should operable and inoperable be opposites if flammable and inflammable mean the sameThe answer is in the roots, Zed. The 'in', in inflammable, is not a prefix. The word itself is derived from the Latin root, inflammare, which itself means to burn easily. Whereas, the 'in', in inoperable is a prefix, signifying 'not'. (I don't know the root for operable; our Latin guru, faldage, will check in in the morning I hope, with more on this) Off the top of my head, I can think of two other such words wherein, the 'in' is not a prefix, but part of a root: inchoate and indict Not always can we divide a word and conquer it, eh! 
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315 |
inflammare is clearly in + flammare ( that I recognize, since fiamma is fire in Italian). It seems to me, better, to my ears, that "in" is a prefix, but meaning here "starting to..."
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Joined: Dec 2002
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addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
Emanuela, I do beleive you are right, but with a BUT! The in + flammare is the break up of the LATIN word and the 'in' is therefore the prefix in Latin, albeit in the 'starting to' or 'into' context. The Latin word thus becomes inflammare and the ENGLISH word inflammable is derived from this word. Whereas, with inobservable, the division is, in = observable and the prefix is an english one.
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