Funny examples of awful language usage

analog computers are pretty strange, and if you don’t understand what’s analog about them, you’ll have missed some cool engineering.

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Oh, there’s loads of them.

That’s a classic example of one term in one language and the other in a different language. Lewd is Middle English. Lascivious is Middle French via Latin.

A lot of them are like that.

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Cool. So maybe a hang over from a more bi-lingual time?

It’s not a misuse if the word at all, digital means that information is processed as a sequence of digits, e.g. 0 and 1 if using binary, but any set of digits in any other encoding scheme would also be valid.

Modern computers are all digital computers, so it is exactly the correct word to use.

It is not correct because it is ubiquitous, through widespread use of an misnomer, but because it was explicitly defined that way.

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Well, legal English developed in an amalgamation of English and Norman French and Latin.

English being what most of the plaintiffs and defendants actually spoke, Norman French being the language of the people making the laws and Latin being the showing off language for general ponciness and appeal to authority (Roman law and jurisprudence - which contrary to what idiots like Farage et al would have us believe has always played a large part of English jurisprudence).

So yes, you have a lot of stuff which is “English root” and “French root” or “English root” and “Latin root”. The Wikipedia article has some examples, there are plenty more.

The theory is that both were used to make sure the meaning got across whichever language the person reading/hearing it was more comfortable in.

Plus it also has the rhetorical effect @euansmith pointed out and advocates are all giant hams.

Nowadays of course they all have the weight of tradition and if you want to get a bunch of lawyers really het up, try suggesting that they shouldn’t use them anymore. :slight_smile:

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Do you remember Jacob Rees-Mogg getting his linen in a twist over the announcement that, to save a few bob, laws would no longer be hand written on to velum? I’d have thought that loo-roll would have been more appropriate myself.

I do.

To be fair there are actually some reasonable arguments for vellum. This website sets them out quite well:

http://www.patricialovett.com/vellum-and-acts-of-parliament/

(although she argues that vellum is green because it uses veal calf skins that would otherwise go to waste - as I understand it Parliament actually uses goat or sheepskins. The general point still applies - no cuddly animals are harmed specifically to get their skin to make parchment, cuddly animals killed for other reasons have their skins turned into parchment).

BTW, just in case you weren’t aware - they are still going to be on vellum so the Moggster can rest easy.

Personally, I’ve always thought that if the government is genuinely worried about the cost of printing all the laws, they should enact legislation so that the costs of printing come out of the MP’s allowances.

See how many Acts Parliament passes then.

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Maybe they could put the printing budget behind the bar in the parliamentary watering holes and let them chose between legislation and booze?

I can no longer respond to you, as stern Auntie BB thinks I need to mingle more :smiley:

chat

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Wow.

Both in response to your truly “courageous” suggestion to make MPs choose between laws and booze and to Auntie’s exhortation to you to mingle with the other children more.

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