h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Yankee, was in all probability originally a Dutch word for a Dutch pirate."

Now where did I get the idea that Yankees was a native American approximation to the French swear word "anglais"?

I had always heard it was Spanish for jerk.
Not the real Spanish Spanish but one of the American variants.

Oh, and of course, jerk is American for t****r or w****r, and is used in the same indifferent way to cast the same aspersions with the same dubious legitimacy.

~jwf~

>> ..slid from a house roof, avoided the guttering and come to rest on a hard surface.. <<





~jwf~

>> Have we covered Cloud 9? <<

If we haven't, we should. It seems to be fading from contemporary usage. Same with Seventh Heaven. Both were quite popular among jazz musicians and the reefer madness crowd from the 1930s well into the 1960s. But I think they both have their origins in ancient eastern descriptions of the universe as a hierarchical system.

These ancient descriptions of how the Cosmos is organised were adapted and modified by the Greek philosophers who made similar attempts to give us a mental picture of 'the big picture'. This visualisation technique allows all sorts of analogous political assumptions and functionaries often followed form.

Even Dante's ten circles of hell are an example of this sort of organisation. His description of the Parodisio could well be the source of both Cloud 9 and Seventh Heaven.

Variations of these great circular or pyramidal designs were at the center of social organisation for much of the last 2000 years. At one point even the feudal system was justified as being a mirror on earth of the hierarchy of the Cosmos. Modern corporations use similar top down efficiencies.


~jwf~

Probably showing up my incorrect assumptions, but

What is so 'stereo' about a stereotype?

According to Chambers the origin of 'stereo' is the Greek, 'stereos' meaning 'solid'. The prefix actually means 'in composition solid, hard, three dimentionional'.

'Stereophonic sound' is therefore 3-d sound, not binaural sound, ditto, mutatis mutandis, stereoscopic vision. The idea that 'Stereo' was a prefix meaning 'two' was probably - er - solidified by the movie 'Quadrophenia' implying 'four' and by the use of 'mono' as an antonym.

Moving further down the page:

'Stereotype' is 'a solid metallic plate for printing, cast from a mould (made from papier-mache or other material) of movable types... to characterise someone (esp. a person) too readily or simplistically'. [Though I am not sure that I agree with Chambers' definition of the metaphor there].

'Stereotyped' is 'transferred as letterpress from set-up movable type to a mould, and thence to a metal plate: fixed, unchangeable, as opinions: conventionalised'. [Again, I am not sure I agree with Chambers].

'Stereotyping' is 'producing of streotype plates: the repitition of senseless movements, actions or words in cases of insanity'.

Now - can anyone remember how 'stereotype' is used in UML?

Hello again to everyone here.

Ben

Hello Ben - thanks for reviving the thread.

BTW folks - I have had yet another warning about the Yahoo thread being closed down.

I shall definitely have to go along there and pick up any useful stuff and mould it into an entry.

The origins of 'stereotype' in English must be seen in concert with 'prototype' and 'archetype', not with stereophonix.

Stereotype is from an age of intellectual development and industrial progress when all sorts of new words were needed. Acronyms had not yet been invented, and most folks still had some silly notion that meaning was important, so the easiest route was to stick all your favoured Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes onto basic English words, often to indicate hierarchies or to distinguish progression along a progress.

For example: a prototype is the first working model of a new design; the archetype is a more refined model upon which mass production can be based; and the stereotype is what is susbequently produced.

As for that whole stereophonix thing, it's one of those confusing and misguided late 1950s marketing widgets from a time when 'progress' had itself become a product and the future looked bright. Cars had tail fins, bigger was always better, and two was always better than one (mono).


Merry Crispness to All.

~jwf~

Interesting point about the seague from the use of prefixes and suffixes to TLAs, ~jwf~. I hadn't actually noticed that before, and it is so blindingly obvious.

A pleasure to be here, TC. This was always one of the cooler threads to hang out in, and I am changing my style of hootoo-use so I hope to stay here.

B

Hey, B,

Congrats on your elevation.
There aren't many people who can boast a U number higher than half a million.

Single Sign On.

I still have U148580 though.

I wonder when the first five figure U-Number will go up on E-Bay....

B

Thanks agcB and jwf, I thought it might be something like that.

So strictly speaking, when someone says they are hearing something in stereo, where the indicated use implies 2 not solid, then that is wrong. I guess the correct form would be to say that one is hearing a stereo sound if one was to shorten it like that?

whoops, abcB, sorry!

I take the view that usage is correct simply by being usage.

It is frustrating to see language dumb down and distinctions and uniquely defined words erode or even disappear. We almost lost the difference between 'disinterested' and 'uninterested' for example, and we have no replacement for the pre-homosexual use of 'gay'.

Lanugage is the only truly democratic element of our society. The people really do decide language, and it is just about the only thing we do decide. Mind you, that stance is partly laziness: Canute could not turn back the tide, and I see no reason to get wet feet trying.

So - I would listen in stereo, and I would use stereo headphones to do it.

agcB / abcB makes no odds to me. It is nice to be recognised from way back when....

B

Would the 'new' girl please explain UML and TAL.
While I am on record (here, several times) as generally favouring three letter words for their elegant simplicity and multiplex meanings, I cannot extend that compassion to acronyms. I must therefore insist that in future you append a paranthetical explanation [spell these things out] with each initial usage of acronyms, webspeak or textspeek abbrvs.

By taking the time to include this courtesy you establish clearly what you are talking about and I, for one, will be better equipped to understand what you are saying about it.



~jwf~

Okie dokie.

TLA = Three Letter Abbreviation - a self-deprecating term introduced by the IT (Information Technology) industry to acknowledge its mania for acronyms.

UML is the Unified Modelling Language, which is an IT standard way of analysing and documenting business systems so that the can be computerised. The UML uses the term 'stereotype' in a way that I found meaningless and therefore confusing. I ought to check it out, to find out whether it makes more sense to me now.

Thanks for the tip on threadiquette ~jwf~. I have only blipped into British English occasionally in the last three years, and have not spent long enough here to know how you do things in this thread.

All the best.

B

I have just bluesed along into this thread and read the first and last pages (way too much backlog!) Is it okay if I join in?
BTW (by the way) I hope everyone knows King Canute *didn't* try to stop the tide, that he was making a point to his obsequious courtiers that he couldn't do that, and that he was really a humile kinda guy...)

Adele, my lovely,

Taking a leaf out of Cnut's best selling books
"What Will Happen Will Happen"
and the sequel "There! What did I Tell You?"
I hereby authorise you to post to this thread to your heart's content, and even more than that if you wish.

(How could we refuse such a polite little girl who explained BTW for the old folk like ~jwf~ and me; and she remembers Bobby Darin.)

>> BTW (by the way) <<

See it's working already!
The world is a better place, I can feel it.



>> ..an IT standard way of analysing and documenting business systems so that they can be computerised. <<

I doubt IT somehow. Can IT really do that? Or does IT just believe IT can and convinces others that IT can?



>> ..and she remembers Bobby Darin..<<
He of the Bath Party who wrapped a towel round him and opened the door?

"Wella splish splash
I jumped back in the Bath!
How was I to know there
was a Party going on?"



http://www.noradsanta.org/english/norad/honoraryTracker.htm



~jwf~

>> Can IT really do that?
>> Or does IT just believe IT can and convinces others that IT can?

Nail. Head. Head. Nail.

How right you are, ~jwf~, how right you are...

B