Fun Stuff > CHATTER
English is weird
Akima:
He considered resigning, but eventually became resigned to resigning. English...
Is it cold in here?:
A redeeming feature of English is that it is an excellent toy.
Morituri:
Under the heading of, "I learned something today."
From code documentation:
"The target value for bottomScore is the score that is exceeded by 75% of all tests.
Likewise the target value for topScore is the score that is subceeded in 75% of all tests.
This routine attempts to keep them close to targets during live updates."
I could tell instantly from this context what it meant, but I wondered if 'subceeded' were a real word or just a programmer's playful construction.
So I looked it up. Subceed (to be less than) is a real word. It's the opposite of exceed. It's been around since forever. But hardly anyone has ever heard of it (I hadn't!), nobody ever uses it when speaking, and three of five different dictionaries didn't even have an entry for it.
And the programmer in question, for what it's worth, evidently didn't even know that it was a real word. He just guessed correctly. But that's a tremendously useful word! How can it be so completely unused??
Of course there are related words, equally obscure: Having a subcess of rope, for example, might mean you can't climb a mountain. Subpression is apparently an earlier form of 'suppression' and means the opposite of 'expression.' America's response to the Covid-19 pandemic under Trump's policies can be described as 'subcessive' in that we didn't do enough.
These are too useful to languish away and be forgotten. I'm going to try using them from time to time.
Is it cold in here?:
From Slashdot:
--- Quote ---Saw a sign the other day that read "Do not ride bikes or scooters in the park. Children and the elderly may be injured."
Thought that was a bit daft, no riding your bike but beating up old people and kids is okay?!
--- End quote ---
Akima:
That's the trouble you get when you use "may" when you should use "might".
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version