Today's word - aquiline

[RogueGunslinger]

This might be something that people disagree with, but it absolutely drives me crazy to see people pair the word "neutral" with emotional modifiers.

Neutral, by definition, means not taking a side or not displaying any particular characteristics.

You cannot do something with "sinister neutrality!"

In an act of sinister neutrality the tall, muscular man rolls his eyes ambivalently.

[jcljules]

This thread is making me extremely self-conscious.

[Zoltan]

This thread is making me extremely self-conscious.

No shit, heh. I've personally run the gamut from "grunt/nod" abuse to extremely subjective/outlandishly-portrayed emoted actions. I just wait for the player complaints to roll in.   For example:

(from a while ago)

Waving his hand in a "hey, how about you just get yourself over here" gesture, you say to the woman, in sirihish:
            "C'mon, let's get goin'."


Everyone has their peeves and styles. Clearing up definitions of words and all is cool, but rambling on and on about how "this way sucks" or "that way's stupid" will just victimize or annoy people with slightly different tastes, or who are willing to go out on a limb with their role-play.

[brytta.leofa]

>Feeling nauseous, you think:
     "That was disgusting."

That's probably nauseated, good sir.

(Things that are nauseous make you feel nauseated.  Please ignore Merriam-Webster on this one; they're a bunch of pandering panderers.)

[Eloran]

OED, tool.

[spawnloser]

Nauseous, adjective.  Nauseate, verb.  End of discussion.

[hyzhenhok]

I'm tempted to make a list of the pet-peeves in the thread and implement them regularly into my play.

em Firmly and silently, @ watches the match with ambivalence and indifference, a nauseously nauseated neutrality curtly flaring in his aquiline eyes.

[flurry]

Nauseous, adjective.  Nauseate, verb.  End of discussion.

How does that settle the "correct" meaning(s) of nauseous?

[spawnloser]

Because adjectives modify nouns.  Nouns verb.

[flurry]

Because adjectives modify nouns.  Nouns verb.

And past participles, like nauseated, also modify nouns.

[spawnloser]

Something that is nauseous nauseates you so that you are nauseated.

[hyzhenhok]

I can say "I feel nauseous" and anyone who speaks English will understand that I mean "I feel sick/dizzy/woozy/barfy" and not "I feel like I cause nausea."

QED, nauseous and nauseated are synonyms.

[brytta.leofa]

I can say "I feel nauseous" and anyone who speaks English will understand that I mean "I feel sick/dizzy/woozy/barfy" and not "I feel like I cause nausea."

QED, nauseous and nauseated are synonyms.

Sweat boys.

[Whiran Luck]

Smirk abuse. I've always been peeved by smirk abuse.

[jmordetsky]

Everybody hide, it's the adjective police.

Seconded.

[Salt Merchant]

Everybody hide, it's the adjective police.

Seconded.

I wouldn't say police, exactly, since we have no power to arrest, charge or imprison people for blatant misuse of the English language, unintentional or otherwise.

More like a MADD parallel. Bitching and nagging is a powerful force.  

[flurry]

Something that is nauseous nauseates you so that you are nauseated.

That's a good way to remember one of the meanings of nauseous.

[LauraMars]

Smirk abuse. I've always been peeved by smirk abuse.

And to a lesser extend, chuckle abuse.

[MarshallDFX]

Something that is nauseous nauseates you so that you are nauseated.

That's a good way to remember one of the meanings of nauseous.

Actually, it's something that is nauseating.

[Bogre]

I think I have done something to the effect of:

Nodding softly, a bemused expression on his face, the so and so man says,
"I'm ambivalent about that."

Though I've generally used ambivalent correctly

[Ender]

Here's an interesting note on the usage of nauseous:

"While the use of nauseous to mean "affected with nausea" may incur critical displeasure, it should be pointed out in its defense not only that it is quite common among educated speakers but that it is subtly distinct from nauseated in this sense. Nauseated is a passive participle, and hence suggests a condition induced by a specific external cause. By contrast, nauseous is an adjective that refers to an occurrent state whose cause may be nonspecific or unknown. The person to reports that I woke up this morning feeling nauseous might not be willing to accept that he or she had been nauseated by any external agent."

I tend to follow the belief that dictionaries shouldn't ignore common usage anyway.  Words change meaning over time, it's the hallmark of a living and growing language as opposed to a dead language.

And anyway, anyone who will correct the grammar of someone who is nauseated instead of offering aide or sympathy is quite a bastard, I mean come on, they're in pain!

[brytta.leofa]

I tend to follow the belief that dictionaries shouldn't ignore common usage anyway.  Words change meaning over time, it's the hallmark of a living and growing language as opposed to a dead language.

You've got a point, but I think it's wise to resist changes that reduce the language's expressiveness and specificity.  Widespread apathy isn't a really good reason to overload a particular word (nauseous), which has had a very specific meaning, with the meaning of another word that happens to be similar.

This case is much like my beloved Oxford Comma.  A lot of people omit it, but doing so usually adds an extra, ambiguous interpretative parsing step, and the counterexamples used against it are rather contrived.

[5 day lifespan]

Today's Word: Bemused

Ah, good one.  I think I've misused this one before. 

As have I. It makes me rather sad, given that I have a damned degree in this language, how often I unintentionally abuse it.

I have two.  And like my professors, I use those "credentials" to bully others into my way of thinking, or to blithely disregard their criticism.  It is my right through my time and money expended.  :winks:

[mansa]

I'm going to add my punctuation after my closing quotations, so screw y'all.

[Lizzie]

I'm going to add my punctuation after my closing quotations, so screw y'all.

Heathen.