Before the Clock Strikes Thirteen: The Language Thread

Well that is just all kinds of depressing.

My prediction for 2017: "Orwellian" and "Kafkaesque" will get quite the workout.

Im really hoping that they will never include 'bigly'. Pls no.

"Arrival" and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

https://debuk.wordpress.com/2016/11/21/sex-death-and-aliens-a-feminist-guide-to-...

Hmm, haven't seen Arrival, but the whole Sapir-Whorf idea interests me.

I discovered a great new-to-me word in Zadie Smith's essay collection:

Velleity: the lowest degree of volition, a slight wish or tendency. A wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action.

Reminds me of an awful lot of people I know these days.

>6 lisapeet: A wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action.

As in, I wish my house was cleaner, but not enough to actually get out the vaccuum?

That's practically a life philosophy for me!

Yes, says the woman who had to take an entire day off work in order to get the house company-worthy (although in my defense, I haven't had any free time on the weekends all month so it's not really a matter of velleity this time around).

That might as well be my actual name. Hi, I'm Velleity Carter!

This is a fascinating article:

12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms

http://mentalfloss.com/article/51150/12-old-words-survived-getting-fossilized-id...

Fun, Cindy. I didn't know any of those except kith.

>10 cindydavid4:

Oh, dear, I must be a fossil, too, as I use many of those words on a regular basis!

Alternative facts. Lies vs.falsehoods. it's something new everyday.

How does one pronounce "antifa?"

>14 Kat.Warren:

Stress on the AN(ti)--that's what a guy said in a Democracy Now video. Ah, I think it was this one: Antifa: A Look at the Antifascist Movement Confronting White Supremacists in the Streets

Same as in "antifascist" but cutting off "scist".

P.S. If you watch the video, note that Amy Goodman mispronounces it until this guy answers.

When did this word even come into being? Never heard of it till Trump and cronies talk about this horrible bunch of thugs under that label. I get what it means, but does it really cover every person who is in resistance to the administration and protesting against Nazism and White Supremacy?

>16 cindydavid4:

To the best of my understanding, the word does not denote a unified, centrally organised movement, it's just a blanket term for everyone protesting the fascists. I would much prefer it if everyone stuck to the ordinary "antifascists" when general references are being made, but the irritating abbreviation seems to have caught on. "Antifa" sounds too much like a name for a specific organisation and it's no wonder people are confused.

Well, when the right refers to it, they always include pictures of the people who cover themselves in black and are violent (sometimes to property, sometimes to people). So I have thought of Antifa as that group only. The inference that everyone on the left is Antifa is so misleading and just plain false. Antifa are the anarchist assholes, usually, from what I have seen until literally the last two weeks, when they're trying to expand who that label applies to.

The term dates back to the Antifascist groups in Germany in the 1930s. So there's plenty of historical precedent. It's generally meant to cover antifascist action in general, not just violent groups, though it tends to fold in the alt-left as a whole (which in itself is a super annoying term).

And of course the right portrays them as anarchist assholes. That information is worth about what you paid for it.

>18 JulieCarter:

Personally, I don't give a fuck about how the right defines anything; general American culture's intense right-wing slant is bad enough in twisting perceptions.

>19 lisapeet:

You mean "antifa", right? Fwiw, I don't remember ever seeing it before (and I'm a card-carrying descendant of three generations of card-carrying antifascists), that's why I too thought at first it was some specific group.

Antifascism by that term of course came into existence in Italy with the emergence of fascists.

>21 LolaWalser: Yes, I was talking about "antifa." I could be wrong, though--I'm going by anecdotal reports and not, like a good librarian, primary sources. Now I'm interested, though. I'll have to take a look when I'm not sitting in a waiting room with my iPad--them're some suboptimal research conditions.

Be Best. Really Mrs.,Trump. WTF?

Looks like she ran out of iron-on letters or something. I guess all the Ms, As, and Gs were used up, anyway.