Boston Marathon: Is terrorism ever justified?

[Beef Oven]

Were not the Third Reich, the British Empah, etc informed by a corporate Weltanshauung?

Yes.

[Beef Oven]

Remind me, what was my point?

[amateur51]

Remind me, what was my point?

Are you a member of CRAFT, Beefy ? :erm:

I'm fully paid up, me :winkeye:

[scottycelt]

But you must concede that you are generally a stranger to many a contemporary definition, scotty - as Pabs has said so sagely in #417, 'Words are our servants, not our masters, and their meanings change constantly..' :ale::ok:

:biggrin:

Yes, the meanings of some words can certainly change through time but generally not words that denote states, amsey ...

To the rather less sage among us a cow will always be a cow however much others might vehemently insist it can now be called a kangaroo ... :cool:

[amateur51]

:biggrin:

Yes, the meanings of some words can certainly change through time but generally not words that denote states, amsey ...

To the rather less sage among us a cow will always be a cow however much others might vehemently insist it can now be called a kangaroo ... :cool:

I think that this is the first time that you have introduced the term 'states' into this dialogue, scotty so I must seek clarification - what point are you raising now in relation to what has gone before? :erm:

Or are you doing no such thing and just hoping that I won't notice?

Your example of cows and kangaroos has baffled me :yikes:

[Flosshilde]

To the rather less sage among us a cow will always be a cow however much others might vehemently insist it can now be called a kangaroo

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ...

[amateur51]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ...

Cows? Kangaroos?? Roses??? :yikes:

This Scottish rhetoric has me bamboozled :biggrin:

[scottycelt]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ...

Indeed it would but, in that case, it would no longer be a rose ... :winkeye:

[amateur51]

Indeed it would but, in that case, it would no longer be a rose ... :winkeye:

I'd never have marked scotty as a fan of Gertrude Stein :yikes::whistle:

[Flosshilde]

Indeed it would but, in that case, it would no longer be a rose ... :winkeye:

What about geraniums?

[scottycelt]

What about geraniums?

“There ain't no answer.
There ain't gonna be any answer.
There never has been an answer.
There's your answer.”

Gertrude Stein

:whistle:

[Pabmusic]

:biggrin:

Yes, the meanings of some words can certainly change through time but generally not words that denote states, amsey ...

To the rather less sage among us a cow will always be a cow however much others might vehemently insist it can now be called a kangaroo ... :cool:

OK - up to a point. 'Cow' is a concrete noun (not literally - though that might explain the odd taste of the milk in the cup of tea I'm drinking). Concrete nouns don't seem to change meaning often - though they can be replaced entirely (Henry V's "let slip the dogs of war" was still quite novel when Shakespeare wrote it. Not so many years before, people would generally have said "hound" rather than the upstart new-fangled interloper "dog").*

It's rather different when you come to less concrete, or purely abstract, nouns whose definitions are inevitably looser and thus can change over time ("light" for instance, because we understand it much better now than we once did). We are talking about an abstract noun.

When you say "the meanings of some words can certainly change through time but generally not words that denote states" - even if you are right - you are not denying that such words can change. :smiley:

* [An example of such a change, though, might be the way we now use 'actor' to denote both male and female. Seems right to me, since 'actress' has picked up unwanted negative connotations. The sort of thing that can happen with such distinctions of course.]

[Frances_iom]

To the rather less sage among us a cow will always be a cow however much others might vehemently insist it can now be called a kangaroo ... :cool:

only recently dead horses have been flogged as such.

[Flosshilde]

'Cow' is a concrete noun (not literally ...).

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/...70_634x375.jpg

Sorry, pabs - not intending to undermine or trivialise your excellent response to scotty, but I've long decided that it's not really worth trying to offer the arch-wriggler any sensible argument. (it's clear he isn't a gardener, as he didn't understand my point about geraniums :smiley:)

[Pabmusic]

...Sorry, pabs - not intending to undermine or trivialise your excellent response to scotty, but I've long decided that it's not really worth trying to offer the arch-wriggler any sensible argument. (it's clear he isn't a gardener, as he didn't understand my point about geraniums :smiley:)

:biggrin: Surely they're fibreglass?