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#346551
szena
"Rapture" used to mean just "great joy." Guess who changed the meaning into a made-up end-times event?
11/28/2007 11:29:00 AM
#346556
I wonder what agenda the guys who starting calling their computer pointing devices a mouse was. probably something nefarious.
11/28/2007 11:42:59 AM
#346558
Sid
I've often wondered how those who see the ToE as a personal attack on their chosen religion managed to deal with linguistic evolution.
Now I know. They have the same "la la la can't hear you la la la" attitude.
11/28/2007 11:46:30 AM
#346561
Jack Bauer
No, YOU are the one who is quite wrong, you ignorant fuck!
Words do change their meanings over the course of time - for example, Shakespeare uses the word 'presently' - which, in his day, meant 'immediately' or 'at once', an interpretation that is not put on it in current useage.
In the 1950s, if someone said they had a gay time, they merely meant they had an enjoyable time - so it is quite true to say that the word 'gay' has a different meaning now to the one put upon it then. A different additional meaning - so this is a different sort of change to the one I highlighted from Shakespeare.
Do you imagine there is some sort of secret atheist society that has set out to corrupt the language so that the existence of god is more easily deniable?
Paranoid or what....
11/28/2007 11:48:43 AM
#346570
Osiris
So when the Flintstones says "You'll have a gay old time" it means you are going to fornicate with another person of the same gender while watching the cartoon?
11/28/2007 11:58:05 AM
#346573
Saccharissa
Words do not change meanings? You're full of it.
Case in point: in the 17th century, the architect Sir Christopher Wren was asked to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which had been gutted by the Great Fire of 1666.
When Queen Anne saw the result, she is said to have proclaimed it "awful, artificial and amusing." This was a great complement! In that time, "awful" meant "awe-inspiring", "artificial" meant "artistic" and "amusing" meant "astonishing."
This story may possibly be apocryphal, but those words did have those meanings back then, which are very different from their meanings today. What, was the Evil Gay-Atheist-Liberal-Pinko Architect Conspiracy behind this change?
11/28/2007 12:02:16 PM
#346580
cyborgtroy
If everybody starting using black in place of white, eventually they would change meaning. Languages are defined by the people who speak them.
Of course, the colors themselves won't change, but &HFFFFFF would be called black.
11/28/2007 12:12:22 PM
#346582
cyborgtroy
"Do you imagine there is some sort of secret atheist society that has set out to corrupt the language so that the existence of god is more easily deniable?"
Behold! The Fundie Word Keeping-the-Same Defintion Project!
11/28/2007 12:14:24 PM
#346583
David D.G.
Heck, the ones working hardest at changing the meanings of words lately have been the fundies! Just consider the damage they've done with (and to) such words as "theory" and "liberal," for starters.
~David D.G.
11/28/2007 12:15:41 PM
#346585
noself
*Face-palm* Language is a social construct...
11/28/2007 12:19:22 PM
#346586
LabRat
Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Don we now our GAY apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
TROLL the ancient Yule tide carol,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Yeah. Words never change.
11/28/2007 12:20:05 PM
#346595
Sideshow Bob
"When someone is trying to corrupt the language they are always trying to hide the true intent of their agenda. Saying that black means white will never make black be white, it only confuses the issue."
Vegeta, what's his irony level?
11/28/2007 12:39:48 PM
#346604
HeathenAngel
I see that some have already pointed it out.. but I wanted to address it also.. "Words do not change meanings.".. Spam, anyone?
11/28/2007 12:59:12 PM
#346609
Mister Spak
Does this mean you will stop saying atheism is a religion?
11/28/2007 1:09:16 PM
#346611
Vegeta
Sideshowbob: Over 9000!
11/28/2007 1:11:26 PM
#346615
Jon
Busted, you are a cunning linguist.
11/28/2007 1:19:08 PM
#346629
Cabal
Well, I pretty much got that topic closed.
These guys don't know the meaning of "flame."
11/28/2007 1:34:44 PM
#346631
Lunalelle
Enthusiasm used to be negative - it meant you were crazy.
Now it's a good thing that means you're eager and excited.
Words change sound and meaning. That's why we don't speak Old English anymore. That's why we use "like" in strange places.
You fail.
11/28/2007 1:43:43 PM
#346634
Snopester in Exile
Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
See? People who confuse language are doing the Lord's work.
11/28/2007 1:46:58 PM
#346656
Old Viking
The Oxford English Dictionary just announced that it is going out of business.
11/28/2007 2:08:18 PM
#346663
Papabear
Words don't change their meanings? Suffer the little morons to come unto me.
11/28/2007 2:16:21 PM
#346671
Doctor Whom
Then I hope you never ever try to squirm out of an inconvenient Bible verse by saying that the words have changed their meaning, as fundies so often do.
11/28/2007 2:22:03 PM
#346679
Caustic Gnostic
Science, Research, Theory, Truth.
Fundies sure like to twist those around, yowzah.
11/28/2007 2:26:46 PM
#346694
Tiny Bulcher
Words do not change meanings? Well, that's just silly, but we'll get to that presently. For now, I'd lay off using your computer. He's suffered enough.
(How many can you spot, boys and girls?)
11/28/2007 2:47:17 PM
#346721
NonProphet
This idiot thinks Olde English and modern American English are exactly the same, huh?
I guess he's never heard of archaic usage.
11/28/2007 3:25:13 PM
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