Semantics

[mangerton]

Perhaps not really suitable as 'Semantics' but sure suspectible is not a word as used above on my BT home page for some time now. Don't they mean susceptible? Doesn't anyone at BT CARE?

Saly, they don't know any better. Sad but true.

[mercia]

this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16962543 is the second time recently that I've read about "daring do". Isn't the expression "derring do" ?

[antongould]

I'd always thought so...................................

[Pabmusic]

this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16962543 is the second time recently that I've read about "daring do". Isn't the expression "derring do" ?

It should be derring-do (with the hyphen). It started with with Chaucer. in Troilus and Cressida we find: "In durring don that longeth to a knight." The usual 14th-century meaning was durring = daring, and don = do, so that the phrase means something like 'in daring to do what is proper for a knight to do'. So, as far as it goes, the BBC have right on their side. But of course they have it wrong. Apparently the poet John Lydgate quoted Chaucer in The Chronicle of Troy in 1430, misreading 'durring' as 'dorryng'. Later editions of Lydgate had it as 'derryng'. Edmund Spenser uses it in The Faerie Queen (1596): "A man of mickle name, Renowned much in armes and derring doe" (presumably he knew the expression from Lydgate, not Chaucer). That's where it languished until Scott used it in Ivanhoe (1820): "'Singular," he again muttered to himself, "if there be two who can do a deed of such derring-do!'"

The OED calls it it as a "pseudo archaism", and I'd say that it's best avoided because so few understand it.

[mercia]

it's best avoided because so few understand it.

I'm sure you're correct, but what else can satisfactorily convey that meaning, I wonder.
Thanks for the other.

[Ferretfancy]

" More than six thousand people have been slaughtered in Syria, this is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE is the latest meaningless phrase being bandied about by politicians and journalists. At what point does "completely unacceptable" become "acceptable" ? When only a handful have died?

[Pabmusic]

I...what else can satisfactorily convey that meaning, I wonder.

I don't disagree at all. It's just that when you have a term that is a bit vague as to meaning to start with, and has obviously been created or developed because of misunderstandings, you have to be sure that people will understand what you mean before using it.

[Pabmusic]

" More than six thousand people have been slaughtered in Syria, this is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE is the latest meaningless phrase being bandied about by politicians and journalists. At what point does "completely unacceptable" become "acceptable" ? When only a handful have died?

Amazing. Any 'slaughter' is unacceptable, of course, but 'completely unacceptable' implies a degree of unacceptability greater than 'unacceptable'. We are in the same area as 'a little bit pregnant', I think - 'completely pregnant' perhaps?

[Panjandrum]

" More than six thousand people have been slaughtered in Syria, this is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE is the latest meaningless phrase being bandied about by politicians and journalists. At what point does "completely unacceptable" become "acceptable" ? When only a handful have died?

I think we have to be careful to rush to judgement from the safety of our european homes. Not everyone from other cultures is so squeamish about loss of life for a cause. For example, on Radio 4 yesterday, when Edward Stourton challenged an Egyptian commentator as to whether the loss of life occasioned by the revolution had been worth it, he received the reply: "absolutely. Those who perished paid a big price but it was worth it."

[Serial_Apologist]

Amazing. Any 'slaughter' is unacceptable, of course, but 'completely unacceptable' implies a degree of unacceptability greater than 'unacceptable'. We are in the same area as 'a little bit pregnant', I think - 'completely pregnant' perhaps?

"A little bit pregnant" = discovered to be so on taking pregnancy test.

"Unacceptable" = unacceptable after two weeks' worth of slaughter.

"Completely unacceptable" = the same as unacceptable except that, because the UN resolution was vetoed we're not going to do anything about it.

[Lateralthinking1]

I think we have to be careful to rush to judgement from the safety of our european homes. Not everyone from other cultures is so squeamish about loss of life for a cause. For example, on Radio 4 yesterday, when Edward Stourton challenged an Egyptian commentator as to whether the loss of life occasioned by the revolution had been worth it, he received the reply: "absolutely. Those who perished paid a big price but it was worth it."

But the authorities are less squeamish about it here. If an enemy aircraft had to be shot down in restricted airspace during the trifling "cause" that is the Olympics, they would view the streets of people killed as a consequence as "extremely regrettable" but "completely acceptable" in the circumstances.

Signed - inhabitant one quarter of a mile from proposed radar defence unit, not that anyone has personally written or will do - a case of read it in the Saturday afternoon local paper, with a quote that questions will not be answered for security reasons.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think we have to be careful to rush to judgement from the safety of our european homes. Not everyone from other cultures is so squeamish about loss of life for a cause.

Not if they're already dead, obviously...

For example, on Radio 4 yesterday, when Edward Stourton challenged an Egyptian commentator as to whether the loss of life occasioned by the revolution had been worth it, he received the reply: "absolutely. Those who perished paid a big price but it was worth it."

Those who perished aren't as squeamish as those from other cultures: QED.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm 'enjoying' the headline about Chinese pianist Yuja Wang on the cover of the new BBCMM: "This incredible pianist is on the verge of world domination... She talks to us first".

What does world domination by a pianist look like? No other pianist daring to play or record anything anywhere?

[Bryn]

World domination.

[LeMartinPecheur]

World domination.

Thanks Bryn, I'm now completely reassured.

If I understand correctly, attractive Chinese female pianists will now be climbing through all our windows by night to dominate us...unless we tell them we don't like it