Re:Collection of letters by Alan Turing found in filing cabinet
by coldtea on Monday August 28, 2017 @05:02AM
(#15115311)
>"Detest" and "despise" are not synonyms. To detest is to speak out against; to despise is to look down upon. Their roots come directly from Latin/French. If you detest something, you are issuing speech which indicates that you dislike it. If you despise something, you have observed it and disliked your observation (or, more usually, something about the detail of the observation!)
Not for the last 2-3 centuries it is not. For people reading Beowulf in the first edition, maybe.
Detest
1. to feel abhorrence of; hate; dislike intensely. (dictionary.com)
1 to feel intense and often violent antipathy toward : loathe detests politics They seem to truly detest each other.
2 obsolete : curse, denounce
(Merriam-Webster)
1. to hate someone or something very much (Cambridge dictionary)
1. Dislike intensely (Oxford dictionary)
>Their roots come directly from Latin/French.
Which is irrelevant as to their current meaning.
Now, we are not that different. My correction is also driven by the same joy of correcting others that makes people learn some obscure obsolete factoid and insist on it as if the whole world is wrong and they are right. The only difference is I'm right :-)
Not for the last 2-3 centuries it is not. For people reading Beowulf in the first edition, maybe.
Detest
1. to feel abhorrence of; hate; dislike intensely. (dictionary.com)
1 to feel intense and often violent antipathy toward : loathe detests politics They seem to truly detest each other. 2 obsolete : curse, denounce (Merriam-Webster)
1. to hate someone or something very much (Cambridge dictionary)
1. Dislike intensely (Oxford dictionary)
>Their roots come directly from Latin/French.
Which is irrelevant as to their current meaning.
Now, we are not that different. My correction is also driven by the same joy of correcting others that makes people learn some obscure obsolete factoid and insist on it as if the whole world is wrong and they are right. The only difference is I'm right :-)