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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1 |
In another post, someone used the word "directment", saying something like, "The US is the leading directment of the idea that . . . ". I cannot find the word in any of my dictionaries. What does it mean, please?
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
Dear Julian, Hi! -  When speaking or writing have you ever searched for that one word that would perfectly convey the spirit and meaning of your thoughts and no other word would do? Well in the context of its usage "directment" was one of those words. It is not surprising that you couldn't find "directment" in any dictionary. "Directment" is a "nonce word", a word of the moment, a word created to fill a need. A word that swims toward the future like a wiggle-tail male sperm cell hoping against hope to be fruitful and multiply until maybe one distant day the word "directment" will be the every other word out of everyone's mouth. Unfortunately, although many start out, few reach the egg. Are all words then recorded in dictionaries? Of course not. Well then what determines that a word is a word? Well on this board the rule of thumb is that a word becomes a word when Faldage says it is and uses it in a complete sentence. We use to have another rule of thumb, tsuwm's rule of thumb. But paradoxically we found out that in order for a word to be so useless as to gain recognition on tswum's "Worthless Word of the Day" website it had to be recognized as being important enough to haven been put into someone's dictionary. This confused everybody, so now we just ask Faldage. Is this clear? Directment: n. that which directs. usage example. England * is the leading directment of the effete posture that... Note: ( *) = Post Edit to reflect a mouvement de retro that whines to carve the tired old terms of yesterday into the new bark of today.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
when Faldage says it is and uses it in a complete sentence.
Ha! The very idea! A complete sentence indeed! Harrumph!®
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
The US is the leading directment of the idea that..Yuk bloody yuk!  What's wrong with, say, "proponent"? Or "propellent", at that. A word that swims toward the future like a wiggle-tail male sperm cell hoping against hope to be fruitful and multiply until maybe one distant day the word "directment" will be the every other word out of everyone's mouth. Unfortunately, although many start out, few reach the egg.Very good, Mr M.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>What's wrong with, say, "proponent"?
prolly got mislaid in a cave somewhere..
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
Dear Milum, Sorry to temporarily join the nitpickers club  , but I suspect that leading directment, for all that it's worth, amounts to a schoolbook example of a pleonasm.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
I agree that proponent is a perfectly good word and that directment is crrrrap[/Scottish brogue].
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
In reply to:
although many start out, few reach the egg.
Milo's elegant screed, particularly the quoted part, brings to mind the remark of Charlie Chan, or some other apochryphal Chinese, "Many man smoke but Fu Manchu."
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>is crrrrap[/Scottish brogue]
I've heard that before - it is from a film or summat?
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
Now see what you gone and done Julian, you've woke up the big dogs what was sleeping under the porch and they don't cotton to no strange notions. Believe me, compared to ruckus this bunch of egg-sucking hounds can raise the bloody Spanish Inquisition was a mere tea party, a quiet tete a tete between the Parson and the Choir Director having a little chat about whether the word "wretch" should be included in the hymn Amazing Grace.
But mistake it not Julian, this snarling pack of ankle- nipers are not your usual knee-jerks. They are bonded only by their distaste of the innovative and new, and by the fact that they all learned most of what they know about language by playing Beatles records backwards when they were kids.
Now I must enter the fray and I may not come back. Or worse, I could come back as one of them, a zombie, a robot, mindlessly singing Beatles songs backwards and wearing bell-bottom pants. But go I must. I do this for you Julian, and for a thousand Julians yet to come. Together we confront the old ways of the dim dusty past and march bravely into the shining new world that awaits just ahead.
You first Faldage. Didn't you read all that good stuff I wrote about you, you know, about you being the final arbiter of usage and other stuff? Yeah, yeah, I know you didn't say anything bad. Yours is the sin of omission.
Straighten up. You know as well as I do that if you say "directment" over and over and over, pretty soon it begins to sound natural and you'll begin to use it often to impress your friends.
You are on probation.
(Coming Next Post: Milo Makes Mincemeat Out Of Fishonabike - The Nicest Man In England.)
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