Common Statements

[belovelife]

i've heard 2 statement as of late, both of which i do not think we should continue to use,

the first one " young whipper-snapper ",

the second " smart as a whip ",

while these statements seem to be accociated with eachother , and based on a negative thought process,

i believe that they should just be deleted from our communal language, and common statements, just my opinion

[CraigD]

I think references to whips are pretty much fading from most folks' everyday language, along with references to saddles, bridles, reins (took me a moment to remember even how to spell that!), martingales, and other horse tack, along with most folks' everyday use of horses. I expect in a century or so, they'll be as obscure as references to yard arms, lazarettes (few of my spellcheckers know that one at all), t'gallants (but surprisingly, all seem happy with this) and other 100+ year old common naval terms are now.

 

There's a good chance I expect wrong, though, as even though few people have occasion to use whips on horses anymore, a small but influential subculture of folk use them (and occasionally other bits of tack) one one another pretty regularly. Perhaps largely obsolete technology terms only falls out of common use when they things to which they refer find no ... alternative uses. :evil:

 

Perhaps 1000 years hence, folk will still use phrases like "so whipped he no longer feels the lash" (one of my personal favorite horse tack-derived metaphors, despite its deeply dark and brutal origin) knowing precisely what a whip and a lash are, but having no idea they were once used on horses and the like.

 

i believe that they should just be deleted from our communal language, and common statements, just my opinion

Short of via draconian regimes punishing "wrong" language use in ... err, draconian ... ways (think of Orwell's 1984 - and if you don't remember or haven't read it, [re]read it righ away!) it's hard to delete words from common language - as long as people find use of them, they just keep on usin' 'em

[Guest MacPhee]

Oldspeak "whip" doubleplusgood in Miniluv - crimethinkers duckspeak speedwise - bellyfeel Ingsoc - love BB fullwise, antegetting unpersoned.

[labelwench]

Words and language are continually evolving and I would not be getting in a froth over a phrase or two containing the word 'whip'.

 

The negative connotations exist yet as a horsewoman myself I can state that the whip is primarily used for audible and visually signaling of the horse, not to abuse an intelligent animal physically. I carry a riding crop when I go out on the trails to intimidate and ward off loose dogs which are frequently encountered and once I gave chase to a disrespectful young jackalope on a snowmobile who was being a danger to one of my young riding students.

 

'Whip' has evolved several meanings new to me by a look at the Urban Dictionary. :)

 

A whip is a maneuver performed on a motocross cycle, usually during supercross or motocross racing, in which the rider brings the rear of the motorcycle abruptly around to either side. This is performed while the machine is airborne off a jump. In very extreme whips, the rear of the motorcycle will end up perpendicular to the direction of travel, in addition to the motorcycle being laid flat. The purpose of the whip is primarily threefold: To show off, to alter the trajectory of the bike in flight, and to scrub speed over jumps. Some riders would say that whipping helps them maintain rhythm on the track.

Whip

Worst Hand in Poker. in Texas Hold 'Em it's the worst hand you can start with. 7-2 offsuit.

[Guest MacPhee]

As Under the Rose observes, words and language are continually changing.

 

One example of such change, can be seen in the increasing use of the adjective "incredible", and its adverbial derivative "incredibly", as replacements for "very".

 

Has anyone else noticed this?

[CraigD]

One example of such change, can be seen in the increasing use of the adjective "incredible", and its adverbial derivative "incredibly", as replacements for "very".

 

Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes, and wondered at it, as the usual published definition of the word is “not credible”, that is “not worthy of being believed”, or “implausible”. It’s come to mean nearly the opposite: when we hear, for example, that someone has made “an incredible discovery”, we understand this to mean they have been credited with the confirmed discovery of something important or difficult to discover, not that we suspect the claimed discovery is unlikely to be true.

 

Though the frequency of this use may be increasing, I recall it being commonly used this way around 30 years ago, often with an inserted syllable to make it more emphatic, (eg: in-(word starting with “F” of you choice)ing-credible!), or just prolonging the first syllable (Eg: in...credible!)

 

Another one of these “commonly means the opposite of its usual published definition” words is “literally”, as in “I was so afraid, I literally died” to mean “I was so afraid, I metaphorically (or figuratively) died”. I recall seeing a recent TV show where interviewers asked young people to define “literally” and most of them defined it as synonymous with its antonym, “figuratively”.

 

This, as dictionaries entries like this one term it “usage problem”, nonstandard definition appear to have a long history of common use: according to the link, dating back at least to 1926. This source argues that this use is not a reversed meaning, but that “literally” can be used as a “general intensifier”.

 

Oddities like these leads me to wonder what actually happens in our brains when we use language, and strongly suspect it bears little resemblance to what we consciously believe words to mean, and how we believe dictionaries function. We don't so much tend to use language incorrectly, I think, as fundamentally misunderstand what the use of language fundamentally is.

[Deepwater6]

I agree Macphee and I have noticed. Some other things I have noticed are alot of misused words and phrases. I'm the farthest thing away from an English scholar there is, but there are some misuses that drive me crazy. When someone says " I could care less" when describing something they do not care for. They should be phrasing it "I couldn't care less". If they could care less about something they dislike they would.

 

I have also noticed common terms that cause issues by means of a person's point of view. I am white, my closest friend at work is African American. We have in depth and frank discussions often because of our friendship. His view on the phrase "the pot calling the kettle black" is that it is on some level, a racist remark. I do not agree with his perspective on that, but he is entitled to his POV.

[belovelife]

there are so many of them in the english language,

 

furthermore, the use of the language in a social atmoshere, with a hint hint nod nod, sort of deal

 

like

 

one cottinpickin moment

i could proabably think of a bunch, its just like slang

 

where aint isn;'t a word but now it is

 

if we all sang when the saints go marching in, i think we would be wording a better form of the language

[LaurieAG]

But local strine and rhyming verse etc can be very interesting and entertaining in their own sort of way.

 

Being 'up **** creek without a paddle in a barbed wire canoe' is like being 'between a rock and a hard place', not a very nice place to be and a 'noahs ark' is a shark.

 

Having 'a few Kangaroos loose in the top paddock' is equivalent to being 'a few sandwiches short of a picnic' which also means that you are 'not playing with a full deck'.

 

But the best ones are the childhood nonsense poems

 

One fine day in the middle of the night,

two dead men got up to fight,

back to back they faced each other,

drew their swords and shot each other.

 

The boy stood on the burning deck,

his feet were full of blisters,

the fire burnt his trousers off,

he should have worn his sisters.

 

The last two weren't actually nonsense because structurally they teach children something through learning them.

 

The really fun ones were pure nonsense though like:-

 

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gophers guts,

mangulated monkeys musk,

percolated porpoise pus,

all mixed up in your [insert local soft drink manufacturers name] lemonade.

Edited November 18, 2012 by LaurieAG