Originally posted by subcontrabass
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It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. -
Not to be confused with Frances de la Tour......Comment
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Oh, people are on top form today!Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Tours de force!Originally posted by french frank View PostOh, people are on top form today!Comment
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Surreal
Prompted by its use elsewhere by a regular border, I looked it up in OED: Having the qualities of surrealist art; bizarre, dreamlike.
Sadly, in my view, its specific meaning is being weakened to mean something like very unusual, bizarre, extraordinary, not yet reflected in the OED gloss. Of course language changes and evolves, but I suppose (sigh) this is but one example of a general trend of the force of some words to be weakened by overusage: tragedy, disaster, nightmare, hero being some examples that spring quickly and easily to mind.Comment
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You're absolutely right. It's the Second Law of Verbal Dynamics* - the more often a word is used, the greater the entropy. In orher words, meaning becomes more generalised until every word means the same.Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
Take 'awesome' - what's the comparative? 'Really awesome'!
[*copyright Pabmusic]Comment
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Much better - you obviously have the touch!Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
Literally awesome.
My bad...Comment
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Originally posted by Pabmusic View Post
I once tendered the exact cash for one bar of chocolate in a chain corner store. The assistant at the till cupped it in his hand and said 'Awesome!'.
Sigh.Comment
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Perhaps he was trying to say "Will that be awesome for now, sir?"Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
I once tendered the exact cash for one bar of chocolate in a chain corner store. The assistant at the till cupped it in his hand and said 'Awesome!'.
Sigh.Comment
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Which reminds me - I'm always struck by the difference between the English, "Will that be all, sir/madam?" and the French, more briskly hopeful or encouraging, "Et après ça?"Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Avant nous, la revolution?Comment
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Or Avant Guard - the left revolution to refresh your politics.Originally posted by DracoM View PostComment
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.Originally posted by french frank View Post
... yes indeed. When I arrived in Paris I noticed that whenever I went to the greengrocer/butcher/baker to buy a lettuce / a nice bit of lamb / a baguette - the instantaneous riposte was " ... et avec cela? ".
Such a simple marketing ploy, odd that we didn't adopt it in these islands....
Ah well, the French - a nation of shopkeepers, as Napoleon meant to say.
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Guilty as charged -Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
- and agreed, tho if you bing, as opposed to google, it, at the top of the list you get
"a surreal mix of fact and fantasy"
synonyms: zany · madcap · offbeat · quirky · outlandish · eccentric · idiosyncratic · surreal · ridiculous · nonsensical · crazy · absurd · insane · far out · fantastic · bizarre · peculiar · weird · odd · strange · [more] - which seems to sum up Eddie Mair to a T - omitting the essential "dreamlike" element which obviously supports your argument about the weakening of the term.
Though - since you have elevated this to Pedant's Corner, I'd like to point out that I'm a boarder, not a border (herbaceous or otherwise)
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