Does Anybody Out There Get Curious About Word Origins? Like That's A Bunch Of Tom Foolery

Discussion in 'Evolution of Language' started by Kalvin Mitnic, Jun 25, 2017.

  1. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    I remember when Obama brought the term 'feet to the fire' to the headlines. And it has been used flippantly since then. I assume it meant to get something done now, for him and others. But if you look it up, it is a horrible torture, from which many died. Once your feet are badly burned, you can't walk or even move. So, why keep throwing it out there?

    The thought of the many tortures we humans think up is horrifying. People don't think anything of animals feelings let alone people's and entertain themselves with cruelty. The torture on the news is something they may or may not bring to light because we are too gentile to handle it so that kind of news might not make any money for them. And yet the sensationalism sells news.
    I have been kind of disgusted this morning.
    Sorry
     
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    Last edited: Aug 29, 2021
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I don't put much thought into tired expressions. I've been hearing "feet to the fire," or "light a fire under them", etc. forever and simply hear them as time worn expressions.
     
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  3. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    I wonder if people using them ever think about how they came about. "Careful or your neck will be on the chopping block." I think more of a barbaric threat than a rant.
     
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  4. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I have a question that seems appropriate to this thread. How come Democratic majority states are called blue and Republican majority states are called red? It's seems it should be the opposite because red has always been associated with the left.
     
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  5. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Stop tempting me Dwight,I'm trying to be positive.:D
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    The media flipped it around when they realized that blue resonated better with voters. It had always been the other way around.

    But there have been recently members of Congress claiming that Republicans were the party of Jim Crow, so reality is [apparently] for suckaz.
     
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  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    The difference between a realist and a cynic is the realist knows when to keep his/her mouth shut.

    I continue to endeavor to persevere.
     
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  8. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Well thats no fun. And whats a forum for if not to discuss. If we all discussed the same thing all the time it would be pretty boring. And if we discuss what others don't want to discuss then thats not good either,so guess we find the happy medium.:)
     
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  9. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I was having this conversation yesterday at the local pizza & sub place. The guy I was talking to said "We both seem like cynics," and I reminded him that we are just chatty realists.
     
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  10. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Thats not good in a WOKE society. And yes even some conservatives can be WOKE.
     
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  11. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I shall never be "woke," nor shall I use the word "like" when "as" is the correct choice, or in any sense that is not a simile.

    As if.
     
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  12. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Maybe they are wise to do so since they have lost free speech? So most will go along to get along aand as I said that may be a wise decision.
    If not your one of the social outcast known as a bigot or phobe of some kind.
    " in a time of national deceit,telling the truth is a revolutionary act". forgot who said this,but it fits us to a T.
     
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  13. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    We used to say 'keep on keepin' on."
     
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  14. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I guess I don't get out enough. Today I ran across the slang phrase 'gig work', as in part-time work. I hadn't heard it before. I tried to find the origins of 'gig' without success. I did find lists of possible three word phrases which began with g, i and g but none seemed to apply. Any etymologists out there in SeniorsOnly land?

    What's the difference between etymology and entomology?
    Etymology is the study of word origins. Entomology is some dumb sciencey thing.
     
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  15. James Hintze

    James Hintze Very Well-Known Member
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    etymology
    ĕt″ə-mŏl′ə-jē
    noun
    1. The origin and historical development of a linguistic form as shown by determining its basic elements, earliest known use, and changes in form and meaning, tracing its transmission from one language to another, identifying its cognates in other languages, and reconstructing its ancestral form where possible.
    2. The branch of linguistics that deals with etymologies.
    3. That part of philology which treats of the history of words in respect both to form and to meanings, tracing them back toward their origin, and setting forth and explaining the changes they have undergone. My PhD diploma reads 'Deutsche und Englishce Philologie."
     
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