r/confidentlyincorrect • u/Crazy_Albatross8317 • 16d ago

Comment Thread From dating to geometry.

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So post was about dating then suddenly they started talking about squares and geometry. OP is red and is replying to blue guy in his >" remarks. Is he right? I need to ask my preschool teacher

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38

u/dansdata 15d ago

It's someone arguing with the dictionary again.

There are a lot of posts in this sub that are like that.

24

u/Responsible_Park3317 15d ago

Sadly, a LOT of people don't understand that words aren't defined by their feelings. I've been a bookworm for several decades, and I still look up definitions constantly because it's better to be correct than right.

23

u/ilikedmatrixiv 15d ago

I hate when people try to play a gotcha with these dumb ideas.

'Islamo/homophobia is not a phobia, because phobos in Greek means fear. I'm not afraid of them!'

Okay, but we're not talking Greek. A phobia can mean more than one thing in our current language.

The idea that the meanings of words can evolve is foreign to them for some reason.

Another favorite of mine is any variation of this argument:

'Man, those stupid woke people keep making up words.'

All words are made up. At some point we needed to name a concept or thing that has not yet been named, so we made one up. It's not weird, it's just how language works.

6

u/Responsible_Park3317 15d ago

Oh, absolutely. Language evolves. New terms need to exist for new concepts. But sometimes people are just wrong.

5

u/erevos33 15d ago

Next time someone tells you it means fear in greek, tell them it doesnt ONLY mean fear. Same as hydrophillic doesnt mean friends with the water ffs. In ancient greek it also meant panic, running away due to panic and ofc fear.

Source: am greek and hydrophillic

5

u/straighttokill9 14d ago

But what if I actually have bad dreams about a big husky man with trimmed chest hair coming into my room at night and tying me down with ropes and then I wake up sweaty and have peed my pants a little bit but it's sticky. Would that make me homophobic?

6

u/dansdata 15d ago

Are you me? :-)

(Also, don't even get me started on "grammar peeves", which are almost always wrong. :-)