begin quoting John H. Robinson, IV as of Wed, Jun 22, 2005 at 03:36:21PM -0700: > Stewart Stremler wrote: > > So a meteor may be a streak of light, but it's not ONLY a streak of light. > > Leave it to the English language to take a nice, unambiguous word, and > pervert it into meaning something it was never meant to mean.
Only because no other word was suitable. If it isn't on the ground, it's not a meteorite. If it's not in space, it's not a meteoroid. It's not like this is uncommon. Is a firework the thing that shoots up and explodes, or is it the lightshow from the explosion? It's BOTH. Is this perversion? Not really. The original meaning -- what it was "meant to mean", was based on a model that was incorrect. The idea that lumps of rocks from space could cause fiery meteors was *absurd*. > > Correct. And that lump of rock is called a meteor. > > I shan't argue with you anymore about it. Nor, likely, any word, but > instead call up the Humpty Dumpty Defense if something like this should > happen in the future. Technically, the humpty-dumpty defense won't work, as that is where words mean what you want 'em to mean and not that words don''t mean what you don't want 'em to mean. Unless you apply it recursively, I suppose. -Stewart "No aqueous meteors today, with some airy meteors possible" Stremler
pgpEKLHVi2oBy.pgp
Description: PGP signature
-- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
