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Meta
Category Archives: language
the future of Latin
In the last chapter of A Canticle for Leibowitz, a priest makes a pun: “Onerem accipisne?” [Do you accept the burden?] “Honorem accipio.” [I accept the honor.] In classical Latin, onus ‘burden’ is neuter, so the accusative is onus not … Continue reading
Posted in language, prose
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thank heaven for macros
Google finds 36 thousand uses of the phrase searing indictment.
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evil metaphor
Ever wonder about the use of the word liquidation as euphemism for political murder? It’s not in Webster’s New International, 2d ed. of 1952.
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Argentine dialect?
Mail through yahoo.com.ar yesterday carried the tag Ahora podés usar Yahoo! Messenger en tu Unifón . . . . Shouldn’t podés be puedes?
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still more movies
隠し砦の三悪人 (Hidden Fortress) (1958, dir. Kurosawa). Good fun. — I don’t understand Japanese, but noticed that the princess seemed to use her title hime as pronoun. Rio Bravo (1959, dir. Hawks). Drags some. — When I saw this years ago … Continue reading
Posted in cinema, language
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socialist paradise
It amuses me to have a go at translating this Livejournal entry by François-René Rideau (“Faré”): . . . in taking positions based on static emotions disconnected from causal mechanisms, [the socialists] come to advocate absurdities. The more Swiss cheese, the more … Continue reading
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the L-word
About a decade ago, someone or other wrote in The Nation advocating that the Left reclaim the word populist. I was tempted to send a letter asking whether, in that case, we individualists could have liberal back. The Economist, in … Continue reading
Posted in language, politics
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