A Moratorium
HarveyCanal
"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
Not a Good Look aka NAGL.
Dumbest expression ever.
Stop using it already.
Thank you.
Dumbest expression ever.
Stop using it already.
Thank you.
Comments
Also, does anyone have any objections to killing off the term 'zeitgeist'?
So you're asking for a moratorium on "zeitgeist"?
Cosign, that word is seriously NAGL.
I mean, do you still say "grody to the max"? It's beyond catty.
Beautiful word. This a good example for the beauty of the german language, which can cast a total abstract meaning in just one single word by combining words. I guess there is no english synonym, is it?
What's wrong with it? To hard to pronounce for you guys?
No, actually...now that I really think about it, my issue with the word isn't the word itself. It's the average person who seems to say it, these days. And, I feel like I'm hearing it all the time now. Another word that is a great word but seems to be used too much is 'diaspora'.
I'd imagine I would hear both words a lot less if I listened to less NPR/PRI.
I agree, it's a great word, right up there with schadenfreude (which strikes me as so very, very German) and treppenwitz, but I think the problem is that it's been abused. Although, to be fair, so has "schadenfreude," and nobody's going to give that one up anytime soon.
I know it's not too zeitgeist-y anymore but taking it back to "Seinfeld," this is like the Jerk Store reference, correct?
So you want to replace one word with four?
No.
If there's a better ONE-WORD equivalent for "zeitgeist", by all means, someone should share it. Until then...
I looked up 'not a good look' to track it's gain in use, for fun....
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=not+a+good+look&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share;=
Also ROFL:
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=ROFL&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share;=
If you haven't played with this before...prepare to waste some time.
There are definitely glitches with it, however.
Normally, I would agree with you that brevity suggests that zeitgeist is the better usage. But as has been pointed out, the word has become too loaded with implications about the speaker due to its modern overusage by pretentious pseudo-intellectuals. You could say the zeitgeist is that people who use the word zeitgeist are pretentious douchebags.
Correct.
And Jerk Store woulda smoked that guy!
I tried "def": http://goo.gl/YgWGK
It's more than fair that you Yankees & Tommys use at least one german word on the regular. Over here in Germany we are flooded with english words. Some of them have almost replaced our native german expressions. :lol:
If, for example, you're talking to someone about how you're happy because something bad happened to somebody else, it's doubtless that they will understand and will make the typical human's connection with your sentiment; if, however, you're standing there talmbout schadenfreude, you expose yourself as one who is more concerned with your side of the understanding than that of the person you're talking to. You seem less like someone pursuing accuracy and precision and more like someone trying to password-protect your bullshit.
I'm not directing this at anyone in particular, but for real: If it's at all possible to use a couple extra words and talk like yourself, please do it, you fucknut.
You could say overwhelmingly people who use the word zeitgeist are pretentious douchebags.
You could say these days people who use the word zeitgeist are pretentious douchebags.
You could say on the whole people who use the word zeitgeist are pretentious douchebags.
You could say pretentious douchebags who use the word zeitgeist are pretentious douchebags.
You could say the zeitgeist is people are pretentious douchebags.
that's one hell of a leitmotiv
I find cause to use this word from time to time.
I don't think I have ever used zeitgeist.
I have used gestalt more than once, and think it is a great word when it is the word that is needed.
That staircase one is clever, but not much needed.
"I wish I had said..." will do, or the far more popular "I told that guy right to his face..."
Good points.
Also, I decided to check out fucknut...
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fucknut&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share;=
...it's a word on the rise.
EDIT: I might have actually seen this clip on the strut recently.
Srs doe, despite our cultural differences, I have always had a good crack working with my German clients. I did eke out of them what their worst insult for Brits was... They really didn't want to say it, they were all looking at each other like it was some kind of Ultimate, DEFCON-Infinity N-bomb; but for whiteys.
"Insul Affe".
Island Apes.
And here is the cultural difference chasm in the spotlight - Brits embrace shit like that, for breakfast. We drop that in all the time with them now
Brillant!! (a now proud ape)
I wholeheartedly agree with this. The point of speaking or writing is communication, and that means expressing yourself in a way that people best understand what you're trying to communicate. But that means varying your style of communication based upon who you're talking to. When addressing an academic, couch your concepts in academic phraseology. When talking to the dude at the bodega, just fucking say what you mean in plain talk. Who knows, though???maybe it's important to pretentious douchebags that people understand that part of what they're trying to communicate is that, besides their conversational point, it is important that their audience understands the subtext that they consider themselves intellectual, even if they are not.
I mean, I just cringe when inexpressive, imprecise, inconsiderate, and non-engaged speakers or writers drop some italicized something from whatever David Foster Wallace book they most recently got a quarter of the way through and then sigh about the insufficiency of English. The language is fine--it is you, sir, what are the fucknut.