PSA - "Misogynistic" isn't a word
- Thread starter Manfred Belheim
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It must be a real word. My spell checker doesn't put a squiggly red line under it when I type it.
So now that we know "misogynistic" is a real word, isn't it time for what it actually describes to stop?
So now that we know "misogynistic" is a real word, isn't it time for what it actually describes to stop?
Ryika
Lazy Wannabe Artista
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Do we know whether it identifies as a word?
That connection literally doesn't make any sense at all.
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Well, trying to be very specific with how greek terms should develop in form in english is... peculiar ^^ At least incongruous in this case:
Misogynist itself is including a strange sounding -ist in the first place (more logical would be misogynes, from hate+woman). Nouns change form in greek, whereas in english they keep the same form (one singular and one plural). Gyne (and later Gynaika) is greek for woman.
Misogynist itself is including a strange sounding -ist in the first place (more logical would be misogynes, from hate+woman). Nouns change form in greek, whereas in english they keep the same form (one singular and one plural). Gyne (and later Gynaika) is greek for woman.
caketastydelish
Deity
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There's not much discussion to be had. It's a real word. Even if you aren't a feminist, there is no debate that it is a real word.
You mean like 'sadist' doesn't become 'sadistic'? Or 'imperalist' become 'imperialistic'?
English grammar is not neat. If you think 'misogynistic' is bad, I dread to think how you'll react to 'chocoholic'.
Or "homosexual", which should at least be 'homosexualphilic' (granted, in english it doesn't sound that non-convoluted, but would be accurate. Here the term used is the more logical 'homophylophilos', ie 'same-sex-philic' (phylo is sex as in 'male or female').
It is even worse when corrupted/strange versions of terms return to the original language (greek in this case). I cringe when some (local not very grammatically refined) people say stuff like "omophobia", parroting the corrupted english term
-and it sounds like 'fear of raw', cause wmo=uncooked ^^
Wouldn't homoisexual be 'attracted to people of a similar sex'? I'm thinking of a certain major debate in early Christianity - if homo- isn't a Greek prefix, nobody told Athanasius!
EDIT: It's possible that this is an Ancient vs Modern Greek issue - all of these words were made up by people who knew everything about Greek except how the Greeks were speaking it, you see...
Words don't have their semantic meaning defined thorough etymology because semantic meaning can and does shift, so this current conversation is useless. It is nice to not know this.
warpus
In pork I trust
I don't know what that means Bill, but I'll assume you're a cunning linguist and that you're right.
Manfred Belheim
Moaner Lisa
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Good point well made! Okay, this will probably help me cope with "misogynistic" in future.
Well slang is slang, that's different. Unless that's made it into the dictionary now...
warpus
In pork I trust
The dictionary is just a reflection of what words become used by a large enough segment of the English population, whether they "make sense" or not.
Manfred Belheim
Moaner Lisa
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Wow! Didn't know that. Thanks for the info!
Eg one can look under the entry for 'burned', and see all sorts of ignoble stuff ^^
"Nice" meant "stupid" in Middle English. It came from Old French, which in turn came from Latin nescius - where it meant ‘ignorant,’ and in turn from from nescire ‘not know.’ Other early senses included ‘coy, reserved,’ giving rise to ‘fastidious, scrupulous’: this led both to the sense ‘fine, subtle’, and to the main current senses.
See why claiming that a word's meaning ought to be based off of its history is stupid?
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warpus
In pork I trust
Yeah, look up what the dictionary says "literally" means. It will tell you that it means the opposite of what it means (plus of course the original meaning as well). That's because there's enough morons out there running around using the word incorrectly, so now the dictionary had to be updated to reflect that.
Bill, just saw your response, I totally agree. I thought that's what you meant pretty much, but it was early and I did not want to take the time to properly parse the words you used
Bill, just saw your response, I totally agree. I thought that's what you meant pretty much, but it was early and I did not want to take the time to properly parse the words you used
I hope you didn't pay to be a supporter just to troll
If so, well, it is its own punishment, really. Your point regarding defining what a term means through semantics and not etymology is not even a platitude.
